Question for our in-house woodworker peeps

dgage said:
How are you going to stop the mattress from sliding?

And really great job!

And if you’re looking for an easy finish, Rubio Monocoat is a hard wax that I’m starting to use.
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Sorry, missed replying to your post - So far we're just going with gravity to keep the mattress from sliding - so far so good.

We're a few weeks into it now and still are really happy. Digging the new mattress, and nary a peep from the frame. :dblthumb2: Come to think of it, after sleeping on a new mattress, I creak a lot less too... :laughing:
 
Bringing one back for an update, and figure it's a good place to ask a new woodworking question for one of my next projects.

Update: Still love the frame. Nearly 2 years in and it's still dead quiet. The dogs have resorted to waking us up by repeatedly shaking their heads to rattle their collars/ears, or I wake up to a big Great Dane head on my chest/shoulder (Daaaaaaaad! :laughing: ).

Only mistake looking back was deciding the height of the legs by working backwards from the (projected) top of the mattress - Since we use a bed skirt the legs are short enough it bunches on the ground a little. Side note: The pegs for the slats work great - spent a few weeks with the bed skirt sliding out of position until I figured out you just put a couple slats over it and punch through the material with the dowels. Now it's locked in place and no more futzing with it.


New Question - I'm making a little something for the Mrs and I need some advice. Basically, I have a 12" square of 1/8" balsa that I need to carve out a bunch of letters for a saying.

Looking for recommendations for the best way to carve said letters completely out of the material. The goal is to carve the saying out, stain the wood, then lay it over a matching square of black ABS that has brushed aluminum contact paper on it. Then the whole thing will get put in a frame (which I'm trying to decide if I also build, but that's for a later date). Hopefully this makes sense.

Initial pass on my test piece with the chisels I have wasn't terribly successful. Out of the box they weren't sharp enough or the wood's too fibrous for nice clean carving. I know it's no exotic material, but (no offense to the Mrs) I wanted something that wouldn't break the bank as I'm anticipating it's gonna take some trial and error to get a system down. I've got 9 sheets for practice/trial/error. :dblthumb2:

Next round of testing went fairly well by using an exacto knife, but this will definitely take some time and hand wear/tear.

I've been contemplating getting a Milwaukee M12 cordless rotary (dremel style) tool and some bits, but wasn't sure if this'd be a recipe for disaster. Rather save the $80ish if it's a bad idea. Not sure how likely burn marks would be with a higher speed tool like that.


What are folks recommendations? I should add I already have a nice small file set for touch up work.
 
You could get a scroll saw blade for a jigsaw...rotarys wander too much
It's what I use for my fish
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Bosko - Good thought. Only part I worry about is if it would be too big for the letters I need to do. I've gotta dig out the project again and see what size the letters are.
 
The blade is tiny, you should be able to do 1/2" turns no problem
 
Bosko- not sure if you were referring to just using the blade, or to using the blade actually in a jig saw. On first reading I only thought of it in a jig saw, which I worry would be a little much for what I’m doing (both regarding pace and worrying about tear out. Been a while since I’ve had my jigsaw out of its case but I don’t think it has any element of speed control). On second reading, the notion of using just a jigsaw blade (I’d bet they have handles for the purpose) would be much more my speed.

Paul - good call on the coping saw. Going even further, looking more online they have something called a jewelers saw which is along the same line but even finer/smaller. That could be the ticket!

Side note: during my current round of searches, I found out they have 2” tabletop miter saws and 3” table saws. I’m just gonna go right ahead and say it, they’re about the cutest danged things I’ve seen. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
 
If you’re not under a time crunch, I have a 5’x10’ CNC machine but I’ve never tried cutting thin balsa wood. It normally chews through 1/2” and 3/4” plywood. Actually, if you’re going for a saying, I could carve it on a piece of wood and send it to you, which would be preferable than dealing with a bunch of letters.
 
dgage said:
If you’re not under a time crunch, I have a 5’x10’ CNC machine but I’ve never tried cutting thin balsa wood. It normally chews through 1/2” and 3/4” plywood. Actually, if you’re going for a saying, I could carve it on a piece of wood and send it to you, which would be preferable than dealing with a bunch of letters.
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Oooooh, I'm gonna have to keep this in mind - Thanks!

My original idea started as hand carving the saying out of a square of some-sort-of-wood, but not readily finding a suitable piece I started modifying my idea.

I probably didn't make it terribly clear - my current plan is to cut the letters out of the balsa sheet, so the negative space shows the brushed aluminum behind the wood. (Not cutting/placing individual letters on the background). Which leaves the challenge of how to handle d's,e's, o's, etc, but I'll figure that as I get to it.

A big part of this project is just the fun of the mental exercise of trying to bring an idea to life. I'm a very mechanical person, not a very art-y person, so it's fun to work on new skills. And I think the Mrs will appreciate all that goes into making it.
 
Good Luck with your project. I'm one of the "woodworking peeps" here and I saw your question but I didn't respond simply because I didn't have any ideas to contribute.

Years ago, when I was married, I did something similar but used 1/4-inch stainless tubing to make the letters. The plan was to mount them but I never got that far.
 
To get an idea of what my machine can carve, do an image search for “Vcarve Signs”. And I can cut aluminum as well though much slower than wood. And some have filled in the letter cutouts with black epoxy or paint to ensure a contrast with the wood.
 
oneheadlite said:
New Question - I'm making a little something for the Mrs and I need some advice. Basically, I have a 12" square of 1/8" balsa that I need to carve out a bunch of letters for a saying.

Looking for recommendations for the best way to carve said letters completely out of the material. The goal is to carve the saying out, stain the wood, then lay it over a matching square of black ABS that has brushed aluminum contact paper on it. Then the whole thing will get put in a frame (which I'm trying to decide if I also build, but that's for a later date). Hopefully this makes sense.

What are folks recommendations? I should add I already have a nice small file set for touch up work.
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your choice of wood is the softest, most fragile species possible. i would suggest switching species. if you want it out of solid wood, go with hard maple. it will be much easier to work with.or baltic birch plywood. the letters in the attached pic( dont have a better pic of that piece) were cut out of hard maple.
which i used a scroll saw for. IMO, theres no better too for what you want to do.

edit: if you still want to use the balsa, whatever method you try to use to cut it, sandwich it between something like 1/4" ply before cutting. even the finest scrollsaw blade will rip through 1/8" balsa like nothin and your gonna want some control. stacking will help give control

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