It's my parents Golden Wedding Anniversary next month. They live in the foothills of the Lincolnshire Wolds, Tennyson country, so it seemed fitting to use one of Tennyson's quotations in a commemorative plaque project.
The plaque will be scroll-sawn from 6mm MDF using a technique called 'relief cutting' This means the saw table is angled so that when I cut the letters out they won't just drop out of the baseboard. Instead, it will make them look as if they are embossed. Relief cutting involves the drilling of pilot holes for the scroll saw blade, but they will be filled in later and everything will be painted. I'm thinking of gilding the lettering. Here's what has happened so far...
I designed the pattern and stuck it to MDF using repositionable adhesive spray:
Then I drilled a pilot hole in some waste wood and made a couple of test cuts to see what be the best angle for the thickness of board and the kerf of the blade I was using. It's a bit hit-and-miss, but I decided to set the angle at 5 degrees:
Then I tilted my saw table so that it fell from left to right and I sawed out the letters! I cut out the middle of the letters 'o', 'e' and 'd' first, making sure I cut counter-clockwise so the middles would drop down and eventually be flush with the baseboard. Next, I cut the outsides of all the letters, cutting clockwise so that they would be lifted above the level of the baseboard. If you can't get your head around this, don't worry - all will become clear as the project progresses
. So now I've been left with a heart-shaped baseboard and a collection of letters:
The next step will be to fill in the pilot holes, then sand and shape everything. To be continued...
Topic: Work In Progress - Golden Wedding Anniversary Commemorative Plaque (Read 3365 times)