Wood R&D is set up for me to blog about what I am learning as I work with wood to make more and more complex creations. I grew up in a household with lots of carpentry going on on a daily basis in the garage, which was so full of working tools that the car never made it in there.

Today, I tackled a project that involved a soft wood, pine, and some straight and some curved cutting.

 

I started by making this pattern on my computer, one character per page so that I could make it as big as possible but still using 8.5 x 11 paper, and it also allowed me to maneuver the letters together to eventually make my creation in ‘one piece.’ (For the record, I used Arial Black font at 780 pts. I choose white fill and a black outline.) Once I found the right orientation I taped it together and then cut it out. I then traced it onto the pine board.

I read some blogs on the best jigsaws out there (low cost and enough power was on my mind) and landed on the Bosch JS470E. To try and get the cleanest edges I choose a blade that had smaller teeth. you can’t move as fast as a blade with larger teeth, but it gave a pretty clean edge. As you will see below, I did have a few chips that showed up. But don’t worry, there is a way to deal with them too. 

 

I neglected to photograph how to get the center cuts started. But drilling a hole that is slightly bigger then the width of the blade, in an area that is going to be cut out, is the way to get the blade in there and cut the center pieces out. 

As you can see, I had some chips from the cutting. 

  

Using Elmer’s Wood Filler, Natural Color, I was able to fill the chips and blemishes in the wood. Allow it to dry, then gently sand it back to perfection. Chips-be-gone! I used a 150 grit sand paper.

   

For those very tight corners (less than 90 degrees), I took a thin piece of scrap wood, folded the sand paper around it, and was able to get into those hard to reach corners. Alternatively, you can use a file. Although the file is fast and easy to use, it can’t easily get into the deep angles that are smaller than 90 degrees without making unwanted marks on the other edge. So use the sandpaper  method.

Here’s the pre-paint final product:

And here is the finished piece: