14
votes
Accepted
Soldering iron to make holes in sticks?
Plastic will melt and flow away from the iron leaving a hole. Cardboard is really just paper with air gaps between the glued layers so there's just a little bit of material to burn.
A wooden stick ...
- 436
13
votes
Accepted
How do you bond clear acrylic to wood?
Consider a clear-drying epoxy. Note that not all epoxies are equal. In a general sense they can bond different materials together with ease.
Here is an earlier epoxy advertisement where they glued a ...
- 11k
10
votes
Is regular "wood glue" suitable for lighter woods (e.g. balsa)?
Wood glues are fine for balsa.
While there are stronger glues, the added strength is usually unnecessary and strong enough should be sufficient. It is hard to generalize but "white" glues, ...
- 11k
10
votes
Should I stain wood then use acrylic or vice versa?
DeAngelis,
In my personal experience, I have had the most success with this type of project by applying a water-based stain first, followed by the acrylics, and lastly the sealer coat. You must ...
- 376
9
votes
Photo transfer on wood
If cost control is important to you, and if you have access to an ink-jet printer instead of a laser, then you might want to try using the left over wax backing sheets from standard printable mailing ...
- 3,215
9
votes
Is regular "wood glue" suitable for lighter woods (e.g. balsa)?
Absolutely. An Elmer's-style wood glue (polyvinyl acetate (PVA), generically known as carpenter's interior wood glue) is an inexpensive glue which is quite effective for holding balsa wood together. ...
- 1,334
9
votes
How can I secure stiff fabric to wood without risking ripping and without adhesives?
Instead of securing the fabric with the scews, I'd let the fabric secure itself on the outer edge of the wood. The less holes you poke into a fabric, the stronger it is to withstand tearing or wearing ...
Elmy♦
- 10.9k
9
votes
How to prepare and carry out drawing line art on a tree round?
Preparation
As the wood dries, it shrinks. You'll likely get big splits and cracks. The rule of thumb for a board (vs. a round) is a year of drying per inch of thickness. Wood dries faster through ...
- 11.4k
9
votes
Which Cricut cuts wood?
According to this YouTube video only the Cricut Maker and Explorer are able to cut wood and only very thin wood of 1/16th of an inch or 1.5 mm or thinner. You also need to use very soft wood like ...
Elmy♦
- 10.9k
8
votes
Accepted
What type of glue will work well on wood and metal?
2-part epoxy is my usual recommendation when it comes to mating different kinds of materials together. That is usually one of the selling points.
I would caution with the use of Gorilla Glue for ...
- 11k
8
votes
Accepted
How do I cut a popsicle stick lengthwise?
Your question is limited by not having an indication of the resources available to you. One of the better tools would be a scroll saw, often called a jig saw. The tabletop versions are well suited to ...
- 6,866
8
votes
How can I paint 1000 wooden balls that are 1" each?
Painting by immersion would be fairly easy, but drying would be harder. Industrially I suspect they'd be kept moving with warm air.
They'd be too expensive for this quantity, and come in sets of too ...
- 5,833
7
votes
Accepted
what rubber to buy for wooden wheels
You could cut up an old bike tire. Cut off the sides, and you have a nice strip of actual tire tread. There are lots of different sizes of bike wheel, so you can customize the depth of the tread by ...
- 1,701
7
votes
Restoring a wooden box with metal inlay
Thought it would be useful to show what I did and the results. So, in the end I:
Cleaned the metal corrosion off using vinegar. Initially with a cotton bud but then I switched to gently rubbing using ...
- 253
6
votes
What kind of glue to make a magnet adhere to wood?
Magnets are notoriously glue-resistant.
There are sticky soft magnets used e.g. for refrigerator magnets, which would kinda work on the glue front, but they are pathetically weak.
You could try two-...
- 820
6
votes
Accepted
Aligning multi-color woodblock print?
My bachelor's degree was in Fine Arts, with a focus on wood block printing.
The technique I was taught involved marking the center line on the back of the leading edge of the paper. (The end that ...
- 316
6
votes
Accepted
Oops! Rubber cement on wood cleanup?
The rubber cement should just peel off the wood with gentle rubbing, provided it is dry. Using a piece of soft sticky rubber, and there are special rubber erasers specifically for picking up rubber ...
- 3,019
6
votes
Accepted
Wooden panels start to shift
The short answer is the wood is shrinking as it loses moisture. Because you've used two fastening points across the width of a top board, one or more of those top boards may split as it continues to ...
- 775
6
votes
Accepted
How to apply rubber to wood?
You would want a flexible adhesive, as the rubber soles will have some movement throughout its thickness.
A good quality contact cement will bond well with both the rubber and with the wood, as long ...
- 6,866
6
votes
Accepted
What is the best way to apply felt to wood?
Spray adhesive is a good match for this application. If you used the lower strength type, you might even have a decent chance of getting the felt back off later if you needed to for some reason.
...
- 775
6
votes
what rubber to buy for wooden wheels
While I've voted for the answer suggesting bike tyres, here are some alternatives:
There are vinyl products that can be painted on (or dipped, but painting is better in this case). A couple of coats ...
- 5,833
6
votes
How to keep Craft matchsticks from splitting while cutting?
I've used wood from popsicle sticks and wooden coffee stirrers for model making. Matchsticks might be more fragile, but what I used would be a starting point.
My usual tool is a razor saw, like Chris ...
- 377
5
votes
Accepted
How to avoid / deal with rough edges after painting plywood?
Not sure if you want to hear this but this is better handled before finishing as supposed to mitigating after the fact. Either way I think you need to sand the roughness out you have first then do ...
- 11k
5
votes
How to avoid / deal with rough edges after painting plywood?
When using a water based paint, you will for certain cause the grain to raise and funny things that look like tear-out on the edges.
To avoid this, before painting, I sand, then intentionally raise ...
- 653
5
votes
What are good methods to attach glass to wood?
Epoxies are the essential answer to your question.
Since you are affixing two materials that can expand or contract quote a bit, you need to choose an epoxy that will not shrink and risk cracking the ...
- 971
5
votes
High accuracy transfer of cutting blueprint onto plywood
The toner transfer method of transferring an image onto a PCB should also work on wood.
Basically you laser print (a mirror image if you need to work from the front) on suitable paper (I've done this ...
- 5,833
5
votes
Staining wood blue with chemicals
Methylene blue is a very effective water-soluble blue dye and you can buy it on amazon quite cheaply (the pack at that link is probably enough to dye a table and chairs). That might do the trick. It's ...
- 5,833
5
votes
Accepted
How to deal with the burnt edges of laser cut MDF?
After light sanding, reinforce the flat black with a little black paint, then seal the entire block in a clear coat to make it more durable. Alternatively, replace the black with a coat of burnt ...
- 3,215
5
votes
What can I line a collectible card box with that is not felt or flocking?
You could take inspiration from old suitcases: these used either fabric (woven linen or cotton), or paper. (I actually suspect that they used bookbinding paper/cloth, more on that later.)
Reasonably ...
- 369
5
votes
Accepted
Acrylic paint on wood: how to make it "glow" after the painting is already done
I think it's hard to judge the real difference between the paintings your nephew made and the example of the goal he has in mind: the first are taken in what seems a yellowish light, while the second ...
- 9,942
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