Hi all,

I want to make a wooden plaque to go outside our holiday ruin in the French
Alps. I intend to "carve" the design using a router and dremel. The design I
have in mind is an oval which fits roughly within A4 size paper and needs to
be about 3/4 to an inch thick. The big question is, what wood should I use.
The plaque (which will be thoroughly painted with several coats of JapLaq
when finished) will be outside during summer (high 30's) and winter (very
cold) at around 4,000 ft ASL.

All ideas gratefully received.

Glenn

"Glenn" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I want to make a wooden plaque to go outside our holiday ruin in the
French
Alps. I intend to "carve" the design using a router and dremel. The design
I
have in mind is an oval which fits roughly within A4 size paper and needs
to
be about 3/4 to an inch thick. The big question is, what wood should I
use.
The plaque (which will be thoroughly painted with several coats of JapLaq
when finished) will be outside during summer (high 30's) and winter (very
cold) at around 4,000 ft ASL.

All ideas gratefully received.

Glenn


For stability and durability I'd have said iroko. You'd need a specialist
hardwood supplier for that.

The idea of painting it goes against the woodworker's grain though (no pun
intended..) and it's an oily wood so I don't know how well paint would take.

Not cheap either, but you don't need very much of it.

--
Richard Sampson

email me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

Glenn wrote:
Hi all,

I want to make a wooden plaque to go outside our holiday ruin in the French
Alps. I intend to "carve" the design using a router and dremel. The design I
have in mind is an oval which fits roughly within A4 size paper and needs to
be about 3/4 to an inch thick. The big question is, what wood should I use.
The plaque (which will be thoroughly painted with several coats of JapLaq
when finished) will be outside during summer (high 30's) and winter (very
cold) at around 4,000 ft ASL.

For stability, and given it's going to be painted, I'd use
exterior plywood. A whole sheet of 3/4 ply for one A4 plaque
would be rather expensive though. Possibly you could build up
the necessary thickness by laminating several layers of
thinner ply.

Nick

I want to make a wooden plaque to go outside our holiday ruin in the
French
Alps. I intend to "carve" the design using a router and dremel. The
design I
have in mind is an oval which fits roughly within A4 size paper and needs
to
be about 3/4 to an inch thick. The big question is, what wood should I
use.
The plaque (which will be thoroughly painted with several coats of JapLaq
when finished) will be outside during summer (high 30's) and winter (very
cold) at around 4,000 ft ASL.
They use MDF for this in Scandinavia apparently. A special grade of course
but might be worth a web search.

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 10:38:18 -0000, "stuart noble"
wrote:

They use MDF for this in Scandinavia apparently. A special grade of course
but might be worth a web search.

I wouldn't recommend going down to Homebase to buy MDF board for
mounting outside though! Would last all of 5 seconds when the
inclement weather comes in.

PoP

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Hi,

If you want to use a slice across a tree trunk stabilise it with PEG
(polyethylene glycol) to stop it drying out and cracking. Should be
available from wood turners supplies.

You could use normal antifreeze (ethylene glycol) though it's highly
toxic, and will stain the wood if it's got dye in it.

cheers,
Pete.


On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 15:29:10 +0000, PoP wrote:

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 10:38:18 -0000, "stuart noble"
wrote:

They use MDF for this in Scandinavia apparently. A special grade of course
but might be worth a web search.

I wouldn't recommend going down to Homebase to buy MDF board for
mounting outside though! Would last all of 5 seconds when the
inclement weather comes in.

PoP

-----

My published email address probably won't work. If
you need to contact me please submit your comments
via the web form at http://www.anyoldtripe.co.uk

I apologise for the additional effort, however the
level of unsolicited email I receive makes it
impossible to advertise my real email address!

On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 21:17:01 -0000, "Glenn" wrote:
Hi all,

I want to make a wooden plaque to go outside our holiday ruin in the French
Alps. I intend to "carve" the design using a router and dremel. The design I
have in mind is an oval which fits roughly within A4 size paper and needs to
be about 3/4 to an inch thick. The big question is, what wood should I use.
The plaque (which will be thoroughly painted with several coats of JapLaq
when finished) will be outside during summer (high 30's) and winter (very
cold) at around 4,000 ft ASL.

All ideas gratefully received.

Portwood Timber in Stockport, can supply blanks in a variety of woods.
I guess many other places can too.

A hardwood with fine grain comes to mind.

Personnaly I like oak, its hard to work but you don't get splinters and cracks. Its easy to burn, and tough on your tools.

Rick