I am building a Scrabble board as I mentioned here awhile ago… with this I need to make the letter tiles. Each will be 3/4″ X 3/4″ with a letter stamped on each.
The part I haven’t quite figured out is the best way to finish the pieces with varnish. I obviously can’t just paint them with a brush and lay them down to dry.
I was thinking to mount each tile on a pin through the bottom then finish them. I can deal with the pinhole in each of them later.
Are their suitable aerosol varnishes I could use?
Edited 11/30/2006 7:01 pm ET by PeteDraganic
Replies
I don't understand making Scrabble letters (100 in a set), when they are so readily available for not much money. You can't make them out of figured or otherwise interesting wood because that would make it too easy to read the backs.
because the customer wants a completely custom scrabble set.....
Reading the backs shouldn't be a problem as they aren't visible on the rack and are picked from a bag.
http://www.petedraganic.com/
Well, the customer is always right. Face down inside the box lid was how I learned, bag makes good sense.
I suspect that a finish into which the tiles can be dipped, withdrawn slowly, and dried on a forest of pins might be workable, but would take a fair amount of experimentation to get the viscosity just right.
Can you insert a T-pin in the side of the tile and dip it. Then hang it from a drying rack that you would insert the Tpin between two dowels? Can you envision this?
You could do this multiple times to build up the finish and if you put the pin so that the tile hung with a point down, any drips would fall off.
Gretchen
Hey, I just had an idea...
Are there other finishes that would be good for these pieces besides varnish.... like an oil that I could rub on that wouldn't be affected by touching it? Kind of like how paste wax can be handled after application maybe????
These pieces will be touched a lot and spend most of their lives sitting together in a bag so a finish that may allow them to bond together over time would be bad.
http://www.petedraganic.com/
Typically small parts like these that are mass produced are tumble finished. Obviously that is not an option for you. I would avoid dipping them. Unless you get the viscosity of the finish exactly right, you will spend a lot of time wiping and dabbing little pools of finish off the edge of the piece. For parts this small, that would, I think, be a real PIA.If you really want/need a film finish, I would try Miniwax spray polyurethane. It comes in a spray can and has worked well for me on small parts in the past. It comes out in a pretty fine mist so blowing the pieces all over the place shouldn't be a problem, assuming you have them skewered pretty good on a sharp tack. If you warm the can first by putting it in some hot water it will spray an even finer mist. The problem with this is you will need at least two, and probably even three, coats to get a good build, and you will have to sand the parts at least once during the finishing process.Another alternative would be to use a wax finish. This would work well if all you are trying to do is build a little shine on the pieces and give them a soft, finished look and feel. I'm not sure, but I think the mass produced scrabble tiles are given a tumbled wax finish.No matter which way you go, finishing really small parts is a challenge and a lot of work relative to the size of the object. Good luck!Edited to add one more option--You might try a wiping varnish or even Watco oil. For small parts like this that would be the way I would go. It would be fairly quick and easy to wipe a thin coat on each piece, and then place them on a pin to dry. In fact, the way I currently finish some small parts is to fill the resevoir of a disposal plastic paint tray with some wiping varnish, dump the parts into the pool and then pick them out and lay them on the top, slanted part of the liner. I then pick up a piece, wipe it dry, set it aside and fill its spot with another piece taken from the pool of finish. If you work in a line across the pan the finish from each piece has a chance to drain back into the resevoir before you wipe it dry. Two coats should be all you need, and you may have to do a light sanding between coats, but this method has worked well for me and is the way I would go with your project.
Edited 12/1/2006 12:04 pm ET by AndyCharron1
I think that is THE answer!! YOu could even use Watco I think. It might be tedious, but so is everything else we are suggesting. They don't need much in the way of finish, in my opinon.Gretchen
Pete, people who do intarsia dip for finish routinely. No, I don't have the recipe, but it's out there. If you're interested, try the Wood Magazine scrollsaw forum or some of the other scrolling places.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Pete,
Interesting problem. When I've had to finish very small parts, I never found a way to do them completely, but had to do one side, let dry, then do the other side. Of course if you're spraying lacquer, the drying time is just minutes. But if you set them on pins they will blow around even from the smallest breeze. I've used tiny pieces of double-sided tape to hold in place.
DR
A while back I had to spray finish a number of small pieces, and followed a suggestion I read in one of my books: lay the pieces on a glavanized-steel mesh (I used chicken wire that I picked up at my local Canadian Tire store, as the mesh was adequately spaced for the job) and shoot them from above. They don't move and can be left where they lay until the finish is dry, then flipped over and shot again. Repeat as necessary.
Marty S.
I have worked as a model maker for 20 years. We often have to finish (or prime and paint) multiple small pieces and I have come up w/a few techniques: use cyanoacrilate glue or a glue gun to fasten a bunch of pushpins (w/flat tops) upside down on a board and press each tile firmly onto each pin. If you do this on the EDGE of a thin strip of wood, like 1/4" masonite, you can usually spray all 6 sides without having to remove the tiles. Clip a couple of spring clamps to the ends of each strip to make little "sawhorses" for drying. Or, use doublestick tape on a flat board and flip each piece halfway through, but that might leave residue on the pieces.
DEFT Clear Wood Finish in a spray can is the BEST finish for this type of thing, Satin or Semi-gloss, as it can be applied in multiple coats as often as every 5 minutes and shouldn't be prone to any sticking together over time. It provides a good quality laquer finish that I think you'll be very happy with.
Thanks to all of you for the input.... I think I may try the spray method.
Chuck, do you sand your pieces between coats or can I just spray a few coats and leave them be?
http://www.petedraganic.com/
You might have to do a little sanding after the first coat.
Here's another tip: use spray glue or doublestick tape to tack a full sheet of sandpaper to a flat board and move the pieces across the paper rather than moving the paper across the pieces. A LOT easier and on something as small as scrabble tiles, it should only take a little fingertip pressure.
Hope that helps make a tedious task a little less so.
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