Small cherry printer stand for a friend. Told her “I’m gonna do a number of things here that I’ve never done, but always wanted to do, and when I screw it up that’s OK ’cause its for a friend and its for free and there’s a money-back guarantee and I need to learn sometime.”
Routed 1/16″ x 1/16″ curved/wandering slots (looks like the stems on a flower drawing that would have gotten an “F” in 5th grade art class). CA glue pewter strips in place. They were not perfectly flush – I did not expect them to be, because of the precision involved. But that’s OK – pewter is soft enough to sand easily.
The problem: Sanding the pewter creates micro-fine black dust, which loves the unfilled pores of the cherry. My solution – wipe with rag + mineral spirits many many times until the rag came up clean.
Looks OK after shellac – no noticeable black fill/staining in the grain.
What should I do differently next time?
Replies
That sounds like how I learn - dive in head first, don't be afraid of messing up, and learn from your mistakes. I have not worked with pewter before, but can it be worked with a steel or carbide cutter, such as a block plane or router? I might be a little careful trying a router here! I think that filling the pores or sealing the wood first with something that wouldn't cause adhesion problems would keep the dust out. Or use ebony. Sounds like you made it work out in the end. Any pics?
and www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com)
- Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
No pics yet - shellac curing on parts B4 rubbing out + assembly. Then pics or fireplace.
Pewter is very soft - which is why I chose it for first inlay attempt. Softer than brass, copper, silver, etc (from what I learned on the supplier's website). So soft you can't even get it in wire (round or square). Got a sheet 6 x 12 and an aluminum-cutting saw blade and ran it on top of a ply backer thru the TS. Like I said - sanding it is easy. Inlaid then went thru 220g on the orbital sander, then 400g by hand to soften the 220g scratch marks in the pewter - that's when the black dust started giving me a heart attack.
Looks OK now. Just wanted to see if I had mistaked my way to the wrong solution.
Edit - Hilarious - I abbreviated assembly, and the forum s/w bleeped me!! First time I have been bleeped for an accidental cussword - ####'y
Edited 9/21/2009 6:02 pm ET by Spotcheck
"So soft you can't even get it in wire (round or square)."
That's odd. Pure lead wire is available and it's softer than pewter.
Got curious and Goggled "pewter wire" and found a source. http://www.contenti.com/products/metals/235-806.html
Metals that can be drawn into wire are classed as being ductile. I don't think it necessarily has anything to do with hardness, but I'm not exactly sure what properties are important.
Chris @ http://www.flairwoodworks.com and http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com)
- Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
My mistake - don't know why I said "round". I was looking for square. Might be there, but my searches lead me to 2 - 3 sites that mentioned n/a, so I moved on.
Also - I just "took a notion" ( as my dear Grandmother from Kansas prairies used to say) on pewter. No rhyme or reason, except was soft, and inexpensive relative to silver (even after allowing for saw kerf > part width after cutting sheet). Seemed to fit with the "mistake my way into it" approach I took.
spot,
any chance of a picture?
eef
If you want to use wire inlay, gun builders use sterling or german silver wire quite often. It comes in different thicknesses and widths (it is really more like ribbon than like wire. Techniques for putting it into the wood differ, but generally, a thin slit is made with a very narrow chisel or knife and the wire is tapped into the slit. The wood is then given a good soaking of water to swell the fibers that were crushed in the slitting and insertion and the whole works filed even with the top of the wood.
Some beautiful stuff can be done this way. Even I can do it.
Brent
That's a technique that I've always been curious about also, and I probably would have jumped in the same way. My first reaction to what you say would be to half-finish the piece before sanding the pewter. Get a sealer coat or two on the cherry to close it up, then sand the pewter and finally do top coats of finish. What do you think?
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?lang=e&id=1
"What should I do differently next time?"
Apply some shellac sealer before sanding flush: I am thinking Zinsser Bullseye. It works with brass and aluminium inlays so I assume it also works for pewter.
Phillip - thanks. Good idea. If it works for ali, it would just about HAVE to work with pewter. I keep made-from-flakes 1.5# cut on hand at all times, so that is certainly no problem.
What do you think about filling the grain first? I didn't fill grain on this piece because, well, just because I didn't want to fool with it.
Also - finish is extra pale shellac, and doesn't seem to be any negative impact on discoloration, etc for pewter and mother-of-pearl after application. Do you know what will happen down the road in a year or so? Any tips on what you use for finish over your metal inlays?
I am sure filling the grain first would be helpful.
Shellac retards tarnishing of brass etc so I would expect your pewter to take longer to darken if there is a film of shellac on it.
Frosty's scraper application will definitely work, and I don't know why I didn't think of it before-as long as you can scrape without any need to sand for tactile reasons.You would scrape "on the skew"over the pewter inlay.Philip Marcou
Perfect. I'm all set then. Thanks very much for the insight.
Why wouldn't a card scraper work to level the inlay without the problem of dust?
Frosty
“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert,
in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”
Milton Friedman
Hmmm. I dunno - it just might work - never even occurred to me, but I'm gonna give it a try.
Thanks for the idea - help me think outside the box I was in.
I luthier's forum I frequent advises to be careful about generating heat from the friction of sanding. It can heat up more quickly than you think and soften the glue holding it in place.
More good advice - thxs.
I feel a whole lot less stupid now than I did a couple days ago.
Stupidity has nothing to do with it. Lack of information is the culprit.Frosty“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert,
in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.” Milton Friedman
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