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Posted

Nathan, your puzzles are amazing, what type of finish are you going to use on them? For them to be good sellers, they should have a finish on them. I could never sell any of them that didn't have some sort of finish on them, either paint or poly/varnish.

Len

Posted

Nice cutting Nathan!

In my opinion, pine is too soft for stand up puzzles. The wood dents easily and pieces could break off. You need to use a hard wood like Poplar or Maple especially if you plan on selling them.

Love your tips andtricks .I haven 't ha any problems yet but it's best to make it idiot proof to begin with ,thanks!

Posted

On advice from another member here, I bought the Woodimals book.  Cut these yesterday.  Might work on another base for the giraffe, but they turned out alright.  We'll see if they sell.  Really fun to cut.  Done from 3/4" shelf pine.

You are known now as thee puzzelma man1

Posted (edited)

Nathan, your puzzles are amazing, what type of finish are you going to use on them? For them to be good sellers, they should have a finish on them. I could never sell any of them that didn't have some sort of finish on them, either paint or poly/varnish.

Len

 

 

Nice work Nathan.  My 2 cents... I use poplar and a butcher block mineral oil finish and that's it and I really like how they look.  The oil brings out the wood color and grain.

 

You can see mine at the link below in my signature.

Edited by Iguanadon
Posted

I was going to leave them plain because the grain looked really good on them, but now I'm having second thoughts.  The wood is pretty soft.  I have some Watco Danish oil in the basement I've only used once.  I read somewhere that it hardens wood from the inside out, so that could be a good way to go.

Posted

Nice work Nathan.  My 2 cents... I use poplar and a butcher block mineral oil finish and that's it and I really like how they look.  The oil brings out the wood color and grain.

 

You can see mine at the link below in my signature.

Looks great.  How do you finish it? Just brush on a coat.  Do you coat the sides of the individual pieces or just put the puzzle together and brush it on?

Posted

Looks great.  How do you finish it? Just brush on a coat.  Do you coat the sides of the individual pieces or just put the puzzle together and brush it on?

 

I brush on a coat on all surfaces of each piece with a small brush.  I usually sit and oil 10 of them at a time and then I let them sit overnight which allows most of the oil to soak in and saves time and effort wiping off excess.

 

Here's the oil I use:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KSV38NC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

And these small brushes:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006Z83W4M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Let me know if any other questions, I'm happy to offer my processes as I've tried various things over the past 3 months.

 

Iggy

Posted

Sounds great.  Thanks.  How far does the conditioner usually go? How many puzzles do you usually do with one? Poplar, expecially the sides, seems to soak up any type of finish I use.

 

Good question, I'm not really sure how many puzzles I get out of each bottle of conditioner but it's a lot... 50-60 or more.

 

The good thing about the poplar soaking up finishes is that in this case you want it to soak up the oil and it continues to look good.

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