MBridges

Thanks all for the compliments. The tiger is framed in an 8x10 frame. It was my first acrylic piece and just kind of happened as my wife volunteered me to make something for a raffle at her school. At the time, the school she was at was the Tigers and their colors were blue and white. I happened to find the pattern and was able to find a blue spray paint that was their color so it worked out perfectly. The dragon is probably about 13" x 14" measuring the backer. I did that because I really like dragons and I had some marble acrylic I wanted to use. I thought the marble effect would really make the scales shimmer.

Thanks for the compliments, Kevin I will check out the user galleries. I haven't got that far yet, but am definitely enjoying my time looking a round and reading posts.

Here are a few of my recent wood projects. The Eagle's Nest is Dirk Bohlman's pattern. It's cut of 1/8" baltic birch and I used blue matte board as the backer. The other 3 patterns are from Sue Mey. The Firefighter cross is 1/2" walnut with 1/8" baltic birch backer painted red. The Fish Cross and Ascention Cross are 1/4" maple. The backers are painted 1/8" baltic birch.

licHere are a couple of the projects I've cut out of acrylic. The dragon is one of Dirk Bohlman's patterns and I believe the tiger came out of one of Judy Gale Roberts' books. The backer on the dragon is 3/8" baltic birch painted an egg plant purple. Not sure why the picture is so dark but it caused the backer to look black. The backer on the tiger is 1/8" baltic birch.

In my introduction thread Kevin mention there had been some questions about cutting acrylic. Personally I love to cut it as it's easy to cut and, to me, it seem to go thru less blades. Also, when you're done just peel the paper off and that's it. No staining, no finishing, ect. The first and most important tip is Duct Tape! Yea yea i know, here come the jokes about duct tape fixes everything, but in this case it really works. I'm not sure if it's the lubricant of the glue melting with the heat from friction or what exactly but keeps your kerf from fusing back together behind your cut. Put a layer of duct tape on top of the paper that covers the acrylic and then attach your pattern to that. The nice thing is when you're done you just peel off the paper and the whole lot comes off. The second tip is use double tooth blades. I personally use the Olsen Doubth Tooth blades. You don't want anything that has reverse teeth as they will put the dust back in the kerf causing it to fuse together. You can turn really easily in acrylic so I've never used anything smaller than a 3D blade and if the holes are large enough I'll use a 5D. The wider the kerf the less any of the dust getting back in there can cause any problems. Tip #3 is that you can stack cut it. I've cut 2 pieces of 1/8" acrylic with no problems. The only thing to keep in mind is once a while your colors may "bleed" a little bit on the edges. If you're cutting the same color you won't have any problems at all. Cutting 1 piece all by itself can be hard to control if you are doing very intricate cuts. I would recommend using a piece of 1/8" baltic birch or something similar as an extra later if you only want 1 copy of the piece in acrylic. When stack cutting, you only need to use the duct tape tip above on the top layer. NOTE: I do NOT recommend the duct tape tip if the wood layer is your top layer LOL No I haven't done this, I just couldn't resist a little sarcasm. The last tip is to use Weld Bond glue. You used to be able to find it in some Home Depot's. If you can't find it there Sloan's Woodshop carries it and you can order it from them. It dries quickly, is the only glue I've found that will attach acrylic to wood, and dries completely clear. I use it all the time now including wood to wood. Hope this helps and if you have any other question feel free to ask away

Those look great!

Hi Kevin, Thanks for the welcome I looked up West Carolton on the map. Been by it many times but never knew it was there LOL. I'll post some acrylic tips in the appropriate forum as well as some of my work. I'll be sure to take advantage of that popcorn!

Thanks for the welcome Clayton - My wife is from Toledo..small world Bill - Yes actually. I'm in Lebanon.

Howdy all, I just found my way to this site and am looking forward to reading up on the forums. I've been scrolling on and off for about 12 years. I do mostly portrait style pieces and enjoy working with both wood and acrylic. I'm getting a bit more into pattern design and will definitely be asking questions If you see me on feel free to say hi Matt