sing to the Lord plaque

[bubbantenn]

I cut this today for my music minister.
I've decided to stack cut these by 3's with all but the name. That way I just have to add the name whenever someone requests one or I want to make one for a gift.
This is cut from laminated flooring. !/4 inch plywood would have been a better choice. I used 5 blades on this project. I'm beginning to wonder if the superior strength of the laminated wood is worth the cost in blades. But, I do love the fact that I can cut some very intricate details in laminated flooring and have never had any breakage...never!
Any comments or suggestions are always welcome. (I already know how Mike feels about me using this flooring...LOL).

[bubbantenn]

I forgot to mention that the music notes are actually the notes from the song, "Yes, Jesus loves me."

[frieke]

Looks great Bubba, I like the idea to use lamiated flooring...

[sawdustus]

Beautiful job Bubba. Definitely worth the cost of the blades. A Lumber Liquidators just opened near me and I would love to pick up some of their more exotic flooring samples and try to cut them. A couple of questions... 1) How thick is the flooring that you used so that you could stack cut three? The stuff I have seen is always at least 3/8" thick and that would make for a very thick stack needing a very large blade. 2) What blades did you use? 3) How big is the piece? 4) What type of flooring was it?
Thanks.

george

[bubbantenn]

Thanks Frieke, I like it, too, despite the sacrifice of blades.

George, this particular piece is about 5/16 inch thick, 6 1/2 X 9. The flooring itself is tongue and groove and is 7 1/2 inches wide. Minus the tongue and groove you only have about 7 inches of work space as far as the width. It came in 4 foot lengths so I just cut off what I need. We have a "Restore" here, which is a store that takes in items from old Habitat for Humanity homes and re-sells them. The flooring is what was left over by contractors or was simply donated. I buy stacks of it containing about 10 pieces at a cost of about $15.00. Very worth the price.
As for stack cutting, I avoid it because of the extreme hardness of the backing on the flooring. Cutting one piece is taxing enough on blades. I can only imagine what stack cutting would be like. It could be done but at a dear cost.
I use no. 5 platinum blades from Seyco. They seem to have the longest life of any blades I've tried so far. They hold up really well when cutting this flooring but I still go through an average of 3 - 5 blades on projects like this one. You can "push" the limit of the blade but the back begins to tear out. I like my blades nice and sharp. I don't mind sacrificing a few extra blades for intricate projects.
One other caution that I didn't mention before. The dust from laminated flooring is very hard on your nose and throat. I'm sure it's because of the chemicals they use in the flooring. Be careful not to breathe it in.

Good luck!

[wsmith0896]

Excellent job.

[Sunlion]

Another very nice music themed piece, whats with all the talent round here? hehe, my head is spinning with ideas. well done.