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I'm a real fickler about all my intarsia pieces being smooth and flowing, And I really love alot of detail. Lets say you are shaping the wing of a bird or the petals of a flower...you want all the feathers or the petals to follow the same curves. Traditionally, I would use lots of masking tape to try and hold the pieces together while sanding them on a big mean belt sander. Sometimes it works, but many times it becomes an explosion of pieces...and some of those pieces become lost in the shop. My new method is to use hot melt glue instead. Not sure if I discovered this technique or not, but it came to me while driving down the road one day and it works fantastic every time. I just dap a few drops on the lower edges and glue the pieces of, lets say a wing, together. Now they are solid and can be shaped as an entire wing on the belt sander. I take the shaped set into the house and i put it on some tinfoil in the oven at 350 degrees for about 1 min, then reach in and quickly pull it all apart. with a pocket knife i easily scrape off the old hot melt glue. Now i can soften any edges and hand sand each individual piece to perfection.
Just use a few small dabs, don't go crazy with the hotmelt, or you'll have a big mess to clean up, and be sure to remove any strands that may land on a surface that will later be finished. Hotmelt does not contain silicone either, which is the biggest evil product in a woodworking environment.
Just use a few small dabs, don't go crazy with the hotmelt, or you'll have a big mess to clean up, and be sure to remove any strands that may land on a surface that will later be finished. Hotmelt does not contain silicone either, which is the biggest evil product in a woodworking environment.
Thank you so much. I have used hot melt too but had one heck of a time getting the peices off the backing I glued it to. Didn't think to put it in the oven. Glad your here.
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