Scrolling mixed woods

[harrisg]

There are some patterns I want to scroll with stacked wood. However, I want the top piece to be 1/4" Padauk and and the bottom 2 pieces to be 1/4" Baltic Birch. Is there any reason that this would cause any problems?

Harris

[lucky788scroller]

absolutely no reason at all Harris. It works just fine. DO put a layer of tape on the wood though to help lube the blade and make pattern removal easier. (I love padauk!) Dale

[William Young (SE BC)]

I agree with Dale. Sometimes I will stack saw three clocks all at on sitting and I want one in solid red oak and one in western red cedar and one in baltic birch. Just stack up the three species and saw away just as if it was all one kind of wood.
W.Y.

[CanadianScroller]

stack the deck to your advantage

Sometimes when scrolling a wood with hard growth rings and a softer pith, I put a thin piece of MDF or Masonite as a backer. The seems to equalize the densities of the wood resulting in a more even cut on the softer piece.

Also when you stack cut different species of wood, like when you do inlays, you can save the sawdust mixture to mix with varathane to fill in any gaps, The blend of colours masks imperfections quite well.

PS I know there shouldn't be gaps but stuff happens.

Different species of wood can be mixed and matched and swapped to give colour to your finished piece too

[bearfretworks]

I'll defer to the folks who have much more experience than I, but I would be concerned about the Padauk dust darkening/staining the frets in the lighter wood. I've had this problem when stack cutting cherry and soft maple as well as padauk and maple.......... I always try to avoid stacking light and dark woods for that reason. Maybe I'm just paranoid!

[lucky788scroller]

interesting. Ive never had that problem. Right now I am stack cutting two clocks, one layer walnut, and one layer red oak.Everything seems fine like that, Ive done it with many diffrent woods, and no problems. I even stacked purpleheart and maple,thats a great combination,and no ill effects

[Neal Moore]

Paduak

You might be successful stack cutting paduak with light hardwoods such as hard maple or oak but don't try it with poplar. When I did it looked like I air brushed the edges of the cuts in the poplar with red mahogany stain. Not a pretty sight!!! LOL!! Didn't look very good on my white Tee shirt either.

[Grizz]

There are some patterns I want to scroll with stacked wood. However, I want the top piece to be 1/4" Padauk and and the bottom 2 pieces to be 1/4" Baltic Birch. Is there any reason that this would cause any problems?

Harris

YES!!!!

Paduak may leave your Baltic Birch stained/powdered red. You may want to do some testing first.

(This warning is from an experince, not all subject matters will react the same way. The author of this note is in no way responsible for any outcome of said subject.)

[arbarnhart]

Does stack order matter? I would think if you used a skip tooth with no reverse teeth and put the dark wood on the bottom it would substantially reduce the problem. Note that this is a guess and a question, not advice.

This is not a rhetorical question, BTW. I am planning on cutting maple over purpleheart with a slight miter for inlay. I don't have confidence that I can cut sepeartely from a pattern and get a good enough fit. I will be making something like this:

[Forester21]

I would think if you were doing an inlay, there would not be a problem. If the staining occurs on the inside cut, isn't that where the inlay will go anyway? I was also wondering if the stacking order made a difference.
I suggest using some scrap wood and doing a couple of cuts to see. Then be sure to let us know on the forum what happened!
T