Query on Ply for Laser Cutting

[MarshLane]

Evening guys,

I am designing some baseboards for laser cutting, the aim being to use 3mm or 6mm birch ply.  I know from experience with MDF that if it is not treated or sealed then it can warp.  Can anyone offer any advice on whether birch is the same or not? Is it advisable to seal birch regardless? If so, should that be varnish or Cuprinol type products, or a watered down PVA?  

 

Apologies for the question, but I have had a search through the Laser Cutting forum on here and cannot see anywhere where it has been asked - and spending the money on getting baseboards right, I didn't want to mess up on what is an easy thing to do if necessary!

 

Rich

[Scottish Modeller]

Hi Rich,

 

As a rule - I always treat laser cut ply or mdf the same.

 

Do any work on them cutting/shaping/drilling/glueing etc first.

 

Then seal all surfaces before going any further.

 

In the past I used Klear as it was available.

 

Now I've started to use a polyurathene sealer instead - make does not matter, they all do the same job.

 

This does make doing surface work (like paintng) more difficult as it cannot soak into the base material anymore.

 

Thanks

Phil H

 

 

[MarshLane]

Thanks Phil,

That confirms my thoughts. I’ll have a look for some polyurathene sealer, I generally paint baseboards a brown colour, but my thought was to paint the sides/fascia black to emphasise the layout.

Rich

[MarshLane]

@Scottish Modeller

ove found some Ruston polyurathene sealer in the rainforest store. One thought, from your experience how does glue attach to it?

 

The track work on the layout will be hand built, so sleepers need sticking down. I am just wondering how the glue for copper clad sleepers will take to it, as they don’t want to be coming off!

 

Rich

[Scottish Modeller]

3 hours ago, MarshLane said:

@Scottish Modeller

ove found some Ruston polyurathene sealer in the rainforest store. One thought, from your experience how does glue attach to it?

 

The track work on the layout will be hand built, so sleepers need sticking down. I am just wondering how the glue for copper clad sleepers will take to it, as they don’t want to be coming off!

 

Rich

Hi Rich,

 

I used thin foam rubber as an underlay for the track and put it down whilst the sealer was still sticky.

 

The SMP copperclad track base was then stuck to the foam rubber with copydex as that sticks but doesn't soak through the foam rubber. I kept and used the layout for 5 years without having any problems with track movement and then sold it. Some time later I saw it at an exhibition and the track didn't appear to have been changed.

 

Thanks

Phil H