Daily Tip

Yesterday we talked about selecting a backer material for all your cuttings, today we will touch on how to attach them.

Materials like wood and mat board are fairly easy to attach, a little glue, perhaps a clamp or two and you have a backer glued on, felt on the other hand can be a little tougher.

To start with we need to lay our felt out somewhere big enough that we can stretch it out tight, and remove any lint that may be there. To accomplish this, I enlist the help of my wonderful wife Kris, she stretches the felt so that there are no wrinkles left in it. If you don't have a helper you could use spring clamps, clamp the felt to the edge of the table, or a piece of plywood etc. Clamp one edge, pull the felt tight in the opposite direction, then clamp and pull another edge , clamp it and move to the last side. Getting the felt tight will make your cutting look much better. To remove the lint I use a lint roller, just like you would when you put on your Sunday best, roll it over the felt until there is no lint remaining.

Now lets talk about how to get it to stick so it stays tight. I use a couple different methods, depending on the cutting.

Lets start with the method I use for attaching a backer to a cutting that is less fragile. I use Aileen's tacky glue (clear bottle) and put a bead of glue around the entire outside of the cutting. I then will put a dot of glue into all the areas of the cutting that are large enough to do so without the glue running out into the cut. Pay special attention to any areas of the cutting that need to be held in place and be sure to put some glue there as well. After you have put a sufficient amount of glue of the cutting lay it on the stretched felt and push it down firmly, the last step is to roll over the top with a rolling pin and pretty firm pressure to ensure that it is all stuck down. After the glue has dried, trim the felt around the edges with a pair of scissors and you will be good to go.

If the cutting is really fragile and there just isn't big enough pieces of wood to put a sufficient amount of glue on the cutting you will have to find a different method.

For cuttings like these after stretching the felt, I stand my cutting against a piece of scrap wood, and use super 77 spray adhesive a give a really heavy coat to the back. While the adhesive is still wet take it over to the felt and lay it down, then use that rolling pin to make sure that all the pieces are stuck to the felt.

There are a couple of considerations here, when you spray the adhesive you will end up with little "strings" of glue that will show up when you lay it on the felt. You can get rid of these easily with an x-acto knife or toothpick. Also when you spray the adhesive you need to spray the piece straight on to keep glue out of the cut outs.

So now you have your cutting with backer firmly attached lets talk about how to get any dust or splinters off of it. If you have used felt, you might want to try rolling up a piece of tape and using that to get a stubborn splinter, even tweezers will work for that sometimes if the cut out is large enough to get the jaws of the tweezers in there.

The easiest method for me is to use a can of compressed air, and blow from the BACK side of the cutting. If you blow on the front you will drive the dust further into the felt. Blowing from the back will dislodge the dust and blow it out of the cutting.

If you have used something solid like mat board or a piece of wood, the best way I have found to get the dust out is with my shop vac. I put that attachment with the bristles (like 1 1/2" long hairs) onto the hose and after turning the vac on I quickly run it over the front and say goodbye to the dust and splinters.