Woodworking meets Quilting

[Leon]

Well, I am working on the 2 jewelry chests today and adding the Tiger Maple veneer to the maple drawer fronts, 24 of'um. Because the veneer strips are

1/8" wider than 3 of the drawers, stacked, I needed to be able to cut the veneer with little waste for the veneer to get all 6 drawers. The veneer is long enough to handle the length of 2 drawers. Basically each sheet of veneer will cover 6 of the small drawers. Clear? ;~)

Anyway, in the past I have used a utility knife to cut the veneer, that works OK. Today I am using on of the rotary cutters that my wife cuts quilt fabric with. Along with a straight edge, another quilters tool, this works great with no waste or tear out. For cutting with the grain a single pass does the trick, cross cutting requires two passes.

I have seen the rotary cutters offered at a few veneer supply sites but was a bit skeptical. If any of you are veneering and have not tried the rotary cutter I highly recommend it.

[Lee Michaels]

Careful there Leon. You may develop acute color sensitivity and start buying lace for no apparent reason!

All kidding aside, those rotary cutters are quite handy. A friend who receives lots of packages in their business has gone to the rotary cutters to open packages. They claim they are much safer and easier to use than box cutters or utility knives.

My wife's rotary cutters are pressed into service on a semiregular basis for the odd cutting job around the house. I have used them to open odd shaped peices of mail that would nor repsond to a regular letter opener. They are especially good on those bubble padded envelopes.

[Leon]

LOL

I would imagine so, In my previous life profession we opened lots of boxes with utility knives and the rotary seems a next natural improvement for that process.

I am going to line the drawers of the jewelry chest drawers with heavy stiff felt. I bought a piece and tried cutting the felt with a rotary cutter and as you might expect it worked great on that also. The felt is stiff enough that it would not be necessary to glue in. On the trial version I used

3/4" wide double stick tape with perfect results. I was able to get 40 sq feet of the felt for $12.