Catan board test all with Baltic birch

davidaspitzer · January 23, 2019, 3:34am

I love the different colored hardwood Catan boards but I really didn’t want to track down all those exotic woods so I tried a test with just Baltic Birch and then stained it a couple different colors and I think since it’s so light,

I can make a nice colorful board without having to go through all the different hardwoods

Jules · January 23, 2019, 4:15am

Looks good.

pubultrastar · January 23, 2019, 4:53am

Great idea. Post pictures as you progress through the board build.

kittski · January 23, 2019, 8:50am

That grey is particularly nice, well done! Keep us updated on your progress.

UrJac · January 23, 2019, 12:23pm

Nice. What stain do you like?

slackk1994 · January 23, 2019, 6:56pm

Nice Job! Do you mind sharing where you source your baltic birch from? I’m having a hard time finding some. By the way I really like the grey stain!

GrooveStranger · January 23, 2019, 7:01pm

I have bought a pile of RowMark’s “ColorShop” plywood and it’s really nice… Good colors, and there’s a Proofgrade like satin finish on it. But at $15/sheet, it is expensive. If there was an easy way to turn a cheap sheet of BB into a nice, colored, finished sheet I would love to know about it… but as far as I can see, you are committed to multiple coats with sanding steps. And I just don’t like woodworking enough to set up that assembly line.

Is there any magical product I can paint on to BB, let dry, sand once, and have a high quality colored/sealed piece to work with? One step, that I can do.

davidaspitzer · January 23, 2019, 7:25pm

Wood workers supply they have 1/8 and 1/4. There is one 2 miles from my work but they do deliver. They full sheets of Birch that I have them cut to 12 x 20

GrooveStranger · January 23, 2019, 9:16pm

Are you referring to colored ply or plain?
And I can’t find any plywood at all on woodworker.com.

davidaspitzer · January 23, 2019, 9:37pm

whoops my bad - wood workers source

https://www.woodworkerssource.com/shop/category/6_plywood.html

davidaspitzer · January 23, 2019, 9:47pm

there are also tons of people Etsy like this that sell precut birch that fits the Glowforge

davidaspitzer · January 24, 2019, 1:50am

Here is my second test print with a deeper engrave

800 full
800 / 70
150 full 3 cut pass 1/4 inch Birch

geek2nurse · January 24, 2019, 4:25am

I sand, paint with a wash of watered down acrylic paint ('way more water than paint), let it dry, and coat with spray lacquer. It’s more than one step, but super easy, and you can get pretty much any color you want.

Dunfee · January 24, 2019, 12:05pm

how much time did each tile take roughly?

davidaspitzer · January 24, 2019, 1:59pm

Each tile was 30 minutes

davidaspitzer · January 26, 2019, 7:01pm

i am going to use straight up colored stain

davidaspitzer · January 27, 2019, 1:42am

Printing the timber tiles
I add a paper coating on both sides to make the final print more clean

davidaspitzer · January 27, 2019, 4:10am

finished timber pieces stained with varathane dark walnut.

davidaspitzer · January 27, 2019, 4:13am

I’m leaving the sheep natural since the sheep are white.

davidaspitzer · January 27, 2019, 6:11am

Wheat pieces. I’ll stained them Yellow later