So I got a bunch of wood that is 3" wide and 12 inches long. poplar, cherry, maple, hickory, walnut all solid wood some 1/4" some 3/8". Most of what I have done is on plywood so size is less an issue and magic fingers are reasonably strong in any direction. Not so much in solid wood.
So I tried a different design that was 3x3 and was able to get 4 on one piece of wood and the top and bottom on half of another but it was very tight. but there was not much room for scrap.
Because solid wood is weaker across the grain I had to make the fingers bigger ant the wood was a bit thicker than planned for. However as solid wood there were no layers to worry about, so I thought about it and sanded it a bit more than originally intended.
I have looked at pine both in pure and in plywood and always decided against. Southern long leaf could look really beautiful but its alternative name of fatwood would suggest that lasering might not be a good thing for it as it is heavily favored for when you want to start a fire.
I would love to get some Araucaria pine but unless there is a Glowforger here from Southern Chile it would seem unlikely.
On the other hand if we have any members in southern Chile perhaps there could be some exchanges.
rounding corners with a sander is fun. i’ve done a couple of them. i need to work on my technique, but i think it can make the fingers look more part of the design than just structural.
That has been my thought on the tiny fingers, and what I don’t like about the thicker ones. rounding the corners makes those less noticeable, and for the big ones an improvement.
one of the factors that folk associate with better or more important buildings is Quions that were important when buildings were made of stone, Today there is extra effort to cast them into corners or even fake them with foam, but as boxes, they have their original purpose (sort of) and add elegance lacking in big fingers. (IMHO)
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