Wood for earrings

[tammyricheson]

What kind of wood that is provided with glowforge when purchased should be used for earrings. I have light basswood plywood and medium draft board left

[rbtdanforth]

I would stuff the MDF in a dark hole somewhere, or maybe use it for the Calibration routine. I have been making a bunch of earrings from light maple and light cherry. A one inch circle can be used on many scraps

[deirdrebeth]

@tammyricheson

light basswood plywood

Basswood can work - and since it’s very light and plain you can stain it almost any colour in the book. The bonus of plywoods over hardwoods is the earring is far less likely to break along its grain, and the light stuff is three layers of wood, and no MDF so even better

[CMadok]

If you’re using the glowforge provided options you have on hand, use the basswood (since it’s proofgrade, it’s already sealed and finished-staining wouldn’t be an option unless you sanded off the finish). If you’re reordering materials from glowforge, go with the light or medium plywoods, any color you want. The hardwoods break too easily.

Mdf is a good, cheap option for testing designs, but not for the actual earring. It’s not good with moisture at all, and feels fuzzy.