I’m currently building my own fightstick using an Art’s Hobbies hard acrylic TEK case, but I’m going to be building a second fightstick for my girlfriend for her birthday. I’d like to build it by hand and not order a pre-made case, but I can only do basic woodcutting and detailing. I have no idea what type of wood to use. I plan to paint it and make it look glossy and smooth, so I need the smoothest wood available. Any help would be much appreciated, because I’ve had no luck finding a straight answer.
Thanks! I’ve also heard poplar wood is decent as well.
It is, but maple is a lot more durable and easy to finish. Poplar is great, but depending on the size of the case it may be too light for your liking.
Maple is a great, it’s strong and looks good, but it’s also a harder wood so keep that in mind if you’ll be doing a lot of chisel work. It is also sort of heavy, but not so much as to be a deal breaker.
I wouldn’t touch poplar. If you’re going to put a bunch of time and effort into making a case, there are so many better options for both hardness and looks.
Cherry would be my pick. It’s not a hard as maple, but it is still pretty durable. And it looks amazing. You may even be able to get curly cherry for pretty cheap. It’s very light as well.
Walnut is an honorable mention, but keep in mind that some people are allergic to walnut sawdust.
I always use red oak. Its a cheap hardwood that you find at any home depot.
I second Maple if you can find it, but redwood is also a good choice since they are readily available at home depot. Poplar is okay and so is birch, but they are softer and can dent easily.
Thank you all for the advice! I think I’m going with either cherry or maple.
You can use any wood you want, really. Pros and cons to any of them.
Are you going to paint it with opaque paint? If so I’d recommend MDF at that point. Only reason to use real wood is if you’re going to stain and then clear. If not, doesn’t matter how it looks, it matters on how stable it is and MDF is extremely stable, won’t warp with the weather and so on.
Don’t use MDF. It’s hard to cut, makes a huge mess, can’t rout it, dust is disgusting…
im a big fan of purple heart, but its a bit tougher to work with
MDF also is not subject of expanding, shrinking or warping due to temperatures or humidity .
I made a stick out of MDF and it was pretty easy to cut. Used a hand saw, routed with a Dremel, and the dust didn’t seem any worse than any other type of wood dust. MDF dust definitely a bit finer in texture though, and can get everywhere if you don’t shopvac as you work.
This is not true, MDF saw dust is super toxic (I was foolish enough not to wear respiratory protections when I routed some MDF planks, I honestly think I’m going to regret it when I get diagnosed a lung cancer). Real wood dust won’t do that, and you can actually enjoy the smell (i’m thinking about walnut smell as I speak). As a construction materail however, MDF is OK, and is not going to warp when properly finished (resin and/or paint)
MDF isn’t bad for this, but I’d use plywood over it for the durability. Plywood won’t be warping unless it’s left in extreme conditions, so there is no real risk of that happening. You just get a lighter and more durable material for around the same price. However, finishing can make or break how good your project looks, and painting tends to be much more work and require more experience and knowledge to get right. You can be an amateur and make people drool with a rub on clear finish over a nice wood grain. It’s actually kind of frustrating to put a bunch of painstaking effort into a burst finish or something just to see people drool over some shellac’d curly maple or purple heart, but that’s just how people respond to nice woods with a clear finish.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/woodworking/faq-mdf.htm
No mention of it being super toxic. Any type of wood dust is bad for you.
LMFAO
Most woods have toxic saw dust as they are often treated with flame retardant chemicals. Unless the wood stated as untreated, consider it Treated and toxic.
Some natural woods are also toxic to humans.
Its not even the dust, the gasses that escape the wood can be toxic. Hence why you ether need to be in a well ventilated area, outdoors or wear a respirator rated for toxic gasses (and not just a dust mask).
its why so many people go after used wooden pallets for project wood, as that wood often has the least amount of processing. No chemical treatment and only thing that done is the wood is dried, de-barked and cut.
Pallets meant for overseas shipping (they are usually painted some color) is hella toxic.
If the wood comes from overseas, its already treated, as it can’t even enter port without being treated. That include all those nice and really popular exotic woods people love.
(Treated for anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, herbicides, insecticides and other chemicals)
Hell just getting Plywood or regular lumber from Home Depo, Lowes, or even most lumber yards will be filled with toxic gas.
Exposure is also something important to consider. Making a single case is like, not a big deal. Just be careful and take precautions and you’ll be fine. If you’re around any kind of wood mill as your main source of income for 40+ hours a week, yeah it’s something to consider.
This reminds me of brass fittings on hoses in California. Because of CA laws, all garden hoses has to be marked as containing an element known to cause cancer. Brass has lead in it, and it’s possible as the water runs through the hose that it passes through the brass fitting and erodes lead into the water. Thing is, you’d have to drink 20 gallons a day for 40 years to actually get it to be toxic, that’s how little the exposure is, but CA law requires it. It’s dumb because it’s just to cover manufacturer’s asses against lawsuits.
Hell our favorite activities here at tech talk soldering and dremel use are toxic.
The fumes from solder resin can be a health concern as well as using lead based solder.
Dremling, especially if you cutting plastic. As you cut plastic with a power tool it melts a bit, melting plastic can be toxic.
Hell that new car smell everyone likes is actually caused by toxic fumes coming from the new vinyl and ABS in the car.
It probably depends on the quality of MDF you get and the thickness of course. I’m really surprised your Dremel was able to rout MDF without gumming up or burning the wood… I had a much different experience practicing on some 3/8" MDF w/ a Makita Plunge router. I’ve been wanting to try routing on my Dremel, are you using the Dremel branded bits and the plunge attachment?
Anyways, I think last year they banned Formaldehyde from MDF so you don’t have to worry about the toxicity… if you do want to use MDF wear a respirator or at least a dust mask, do it outside and/or make sure you have good dust collection.
As far as stability goes, there’s some basic guidelines you can follow while building to avoid problems w/ seasonal expansion. Google or check this out http://toddpartridgedesign.com/sr_pages/documents/UnderstandingWoodMovement.pdf
I used official Dremel bits. At high enough speeds, like basically max or near max, I would get burning along the edges being routed but only ended up discoloring the MDF. No warping or anything like that from the slight discoloration. At mid-high to mid speeds, cutting was still easy and no burning at all. I did 2 types of routing. One was using layers and cutting through a layer and then gluing it onto another with different cuts, creating what we normally see as routing. The other was actually routing using a single piece and a Dremel branded spacer to properly distance the Dremel to form the shape. It takes a long time doing that, to prep before hand I had also drilled using forstner bits and then did the fine details with the Dremel.