WeekendMiniaturist Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 Before Ray and Scott retired they offered kits, and I ordered a kit at the Chicago International Show. The delay was getting the kit and then obtaining a box, but our son cut my 3/8" Medium Density Overlay Plywood for me in August 2019, and while the box is not assembled, I can now begin the floors. I have been avoiding this task of making the floor for a while... as the instructions are slightly overwhelming... The instructions require manual cutting of wallpaper with an exacto knife, and there is no extra wallpaper for the floors... this is a 1x operation, no practice and a little intimidating for the person who usually makes three of everything the first time I make something on my own. While the cut sheet clearly indicates exactly how to cut this out with a very nice visual layout and documented cut sheet, there are a lot of tiny pieces. I feel a really strong necessity to do this particular project with a machine. My ability to cut a straight measured 1/8" strip of wallpaper is humbling. Give me a saw and a fence and I can do this. An exacto knife? What was I thinking, I know this is not one of my natural skills. I have searched for their marble wallpaper online, and without actually going to a wallpaper store to look through actual samples I will test my cutting capabilities with other wallpaper first, as I have never done this before... it is most interesting to learn how they created these floors. At this point I'm thinking class would have been priceless and I should have spent the money - oh well, no going back now, and are they really retired from classes? Please, please, I hope retirement isn't true! I have my WB Roombox base in the middle of my living room floor right now, and I laid out the floors yesterday in drafting software. My points of my squares on their point must be off a degree or two, so I need to edit this and snap it to 45 degrees in the software. I printed it to adobe on 11x17 paper so I could cut it out and see what size this is truly supposed to be. It was definitely extra work but the drawing was not to scale, and also did not find the magic number to enlarge it to in any instructions. This has definitely given me some anxiety and since the floors are the first thing I was supposed to do, I used this as a great excuse not to start. Now that this is drawn in software my next step is to ignore the instructions to use an exacto knife to cut and get out my Bosskut Gazelle and send the files to a drag knife for an accurate machine cut. I am pleased after getting the kit contents out and going through it that my printed drafts are the correct size. I also went to our local makerspace and learned to use their laser, but I'm not convinced that I want these charcoal lines at this time, as they are not visible in their floor photos. I joined the makerspace 8/12/2019, and at this point while not an expert in using a laser, I think I can muddle through my own projects now. I am looking forward to making some leg templates soon. The item that most attracted me to this room box is the ceiling, the colors are perfect, a natural light creme and black and white... "Bond Street" was a very clear reference to shopping on Bond Street in London. Since 2019 was my first trip to the UK, it seems the time to indulge and work on the box is now, as our life size kitchen remodel phase 1 is close to its finish, and we only have some finishing details to complete before the Family Holidays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElgaKoster Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Good luck with your floor Tamra, I find that for cutting paper with a X-acto knife I need to really make sure my ruler wont slide and have learned that up to three soft cuts is better than one hard one to try and get through the paper in one cut, I have had some mess ups with the knife sliding away from my ruler, paper has a grain too! I for one wouldn't think that the charcoal lines would like nice, on wood it takes hours to sand the burn away, hence I am not fond of laser cut items with burn marks. Looking forward to seeing your progress on the room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeekendMiniaturist Posted November 2, 2019 Author Share Posted November 2, 2019 Thanks Elga, I am still considering a ruler and cutting the strips with the same method with a rotary cutter as we cut for quilting, but use my matboard straight edge, as it is stationary ruler held in place by the setup so you can manually cut matboard - straight-. If I must do this the way as instructed, I'll get my matboard ruler out. WB floors, at least in this kit, are not wood, Scott & Ray are well known fans of Crescent board; so the floors are wallpaper and crescent board. I redrew my squares and moved them to 45 degree points and snapped them in software to 45 degree angle and am happier with the results, so will see tomorrow how my test run turns out. It is already cold here, and I didn't get my moldings sprayed with sanding sealer for painting... so this project may fast come to a halt until next spring. All month of October I was waiting for Indian summer return, and I have run out of warm weather for spraying all the trim with sealer and I usually spray a painted finishes with my airbrush... and the thought of painting all this molding with a brush.... sounds like a long winter project and multiple sessions! I just need two more days of warm no rain weather! I'm up early tomorrow to purchase more Crescent board and give it one more try, and I'm enjoying learning to use the laser; it is a strange learning curve... after they cleaned the lens, and then replaced the lens, it toasted my acrylic doll stands, and each subsequent adjustment of power, still hasn't solved the issues, so tomorrow I will try one last time and will mask the acrylic and see if I can keep it from being smoked. These are turning out to be some really expensive doll stands. oh well, it is just another paid learning experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElgaKoster Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 Oh dear, I can send you some of our heat, looks like we are in for a hot and dry summer. We already have water restictions in place, not allowed to water our gardens or wash cars. I finally finished my Victorian dining room roombox that I started when I was inexperienced and new to the hobby 18 years ago. I will do a post on it soon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Hudson Posted November 28, 2019 Share Posted November 28, 2019 Believe there is/was a cutting tool that slid on a track on a ruler made for scrap booking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Hudson Posted November 28, 2019 Share Posted November 28, 2019 Look at this. https://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-152490-1004-SureCut-Deluxe-Trimmer/dp/B0038F1A0S/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=quilling+paper+cutter&qid=1574915529&sr=8-4 https://www.amazon.com/LETION-Titanium-Scrapbooking-Automatic-Safeguard/dp/B01MUB5MY5/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=paper+strip+cutter&qid=1574915777&sr=8-6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karincorbin Posted December 6, 2019 Share Posted December 6, 2019 First thing I would do is make a high resolution scan of the flooring material....just in case things go wrong and you can't purchase a replacement piece. I cut paper materials on my vinyl cutting machine using repositionable adhesive on a cutting mat. But if you are not experienced that would not be a great choice because there is a learning curve for using them and with only one sheet of material there is no going back and doing it over if you make an error. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeekendMiniaturist Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 Have no fear...I was planning to do my test cuts with other wallpaper first. I have some that is white/purple marble that I can use to test my cuts. I just have to bring my Gazelle (made by Bosskut) upstairs and connect it to a computer but no time for creativity... I am hoping I can return to miniature fun in February 2020! I bought a nice supply of perhaps 6-7 patterns of adhesive based marble vinyl from amazon and none of it is really what I wanted... perhaps next year I will attempt to chase down some more marble wallpaper. I should have been more diligent when we had wallpaper at Lowe's... My closest wallpaper store is an hour away / two hours total driving time.... I also have some sample wallpaper books, too.... so I can always order online...... Thanks Bill for the tool recommendation; While I do use one of these cutters when I am tearing through my miniature magazines for items I want to save - (I removed all the reference ie, the Pat & Noel Thomas articles from Nutshell News) I find it difficult to cut accurately for this particular plan with this tool. Some of the pieces are 1/4" wide x 3"... and as usual there is so much detail when making a miniature scene, that I decided since I have only one chance at this, that created the design in software. It is a great recommendation, but the no mistakes requirement because I don't have extra wallpaper is very intimidating and this is the reason I should have paid the hotel fees and participated in the actual class. It does seem that floors should be first! It is great to hear from some folks in the forum though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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