Basing Materials

[Demihuman]

Silicon fancy ice cube trays filled with casting plaster or resin.

http://www.amazon.com/Tovolo-Perfect-Cube-Trays-Stratus/dp/B000QIU7X6

Base! How low can you go!

 

[airhead]

A follow up. Where can I get a cheapo plinth or socket locally in the US? You know, the hunks of wood that are used for display pieces. I'm sure I can go to a local hardware store and just get a small piece, but was looking for something of a bit higher quality. Better wood, maybe pre stained but not necessary, interesting pedestal shapes, etc. any ideas?

Try the local trophy shop. They often have bits & pieces.

 

[PegaZus]

I've thought about trying to turn a couple plinths on my lathe. But I probably don't have the right attachments.

Wood could be a bit easy to get. If you've got a Woodcraft or Rockler store near you, they have various exotic woods. Could also go to Penn State Industries. I've bought online from them too. All three are online as well.

One set of bottle stopper blanks I looked at are 1.5" x 1.5" x 2". So that might be good for a square one. Little carving on the sides, sanding and such and you'd be done. Pepper mill blanks would get you around a 3" x 3", but looks to be about 9" long. Still, that's quite a few that could be made from them. Not pre-made really, but wouldn't take a lot of work to make something slightly attractive. And I've put just some Danish oil on a lot of the pens I've turned, and the wood looks very pretty.

Just checking through Woodcraft's website, and a 2"x2"x3" block of ebony would run $17.50. Cocobolo is about half the price. Orange Agate is about the same.

Anyway, something to consider.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Winged Horse:

Tyvm for the ideas. I never considered ANY of those types of stores. I went to Home Depot yesterday and to be frank probably wasted my money. They cut me several pieces from a pine 4x4. So now I have like 6 pine blocks of wood measuring six to eight inches tall and 4"x4". I think that is far too big for my purposes. And they charged me for a whole 8 foot piece. I don't know enough about plinths, do people ever use raw pine blocks? I'd end up painting it all black more than likely. But even then, I feel like it is just too big for my mini. He could lay down and his height would fit across it more than twice.

These stores you mention. They are mostly just cabinet or furniture stores, right? Just wondering what to google search. I've found several local woodworking companies that do custom furniture and such, just wondering if they could or would want to do the job of slicing me a few pieces of decent wood. Sanding it and prepping it are no big deal, but since I lack a hand saw, it would be great if they could cut a hunk out of a side or two, as is common on many plinths. Anyhow, I have searched exhaustively at Michael's, hobby lobby, and even a trophy store and have not found what suits me. Maybe this is the answer.

 

[Humanitarian]

For interesting wood, look for stores that sell wood turning blanks -- or ebay wood bowl blank. Not exactly el-cheapo, but you can cut it up to size and get a number of pieces out of 'em.

Edit: LOL didn't read page two.

 

[PegaZus]

Winged Horse: These stores you mention. They are mostly just cabinet or furniture stores, right?

Yeah, the pine 4x4s are probably way too big. Could always carve them quite a bit and turn them into candle holders. And if you're just planning to paint them, then pine would probably be fine and economical.

Honestly, Rockler (http://www.rockler.com/) probably is more of a cabinet/furniture store. Woodcraft (http://www.woodcraft.com/) is more of a wood-arts store, I guess you could say. Rockler has lots of hinges, pull knobs, cabinet fittings, with some smaller wood turning supplies. Woodcraft on the other hand has more wood carving, turning, inlays, and that sort of thing. Strangely enough, they also take PayPal. Don't see that on a lot of retail store websites.

Now, the pepper mill blanks are probably what you'd want to search for, such as this Jobillo blank. For grins, I put it in my shopping cart to get the shipping on it too. So $28.25 plus $7.50 shipping. It's pricey, and you wouldn't be able to see what block of wood you're getting. It's also 12" long, so you're still looking at having to invest in a hand saw but could get four slightly less that 3" plinths from it. A simple miter kit would get you a miter box and a hand saw. A miter box is like a clamp that holds the wood while you saw it at various angles. Not meant for large pieces, you see. Might as well start that tool collection at some point.

A local woodworking company might be able to get you some good wood pieces, but only if they're a very custom shop where they're building their own. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the shops just order pieces from a larger factory. Besides that, nothing they buy will be 3" thick, nor will it be anything other than oak, pine, maple, cherry, and probably a couple of other domestic woods.

So I think your best bet is Woodcraft (I like their stores better, so might be biased) for something exotic, and if you have a retail store nearby so you can see exactly what you're getting. Ebay, like Humanitarian said, would be a good source too, especially since the picture should be of what you're getting. I'm eying some "alligator wood" really hard now. And should you want to search, I'd use the term "pepper mill blank". I think those will be close to the sizes you're wanting.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Have a look around for local Wood turning clubs/societies. At least one of their members will be interested enough to help you out, maybe even show you how to turn (it's not that hard, just messy).
Oh and eBay for wood turning blanks.

 

[Humanitarian]

Yeah, a pepper mill blank would be good sized. We are a bit spoiled here in Kansas City with woodcraft stores, Schutte lumber, an active woodworkers/turners guild...I would think that most major cities in the U.S. would have somewhere that stocks hobby woods -- it really is something you want to go see in person. Of course, if you think miniatures are a costly hobby, just look at getting into wood working.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Up until now, I have never heard the term pepper mill blank. What specifically does it mean?

I googled the term, though, and saw many exotic pieces of wood in the perfect size for affordable prices. Thanks all for that.

However, since I wanted to get started on this base right away AND I hadnt read any of these replies, I went ahead and made another purchase locally. Went to a lumber yard and bought 12 inches of 2.5"x2.5" vertical grain fir. I like the dimensions a lot, and I chopped it into thirds so now I have three display bases.

In the future though I will def use some of these pepper mill blanks. They look great.

 

[Humanitarian]

Generically, for wood turning, metal stamping/machining, etc. the work piece you start with is the 'blank'. So, since people turn things like bowls, pens, pepper mills, pieces of wood that are sized appropriately get called 'pen blanks' or 'pepper mill blanks,' etc. They are essentially an appropriately sized rectangle of wood removed from a larger parent piece.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

...and now I know! Thank you, Humanitarian Librarian. :worship!: