Granddaughter

[Allen levine]

Is there a possibility this can be made into a pattern?

[ScrollerGuy]

I'm sure your photo can be made into a pattern and one of the talented pattern makers here will likely help you with that.

There are some great instructional videos on this site that can teach you how to make patterns using open source (free) software. Here's a link to them if you'd like to give it a try. It's really not very difficult once you become familiar with the software.

https://www.scrollsawvillage.com/village-university/

Good luck!

 

[Allen levine]

When I'm home I'll let my son take a go at it

[Fab4]

Hi Allen:
Sounds like your son knows a few things
Have him look at this and see if this will help you out at all
,svg and a pdf file attached
Shave her head and redo the pattern.....LOL

GD.pdfGD.svg

[grampa]

Hi Allen, The biggest problem is the pony tail , I will see what I can do ,,,, Paul

[grampa]

Hi Allen, I gave it a go but not happy with it so its a start for you .... Paul

 

 

Edited December 1, 2024 by grampa

[Allen levine]

12 hours ago, Fab4 said:

Hi Allen:
Sounds like your son knows a few things
Have him look at this and see if this will help you out at all
,svg and a pdf file attached
Shave her head and redo the pattern.....LOL

GD.pdf 144.15 kB · 4 downloads GD.svg 412.53 kB · 4 downloads

He is an it engineer and has been designing websites since he's 12

but I love the pic you turned out

so now I'm going to get laughed at I don't care because this is completely new to me

like a baby tasting chocolate for the first time

my quesrion is and I think I'm correct once I print it I cut out all the dark portions?

I plan on using some 1/4 inch wood with maple back

so what do I need to know I'm ready to start as soon as I get home next week

[Allen levine]

Or maybe the opposite dark back board

[Fab4]

Hey Allen:
Just between you and me
That other Paul guy does great patterns, unlike us hackers who try
Thank God for people like him
You will have absolutely no problem cutting that one out
Normally, you cut out the dark areas and add a dark backer but that's not
written in stone.. You finish as YOU see fit.  To each his own
Fab4

[Allen levine]

How do I cut out the eyes or mouth and the teeth won't show for example because it's all black to cut the perimeter 

I started cutting it out of 1/4 inch ply and wow I'm struggling with blade drift

i finally figured out the quick release clamp but the blade moving and bending 

eh

i also had to take the hold down clamp arm off machine to make it easier to lift board over blade 

I'm thinking this will take me a very long time

[yamatetsu]

 

Take a look at the picture to the right. Those are the lines you need to cut.

Don't mind the weird shapes inside the hair at the top and at the bottom left, the graphics program just added those for some weird reason.

Edited December 12, 2024 by yamatetsu
Added an improved picture.

[Allen levine]

i took a 1/4 inch piece of plywood and started cutting some on the other picture previous posted.

Im not having much luck. 

the blade is super aggressive, Ive tried changing to all different types of what I have on hand.

things I dont get is if I cut all the lines around the face the face will just fall off like the eyes and mouth. 

I dont know anything about this kind of fret work. nada, zilch.

to be honest, in a million years I never thought Id own a scrollsaw and definately never imagined Id be doing anything like this. I struggle to get the blade into the holes I drilled. getting down to look up to get the blade in the holes is difficult for me. 

I wont give up, I have to make a birdhouse for someone who wants it as a gift for the holidays, and I had one half done, so Im working on that.

one can never get a true appreciation of doing this kind of fret work, until they actually try one. and now I have, and Im having a rough time, 

 

[yamatetsu]

2 hours ago, Allen levine said:

the blade is super aggressive, Ive tried changing to all different types of what I have on hand.

Use a quality brand of blades, like Pegas or something like that. You can look up some posts in the 'bragging rights' section, people usually post which kind of blade they use. Using a good blade will make the cutting easier and will also save time on sanding.
The first blades that I used were a no-name brand from a DIY store, they chewed through the wood and were just godawful to use.
Do NOT use a spiral blade, those are too aggressive and they are much wider, which makes it more diffcult to do fine cuts.
I would use either a #3 blade or a #1 blade which is the least aggressive but takes longer to cut.

 

2 hours ago, Allen levine said:

things I dont get is if I cut all the lines around the face the face will just fall off like the eyes and mouth. 

If you cut out the whole face, you are doing something wrong. There are certain 'bridges' that hold the face, these must not be cut.

 

2 hours ago, Allen levine said:

I dont know anything about this kind of fret work. nada, zilch.

This is definitely not a pattern for beginners. If you have never done that kind of fretwork before, you will struggle with it.

Some tips:

- watch some videos on youtube, look for something like 'scroll saw tips' or 'scroll saw tips for beginners'

- practice on a simpler pattern first to get the hang of scrolling

Tips for doing your pattern:

- make it as big as you can, this will make the small areas a bit bigger and thus easier to cut / not to cut accidentally

- Start in the center (eyes, eyebrows, mouth, etc.). The more areas you cut out, the more unstable your board will become, so it's a good idea to cut the difficult parts first.

- put the cut-outs back into place and tape them to the board on the back, this will add some stability

 

I modified the picture a bit, making some small areas a bit wider to add stability.

Edited December 12, 2024 by yamatetsu

[Allen levine]

im going to abandon the oner Im working on, and plane down some poplar and try this one you have.

I only use pegas or flying dutchman blades.

I have a few packs(dozens) of blades with no brand name on them, but have used some and had great results, so they may have been either or.other woodworkers from another site who no long scroll or own a scroll saw sent me their blades. they were in self written plastic bags so I dont have a clue what brand they are, but as I mentioned, they worked fine.

today I ordered a sample pack of spiral blades, mostly because I dont have any and would like to try some, but will follow your advice and skip them for this project. 

Edited December 12, 2024 by Allen levine

[Allen levine]

because of the aggressive cutting, even when I held the plywood back and backed out of the cut, I still struggled so alot of the tight cuts that came to almost a point I just backed out the blade and then recut from the other side meeting up the other cut line. that worked for me instead of trying to make a really tight turn. when Im cutting tight turns on other things I had excess outside of lines so I could just circle around outside of piece and cut back in. hey, Im learning. took me 2 months of practice to align my dovetail jig accurately, and I purchased a seperate router just so it could be dedicated to making cuts for drawers, I dont expect myself to be fret cutting that great any time soon, but I wont give up.

[yamatetsu]

1 hour ago, Allen levine said:

because of the aggressive cutting, even when I held the plywood back and backed out of the cut, I still struggled so alot of the tight cuts that came to almost a point I just backed out the blade and then recut from the other side meeting up the other cut line. that worked for me instead of trying to make a really tight turn.

When I don't want to bother cutting a tight turn, I use a small PCB drill bit to drill a hole into the turn and then just cut into the hole and then out again.

1 hour ago, Allen levine said:

today I ordered a sample pack of spiral blades, mostly because I dont have any and would like to try some, but will follow your advice and skip them for this project. 

You might try those spiral blades for cutting turns, that would actually be easier than using a straight blade. On the other hand, doing straight cuts is a little bit more difficult as the blade will be wider than the line. Also, the cut will not be as smooth, so you might have to do some sanding.

[Wichman]

1 hour ago, Allen levine said:

because of the aggressive cutting, even when I held the plywood back and backed out of the cut, I still struggled so alot of the tight cuts that came to almost a point I just backed out the blade and then recut from the other side meeting up the other cut line. that worked for me instead of trying to make a really tight turn. when Im cutting tight turns on other things I had excess outside of lines so I could just circle around outside of piece and cut back in. hey, Im learning. took me 2 months of practice to align my dovetail jig accurately, and I purchased a seperate router just so it could be dedicated to making cuts for drawers, I dont expect myself to be fret cutting that great any time soon, but I wont give up.

One technique to try is; cut to the end of the "V", then back out a bit and spin the blade 180 %, cutting to the waste area, then back the blade to the bottom of the "V" and cut outward.

[yamatetsu]

6 hours ago, Wichman said:

One technique to try is; cut to the end of the "V", then back out a bit and spin the blade 180 %, cutting to the waste area, then back the blade to the bottom of the "V" and cut outward.

Interesting. It's always nice to see how other people solve problems. My technique is to cut to the end of the "V", then back out a bit, cut diagonally to the other side, then cut down to the end of the "V".

[Allen levine]

1/4 inch cherry plywood

not sure if it's decent or not

one small piece in hair above eye on right side broke off but that can be glued

its needs some light sanding and if I frame it I'll use a dark brown background 

even with just some lacquer the plywood will darken up

i want to thank hegner

While I don't know much about scrolling I do know that the quick change clamp is an incredible accessory for a scroll saw

i I forgot the blade I used 

it was the pack of sample blades included from advanced machinery 

the far left group one can see if they look at pic of blades included

qgain thankyou to those that helped me along 

I never thought in a million years I'd ever be doing fret work using a blade that is hair thin

[yamatetsu]

Nice!

[Peter N White]

Good job done.

[Allen levine]

Well I liked the outcome but family members didn't like the way the hair looked all black

i explained what I could but they asked me to cut some pieces to fill in a bit and I did

Everything can be pulled off 

I will need to take pieces off and ca glue them down tight 

I want them to look first

made a simple frame from sapele and used tung oil 

the lacquer on cherry ply made it a bit darker then I prefer but it is what it is I can't change that now

i ordered some terrier intarsia patterns and will attempt to make them look somewhat like my sons dogs 

I want more grandchildren he gets dogs

 

i think maple would have been a bette choice for face but I'm using what I have in rack 

 

Edited December 16, 2024 by Allen levine

[Allen levine]

Can anyone here give me a name of a computer program to do silhouette s of pictures?

[Allen levine]

Again thankyou people for all the help and reco's

i just got a sampler pack of spiral blades in the mail I have to experience cutting with them

[yamatetsu]

2 hours ago, Allen levine said:

Can anyone here give me a name of a computer program to do silhouette s of pictures?

I don't know if I'm allowed to post links to websites, so I'll give you hints on what to google.

First, I remove the background of the picture. Try googling 'removebg'. You should get an adress that is very similar to the search term.

After having removed the background and saved the picture, try googling 'rapid resizer Free Picture Stencil Maker'.

Upload the picture without background into that and fiddle around until you get a pic that you like.