Travis

You'll want cabinet grade plywood. I'd check your yellow pages for a hardwood dealer that works with cabinet shops. Basically, this is much better quality than the stuff you find at the big box stores. They are much tighter plies and are usually void-free. A lot of folks who do portrait-style cuttings use Baltic Birch plywood (which is different than Birch plywood). Finnish Birch is another good choice. They don't have much grain pattern, which makes the details of the cutting stand out. But any cabinet grade plywood works well. If you're cutting 1/8" plywood, try stack cutting 3 layers. The extra layers provide a lot of support. Plus you get 3 cuttings for the work of one! I just use blue tape tight around the edges to keep things from shifting while cutting. Sometimes I'll tack a small finishing nail in a corner (in the waste area or in an area that will be covered by a frame)

Hi Missy. Welcome to the Village. We 're glad you found us. Jump in and have some fun.

Steebar has a really good selection. Plus they're pretty cheap (from what I remember). http://www.steebar.com/ You can also try ebay. They usually have a bunch for sale.

That's a good idea. I hate it when the dust gets over everything (I scroll inside the house). Plus its nice to have moving air in the garage. Most of the time I duct tape a furnace filter to the back of a box fan. That makes a good air filter and keeps the dust under control.

Check our downloads section. There's a nice Toxicity chart you can download for free. It lists the wood species, how common an alergic reaction it is, how potent it is, and what effect it could have. Good stuff to know.

Here's what I do: [*:2uf9knle]I would use either 1/4" Baltic Birch plywood (don't use birch plywood from the bigbox stores). Or stack cut 2 or 3 pieces of 1/8" Baltic Birch Plywood. I wouldn't cut a single sheet of 1/8" because its a bit delicate. If you stack cut them, it adds a lot of support. [*:2uf9knle]I use black felt. Its a nice contrast to the wood. You can buy it at any craft store or Walmart for 60 cents each. When I frame it, I just lay it on the back. The backing board of the frame holds it in place. That way if you want to change out the background, its not a big deal. [*:2uf9knle]I only use clear acrylic spray. You can use oil, but Baltic Birch doesn't have enough interesting grain to highlight. 2 coats of acrylic spray works great.

I always wanted a punch clock to track how many hours I worked on something. Mostly for my own knowledge. Sounds like a good idea. Might have to look into that (I'm on the verge of getting a smartphone)

KiB means Kilobytes. Its the same thing as KB. You can attach the pic to this thread and someone can shrink it down for you.

Ooooo....shiney. That looks like a dream to work on. I'm still on a 16" Craftsman.

Holy cow! That's awesome! I bet you'll be going crazy, waiting for you new saw. Congrats on the amazing sale and the new tool that resulted from it!

Just for the record, I do not allow re-posting of my patterns. All of the patterns I have designed reside on a website I own. Even though I have several scroll saw websites, they usually reside on either Scroll Saw Village or Scroll Saw Goodies. I always have the URL posted on the bottom of the pattern where it is available. So if where you downloaded it from is different than the URL on the bottom of the pattern, chances are they don't have permission to host that file. Since its a big world out there, if you stumble across one of my patterns on another website, please let me know. I'd be forever in your debt.

This is just a reminder not to post patterns that you didn't specifically design yourself. I found one of my patterns on another community. While the member who posted it meant well, it very frustrating for a designer to see their patterns posted by others. We work very hard to provide free quality patterns. Please respect the fact, as artists, we want to control our distribution of our designs. I've known many talented pattern designers remove all their work from the internet because others are re-posting their patterns or passing them off as their own. Then we all lose. The best way to share someone else's pattern is to simply link them to where the requester can download it for themselves. When linking, link to the page that has the download link. Please don't hotlink to the actual file, though. Hotlinking is where you link to the specific file. The person who clicks the link doesn't actually go to the hosting website, but rather directly to the file. This is an unethical practice that is considered bandwidth theft. Its basically the same as re-posting the pattern. This public service announcement has been brought to you by the letter "A" and the number "3." And now back to your regularly scheduled program.

I'd just take your old bulb to ACE or a bigbox store and see what you can find. Each manufacturer uses a different size, but they're not unusual/special. My saw uses a standard appliance bulb you'd use for a refrigerator.

Aww shucks. I'm glad you're enjoying SSV. We're a small group compared to the uber sites. But I kinda like it that way. I always get lost in the crowd on the big sites. Its nice to know eachother and chat. That's what makes it fun. Your work obviously speaks for itself. I'm glad to hear you're getting some work coming through the door. And congratulations on the contracts.

I keep mine in the basement (which is so cluttered with junk right now, I can't even get to the saw....long story). I do my sawing there during the winter. During the summer, I take it to the garage and will wheel it to the deck if the day is especially nice.

Yup, unless its a pattern request, General Scroll Sawing is a great place for brainstorming.

Wow...that's awesome! $20 is a steal, too. You'll have a ton of fun going through your new finds.

Pricing your work is tricky. It is also very dependent on where you're selling your work too. I wrote an article for our newsletter about pricing your work awhile back. It should give you a jumping off point: http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/village ... mber-2009/

I love it. Its very handy to have and does an awesome job. And the best part about it, its very affordable. Its nice to find quality tools at a decent price. That doesn't happen too often anymore.

Jesus and Elvis

Here's a couple of great articles: http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/natural-wood-finish.html http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/finishes-for-wood.html A popular combo, especially in the Etsy crowd, is water colors that have natural pigment. Then sealed with a beeswax/jojoba oil.

Well, I thought I had it fixed. But it turns out that when I fixed the Gallery, it reset user permissions so it required admin approval before uploading. I think everything is squared away now with the gallery. You should be able to upload, download, and post comments. Let me know if the gallery is showing other odd things.

We're experiencing a bit of Gallery trouble. I'm working on it now.

I'll either listen to NPR or an audio book. I just get some audio books from the Library. In fact, many libraries also offer free downloadable audiobooks. Basically, you go to their website and "check out" and download the audiobook for 2 weeks. Then the file automatically "returns" the book (self deleting file) to the library so the next person can check it out. Lots of fun.

I saw the beer fridge in the corner....Nicely done.