Travis

Hi Tom. Welcome to the Village. We're glad you joined us. It really depends on the thickness of the wood you're working with. If you're working between 1/8" to 1/2", my go-to blade is the #3 scroll reverse. Its a flat blade that has good control, but can get into tight details pretty easy. If you have large sweeping curves or straight lines, a larger blade (#5 scroll reverse) works better as id doesn't wander as much. But detail cutting is much more difficult. If you have very fine details, 2/0 scroll reverse is great. Since its such a small blade, it does get a bit squirrely to control. But the tight detail work, its amazing. You can also consider a spiral blade. This allows you to cut in all directions. It can be difficult to control on straight lines. I typically use spiral blades on portrait style cutting with a lot of organic/wavy lines. The kerf is much larger on these blades. I typically use a #3 scroll reverse spiral and a #1 scroll reverse spiral. I use Flying Dutchman from Mike's Workshop. He has a sampler pack as well that might be worth looking into. I'd definitely mail-order your blades. The stuff they sell at the hardware store are overpriced and garbage. Stick to the name brands: Flying Dutchman, Pegas, and Olson and you'll do great. Clear packing tape is usually applied to the top of the pattern. It adds extra support to the pattern and prevents it from ripping. I wouldn't put packing tape directly on the wood. Its difficult to remove and may leave behind a residue. Many folks will put blue painter's tape on the wood before applying the pattern. This is specifically designed to be removed from a surface without damaging it. Here's what I do. I put blue painter's tape on the wood. The use spray adhesive on the back of the pattern. Let it dry until its tacky like a post-it note. Then apply to the top of the blue painter's tape. Then I cover the pattern with clear packing tape. It works really well for me. I hope this answers a few of your questions. If you have any more, we're more than happy to help. I look forward to seeing your first project. Welcome to the hobby!

That's looking great. I bet the copper will make it really stand out. I can't wait to see the final product Good job! BTW, if you sandwich the copper between two pieces of 1/8" ply, you'll save yourself some gray hairs. That way it won't flex as you saw the pattern out.

That turned out great! You're getting really good at those rockers. Did you do this for a client? I'd imagine something like this would sell well. Lots of cow collectors out there. Nicely done!

To make a scroll saw pattern from a photograph, you'll need an image manipulation program like Photoshop or GIMP. GIMP is free, which is what many folks use. You can find a class on how to use GIMP to create portrait patterns for the scroll saw here. I hope this helps.

That turned out really cool. That will be an awesome gift series this Christmas. Your family is going to love it. Good job!

What do you typically do with your cuttings? Do you keep them? Give them away? Sell them? I'm curious.

That turned out great! Nice contrast too. I can see a nice German influence in the design. Reminds me of something you'd see in a Black Forest type coo-coo clock. Good job!

Really!? Wow. I would have never thought of that. That's a great idea. Now you got my wheels turning. Hmmm....I wonder if other markers would work well. Did the color run or bleed at all when you added your topcoat finish? Did the marker go on evenly without streaks?

I use a furniture wax on my scroll saw bed. I think its a paste wax too from Johnson (I think). Usually what I do is spray down the bed with WD-40. This cleans off the old wax, removes the old wax, and any other gunk (like tape/glue residue). Then I put on the wax and then buff it off with a paper towel. Make sure that whatever wax you're using, it doesn't have silicon. I guess it will discolor the wood.

Congrats! Now its time to make some sawdust. What's your first project going to be?

Boy, those turned out nice. I bet the lucky recipient of that box is thrilled. What did you use to color the wood. Looks fabulous.

Hi Tony. Welcome to the addiction....errrr....hobby. I think you'll have a lot of fun with it. You'd be amazed what a simple tool can accomplish. Basically the patterns come in 3 sizes. The first is a thumbnail size. This is small icon that gives a small preview of the image. This is the view in gallery format with lots of thumbnails on a page. Click the thumbnail to get a viewing size, which is medium size so you can see what the pattern looks like. It also has some details about he pattern as well as comments. Then you click it again and most often you'll get a very large size (sometimes bigger than your monitor) that opens in a pop-up window. After its done loading, right click the pattern and save it to your computer. Anyway, I hope that helps. I look forward to seeing your first project.

That turned out really neat. I'm a huge fan of silhouette designs. They remind me of those old fashioned paper cuttings that were popular during the Victorian age. You did a great job on it.

That's really cool. I love wizards and dragons and such. Nicely done! Thanks for sharing.

Boy, you did a great job on it. Love the green backer too. Its so much fun to see a pattern come to life. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Cherie. Welcome to the Village. We're glad you found us. I checked out your website. You do some really nice work. I really like your arrowhead ornaments. They look like they're shaped a bit instead of straight cutting. They look really cool. Anyway, welcome aboard. Jump in and have some fun!

Hi John. Welcome to the Village. We're glad you found us. We have enough patterns in the Pattern Library to keep you in sawdust for quite some time. If you're looking to sell some of your work, you should look into setting up an etsy.com account. It's like a big craftshow, but all online. I know several folks who have done quite well with it. Anyway, welcome aboard. Jump in and have some fun!

The crazy weather finally broke. Looks like its going to be a great weekend on this end. I think I'm finally going to start the train piggy bank for my son. I'm looking forward to spending some time in the shop this weekend. H'bout you? What project do you have in the works? How far along are you?

Those both turned out great! I like how you transformed the tattoo into something more than a cutting. That would look nice on either a wall, or even as a trivet. Anyway, good job!

Those turned out great! I really like the angel one. You did a really nice job on them. Thanks for sharing!

Great site. Lots of cool patterns. Here's the translated site. Thanks for the heads up!

Hi Kieth. Welcome to the Village. We're glad you joined us. We all have a great time here. I checked out your cuttings. They look great! That's a great series too. Anyway, welcome aboard. Jump in and have some fun!

That turned out really nice! It cleaned up great. I'm glad that you were able to recover. Nicely done!

Congrats! It will give you much better piece of mind knowing its a brand new machine than a refurbished one. Hopefully they'll ship it quickly.

That looks great. I'm sure he was thrilled with it. Nicely done!