greasemonkeyredneck

Ok. I got a challenge for you now Kevin. Go to http://www.wildwooddesigns.com/Eiffel-T ... 13C26.aspx It's a pattern for the Eiffel Tower from Wildwood Designs. That stand three feet tall and the base is sixteen inches square. I have actually considered doing that one. I've seen that design made with small clock inserts on the top of the tower. It's a very nice designs. Are you up for it? Oh. I got your email and saved your address. Let me get some free time and I'll write you back.

I just got this within a message as a PM, but figured I'd post it publicly. The PM said: "i know you like to modifie things to your likeing ,but i have'nt heard anthing about what you had changed on the chandelier" As a matter of fact Kevin, I did change a few things. Here we go. According to the plans, the thickest parts were supposed to be something like 4mm or something, equallyong out to about 1/8". One, I couldn't get that thickness material locally and couldn't afford to have it shipped. Therefore I used 1/4" luan plywood from Home Depot. This sounds easy. Using it involved changing the entire pattern though. Everything is slotted to fit together. So all those 1/8 slots had to be widened to 1/4". Because of the delicate, and close, nature of a lot of edges on various pieces, that meant I had to redraw a lot of it. Also according to plans, the curned pieces (domes and fence pieces under each dome) were supposed to be about 1/16". Once again, couldn't get it. I though I could plane that though and do them out of solid wood. That didn't work. Long story short, I wound up making them pieces out of 10mil veneer. This stuff was thin as paper. It looks great though. It was interesting figuring out how to cut it, but I think I may make a point of incorporating this into future projects. To cut these pieces (veneer is very fragile) I stack cut (for example) the twelve identical pices for the bottom dome all at one. I cut twelve piece the size I needed for my pattern. You cut it using a razor knife. Then I sandwiched those twelve pieces between two pieces of 1/4" plywood and brad nail it all together. This held it all together and provided support under and over it so the veneer wouldn't tear to pieces on the scroll saw. This chandelier holds 24 candles. I wanted an option to use something besides open candles on it though. However, I also wanted to leave the option open for someone to use candles if they wished. So I found some flameless candles that looked nice and run on little batteries. I made some little platforms for these battery operated candles to sit on. Under each platform is a little round stud that just fits into each candle holder. This keeps it in place while also allowing it to be removed to use real candles if one wished. Speaking of the candle holders, they were changed too. There is supposed to be eight "legs" or sides to each candle holder. I used four. Because of my use of thicker wood, eight just wouldn't work good without making it look too "jumbled". So I redrew those as well and used four. Well that's all the changes I can think of really. Of course there are small things throughout. I always think of a pattern as a road map. Just because there is a road there doesn't mean I have to take it. I can always chart my own course as I go. In other words, I make it up as I go along. This makes each project unique, even if it's the same. I've had people in the past want something "exactly like the other one" they have seen at someone's house or something. I always explain that I can make one similar, but because I change things in projects "at the saw", this means that no two pieces are ever EXACTLY the same. That's a good thing in my opinion though. Have you went and looked at the photos on my blog, Kevin? They are better photos there. I tried to post those same ones here, but it gave me a warning that the file was too large. I'm sure there's some way to do it anyway, but I don't know how. You can see them at http://wddsrfinewoodworks.blogspot.com/ if you'd like. If you like seeing them there, please leave me a comment there. I've been trying to get readers there to leave comments. I'm trying to encourage more reader involvement on my blog by use of the comment button under each of my posts. *Sorry for the shameless plug here, Travis*

I wish! I am often asked by different people, "How can I make a living at woodwork?" My reply is always the same. You don't. I have never been able to sell one of my pieces for anywhere near what it is worth when you figure up the time I have in it. Once again, I wish. This is not what has had me MIA for so long. I'm afraid I don't want to go into that though. Actually, this project took a total of about three weeks to complete. As for the coffee? My normal, three to four pots a day. You could always try the Grotesques Chandelier http://www.finescrollsaw.com/grotesques-chandelier.htm I had looked at that one. I don't like it too much I'm afraid. I'm thinking about doing the Dome Clock from Wildwood Designs. They also have a cabinet on there with all kinds of scroll work. It looks like it would be a challenging, and lengthy, project. I don't know yet. I appreciate any and all suggestions, but I really have to look at each option. A project has to "speek" to me.

I do apologize for the crappy photos. I took some better photos with my wife's camera, but apparently, they are too large of a file size to upload here at Scrollsaw Village. If anyone would like to see the chandelier better, it can be seen, along with all of my work on my blog, at http://wddsrfinewoodworks.blogspot.com/ This is the Italiante Chandelier. I ordered the pattern for it from Wildwood Designs. It is four feet tall and thirty six inches wide at it's widest point. It holds twenty four candles. The main frame is made of luan plywood. The curved pieces are made of 10 mil veneer. Everything else is made of cottonwood. This is the most challenging project I've ever done. The largest pieces were 18"x24" and had to be stack cut six at a time out of 1/4" plywood. The pattern had to be the worst pattern I've ever paid money for, but that's another story. It was like a giant jig saw puzzle. It took me around three weeks to complete it. If anyone else want to order the plans and construct this, just contact me if you need advice and I'll help any way I can. I know Frieke was supposed to start this project some time ago. I haven't heard from her and would like to know how her's turned out. If you read this freike, my email address is [email protected] if you aren't ready to post results here. Let me know how you're coming along on yours. I thoroughly enjoyed building this. Now I have to decide what my next "challenge" project will be. Any suggestions?

To answer Kevin's questions: No fish. Money and health made it impossible to even take the boat out this past summer. Every time I see my boat sitting there dry, I want to cry. My son finally got rid of the 4x4. He got tired of dumping money into that money pit. I could have saved him a lot of cash if he'd only listened to me to begin with. I sold a grand total of 0 rockers for Christmas. As a matter of fact, I've sold that exact same amount of anything in the last nine months. Blame it on the economy. Blame it on the area I live in. Hell, even blame it on my crappy abilities if you want. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that things aren't moving. The last one isn't a question, but I will be posting in the bragging rights section in a few minutes of the project I've been most asked about in the last few months from you and others. THE CHANDELIER IS FINALLY DONE!

I haven't been around in a while. After a private message came through my email box from Kevin though, I thought I'd drop in and let everyone know what I'm working on. The photo above I think tells the story. I finally got started on the Italiante Chandelier. I built a different chandelier quite a while back. It turned out to be a lot easier than I had anticipated and I wanted more of a challenge. That's where the Italiante came in. I found the plans for it. I ordered the plans a long time ago, but for other reasons, I'm just now getting a chance to start on it. I've got about a week in it right now and probably at least two or three more weeks of work to do. This chandelier will be four feet tall, thirty six inches wide, and hold twenty four candles. I am so sorry I haven't been participating online lately as much as I used to. I really don't want to go into too much detail, but several life changing events have kind of thrown me into a whirlwind the past several months. I promise to one day come back and be more active. Until then, anyone is welcome to keep up with my latest works at http://wddsrfinewoodworks.blogspot.com/ . I post any new projects there. I welcome comments there. I just haven't been up to too much as far as discussion forums go though. Anyway, I wish you all well. Any of you can also email me at [email protected] . Merry Christmas to you all.

Christmas is coming up fast. Sue Mey has a good deal going. You can get forty of her popular cross patterns for around $40. You can do an internet search to find her or there's a direct link over on Steve Goode's site. Also, Sheila Landry has been doing a lot of nice Christmas patterns lately. Jump from page to page here at SSV and watch for the ad at the top of the page to jump straight to her designs. Either of those are good suggestions for things that would sell good soon and are pretty easy to cut.

Yesterday evening, I went and visited with a fellow woodworker I met through a different online forum. He does woodcarving, but still it was cool meeting someone locally that does woodwork besides construction work. I was starting to think I was the only one around within driving distance. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting visiting him and talking for a while about our shops and our past and future projects. After visiting for a while, I was getting ready to leave when I notice an interesting looking jig and asked him about it. I'm glad I did. I have struggled for a while to find a better, or should I say faster, technique for dovetail joints. I think dovetails is just the most beautiful joint there is for furniture and such. I just can't justify the time though to do handcut dovetails on most of my projects when I can't get enough money for them as it is. Anyway, this guy said that later on when there's more time he'll show me more about it, but this jig was for cutting dovetails on the scroll saw. As the title of this post suggested, another technique to be learned. When I know more about this one, I'll post more and maybe a few photos of the jig.

Do run and get your camera. Anyone who's not supportive, we'll give them five licks out behind the woodshed, and yes, some of us have woodsheds. I've been here a while now and think I can say this. By posting here at the village, I have actually seen people's skills improve from the feedback, including mine. We were all newbies to woodworking at some time. None of us were born with hammers in our hands.

With practice, if you decide you like them, you'll be able to cut fast as you can with any other blade. I do. Now for moving them off the line as you put it, I overcome that problem long time ago. The trick, for me anyway, is I run my blades a tad tighter than most people would deem necessary. The only drawback I have had with this method is my poor old Delta quickclamps catch hell. I have rebuilt them with non-factory parts such as machine screws more time than I can count. I already know that some of you may think this is going to cause the blades to break more, but not from my experience. Those little buggers are tougher than they look. The trick, and this takes trial and error, is to find that happy medium between tight enough not to wander but not so tight that they break as soon as you apply tension. All that being said, remember, I love spirals and use them almost exclusively. Unless you really like spirals, you will not want to go through the learning curve to use them the way I do. As has been said before, they are not for everyone. If you like them though, you can get good with them. Anyone who knows me here knows the quality of my work. I use spirals on all fretwork. As a matter of fact the only thing I don't use spirals on is my large projects like the rocking toys. I cut them on my old Craftsman direct drive that takes only pinned blades, and if they made pinned spirals, I'd use them for that too. I cut fast and I cut straight.

Tipped what saw on its side? And sanded? Please explain this to me. I'm always open to new technuque ideas. Are you talking about sanding strips for your scroll saw? The reason I'm asking, I'm hoping you were talking about sanding with a table saw. Bear with me. No I haven't lost my mind. I read somewhere in an old magazine, which I can't seem to locate now that my sons got interested in them, about sticking a stick on sanding disk to an old table saw blade, prefereably on an old second saw that's not being used, and using it as a nifty sander. When I read your post, I thought about this for the first time in ages. Now, I read this in a magazine from like the fifties and have never actually talked to anyone who's tried it. I've got three different stationary disk sanders. I just would like to know how that old idea worked. I'll bet your talking about a scroll saw though aren't you?

I don't do auctions. I'm in full agreement about the higher prices there. I've never seen a woodworking tool go through an auction for a good enough deal that I'd put my money on it. As for yard sales: Craftsman Scroll Saw - $25 Craftsman 1HP router - $12 25 Assorted bar clamps from 2' - 12' - $15 for all 23 C-clamps from 1" up to 14" - $10 for all Craftsman wet dry vac - $10 Stack of old Shopnotes magazines (42 of them) - $5 Unknown brand miter guage for my table saw with fine adjustments and stock clamp - $2 That's just what I can remember sitting here at the kitchen table. So, yea, I love yard sales. If I have at least a few bucks and some gas in the truck on Saturday mornings, I hit the classified section of the paper first.

I have this problem a lot. Lately it's gotten to where anything under a foot long is too small because of space. I'm running out of places to stick scrap wood.

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I knew it had to be more to it than what I thought of. I guess I wouldn't make a good theif, huh?

I love yard sales! Several people here at SSV have commented in the past about my "well equiped" shop. And it is well equiped. I have every tool I could possibly need. Realize I said need. I never mentioned if all my wants were filled. Anyway, the secret is that about half my tools came from yard sales. My trusty direct drive Craftsman scroll saw that I cut all my big projects on was bought at a yard sale for a whopping $25.

Can I add to the list? Dremil type tool. Mine is a much cheaper brand from Wal-Mart. When doing detailed portraits, these are invaluable for drilling holes to feed your blade through. Throw into this same category wire drill bits. That's those tiny ones. If you can't find them locally, check with Mike's Workshop. He keeps them in stock. Quality blades. I use Flying Dutchman, also from Mike's. I have came to realize that there are many sources out there for cheap blades of inferior quality. These el-cheapo blades, in my opinion, are the #1 culprit in turning a lot of people from scrolling. When I first started scrolling, I had about one more day of breaking three dozen blades in as many hours before I was going to have a bon fire and throw my saw in. Personal additions to the list: Stereo. You can substitute this listing with you i-thingy or whatever you prefer. I think more people than not though listen to something in the shop, whether it be music, news, sports, or whatever. Coffee Pot. Very little would get done in my shop without a coffee pot. I'm one of those weirdos that at two in the afternoon with triple digit temperatures, I'm brewing my third pot of coffee of the day.

Also check with Harbour Freight. Most people when they think of HF, think of nothing but tools. They have a lot more though. I use Gorilla brand wood glue and 3M Super 77 in my scrolling, a lot of it. I buy both of those product at a deep discount at HF.

Ok, I, forever the dumb@$$, have another stupid question. How do you lift patterns from a finished piece without ruining the finished piece? Yes, I know I sound ignorant. I am ignorant on a subject like this. When I read this post, while I see how sorry it is for a person to do such a thing, it also made me roll back in my chair and contemplete on how they do it. The only thing I could come up with would be to take the finished piece out of the frame, if its framed. Lay it down on a piece of paper. Then spray paint over it, creating an image of the cutting, just reversed from what we normally see. The black, or what ever color spray paint is used, would be the cutout. Is this the way they do it? Or is there some other way? I hope I don't give anyone any stupid ideas by asking this. I just became curious and furious at the same time. I have an extensive pattern collection now. I don't even design patterns but despise anyone who would steal one. I probably have well over a thousand dollars invested in patterns. Every single one I have bought was worth every penny. Even the worst pattern I've ever ordered is still worth what I paid. These people would get mad if someone walked up and stole their cuttings. So why do they think it's alright to steal someone's patterns?

Actually this is one of the easier clock I do. If you knock off all the little coffee and cigarette breaks that I take, and the times I stop working when someone comes into the shop to visit with me, this clock took me about fifteen hours to build. There are other clocks I've done that take upwards of fifty hours to complete and have trim pieces that test the patience of even a good scroller. This particular clock though, the Worthington, even a beginner could do with just a little extra time and patience. My rambling sometimes may make it confusing, but if you get the plans from Wildwood Designs, it is only two large pages of plans. All the pieces are drawn full scale and can be cut on most scroll saws. Certain pieces now, like the back of it, are easier to cut if you build it according to the plans. I cut the back piece from one solid piece of wood. However, in the plans, it is broke down into three seperate pieces that are held together by the placement of other pieces that go onto it. That method makes it easier to cut for most people. I don't know if I placed it in this thread, but here's a link to the plans if you think you may want to build one of these: http://www.wildwooddesigns.com/The_Wort ... _P1047.cfm

I've never replaced one of those. I haveseen what they looked like though from disassambling saws for other repairs. They don't look too awfully hard to replace. The only drawback I've seen if that while some have screw on terminals, some are soldered. As handy as I'd like to think I am, I've never gotten the hang of soldering. Anytime something has to be soldered, I get aggrevated and wonder if my trusty old welding machine could be turned down low enough to do the job. That's a joke. I know the welder would melt the circuit board type material. I just don't like soldering though. Good luck on getting it fixed. Keep us posted. Possibly post some photos of the repairs.

Sounds like a problem with the variable speed control. I'm sorry I don't know what to tell you about fixing it though. I had one do that once and what I done was just bypassed the control. However, doing so just makes it run full speed all the time.

Another plus for me to cut my dial is the fact that it gives me an opportunity to actually add something of my own to this project and others like it. I currently have the patterns for about seven different clocks and each one so far I have designed a different style face for. I never claimed to be a pattern designer. I don't have the skill or patience for that. A clock face is rather easy to do though. For example, on this clock, the outside edges for the face is actually supposed to be a trim piece around the insert. I used that and a ruler to track down the center of it. Then I used a compass to make an inner circle to cut so the clock movement and hands would have plenty of room. Then the numbers are actually just traced from the little plastic stick on numbers that came with the clock movement kit. I just do different things on different clocks. For example, I did a version of the Patriot Clock from Steve Goodes website. After adding a bottom section to it though with an MIA/POW cutout on front, I also added another section midway up for the clock instead of using a small insert. For the face of that clock though it was just round and instead of numbers, every hour marking has a star cut out.

The Worthington Hall Clock has a main body made of oak with mahogany trim. The plans to build one yourself can be bought from Wildwood Designs. It is a fairly simple clock to build. While the plans call for a clock insert, I prefer to cut a clock face and use a simple battery operated clock movement. If you'd like, you can go check out the steps of building this clock in the Works In Progress section.

I made a mistake in my reply. I use FD #3s. I was thinking #2s because other brand's #2s are about the same size as these #3s. Ok, I hope I didn't just make noone more confused.

I use almost exclusively spirals. I like spirals because I can cut in any direction. I often cut portraits that are too large to cut on my scrollsaw. As long as I use spirals though, I can do it as long as the portrait is small enough that the blade will reach halfway into the board. Spirals are great on portraits because you don't have to turn your wood for spirals. Just move the wood in the opposite direction of what you want to cut. As for cutting straight, they do cut straight, with practice. I often hear problems from different scrollers on cutting straight. I think a lot of it comes down to what you are used to. I cut a lot of straight cuts, therefore I have gotten quite good at it, with flat blades and spirals. In short though, a spiral can be used for anything that a flat blade can be used for. The next question most people ask is why anyone would want to use a spiral. That answer comes down to personal preference. In my shop, I used probably twenty spirals for every flat blade. Actually, I don't use any "flat" blades. I have an old Craftsman that used nothing but pinned end blades. I used what I guess could be used flat blades in it, and if they made pinned end spirals, I wouldn't use flats then. I just prefer spirals. You will also find some scrollers that don't even have a spiral in their shop. They don't use them, period. It's because of personal preference though. The next problem most people have with spirals is that they don't last long. I went through that too. I had some spirals that wouldn't cut a half inch into quarter inch wood before they broke. Then I found the answer to that one. I ordered blades from Mike's Workshop. I used mostly Flying Dutchman #2 spirals. They last just as long as a flat blade of a similar size. You can get spirals though in smaller or larger sizes. I just like #2s. I recently tried some #10 spirals. I am just as thrilled with those as what I normally use, only for when I want a thicker and faster cut though. I have tried #2/0 spirals. They are tiny. I guess I could use them if I had something to cut that was that fine, but I haven't found a use for them yet. I'm sorry. I tend to run on sometimes. The simple answer to your questions though are: 1: for anything you would normally use a flat blade for if you'd like 2: They do cut straight with some practice.