JTTHECLOCKMAN

I will go with oak (white or red) or ash because of the grain. There are many varieties of oak too so always tough to nail down to one photo. It definitely is not walnut.

You are absolutely correct. The same can be said for masking tape or blue painters tape. It is the top layer that is coated so that the tape does not permanently stick to itself and unrolls easily.

Now the second part of this thread is one I can relate to. I have a piece right now and is probably 10 years old that took plenty of time to cut and I used red oak plywood because the piece is large. I combined some figured maple for some of the overlays. I stained the background a darker stain thinking the maple would pop. Then I cut stained glass for the boarders. Made a rosewood frame. Bought stained glass for the background to show through the frets. Put it together and it just did not look right. Can not put my finger on it so I took them apart and now all the pieces sit there somewhere in the shop collecting dust. Just one of those pieces but there is a ton of time in this and I actually made two of them. My most disappointing piece. This was a Dirk Boelman pattern. I have many of his patterns that I was to do and ones I have done. Here was the pattern I talked about. http://theartfactory.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/121.jpg

Old school Len. That is the way it was taught. Right now there is tension on my bandsaw blade. I used it about 3 days ago and will be tomorrow or the next day. Will be milling some lumber for projects. As I said I use my saws quite a bit during a week. We can get into many different practices in a shop. Do people leave the blade up on the tablesaw when done cutting for awhile?. Do you take the router bit out of router after a project or leave it in till next project and you need to change?? Do you leave the router bit exposed in the table when done or do you lower the router?? Do you change sandpaper after a project knowing the next project will need new paper or do you wait until you use the sander again?? I have a million of them Would need alot of signs around the shop.

Maybe a little OCD They sell glue for a reason, to put things together and todays glues are far supior to years ago

Looks like it came out real well. Nice to be able to work on full size projects like that also. Many of the skills can be transferred to scrolling too. Thanks for showing.

Good choices on the above methods and I will throw another in the mix. I like to use epoxy and in this case 5 minute epoxy is all that is needed. My go to epoxy is the System III epoxy line.

It is got to be hot in there all year round and materials and tools do not like heat as well as the operator. Not sure of your living arrangements but a shed of some sort would sound like a better option.

Not at all I have done it before. The glue joint is stronger than the rest of the project. If you do it neatly who is going to know except you.

It is more about causing flat spots on the rubber wheels or urethane wheels if that is what you use. Then you get a thump. This is if you are leaving the bandsaw for long periods of time. I use mine quite often so I do not untension at all. I always do to the scroll saw after a cutting sesion. Just habit and so easy to see when I go to use again. Do not scroll as much as I use to.

Here is my take and it worth what you want to put to it. Low speed is for cutting nonferrous metals such as sheets of aluminum or rods and things of that nature. High speed is for cutting wood. What matters is that your blade tracks well and the correct blade is used for the job and the feed rate of the wood presented to the blade is constant and slow enough for the blade to do the cutting. Bandsaw boxes are sawn on all type saws and most are single speed saws. Soft and hard woods have nothing to do with blade speed. Saw blade type is the key there. Plywood will cut differently than hardwoods so even though you are practicing with it you will not get the true feel when you switch to hard or soft woods. Plywood has so much grain differential within it I do not believe it is a good practice wood. But who am I. Give it a whirl and one thing is you will get to practice the cut directions. Look forward to seeing what you cut out.

That is a beautiful piece. That is a part of scrolling I never did master because i just do not have the eye for depth and color orientations. I marvel at people who can do this type work. Thanks for showing. Very talented.

First if you sand to at least 220 grit you will close the grain some. I used Bulls eye Zinsser dewaxed shellac sealer if I need to do what you are asking. It dries quickly and any type top coat be applied over it without contamination and adhesion problems.

There is alot of info on that one package for sure but it does spell out exactly what those blades are One other thing I did not mention is Olson's code # the third number in is the size of the blade. You will find the materials you cut many times will dictate what blade you use. Everyone falls in love with a particular blade. Mine is FD Silver reverse #5 I cut mostly oak and use that for all thicknesses. Just what you get use to. Good luck.

Kevin that is a natural occurrence I am guessing. I was an electrician in the trades for 43 years and over that time I have done just about every type of electrical work you can think of. I prided myself on being able to bend pipe with the best of the best. I loved it because it was something that you could look at when done and actually see. many times we pull wire in a pipe or hook up panels and control boards and when the cover is placed on you do not see the end results any more. Now the next electrician in there will get to see and I always did judge others work when I had to enter panels. I was meticulous about bending and shaping wires in panels and boxes. That is why today when I go into these stores such as Home Depot and others where there is no ceiling and all pipe work is exposed I am forever checking out bends and layouts of pipe runs. In my mind I work out things that I would have done differently. pretty much was able to get on a job and see ahead of time what needed to be done and how. Many times though I wound up being the foreman on the job and I did not get to do the fun stuff. Same is scrolling, I find myself looking for the details in a project and seeing how people handle them I know everyone is different and skill levels are different but it is inbred in me I guess. This is the reason for the challenge in that I would like to see the side by side cuttings of both blades. and see is it possible to use either or. If I put lots of effort in using spirals I probably could get the hang of it but they are a different breed for sure.

From the photo you see on the top of each package of blades there is alot of info, you see a universal number. That is the number size of the blade and being universal all companies use that to size their blades so that you talk apples to apples. No. 5RG means #5 reverse grind(ground) This means there are teeth facing both up and down. On these blades they are double reverse so that means there is 2 teeth close to each other (can be up or down) and then a space is skipped (this is done to help clear saw dust from the blade) The reverse teeth are to help with fuzzies on the bottom side of your project. Without them the saw teeth saw in one direction, down and not up too. You do not need many because all you are trying to do is cut away the fuzzies and not cut wood. The numbers you gave and are written on the side of the package are the number of teeth per inch. In your example 9 teeth per inch facing down and 6 teeth per inch facing up. They are also a precision grind blade which means they are sharpened differently than a stamped blade which most blades are. These blades should be sharper than standard blades because the way they are sharpened. They should also last longer than stamped blades. They usually cost more as well. You will also notice with these type blades if you look close the drift on the blade is very very slight if at all. When a blade is stamped from steel rolls it will have teeth that are facing a certain way (usually to the right when looking at the blade) This will cause drift and thus when you cut using those blade you are never able to cut with the piece of wood 90 degrees to the blade. It is always slanted away from the blade somewhat. This is why people use that edge to either cut to the right or to the left. They use the drift to their advantage. Many people may not realize that is what they are doing but it is true. Also people will use the sharp edges of the stamped blades as a plane if they need to knock off a sliver or so. Tough to do from both sides of the blade but one side is always better to use. With Precision ground blades it does not matter because there is no one side better than the other. Probably is somewhat confusing but the more you scroll the more tips you will pick up As Far as best blades. That is a subjective answer. I prefer Flying Dutchman. There there is all sorts of styles and sizes. And then someone threw a monkey wrench in things and made spiral blades and that is a story for another time. But again even with those there are styles and sizes to choose from. There are plenty of charts and videos on the net that can guide you some. But all they are is guides. You need to first hand do the cutting and the more you cut the more your eye and hands start working together and the mind is learning what works well for YOU. Welcome to the world of scrolling and ask all the questions you want. I hope in some small way I cleared up the blade thing but there is alot of info there so it may not sink in all at once. Good luck and look forward to seeing what you got.

Hey a newbie. Lets welcome him but I am not buying your first name is Just. We are friendly here so tell us your real name Anyway welcome to the site and as mentioned it is a good idea to use good quality plywood if you are going to use plywood at all. Many people use Baltic or Finnish Birch and this is because the layers are thinner and the core is not junk wood. You get very little if any blowout if using the proper blade. Also though when scrolling plywood you will go through more blades because they dull faster because of the glue used in plywoods. As far as bending a blade and using it again, depends how bad you bent it and where. if you bent in cutting area of the blade then I say just toss it and move on. No sense ruining a project for a few cent blade. Sanding strip is something I never used and do not believe in them. Practice your cuts and you will get smooth with the actions of cutting and that will eliminate the need for sanding strips. If I have to knock off a bit in a cut I just use the blade as a planer and if the blade is sharp it will plane it very easily. I do not know what a 9/6 blade is. Never heard it referred to as that. If it is a #9 reverse tooth blade that seems rather large. But doable with 3/4" stock depending on the fret work needed. little tougher turning that large a blade. Anyway love to see the project your working on and again welcome to the world of scrolling.

Very nice cutting on everything and you are talented and also very skilled with both blades. hard to see the cuts from the photos but I based my opinion on the fine detail on the white trim around the clock of the carriage. Seemed better cut on the top photo. Did you get this pattern from somewhere that it is available?? Looks familiar but can not place it. I would have guessed a John Nelson pattern. The horses were carved and painted???

Might want to read this about the King saw. http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/forums/topic/28586-excalibur-scroll-saw-what-happened/

Oh that would be perfect for side by side comparisons. If anyone want to use that pattern that would really set them up. perfect. Thanks a bunch I am with Kevin on the choice and will reserve the reason for after the thread dies down. Just was a curious thing over the years when ever I read someone uses straight blades and someone uses spirals. I grew into this hobby with pinned blades but quickly switched to straight blades. I tried a few times with spirals because I think I mentioned this before I use to test blades for Mike Moorloch of FD fame and he would send me those spirals and I basically used for veining when I needed a wider cut but accidentally bumping into a side of a small area being cut drove me nuts because those blades all around. I always told him I was not the person to test them.

If there is a person or persons that use both spiral and straight blades with about the same efficiency than this challenge is for you. I am not a spiral blade user and could never get the hang of them but I am a proficient straight blade user in that I can scroll straight lines and circles pretty well. My test or challenge for those people is to cut a circle and a straight line and a wavy line ( same size and length use pattern if you like which probably is better to make comparison. ) in the same wood material using both types blades. No doctoring with either cuts. Post a photo so that all can be compared side by side. If cutting a circle leave both pieces together so that they fit within each other and we see that they were cut from a larger board. I would like to see first hand what each cut looks like compared to each other. As I said I can not cut with spiral blades so I am not the candidate. But if someone uses both type blades this would be what I would like to see. Use whatever blade size you are comfortable with but mention size too. Has nothing to do with ease of cutting a pattern but just want to see side by side cut quality and if someone does this all the time they would be the perfect person to see their cuts. Also maybe give us a little insight to the nuances of using either, or ,blade. Thanks and this is just for fun so there is no grading or backlash from it.

I agree scrolling is subjective to what people find the eye likes. I make clocks mainly and they range in 1/2" to 5/8" in thickness but again it depends on the clock. Now if there are layers to it then that needs to be considered too. I do not make many portraits but have done in 1/4" material. I do not do scrolled ornaments any more. I turn ornaments now. I have done many clocks with 3/4" material also but again style is the key there. No hard fast rules.

You can do the same thing on a 20 inch as a 16" but you can not do the same thing on a 16" as a 20" if that makes sense. 30" is needed for those special projects but the same rule can be applied with them too. I would stay away from the 16 and at least buy a 20" I guess I need to edit this post of mine because many have brought up the use of spiral blades. But to me that is a whole other learning experience. So in a way you can do most patterns on a 16" saw but for my money good luck finding a quality 16" saw. I know of none.

Sometimes you just have to chalk things up to a learning experience. We all have been there and will again for sure.

13,400 posts, that can only mean one thing You have been here a long time. What did you think I was going to say