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I also had planned to be in chat tonight, however I had physical therapy and was only suppose to last like 30 mins but, I am so ready to go home that I ended up making them work with me for 2 hours. I don't know what I want more, to just leave here and go home or to leave here and go to my shop. That's a tough one. I am sorry I didn't make it tonight but I know you all understand. They set a time frame to leave around middle of Feburary, my goal is to leave by the first of Feburary and no later than Valentines Day. I will try and start therapy earlier next week so I can share some sawdust chatter with you all.

For me it really wasn't something I even thought about doing as I use to mainly make miniatures and used the scrollsaw for that after selling the big woodshop I had. And like mentioned, I found myself on different forms and boards and blogs, so seeing all the great projects everyone made and started playing around with scrolling and before I knew it I was mostly doing scroll work. Now, I rarely do a miniature as I have found that there is more of an intrest in scroll work than miniatures unless of course it's dollhouses and still no one really wants to pay the price for a well built by hand dollhouse so, I got hooked in scrolling and been doing it since.

I have the dewalt and love it, of course i wasn't the one that bought it, it was bought as a gift for me. Now I won't say that that's the one I would get though it is the best. What I would tell you is look at a few things before buying one. First, price, what you can get away with spending. Second, what features meaning thickness and size are you wanting it to be used for. These are just some of the options, I will say I would stay away from the cheaper one you said was around, I've not used their brand of planer but have used their brand of other tools and wasn't happy with them. Of course every tool I get isn't just for scrolling, I use them for other types as well and they are used a lot and put through the ringer. So in my case I always try and get the better quality ones, meaning I have to fork over more, but for me it's worth it in the long run. Now as far as the jointer question. I use a roter table to do my joining and only use them when putting pieces of materials together to make a bigger slab or to get a particular grain effect. You can get by without it unless you are planning on making large pieces. Hope this helps. I would suggest if you are going to think about getting a jointer, think about setting a router table up for it as the router table could be used for other things as well, kinda one tool for a bunch of uses. It helps with getting the "boss" to give in and let you get it.

I don't really have a favorite as with me it depends on what I'm cutting. Some types look better finished than others. This being said, I usually pick out the pattern first then figure out the type of wood I'll use to cut. I do find myself cutting a lot of cedar and popular though, but also love tiger maple for the grains. I also cut a lot of MDF also. Like I say, depends on the project.

First I would go to Flying Duchmen Blades site and read his articles on blades. One thing I do know that I do when I am cutting plexi is to take packing tape and cover the entire material before cutting and then I also use double skip-tooth blades to cut it and control my speed of the saw, sometimes I adjust the speed constantly just trying to keep the blade from getting hot and melting the plexi. I also take really slow cuts. Hope this helps.

My finishing method is this: I use stain if I am staining the piece, sometimes I leave the piece natural. After that, I use 3 coats of clear (gloss, satin, flat depending on the piece). In between the coats, I use cheese cloth and sometimes if needed very fine grain sandpaper except for the last coat, after that coat is dry for a couple of days, I only use the cheesecloth or lint free rag and wipe it down. After that is done and sit for 3 days, I take car wax watered down in a spray bottle and spray the piece, then I buff it by hand with a buffing mitt. Lastly, I take a lint free rag and give it one final wipe down. So far, I have had great luck with this method. Hope this helps.

Welcome to the village. Jump right on in and join in or start your own post. If you have any questions feel free to ask as there are a lot of wise scrollers here. Hope you enjoy your time here.

Great job on that piece. My opinion on what I would do with it is put a battery tea light on it and it really would look great in my window right now , o wait you made it for yourself..... Sorry, my bad. GREAT JOB!

I'll see if I can help you a little, as I'm sure others will also. As far as the speed, that depends on size of blade and material. Also, depends on you. I mean, sometimes with the speed of your saw will depend on how much control you have (ie. staying on the lines), I sometimes have trouble keeping my blades on the line I'm cutting and straying offline, so I turn my speed down to help. As far as tension, I use the "guitar pluck" technique. Tensioning up the blade and plucking the blade and hearing a high pitch. General rule of thumb is this: Your blade shouldn't be so tight you can't have a little movement in it, but not so lose that you don't have the high pitch when you pluck it. Hope this helps you a little, and I'm sure others will chime in on this to help as this community is full of people willing to help.

Sorry about that. I am just getting use to making patterns for others and post.

Your Very Welcome. Glad I could help. I know what you mean about the same item multiple times. Especially when I don't stack cut. I don't b/c if I mess up, I mess up more than one. Also, that way each piece is unique meaning that I never cut the same way twice. Anyways, Your Welcome.

In general speaking, both is correct, meaning your can and can't. For the most part I've read and got from reading articles on this topic that "for personal use" is for the pattern, meaning that you can't sell the pattern or distribute it, but the finished piece in 90% of the cases you can sell. Unless you plan on say mass producing pieces you should be okay. A good idea that I was told a while back and have read on fourms is that if you have any questions about the selling or using of someone's pattern, then get in contact with that person and ask, most, or the one's I have had contact with, will be more than happy to work with you and in the cases I've dealt with were thankful that I had the respect to ask and had no problem with me selling the finished pieces. Another thing I've read and do on my pieces, is that if I use someone elses pattern I usually stamp on the back of the piece the pattern designer. In general, if it isn't specific on wheather you can sell the finished piece or not then you should be okay, I mean, that's what most people get the patterns for. Here is a link to a case that should help you and back what I'm saying: http://www.michbar.org/opinions/distric ... /22676.pdf You can also find a great article that Travis has on here under the Wiki tab I believe. Hope this helps.

Great work on those, you really did a nice job on the heart. I'm jealous now..j/k

Do a search in google or other search engine for "rapid resizer". It's a program you can use to change sizes of patterns. Also you could do a search for something like "poster making software" and you'll find some free proggies.

I've added some more projects into my album, they aren't new ones just finally got them onto this computer, will be adding some new ones soon, I've been busy working on Christmas gifts for family, doing "Family Portriats" for them. I'll be glad to get them done, I'm ready to make something for myself.