vykus

I have been without a blower on my scroll saw for several months and due to having asthma, blowing sawdust out of the way of my pattern has not been conducive to my good health. I know that many of you have used aquarium pumps to blow away the man glitter, and I was keeping my eye out for one. I live on a tight budget, so going and buying a new full priced pump would be difficult. So i have been scouring Goodwills and St. Vinnie's in any city I pass through (I have to drive my kids to another city once a week where the ex lives). Late last week I went to one of the larger Goodwills I know of and I found this strange little device. It's not an aquarium pump, it's a medical pump, used for respiratory treatments. It's a little on the old side, but I took it to an outlet and plugged it in and boy did it blow. It blows a lot more than my bellows ever did. What was the price? $4.99. I also found a book to buy and I had a $5 off coupon so my total came to $2.07. Worth it, I think. On Saturday I sat down and tried to decide how to attach it to my Dremel 1800. I tried to attach it with a flexible tube so I could direct the air, but it lost pressure as the bendy tube leaked. Next I zip tied it to the arm, but I could not go up and over because of where the tension clamp and the screw to clamp the blade are. I needed room to manipulate those and a hose would get in the way. I tried it underneath the arm and was disappointed at first because the air stream was going above where the cutting would be happening, but I quickly got the idea of putting a little wedge under it at about a 30 degree angle which made it perfect. The stream of air is strong enough that it clears the sawdust easily even from that far back. My only concern is that this old pump gets pretty hot, so I am keeping it in reach and keeping it off if I am not directly cutting. Do the fish pumps get really how to if they are left on? They are supposed to be run continuously and I think this is supposed to be run for at least an hour at a time. What do you all think? But now that I don't have to blow on work every 1/2 second I can wear my respirator, make as much dust as I want and finally get some work done.

Great work, I have always had a thing about lighthouses, maybe I will have to give that one a try when my skills are a little more advanced.

That looks great, very well done. What size is it?

Hawkeye10 I have heard that painting on a combo of white glue thinned with water will seal the exposed ends and letting it dry prevents it from swelling.

Remember that you thin acrylic paint with water. I wouldn't want you to accidentally add turpentine.

Remember that you thin acrylic paint with water. I wouldn't want you to accidentally add turpentine.

We are getting really close to a religious discussion here. Focus on the patterns.

I did a little research, because that's what I do. I wanted to see if their was a symbol for atheism that was widely accepted. I think I found it. The Letter A with a circle around it, or sometimes an atom behind it. I included the tattoo of the DNA strand just because I thought It was super cool I also added the old standby for non believers "The Flying Spaghetti Monster" We have a few Pastafarians in my Universal Unitarian congregation. We'll take anyone.

I love it, great cutting. The use of mixed media is inspired. The one thing I would have done differently, and this is just a personal preference, I would have sprayed the BB with a matte finish to match the wood in the back, rather than a glossy. It seems to make it pop out on a piece where I think it would look better as a harmonious whole. But like I said, it is an awesome piece no matter what and you should be very proud of it.

I have never bought a pattern. I use free ones or make my own. A few times I have asked the more experienced pattern makers here to help out. I don't see the point of paying for a pattern. It would have to be something awfully terrific to get my money.

who's patterns are they?

Rob, I'm sure the circle was not an actual circle. I had not been scrolling for long then and therefor did not have a lot of experience making patterns, plus I was doing my drawing with my mouse. Now I have a Wacom tablet and have learned all kinds of tricks. Maybe I should go back and clean that one up.

Marge, I put a rough copy of the cross stitch pattern in the library some time ago. http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/gallery/image/5304-crosstitch-heart/ Looking at it now it looks really sloppy but hey it's a learning process right. Seeing it cut out, and quite excellently I might add, I think I might have to grab some walnut, print out the pattern and make myself a trivet.

Nice composition. Way to combine two elements.

Nice composition.

I had Darwin Fish on many of my previous cars and the last was insured so I could get a replacement for my current if I wanted. I'm a Buddhist who attends a Unitarian Universalist Church with my family. I have found myself designing my own patterns for those aspects of my life. There are a lot of asian patterns out there but do not really consider them Buddhism related. Those of us that are non-christian are growing rapidly (not trying to start an argument) and is over 10% suggested earlier. I have kept some of my UU and Buddhist patterns to myself for fear of criticism and the thought that maybe no one would really want/need them. maybe it's time for me to just stand up and put them up.

Wow, that's great. Did you cut the outline first or last? I would think first. Is it going to be hung as is or mounted on a background? Beautiful job.

it's about an inch think.

I normally would not brag about something that I did not make, but I scored, so I had to tell you all about it. I was at the local Restore (run by habitat for humanity, I'm not sure if they have those everywhere) They have been taking downed trees from storms or those with Dutch Elm disease and cutting them into boards and selling them cheap. Well on my way out of the shop, just outside the door, I saw this huge mound of what looked like all bark with a sign that said "Firewood, $3 a bucket" I looked more closely and realized that these were the cutoffs from the trees they had made into boards. Anything they had with bark on it they just put into the firewood pile. I picked through it and found some beautiful pieces. I took the best, crammed them into the widest buck there and went back in and gave them my 3 bucks. as you can see from the attached picture, I made out pretty good.

Go to a Doctor ASAP. It sounds like Sleep Apnea. This can damage your heart. I know, I have it. After you have that covered, get that weight under control. It sounds like you are at a point where you need outside help, don't be proud, get the help you need.

Don, I used a No. 7 UR on most of it, that kept the lines from wandering. I used a No. 5 and 3 UR on the lettering. The 5's and 7's were Olson's and the 3's were FD. Gotta use what I can afford at the time. If I could, I'd use FD all the time, but I usually don't have large amounts of cash do dish out at once so I spend $5 a pack for Olson's as I need them.

When I say the back I mean the reverse side that faces the wall. I will be putting a few coats on there too.

My latest. I finished the cutting quite a while ago, and learned a lesson about cutting carefully because I had to do a ton of sanding to the many exposed interior cuts. After the sanding was done we had a heat wave here in Wisconsin with incredibly high humidity so it had to sit and wait to have a finish applied which I was finally able to do this weekend. The front is made out of Honey Locus, it has a nice color but it pretty hard and difficult to work with. the backer board it 1/2 in walnut which I cut 1/4 in larger in all directions and then rounded over. I am very pleased with how it turned out. I just have to let it cure for a few days and put some hooks on and its good to go. One question, should I leave the back as raw wood or put a coat of poly on that too? Matt

I found a nice 1/2 inch piece of walnut at the lumber yard for a couple of bucks. it looks great. I will be doing the glue up later today and shellac tomorrow or Mon.

I was looking for M77 and could not find it recently. I didn't get to all the stores as I needed some sort of spray adhesive so I bought another brand. Has anyone else noticed it missing from the shelves? I don't have a Lowes nearby so didn't check there.