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Several weeks ago on Craigslist I found a guy advertising some exotic woods for sale. Today I phoned him and asked him if he still had any left.. he began to laugh and said why don't you come over and have a look. I have black walnut, cherrywood, oak, green poplar, mahogany, purpleheart, ash, you name it. I drove over there (about 15 minutes from home). A beautiful large home with 2-car garage, when his wife opened the garage door, the entire garage was jammed packed full of large cartons of wood of every description. Only narrow passage ways to get around this wood. I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. Then he said "I've got more in here". He took me into his basement and the entire basement was full of more cartons of exotic woods. I didn't know where to start looking, but finally found two large cartons of various kinds, all about 2 to 3 feet in length and perfect thicknesses for scrolling and intarsia work. When I asked him where he got all this beautiful wood, he replied "A friend of mine who is now deceased was a fine craftsman, carpenter and cabinetmaker. He built my house for me, now I'm trying to sell his stockpile of wood for him to help out his widow". After finding the 2 cartons that I wanted, I could barely lift the boxes to put them in my car they were so heavy. When I asked him how much, he said he was open to reasonable offers. I offered him $20 per box and he was happy, and so was I. When I left he told me to keep his phone number and to call him anytime I wanted more. I was already having a good day in my shop, but going over there made it even a better day. This was a really great find. Trevor

Thanks for all the tips, guys! I'll take those into consideration next time I'm cutting purpleheart. Yes, that is one very hard wood, and heavy in weight also. Trevor

Just wondering if anyone has any tips on cutting purpleheart. I'm cutting a fretwork with 3/4" purpleheart, and no matter which speed or which blade I use, I cannot cut it without it burning. I've been cutting the interior holes with a #3 German blade.. I have no complaints with the blades, they go forever. Now I'm cutting the outside edge of the pattern with a #7 blade. I've tried different speeds, but this very hard wood always burns and smokes when it is being cut. Any comments and suggestions appreciated. Tnx. Trevor

My neighbor walks into my workshop today with a new '2-Cup' coffeemaker and asks me if I would like it for my shop. He won it in a door prize draw, but said he certainly doesn't need it, so he told his wife that he knew someone who could probably use it. Here it is mounted on the wall of my shop. I now have all the coffee supplies in a cupboard in my shop out of sawdust's way. I also have a water tap in my shop, so this works out great. Thanks, Dennis!

This is how I tillted my saw and it works great for me. The angled base under the saw is screwed right onto the table top. To each their own, whatever suits you. Trevor

Very cool, Kevin. Nice job.

Nice job!

A very nice job none the less, Kevin. I cut a wooden key chain for my wife a couple of months ago in 1/8" African Ebony (a very hard wood), but I think I drilled too small a hole for the key ring and it snapped right there at the key ring hole after a day or two. Live and learn.. I'll make a few more very soon, one for my neighbor Brian (a cabinetmaker) who has been so kind to me with suppling me with a lot of nice free wood.

Just finished this project this morning. Made with Redwood Cedar, Basswood and Oak. All pieces cut entirely on the scroll saw. No stain applied her, just dipped in orange oil to beautify the wood and grains. Pattern by Steve Good.

Absolutely gorgeous, Chris. I'm totally jealous. Beautiful shop! Trevor

This is one wall area of my workshop, showing my bandsaw, drill press/drum sander and my scroll saw table. Not shown in the photos here there is also a main workbench at the back of the shop and along the other wall are storage shelves and cabinets for misc. supplies and other tools. I also have another table on which I can use my router table, mitre saw, etc.

I have a stereo in my shop with a CD of mp3 music, which plays almost 6 hours of my favorite tunes from the 50's, 60's and 70's. Also some of the good old country music by Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, George Strait, etc. When I'm working in the shop with the garage door open and neighbors go walking by, they go 'two-stepping' by in tune to the music thats playing. I'm fortunate to have great neighbors in our complex of 64 families, and many of them stop in to visit and see what I'm working on.

No, Mike, I didn't put any finish on top of the inlay. It did cross my mind, but I was worried that it might 'yellow' the white canvass material or otherwise ruin it some way. Do you have any suggestions about this kind of thing? Any comments appreciated.

Hi Mike, sorry I don't have a close-up of the inlay, and I've already given the box to the lady, but the decorative inlay square is one of her own needlepoint samples. What I did was router out a square on the top (cover) of the box(about 1/8" deep), then glued a piece of gloss white poster board in there, and then with transparent double-sided tape on the underside of the needlepoint pressed it into place on the white poster board, so the needlepoint canvass is basically flush with the outer edges of the cover. Hope this explains what you were asking. Trevor

This is a box that I made as a request from a neighbor that wanted one of her needlepoint samples inlaid into the cover of the box. The top and bottom are pine, the sides are 1/4" birch plywood, stained with Summer Oak and 2 coats of gloss varathane applied. I glued a piece of black felt into the inside bottom of the box as well.

Just bought a foot switch a couple of weeks ago, and have to agree.. I would not want to be without it. For any SSV members on here that are from Canada, Busy Bee Tools carries them.

Great find. One man's junk is another man's treasure!

I'm progressing quite well on my first intarsia project (a standing Miniature Pinscher). Despite the injury to 3 of my fingers, all I have left to cut is about half of the head and the 2 ears.. everything else is done. My wife and my neighbor are giving me 'Wow' reviews on it.

I just saw an ad on the 'Free' section on Craigslist, also right here in my town, who has a bunch of 3/4" cedar planks, 4 1/2" wide by 3 1/2 to 4 feet lengths, he said I can take as little or as much as I want. Going to pick them up later today. Might be good for some intarsia work, we'll see.

I live in a very nice townhome complex of 64 units, each with an enclosed garage. My neighbor (also the stata chairman) who I see regularly was telling me about another gentleman in the complex who also is very much into scrolling. This afternoon while walking to the corner store, I was walking by his place and there he was, in his garage, packing some things into a cardboard box, so I stopped and introduced myself to him as he is a fairly new resident here. I immediately saw that he was very much into fretwork and he pulled out a large box, opened it, and began showing some of the things he has made. I told him that I was a 'newbie' scroller of only a couple of months and that I was enjoying it very much. He said "Wait here just a moment" and he went into his house. He came back out a moment later with a dozen or more scroll saw magazines and handed them to me, telling me to take them home and have a look through them. We had a nice chat and I told him which unit I was in, and told him to drop over one day.. he said he would do so. In his garage/workshop he also has a 4-drawer filing cabinet full of nothing but scroll saw patterns. All this after I just got home from a local supplier today to buy a foot switch for my saw. I didn't get too much cutting done today, but all in all it was a good day, meeting a next door neighbor that loves and does the same thing. Our townhome complex has its own community hall, and the strata chairman told me that Peter (my new found neighbor) and myself should put on a show this summer in the community hall. Hey.. sounds like a plan.

That's the difference between men and women. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item because it's on sale and doesn't need it.. a man will pay $2 for a $1 item because he needs it.

My next door neighbor is a cabinetmaker by trade, and he has given me some cabinet doors for my projects and also for making picture frames, which I also do.

OK guys, the ebony is a very hard wood, very close-grained and very beautiful. My step-son who is a carpenter, gave me some that he had in his workshop, so I didn't buy this lot, but I'm sure it is expensive. The sawdust that it produces from scrolling is like a very fine powder, and has has a distinctive, but fairly pleasant odor when cutting. The 4 pieces of ebony used in this project were all seven-sided pieces, so thank goodness they were all straight line cuts. As for the inside cuts, I drilled an entry hole in each inside corner and was able to cut straight lines on the insides as well. I was able to use a heavy pinless blade for cutting this. I just received my first Intarsia pattern in the mail today, so will be using some of this ebony in my first ever Intarsia project. I don't have a clue how to begin my intarsia project, but I'm going to give it my best shot.

Thank you, Brett. Are you being affected by those horrible floods down there?

Just finished this today. Cut from 1/4" Baltic Birch plywood and 1" African Ebony. No stain applied here, just dipped in orange oil to bring out the wood grains and then varathaned. Total height: 9". Pattern by Steve Good.