heppnerguy

another wonderful performance at the scroll saw, This is a really nicely done sign.. Dick heppnerguy

Very nice.. I love them all...you did a great job, as usual. Dick heppnerguy

really nice job, Katie, but I would not expect anything less from you. I like the last and most colorful snow man the best of that group. I love the way you combined the nativity ornaments to make a really nice Christmas plaque. A fabulous Idea. I would have never thought to do that.. but it you are not apposed, I will copy your idea nd make one for our house.. hey that opens a lot of doors for future projects. you are a genius. Dick heppnerguy

Very nicely done. Not only were your cuts well exicuted but I also enjoy your over all workmanship on these projexts. I have cut a lot of Steve Good's patterns but these two I have never attempted...I just maight reconsider these, now that I see how nice they can really turn out Dick heppnerguy

Harold, you can run your saw as fast at it will go and it will not cut anything until YOU push the wood into it. I am pointing this out but I firmly believe you should run your saw at the speed you are most comfortable with. HINT: it you need more control on thinner pieces of wood, try taping another scrab board under your project piece and you will slow down the cutting speed of your saw and obtain a little more control when making sharp turns, at least this works for me.. this is called stack cutting and it also allows you to cut more than i item at a time. this is especially good if you are going to make the same thing for two or more people or are goign to enter your thing in a art show or craft show, to sell. Dick heppnerguy don't feel intimidated just take your time, scrolling is not about being fast, rather it is about being accurate

Welcome..we are all happy that you have found us, finally, We have been waiting for you to log in. The secret here is for you to log in very often. Kbe sure and participate by posting your work, your questions and your comments to other posts. If you follow these simple suggestions, you well soon discouver that everyone here want to help each other and share with each other, all they can. You will quickly discover that we are all 'family' here and welcome new memebers; Soon you will understand that you too are part of this world wide family. but it takes your login in and participating in posts to obtain that distinction. Oh, by the way, explore the entire sight. Feel free to travers all the nooks and crannies here. plunge in the 'Village University' and learn how to make patterns and much nore. Everything is free. Dick heppnerguy

you might have some good ideas.. however warped wood is not the answer,, it is a compound cut...I can't really think or the name if it...you know like when you are making a 3D piece. you cut it on one side and then turn it 1/4 turn and cut the 'wavy' cut.. Dick

Another really great example of your work of art. You always have wonderful things to post. These are outstanding. So glad you posted them for all of us to see. Dick H heppnerguy

Yesterday I stumbled on to something by mistake and I thought a lot of you would be interested in looking at it. I imagine many of you already knew this, but I would be willing to bet more of you do not know about this than do. puzzles are a nice gift filled with many memories. You can make a puzzle of a graduation, new baby, wedding, vacation, birthday, baptism and numerous other things. this kind of puzzle is something one might cherish for a long time. I have seen many ways to cut puzzles, like printing a puzzle pattern and gluing it onto an additions scrab board and layer cutting the photo with the puzzle pattern on the top of the heap. then of course there is the free hand cutting which some find a little to demanding. But guess what people ? I found a really cool way to do it that eliminates stack cutting and the guess work of free hand cutting. I found a way to do puzzles using GIMP. Here is how it is done. get your picture to cut on your GIMP program go to the filter tab scroll down to render select pattern then select jigsaw from there you can make a lot of selection as to the typw and number of pieces Go check it out... Dick heppnerguy

here is a therory of mine and I could be wrong but, I think the faster the blade is traveling the easier it cuts. have you ever taken a paper for plastic straw and tried to pushit through a raw potato ? it is impossable. but if you hold the straw in the middle and slam it, as quickly as you can, into that same raw potato, you put completely throught it. My therory is, the same goes for the blade, the faster it moves he easier it is for it to cut the wood and the speed lessens the resistance. Example; if you have ever cut a try with a chainsaw, you need to run it pretty fast to get it to cut the wood really straight and fast. A slow running saw works way harder. that is my take on it . If I notice my blade is needing more of my pressure to get it to cut, and i am too lazy to change it, I step up the speed of the saw and I find it cuts a little better for me. Well scrollers, am I right on this or way off base ? Dick heppnerguy

all I can add is one word PERFECT

I went through my recycle bin and found the rough pattern that I made. there are a couple of lines that need to be ignored but that is rather obvious. from here you add or change what every meets your fancy. I hope anyone interested, has fun with it and posts the ones they make. It sounds like a lot of long haired women and girls would like one of these. Inlay would go nicely with these. Dick heppnerguy oh the one I made was 6 3/4 inches

Roly, I will post a pattern that I made for this simple 'barrette'. Many of these are straight, with one or two prongs. I was told that the curved ones are more comfortable so I curved this one. It is extremely important that the wood of choice is quite strong because they take a lot of abuse. It so happens that the one I made, broke right away. I thought the wood was plenty strong,but i was wrong. I told my granddaughter that she was my guinea pig and when it broke, I was OK with it because I needed to learn anything I could, if I was ever going to make any more. The star cutout probably was not helpful, in this case, because it probably weakened it some too. I was going to post the pattern for those who might be interested, but I guess i did not save it.. I will try and make another and post it, I think the length was about 7 inches. Dick heppnerguy

Harold, We are glad that you found us. The most important thing that you can do, is to start logging in here, often. Read though all the 'forum'. That way you will get to know the people here and you will also find lots of patterns that you are free to download and cut. Be sure to thank the pattern maker if you use one of their patterns. After you make one, be sure and come back and post the results for all to admire. Do not worry that you are knew to scrolling and that your work may not be a good as some of the people with a lot of experience. Remember that everyone had to 'start' at one time and they are all aware of that. No one is to here to critize anyone else, buy rather to encourage each other. The more you post and become active here, the sooner you will feel a real part of our family. Like Ron, said (in a few posts before this one ), he also is new here and has already made 37 posts. If you were to ask Ron, I bet he would tell you that already he is getting to know the regulars and he has posted a lot of his wonderful work. Ron has a lot of experience with scrolling but I would guess that he is enjoying be in the close association with so many other scrollers, I know I am. If you are really interested in doing some intarsia, I can send you a simple pattern so that you can see that you too can do this, quite well. Just ask, if you would like me to do that for you. Also if you need any help or have any questions as you go about making your first piece, I will be happy to answer any questions that i can. there are a lot of people here that are way better than I am at scrolling and intarsia and they too will always be happy to help you in any way. Just ask. Dick heppenrguy

my oldest grand daughter and I were looking for a particular pattern, which we never found and I don't even remember what we were evern looking for, but never the less, we ran across these hair pins. That was really not the correct phrase but I do not remember what that was, but anyhow, my grand daughter said to me," I bought one for $15. I guess it was not that bad of deal." I thought these were something that the women in Mexico and South America wore in their hair for decorations. She told me that a lot of people use these when they put their hair up in the back of their heads. So I thought I would like to try and make one for her. so this is what I did today. It was easy to make, took less than an hour and I made it curved because she said that was more comfortable to wear. some of the women in the village might enjoy making them. they sell for $15 to $85 and up, if you put some kind of jewel in them. I thought it would be a great inlay item.. Dick heppenrguy

Ron, Everything I see you post is very nice and your workmanship is always very good. I am glad that you found us here on The Village and I am also glad that you post often and have become active right out of the gate. It is people like yourself that make this sight so enjoyable and makes me log on at least twice a day. Dick heppnerguy

Ron, All I put into this little box was love, I mailed it to Germany today. Dick heppnerguy

I wouldn't know if I was supposed to answer my phone or if it was the sleigh bells that were ringing. fun idea, Roly Dick heppnerguy

they say an average life for a scroll saw blade is about 1/2 hour. think about how small the teeth are and how much they cutting they do. Take a hacksaw and make a cut on a piece of hardwood and see how much effort it takes you to cut something that way. That will help you understand what the way smaller scroll saw blade does. I know especially when you are starting out, that buying blades may not always be the easiest way to spend your money and justifying it can be a little diffficult, but put into it the value of the pieces you are making and you will have a little better feeling when you buy them. Because of the added shipping costs of the blades it is cheaper to buy several dozen at a time or in the end they will cost you even more with multiple shipping costs. it is a little difficult to take those blades out of your saw and throw them away so often, when you can still make it cut something, but because dull blades can easily not track well and destroy your projest in a second, do yourself and favor and throw that dull blade away as soon as it starts to burn or you are ' pushing' that blade through your project, instead of the blade eating that wood on it's own,. Now I will share a little secret with you... Make most things for your wife and she will be happy to let you buy the blades and wood that you need for your projects. It works for me. Dick heppnerguy

For the thin walls, first you need to be a lousy cutter so the thickness is not uniform... ha ha no, actually I bought myself a 12 sander and I have found it to be one of my favorite tools, now and I use it a lot. With outside lines like the ones for a circle, as in this little box, I just rapidly cut about a 16th of an inch outside the line and take it to my sander and I can sand it to the line or even less if I desire, in a very short time. That is how I can achieve the thickness I am looking for. Second I used mahagony, which is quite dense and can stay strong even in a thin cut. so heavy dense wood and my 12 inch sander is my secret, if you want to call it that. Dick heppnerguy

OK. I made a serious effort to try inlay. One of my German exchange students we had live with us for 9 months, loves little boxes and I love scrolling, so when I tried to figure out what I was going to do for my first inly project I thought about a little box and thought that she would be the perfect person to give it to. So I got a simple box patterns off Steve Good's sight, changed the inlay pattern from a fish to a kitten playing with a ball of yarn, re-read the help that Jim sent me and went for it. It is not perfect, but I think for the first one, it is just fine. I think I figured out what I did wrong and I will make another project before too long. I think she will like it, it was fun to make for me. Dick heppnerguy

Travis, you have some really good pattern makers contributing to this and I see one on the list that isn't so very good, . but at least I made an effort... Hey, I cna't wait to see the ebook. it should be a lot of fun just to look at, and then of course, there is the rush to the shop to pound out a few of them to add to the tree and put on to the presents to others. Dick heppnerguy

I would say that a different blade would be your answer. Padauk wood cuts very well for me. What blade are you using and how long have you been using the one in your saw ? I say it is ALL blade that is the problem. I hope you are not using blades that come with the saw or ones you would buy at the big box store, If you are...then BINGO I found your problem for you. Dick heppnerguy

you smell like wood all the time

thanks so much Jim. Sorry I am such a lunk head. This will help me a lot. I certainly appreciate it. Dick heppnerguy