Scrappile

Beautiful piece of work! I agree 100% on using the skewers. I like it the way it is.

Congratulations. I went to an old Craftsman cheapie to a DeWalt. It was heaven. I never did anything to it but hose it off with the vacuunm after use and blow out the switch occasionally.

That is really neat looking.

Next time try blowing it out before you take it apart. Use a compressor or a can of air. That is all I have ever done. I have only had one switch go bad on a piece of my equipment and that was on my HF dust collector. I kew they have a history of switches going bad so I took that on apart. It was melted.

Would this be it? http://www.ereplacementparts.com/switch-p-1653996.html I have bought several parts from them, had good service.

Seems like my blades are always very slack when I release the tension. They seem to have the correct amount of tension when I reset the tension, so I haven't worried about it.

That is a beauty! Where are you getting these awesome patters?

My DeWalt did this once, I blew out the on/off switch with the compressor, like I did on my lathe when it did the same thing. It was just dust in the switches. Hope it is that easy of a fix for you.

Those are pretty clever. Each hanging in it's own house. I see all kinds of possibilities with that approach for key racks. Great job Frank.

Thank you all for the great comments. This was not a very difficult pattern to cut but the results are very rewarding. You are right the eyes have a lot of expression. I think what I like about this type of scrolling is you never are really sure what the results will be until you are finished and lay it on a black background. It always surprises me.

This is one I've wanted to try since I got into this scrolling. 8.5" x11" 3/0 spiral FD blades. Baltic Birch. Charles Dearing pattern

Oh, you are on to something here! That is great.

When I bought my DeWalt, I found a refurbished one for $300 that had the same warrenty as a new one. I have bought lots of refurbished tools and not been disappointed yet.

The first two that I did I used 1/4" baltic birch. Then I tried stacking two pieces of 1/8" baltic birch. I prefer the look of 1/8" thick portraits. Matter of personal preference. I prefer to stack only two pieces but others do more. Maybe as I get better, I will feel more comfortable with more stacked. I don't find portrait cutting hard. It can get tedious and time comsumming, but I really enjoy it. The two pieces of advce that I received that really helped me get better at it were: keep your shoulders down in a relaxed position. If your shoulders are up, you are tense. Second, concentrate on breathing at a normal rate. I was going to say breath normal, but I wear a dust device that I have to brearh through my mouth, which isn't normal for me. A third thing I was encouraged to do when I wanted to start trying more intricate portraits/scenes was only worry about one hole at a time, don't be intimidated by the number of cuts just go one at a time. One more thing I just thought of. When drilling holes to stick the blade through, I start with a 1/16" bit and drill all the holes I can with that large of a bit. I only drill the smaller holes, recommented for the size of blade I use where a larger bit would be too big to drill in the area to be cut out. I hate trying to thread the blades through those tiny holes! Get a varity of good blades to try out. You will find one type you prefer and works best for you. Include some spiral blades to try. They are not for everyone, but I love them. Welcome to the forum and have a good time.

I'd go as big as I could affort. If that was a 30" that is what I would have. I have a 21", love it and if I had know how much I like scrolling I will have probably gone for the 30". I have only once gone down is size on a tool and now I have found times when I regret it. I went from a full sized lathe to a midi size. There have been a couple time I've thought I like to try something on it but it is not big enough. But I have a small shop and sacrifices must be made.

really turned out nice. Looks like it would be a fun, rewarding build.

Like them all... Kevin you are amazing!

I can certainly understand how much that means to you. It is a wonderful piece and knowing the history behind it makes mighty special. Thanks for sharing it and the history,

Great deal for you. I live in the desert, no sawmills here. Very hard to get timber from a sagebrush!

Short answer, because I love it. Use to have other hobbies but now pretty much just wood working.

Nice work! I also love the pattern.

Yes I use a brush and an X-Acto knife. It the piece is not too fragile, I use a ROS. But like on the Raccoon, a Ros was not an option. But wouldn't it be nice to come up with a easy way to miminumize the clean up in the first place? It is worth a try to me.

On my last scroll portrait, I tried something I have been thinking about. I had three pieces stacked. On the second piece of wood I applied shellac, to the back of the board before taping the pieces together. I wanted to see if that reduced the little chip out and some of the fuzzies. It may have, but sort of inconclusive. There were less fuzzies on the second piece than on the top piece, which had no shellac. There was not chip out on either the top or second board. But, keep in mind I had a third sacrificial piece of plywood on the bottom. I'm going to try it again on my next cutting. Shellac the back of two pieces of 1/8" BB, leave off the third piece of plywood and see what happens. Anyone tried or do this regularly? It would really be nice to not to have all that fuzzy clean up after scrolling.

How much coffee do you have in the morning?? You pump these out like a machine!! More nice work.

Great work. I love the raindeer and Santas. I may have to get the pattern for those, wood look great on my daughters hearth.