RangerJay

LOL - what can I say - I use a lot of White Oak, White Pine, White Elm, White Spruce - guess it catches up to you over time ...... Jay

Superb looking piece. I don't have the courage to hand-hold something like that while feeding it into a sanding mop - even with a backer! Those larger, delicate pieces that I feel uncomfortable holding get (gently) clamped to the surface of my bench and I mount the sanding mop on an old cordless drill that spins only at 700 RPM. The grit is 220 and that is all I have ever used. Beyond that my routine is exactly the same as yours - 4-way passes to cover all directions - last two passes with the grain. Thanks, Jay

This kind of discussion seems to come up every few months and I guess I really don't understand it - there are - at least for me - a few items where I notice costs - and replacing my sanding mop refills is not one of them - they last forever - in my six years of scrollsawing I have purchased sanding mops twice (I checked) - both times I purchased two refills - and still have a spare refill waiting for the next time I need it - so I guess what I am saying is that sanding mops are not a big expense. My top three expenditures - by a lot - are: propane (winter heat); hardwood (walnut, oak, cherry, elm); and rattle can polyurethane - any significant costs associated with purchasing sanding mops refills really don't even get to the ball park. Jay

I also drill only 10 holes at a time - but I stopped my tally count quite a while back for two reasons - first is that despite how easy keeping track of 10 holes at a time sounds I found myself sitting at the saw wondering if I recorded the last 10 holes ...... second, and more telling, is that I found myself also questioning progress with something along the line of: "there is NO possible way in h**l that 100 holes can be that small a piece of the pattern!!!". Jay

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - didn't see your post till this afternoon. I guess I could have been a little clearer in my description - it is a wall switch mounted on the bench - which controls an outlet - 1/2 of which is the saw - the other 1/2 of the outlet controls a small fan that helps push airborne dust into my dust collector - pictures of my "Scroll Saw Command Centre" below ....... between the two pictures you can see the switch, the outlet, the fan and the dust collector. Jay

I have a variety of scrolled and carved pieces that have never seen the light of day - but for me they represent a tangible (and humorous) record of my efforts to become a better woodworker - each one is a lesson learned - that collection was getting a little too large last year and I had to selectively cull it to make more room in the Shed - now I have a smaller collection that might be called: "The Best of the Worst" - the culled pieces did become firewood. Jay

"The Best" is often what you grow to be familiar with - and in this case I have a wall type switch beside the scrollsaw which does me just fine - I don't think I would like any kind of foot switch that required me to keep my foot on it - after two knee replacements I've grown to understand that they like being free to move around or they stiffen up dramatically - and locked into a foot switch without the opportunity to move is something I know would not be comfortable during lengthy scrolling sessions. Jay

Wow - that's quite a shop - first time I've ever seen a Shopsmith - something you'd recommend? - and I was really envious when I thought I saw a bar fridge - then - on closer look - I saw it was a white storage cabinet - felt better after that ...... Impressive shop. Jay

Great pieces - you have obviously been gifted with a lot of talent. Thanks, Jay

Cradle has been delivered and set-up - a few tears (mine) and many warm hugs ..... Jay

There is no one pattern that I used - I did purchase a pattern to fit an 18" X 36" inch mattress just for the basic measurements of the cradle and knowing that we would be modifying it along the way - the pattern I purchased was poor (more than poor) - in the end I found this free pattern much more helpful: http://www.shopsmithhandson.com/archives/nov_dec_05/major_project.htm You'll see that we modified a lot - essentially winging it along the way - with ideas from googling "swinging cradles" and also from Pinterest with the same search words. I don't think I would do anything different if I were to do it again - but need to warn you - it's more work than you might think ...... so start a little earlier in the "process" than I did ..... Jay

Thanks - the figures were cut on the scrollsaw using a spiral blade - not exactly sure which blade but almost certainly an FD #1 or #3 Spiral with Flat Ends. Once cut I spent time softening and rounding the cuts with cloth-backed 1/4 " strips of 120 grit sandpaper. Jay

Most of what you see is Cherry - the headboard and footboard came from one board that had a bit of an unusual grain and colouring - but Cherry none-the-less. The side pieces are framed by Walnut and there is a bit of Oak underneath that frames the floor of the cradle.

Thanks everyone - we really appreciate the kind words - just to correct the record the proud parents to be will be our youngest son and his wife - I've kept them abreast of progress from the get-go with pictures - (they live about a 2 1/2 hour drive away). They also recognize this will be around for a long time - and may serve future generations as well as friends - so their current plan is to make sure all the cradles young occupants will be recorded through time by adding small plaques with each babies name and birthdate. Kinda neat. Thanks again, Jay

Dropping the cradle off tomorrow - baby is due in two weeks - consensus is that delivery of the cradle now is probably prudent ..... Yet to do are 4 scrolled pieces to cover the pucks on each side of the pivot point - not a big job but haven't come up with a pattern we like yet. Also yet to do are the dowel plugs to cover the lag screw holes. These will need to be hollowed out - haven't done that before so will be doing a little experimenting. Jay

Both my grandfather and my father were skilled woodworkers - so I think my own interest in working with wood was a direct result of the example they set and the encouragement they gave me. I was also lucky to have access to workshops from childhood on and have been able to have my own workshop my entire married life. In the late 70's I started making replicas of antique wall and mantle clocks - maybe one or two a year for many, many years - don't really know why I settled on clocks - maybe because they looked so good - and wherever they went they became a family heirloom (with at least one family having a serious squabble over where that clock should end up when their parents passed on). I first thought about scrolling shortly after retirement - despite the fun and the satisfaction of clockmaking it is a lot of money - the wood is expensive - the movements are ridiculously expensive (all mechanical movements) - and anything close to cost recovery is pretty much a very vague and distant notion ...... So I guess you could say I got into scrolling because I'm cheap: the wood may still be expensive - but the work is labour intensive so you don't use a lot - so that makes it cheap. you can use scrap wood to make a lot of great stuff - that means the designer firewood bin is a LOT smaller. most projects don't take up a lot of space - so you can do multiple projects at a time without a whole lot of problem - and the workshop doesn't look like a major cyclone hit it (most of the time). projects generally take less time - so you get the satisfaction of seeing more done and more finished. ..... so I guess at the end of the day I still may not actually make any money - but I know I lose less money ..... Worth mentioning is that the saw has a rhythm about it that allows you to put your mind in neutral and just cut away to your hearts content ..... (or your back gets sore - whatever happens first ....) ...... think in my old age I would call that therapeutic ...... in my younger days my teachers called it daydreaming ..... (or I seem to recall the term "wool-gatherer" appearing on my report cards .....) There is one more thing that is really neat about the scrollsaw that, at least for me, has become maybe it's greatest attraction - that is - with the scrollsaw you can craft genuine pieces of art - not saying I'm an artist - but I still like doing those one-of-a-kind projects that become someones family heirloom ..... Jay

Woodmaster: that is some very serious machinery ......

Clutter seems to be a very common theme - with subtle variations of earthy brown coloring ...... pretty sure I could feel very comfortable in every shop that has been pictured - actually - they all make me kinda feel at home ..... Jay

We built the garage 30 years ago ...... no car has ever seen the inside ...... we now call it "The Shed" - upstairs attic is typical seasonal storage and lifetime junk, main floor is roughly 1/3 sauna and 2/3 workshop (grudgingly shared with the lawn tractor and its attachments) ...... The winter shot was taken a couple years ago.

Sometimes the playing card trick just isn't going to work - very small ornaments as well as the antlers and paddle blades of the Kayaking Moose come very quickly to mind - these kinds of small pieces don't do well around the large cutout hole on an EX. I sacrificed a piece of 1/8 ply cut to fit the entire cutting table as my zero clearance "insert" - clamped on all four corners when I need a zero-clearance insert - putting a finish on it and a coat of wax is helpful. And for those pieces that need to be held down right beside the saw blade you can take a 6 inch piece of pencil sized dowel and sharpen it in the pencil sharpener - then take the other end and give it the shape of a flat-end screwdriver on your sander - a great little homemade tool that is always beside my saw. Finally, if those fine pieces are doing a lot of jumping around on you then experiment with a smaller blade and/or faster speed/slower push. Jay

Very, very nice piece of work - beautiful design, perfect cutting ...... Jay

If I've broken a piece and glued it in a way that is not noticeable then the story is over - breakage is not common but neither is it unexpected when it occurs - but if the piece shatters and is not able to be repaired in a way that protects the integrity of the finished piece then it is a "second" - most often a give-away that is identified as a "second" - seems to work fine. Where I have a bigger problem is where my own cutting is not up to the standard that I have set for myself - I have one larger piece that just didn't turn out as I expected - lots of hours and lots of cutting - custom frame on it - fully finished - no mistakes at all - but the end product just didn't turn out to my satisfaction - I feel it is not a good sampling of my work and I really don't want it out there even as a second - so it has sat in my basement I think for about 3 years now maybe even 4 ..... designer firewood some day - but haven't been able to bring myself to toss it in the flames yet ..... wife thinks I'm nuts ...... Jay

LOL - guess you're right ..... sometimes size does matter ...... I always loved it when I finished up at the gas pumps with my little 6-cylinder Pathfinder - towing a 19-foot Airstream - at exactly the same time as a 40+ foot motor coach in the other lane finished up .......... ..... occasionally small is very definitely better ......

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Dave: Yes - there are always fuzzies on the back that I use the sanding mop to remove - and no - I didn't just use spiral blades for the heck of it - I like larger fretwork projects so morphed into spiral blades over a period of time - and once I got comfortable with them they gradually became my go-to blades for almost all projects that I do. About the only places I regularly use straight blades now are on larger fretwork cutouts where the interior edge is readily visible and also on compound cut ornaments. John: That piece of white trim is Maple - and on that project it was my first effort at ever cutting a wood as hard as Maple - in hindsight I was using the wrong blade and the wrong speed - lots of chatter - lots of frustration - and more than a little CA glue ...... Jay

Well folks - the one done with the spiral blades is the one with the red lantern - it and it's sister clock were completed at the same time - one as a gift for an Aunt of mine and the other is in our home. The clock with the bucket was done with straight blades (excepting a small section in front of the seat) and completed in 2012 as a gift to my youngest son on his enlistment as a fireman for the city of Thunder Bay. I've included a couple extra pictures of detail in the clocks I finished last year - should point out that the Whippletree was made and provided by the gal who did the horses and the harnesses. You're all winners in my book - be glad to host you for a serious BBQ if you ever get up this way!! Thanks, Jay