Hey Everybody,
Well, I'm new here. New to Scrolling too. It was an unfortunate chain of events that led me to start Scrolling, but I am so glad that I did. I had a Heart Attack in January of this year, needed triple bypass surgery and had major complications involved with everything from the surgery to the recovery. I had purchased a new scroll saw three days before my heart attack and never even had a chance to take it out of the box before everything went South on me. After 14 days of ICU I was pretty messed up when I got back home. It took me a whole month before I unpacked the thing and tried a few cuts. My energy levels were lousy so I couldn't last long scrolling. As time went on however, and many broken blades later, I finally turned out my first simple project. It wasn't anything fabulous by any means, but I made it for my wife since she was beside me every step of the way through everything. I have been out of work for 6 months now and will be returning shortly, the down side is that I won't be able to scroll as much as I am accustomed to. By mid March I was spending 8 to 10 hours a day on my saw, and learning fast. With the help of websites like this and others I found a passion for scrolling that I never knew I had. I used to absolutely HATE working with wood, but now it's a big part of me. The scroll saw was good therapy for me, and helped me to recover from all the bad things that had happened and what I had gone through. I have made about 50 projects to date, and some of them are pretty darned complicated with compound cutting and 3-D shapes. I even purchased a newer saw that had more features and it is a dream to work with. My ultimate goal is to be the proud owner of a General International Excalibur, but I'll have to be back to work for a while before I can afford that. I'm only 44, and felt that it was unfair to have what happen to me, but the scrolling has given me a new reason for being and like I said, has been excellent therapy.
Paul M.
