Sycamore67

This is a puzzle I made for my grand daughter for Christmas. It is a pattern by Judy Peterson and cut from 3/4" Red Oak. The tray that it sits in is Baltic Birch Plywood. The finish was orange shellac for the puzzle and white shellac for the tray.

Amazing ...nice job

A good question about using a jig to hold the ornaments while cutting. For me it is a necessity. I have worn out wrist joints with bone on bone. The right one was fixed two years ago by a great surgeon. I still have flexibility in the wrist and not much pain. Unfortunately, my left wrist will have the same surgery in early January and will be out of shop for several months recovering. The surgery is called a four corner fusion. There is no one right way to do anything with scroll saw....whatever works for you is great and the jig works for me. I really enjoying reading how people make a project to see if it might help me.

The source for the pattern for the Tree and Snowman was Claytons Scrollsaw Patterns. I have been using this clamp with the springs for awhile now and it works well. As you cut the pattern, it collapse in a little on the cuts and come loose. The springs make certain to keep good pressure on the piece you are cutting. I have lined the inside of the clamp with coarse sandpaper to help grip the part. I have a small battery screwdriver which I use to open and close the clamp and makes it much easier.

I made Christmas Ornaments with compound cutting this year. The Christmas Tree was the most difficult as it had some very thin areas. Luckily, I only broke one of them. I cut ornaments from Poplar, Red Oak, Walnut and Cherry using a FD Polar #7. The ornaments are all about 4" tall. The ornaments were finished with clear shellac. This a picture of the uncut blank and the other shows the jib I use to hold the blanks while I cut them.

I do not think in terms of how many feet a blade will cut. Like others, I change when the cutting starts becoming more difficult. I find different c especially in blade life from piece to piece and type of wood. Cutting red oak there is a different between quarter and plain sawn wood. I will often change if I a starting a new cutting if the blade is just starting to dull. A sharp blade cuts cleaner and more accurately.

I stack cut two of these from a Steve Good pattern. I did not put backer on them as I wanted to hang them in a window. I also added the red nose. They were cut from 1/8" baltic birch plywood with a FD-UR #3. The finish was several coats of shellac.

This is a wooden car carrier truck made as a Christmas Present for a grandson. It is made of Oak, Ash, and Pine. The wheels were purchased and were stained with a dark walnut danish oil. The rest was finished with shellac. The cars were made with a core of ash and various 1/8" woods on the side.

I really like these....nice job. I have not tried Plexiglas. What kind of blade did you use.

I really like those and you did a great job. Could you tell me where to find a pattern as I would like to try my hand a something like that.

I use 1/2" Wood Slicer blade from Highland Woodworking like was mentioned above. One of the things to consider is that with bigger blades you need to increase the tension. My saw could handle a 3/4" blade but have not needed to as the 1/2" works great for me. I resaw up to 8" wide boards.

Thank you Orangeman for the suggestion. I looked those blades up and they are a reverse tooth blade with teeth set to cut a wider kerf. This would allow them to cut faster. I will have to try some. I will have to find out if the wider kerf gives a good puzzle piece fit or if it is too loose.

The reason I used poplar was that I needed a wide piece in 1/2" thickness. I will be cutting the same puzzle in 3/4" maple as a stand up puzzle next. I wanted to try cutting the tight curves on poplar before going to the maple which will be more difficult due to hardness and thickness. Judy Peterson designs her puzzles as stand up ones. I took a class from her and it was very good and interesting. She is a great person. A lot of suggestions about finishing and staining. I did not pre finish the blank because I was more worried about the edges than the surface as the edges need to be clean for the pieces to fit well. If I used an oil based finish or shellac before staining I was concerned about getting a bright red stain. I did try several of these and got the brightest red using a sanding sealer before the dye. When I cut it from maple, I will not need the sanding sealer. On the subject of staining. I have been trying various types such as dyes, water colors, food dyes, oil stains and acrylic paint based. Each gives slightly different results and the choice is up to each person. Thanks for all the suggestions. I have found for me that trying various combinations of finishing schedules allows me to figure out what works best in my circumstances.

This is a puzzle cut from a design by Judy Peterson. It was cut from 1/2" poplar. Because poplar is a soft and porous wood, I used a sanding sealer on it first. The flames and the bottom were colored using a red dye -- Arti Brand from Highland Woodworking. I had tried using various other types of dyes but these provide a brilliant color and better than any other types that I have tried. The top part has a light wash of a pearl white color and then all the pieces were given a light coat of lacquer. I do not know if I want to work with poplar again for this type of project. It tends to raise the grain at every step of the process which required careful sanding of the pieces so they fit and to avoid sanding to much and have too loose of a fit.

I use Watco Danish oil. I use a zip lock bag, pour some in,put the puzzle pieces in, make certain they are coated and then take them out and wipe off the excess. After they are dried, I will sometimes use a rattle can poly on the front for a better finish. After I am done, I spoke a small hole in the zip lock bag and put the rest of the Danish oil back. Any rags or similar used are put outside and allowed to dry. This would be especially important with BLO were fire risks are greater.

I am gradually replacing bulbs to LED. they are great in the garage and even come on in the cold of winter. I am real glad to get rid of the CFL type bulbs. Some of my lights are on dimmers which means that you need a different type dimmer and are not real cheap.

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Well done...it is always great when you are finished, pull off the scrap and see the finished ornament.

Not certain what you mean by trash. You need to leave as much as possible to be able to keep the piece at a 90° angle to the first side when cutting the second side. If you have little pieces from the first side that are from the middle, then those can be trashed.

I cut the Halloween images from a pattern by Sheila Landry and from the Scroll Saw magazine. They were cut from 1/8" baltic birch and then painted with acrylic paints. The base was a piece of 3/4" pine which was stained green and then 1/8" slots cut in it. I sent these to my grandkids and the slots allow them to move the pieces around and arrange them as they want. I also put the initials of my kids and grandkids in the ghosts. The witch is a hanging piece about 10" in diameter also cut from 1/8" baltic birch. One of the pictures shows my first attempts at getting a "crackle finish" on the ghosts. I did a couple of trials and finally found the best method for me to produce it.

Thank you for the comments. The pattern was from Sheila Landry and contained suggestions for painting. Her plans are well worth the price. It was my first time with acrylic paints and it worked well and not too expensive. I did the carving with t h a double cut carbide bit in my Dremel and then sanded.

I cut a couple of Ghosts for Halloween using a pattern from Shelia Landry. The pattern included a couple of ghost patterns and pumpkin patterns. I used one of the pumpkin patterns to make a base for the ghost to stand up. The ghost and pumpkins were painted with acrylic paints and then with a spray can of lacquer. I couple of the ghosts were painted with some glow in the dark paint and work pretty well.

I ordered a trial set of dyes from Highland Woodworking. I am not interested in paints or stains as they typically have pigments and I want a dyes. I also want to get bright colors. Based on my searching, some of the things like Rit dye is not very bright and tends to fade. I will post again after I get my dyes. I probably will try water based first with doing a raising of the grain and sanding before the dye.

I am making some seasonal things out of 1/8" Baltic Birch and want to color them with a wood dye. I am looking for vibrant colors like green, red, blue, and yellow. I am not looking to use paints or pigments as I want the coloring to go in the wood. What I have found is Transtint, Transfast and ColorFX. These will work but end up around $15-20 for a color. Has anyone used these and what kind of experiences have you had?

I have bought wood from Ocooch Hardwood online. They have a wide selection of all kinds of wood and reasonable shipping. It is much better than the local big box stores.