Frank Pellow

I like the 'find someone who will let you try one first approach. In my case of a scroll saw I had used cheap ones at schools and friends on occasion for many years. Then I took a scroll sawing course at Lee Valley tools and they were equipped with Dewalt saws (when they were still being made in Canada). Those saws were quite good and I was going to buy one. When I told this to the salesman at Welbeck Sawmill (near Durham Ontario) he suggested that I try an Excalibur EX30 and they had a demo model That saw was even better than the smaller Dewalt, so I bought one. By the way most of my big tool purchases were of tools I had already tried. For example my jointer/planer combo machine, both my band-saws, my table-saw, and my drill press. I used the same three sources, that is: friends, schools, stores.

I agree with the original statement that one should purchase the best saw that they can afford (by the way, I think that this is true for all tools) I would add: When possible, sit to scroll -and use a GOOD seat Make sure that the lighting is good Use a foot pedal

This item: http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/topic/17940-tree-carving/?hl=tree recently posted by Kemaldo is exactly the type of work that I was hoping to find.

Ron, if you bought your saw that long ago it was still being made in Canada. By the way, I also have a Canadian made EX30. The saws that are now being made in Taiwan certainly look different than mine (and, therefore yours). Are the internal mechanism's much the same as they were? I just don't know.

Al (Stoney), I don't have any #1 spiral blades, therefore I am using (and breaking several) #3/0 blades for the small stuff on this pattern -and there is a lot of small stuff on this pattern. I appreciate your advice about the sizes that you would use and I guess that I had better order a wider variety of Flying Dutchman New Spiral blades

I first used a scroll saw when I was about 8. That's 65 years ago and the saw operated with a foot treadle (much like my Mum's sewing machine). I've used one on and off ever since but never to do any of the type of "art" that we see posted here.. Then, about three months ago, I took up the hobby in a big way. I LOVE IT but it did take me quite a while to discover that.

Paul, I guess that I should consider myself lucky that I have not yet broken any of the #70 bits that I got from Mike. So far, I have drill about 50 holes and all has gone well.

First of all, I would like to thank Joshua (TripleJScoller), Larry, Dan (bandaideman), Ervin (redwine), and Dick (heppnerguy) for your kind words and advice. Carrying on with work on the Old Barn, there is also lots of opportunity to work with very small drill bits and very thin saw blades. I'm attaching a photo of the bottom left of the work where things get very detailed. I continue to break lots of blades and I am starting to wonder if that will always be the case with me on patterns of this type.

Paul, my hope was to break fewer blades and I am glad that is true for you. But, so far, it has not been true for me (but my experiment has only just started).

OK, that worked out well. Now, its time to add a companion piece and to try out some different spiral blades. After an extensive search, I chose one of the barns from Charles Dearing's Old Barn Book #4. I'm going to use the same type of plywood and frame that I used on the Old Mill. There are some large holes in this piece and I am going to try larger #3 spiral blades (again Flying Dutchman) in those holes. I've only started (as can be seen in the attached photo) and so, far, things are going well. I find the my degree control of the #3 blades to be about the same as with the #3/0 blades. I can cut faster with them, so they are worth using. One thing that surprised me is that the blades seem to be just about as brittle as the #3/0 blades. I have already broken two of them and, in both cases, they broke when I was going slowly and exerting minimal pressure.

Hey that's quite good, and different than anything that I have tried. As a recent scroll-saw hobbyist, I am trying a bit of every different style and technique that I can find. I have put this on my list.

I usually sit on a stool with the table at about waist height. I also elevate the rear legs of the saw as can be seen in the first photo below. When working on very large pieces, I use an auxiliary table and stand. See the second photo below.

I've ordered both by the number of blades and by the 1/2 gross. I received exactly what I ordered. In case other Canadians are interested in ordering from Mike, Mike does not charge extra for shipping to Canada and on both of the two orders I have placed, the blades arrived exactly one week from the day that I placed the order. Also, there was no extra charge for duty or customs.

If it is solid wood rather than plywood, I usually use Polymerized Tung oil. If it is plywood, then I usually finish in one of two ways: With stain or acrylic paint, then satin spray varnish Just with semi-gloss spray varnish

I like it Dick!

I assume that by 1/4 inch, you mean 6 millimetre. I prefer that thickness for the reason you stated, the thickness looks better or, at least, it looks better to me. I build my own frames so DonR's reason for preferring thinner plywood doers not apply to me.

The piece has now been stained and framed. I first VERY CAREFULLY hand sanded both the front and the back using a Festool Granat foam-backed pad. (first photo below) I considered chickening out a not staining the piece at all but, in the end, proceeded to stain it. (2nd photo below shows the piece after sanding and before staining) After a lot of experimentation and mixing to obtain the desired shades the piece was stained using Saman water-based stains. I cut and stained a backing piece out of the white oak veneer as was used for the mill. The mill piece was glued to the backing using Lepage 'No More Clamps' white wood glue. I run the grain of the backing piece in the opposite direction to the mill piece. Three coats of Saman Satin Varnish were then applied. I made the frame out of quarter-sawn white oak. It's the same simple frame design that has been used by woodworkers in my family for approximately 110 years. The end result can be seen in the 3rd photo below. I am happy with it. I thank Sasho Janevski (neptun) for the design and I am certain that I will be attempting more of his designs in the future.

Charley, you have done a really good job on this. It is the type of design that I expected to see more of.

Dick, I thank you for the advice. You could very well be right that this piece might be better not stained. But, this project is all about experimenting, so I am going to go ahead and experiment with stain. The stains that I have now finally chosen are somewhat subtle and dull and the wood grain will certainly remain obvious. About speed, I did not ever hurry the project and was always comfortable and alert. Just as I do with "regular" sawing, I thought about each move before I made it. I am definitely aware of the danger of rushing things. Having said that, I am still interested in knowing how long an experienced scroller should expect to take to saw this piece. I agree, that this should be fun -and it is!

I'm having trouble deciding on the stains to use on this piece. For me, the sawing part if this new hobby is easy but the painting and finishing is difficult. It's taking me almost as much elapsed time to decide on the stains as it took to do the sawing. I resolve to settle on the stains today. I'm attaching a picture of the likely stains that I will use together with a mock-up of the backing and the frame..

Sawing Complete: See the rightmost photo below. The job ended up taking about seven and a half hours. I don’t know if this is slow, fast, or average. To educate me, I would appreciate hearing from others about how long they took to saw the same piece or even how long they expect it would take them. Even if you have not done such a piece but have the appropriate experience, I would like to hear your estimate of how long it should take. I broke seven 3/0 blades during while working on this piece. Rusty told me that he would expect to complete such a piece using only two 3/0 blades. What are the experiences or estimates of blade usage/breakage by others? Here are a few Observations: Even though with this type of blade it is possible to cut sideways and even backwards, I usually turned the work so that I was cutting towards myself. I probably cut towards myself about 90% of the time. Others claim an advantage of spiral blades is that they do not have to rotate the work, but I feel that I want to still rotate the work because I am more accurate when cutting towards myself. I tried to do some of the piece (only about 10 holes) with a “regular†2/0 blade but found that blade ti be more difficult to use in the “fuzzy†type of hole that is predominant in this piece. A very useful thing about this blade is the ability to use it as a file along the edges of a hole. During the course of this project, I got quite comfortable and skilled using the blade this way. What’s next? I’m going to mount this on a oak background leftmost photo below shows stains that I am trying out using the back to test things out. Right now, I like the stains on the building and the wheel but I think that the blue stain on the water (it is water, isn’t it?) is too bright.

Kevin(amazingkevin), Jim(GrampaJim), Larry(ubgooy2003), Bob(bobscroll), Ralph(rdatelle), ,William(ike), Joe(Young_Scroller), Jay(RangerJay), Paul(Fab4), Rusty(Sparkey), and Richard(heppnerguy): I thank you all for responding to this thread and for your observations and advice. Jay, thanks for the advice about mixing up blades. Until starting the Old Mill project, the two blades that I used for the majority of my work were: Olson Crown Tooth 2/0 20tpi and Olson PGT double reverse tooth 9RG I remain more comfortable using either of these than the Flying Dutchman 3/0 blade that I am using on the Old Mill and my reward for completing the Old Mill will to be working on a project where either or both of these is/are the main balde(s) used. Paul, I don't swear (even under my breath) but, if I did, the were two instances that might have brought forth such an oath. The first was when a new blade broke after it had been used for about 30 seconds. The second was when I cut from one opening right into another. I count myself lucky in that there have been only two such occurrences. Rusty, I am already going very slowly (at about 60% of top speed) and am not pushing the work hard, so I don't think that's why the blades broke. I think that it is more likely that the blades are breaking because I am bending them somewhat out of shape while attempting to insert them into holes from below the work. I do thank your for your observation that you would expect to use only two blades on such a project. I will ask other people to tell me how many 3/0 blades they would expect to use on this piece.

Update: I've now worked on the piece for about five hours and am happy about the progress. I have broken 5 blades and have only 7 left so that is a bit of a concern. Taking the warnings posted above about not finishing up cutting in the centre of the piece into account, I have cut around three edges and plan to end up in the bottom left. LarryEA, about the 90 degree cuts: The best thing about a scene like this is that there a few such angles. I have found that, treating the blade as sort of a file and going very slowly, I can manage clean up an angle and make it appear to be 90 (or whatever) degrees..

Sorcier, thanks for the tip about starting in the middle. I should have thought of that. Oh well, that's what I will do next time.

ubgoofy2003, 6mm is just about the same as 1/4". I am running my saw at about 60% of its top speed and pushing slowly, so the cutting is not too fast for me. Thanks for the encouragement.