CharleyL

My scroll saw tool box has two clamps that I use for compound cutting, A Pair of scissors, an old toothbrush, a roll of double sided tape for stack cutting, a roll of blue tape, a bottle of rubber cement, because I don't need to remove patterns when compound cutting, a small plastic protractor, and also a set of the scroll saw angle gauges, A pill bottle containing finger nail files. another pill bottle containing a red, black, and fine black sharpie markers., and 6-9 pill bottles containing my most used sizes of scroll saw blades. I have a second larger box that usually stays in the shop that contains about 26 more pill bottles of my lesser used sizes of scroll saw blades. Charley

The larger bearings near the motor, (those on the connecting rod) and the big bolt that the rocker arm pivots on are usually the main sources of play and noise. DeWalt and www.erellacementparts.com now sell the connecting rod with the bearings installed as a single part, because the bearing holes in the connecting rod can go bad too. If you only change these bearings and press out/in the new bearings, make certain that the bearings are still tight in the holes, If loose, blue Locktite around the inside of the bearing hole/ bearing outer race will tighten it up. Charley

For those looking for a stool, keep checking the used office furniture stores, or put in a request with them for a draftsman's stool. Comfortable cushion, adjustable height, and wheels like a secretary chair. There aren't many draftsmen around anymore that work on drafting tables. They all use computers now, so these stools and the big drafting tables are becoming surplus. Only graphic artists seem to be looking for them now. Charley

I always set them for the time zone where they will be going, so the time is correct on the clock when they open the package. I include instructions about how to replace the battery and set the clock too, but they don't need to do this when they first receive it.

Kevin, When I get the chance, I'll send you a package. Since you all seem to like my boxes, here are a few more that I also made last week. The first is the larger box that holds all of the scroll saw blades that I'm not currently using. The outside is finished, but I need to add some dividers inside to keep the bottles held in place better. While the previous box will travel with me and my saw to trade shows and classes, this box will likely remain in my shop. The box with the black handle isn't finished yet either, but it will hold a small tool and all of it's accessory parts. I make boxes for my tools when they don't have a protective case, or when there are many small parts and accessories that would quickly get lost otherwise. The photo with the two boxes shows both of the scroll saw related boxes together. All of these are built from 1/2" Baltic Birch with 1/4" Baltic Birch tops and bottoms. I use an Incra I-Box jig and a Freud SBOX8 blade set on my Unisaw to make the box joints in the corners. This method works better than any other way that I've used for doing this in my past 55+ years of woodworking. Who ever said "You can't cut box joints in plywood?" I make a lot of boxes. I hope you all enjoy the photos. Charley

The blades that come with new saws are worthless to me. I either give them away or put them in the trash. Any blade that I can't identify also goes the same way. I keep my identifiable blades in 5" tall prescription bottles and keep the label that came on them inside the bottle, just in case I miss place the cap, but I label the bottle caps with the blade information to make it easier for me to just look in the box at the top of the bottles to find the blade that I want. I made a kind of tool box with half of it for blade container storage and half of it for the small tools that I use when working with the scroll saw. It sits on a milk crate next to me while I saw, and it goes with me when I teach or demonstrate scroll sawing. It keeps me from forgetting anything. This box was made from 1/2" Baltic Birch with a 1/4" Baltic Birch top and bottom. I box jointed the corners and just glued on the top and bottom. Who said that you can't box joint plywood? It seems to work very well for me. I have made many sizes of this same style box for my shop tools, to protect them and keep all of the small pieces of each tool together with the tool and well organized. This one is not stained, just clear coated with 3 coats of polyurethane. Most of the others are stained in different colors to make the right box easier to identify. I made a second larger version of this box, also clear coated, for the rest of my blade stock that don't usually go with me when I teach or demonstrate. Each one of the prescription bottles will easily hold 3 or more gross of blades and still have space for a finger to pull out a single blade. I usually open only one bundle of blades at a time and keep the loose single blades in the same bottle along with the rest of the bundles. My pharmacy gives me the bottles whenever I ask for them. I don't have to take this many pills in order to get them. Charley

The forward/back motion of the blade on a Q3 saw is almost nothing at the table level, so cutting corners on thin work is no problem at all. If you cut thick wood or stack cut it can pose a slight problem when making tight turns, but up to about 1" thick I have never had a problem at all. The price of this saw is lower than the total crap cheap saws that are being sold, so this is a huge leap in quality of saw and a great bargain for anyone getting started in scrolling. Only when they start to stack cut or compound cut will they begin to wish they had a different saw. I have compound cut work up to 1 1/4" thick with my Q3 and had acceptable results. It will likely be a long time before a new or casual user ever reaches the point where this saw will not do what they want. This is a huge bargain for someone like this. Charley

That saw is a bargain. I'm amazed that nobody has bought it yet. I have one, and would be buying this one if it was on the East Coast. I bought my Q3 new and it has been a work horse. My only complaint with it is that the blade clamps aren't as user friendly as the ones on the DeWalt 788, which I also have. The Q3 has a slightly more aggressive cut because of the rocking motion of the C frame design, which can be a great benefit over the 788 when production cutting. Charley

Stockroom Supply offers a cheaper sander that works the same as the Sand Flea, and a DIY version where they sell the drum, bearings, belt, and pulleys, and plans to build the rest yourself using your own 1/2 or 3/4 hp motor. I built their 24" version and it works very well, but their plans were a bit rough. However, the only critical part is building the table and getting it perfectly flat. I built two. The second top that I build is usable, but it's not quite perfect. I may buy a ready made flat top from them for it. The Sand Flea or Stockroom Supply sander concept works quite well and I have used mine a lot. Centrifical force of the spinning drum expands the Velcro attached sand paper on the drum and this increased diameter is what actually does the sanding. The sand paper barely touches the work surface when the drum is not spinning. To adjust the rate of material removal, you change the grit of the sand paper. It leaves a very flat and smooth surface. http://stockroomsupply.ca/shop/drum-sanders.html https://www.rjrstudios.com/store/p3/SAND-FLEE®_18"_Portable_Drum_Sander.html Charley

A great job Melanie. Those look like a pro did them, not a first timer. Are you enjoying your new found way to use your scroll saw? Charley

Rob, I have done that too. I tape the block together, leaving a folded over tab at the end of each piece for them to grab and pull . I sent these to relatives and close friends when they couldn't comprehend my explanation of how I was making them. I've also included one of the old dull saw blades so they could see how tiny the blade was. One cousin opened her's while on the phone with me. She seemed genuinely impressed as the reindeer came out of the middle of the block of wood before her. Charley

Scroll saw blade choice is a very personal thing. There are several good manufacturers and each offers a very large variety of blades. I tend to prefer smaller blades than others when doing the same kind of cutting, but my preferred choice never seems to be the same as others. My only suggestion is to try different blade sizes, types, and brands until you find the blade that works best for what you are cutting and then use it for that type of work and wood. You will find that what works best for you will vary depending on the type of work and the wood that you are cutting it from. Years ago I started scrolling with whatever USA made blades that I could find and I had very mixed luck with them. Back then, blade quality varied all over the place and even from one blade to another of the same bundle. Then "precision ground" became available and this was a significant improvement. I now buy mostly European made blades because I have found them to be of much higher quality. Still, occasionally, I find differences between two blades of the same package, but over all they are a night and day difference than the blades that I was using 40 years ago, and blade technology seems to still be improving, so don't buy more than you can use in 6 months to a year, because newer and better blades will quite likely be made next year.. A three or four year old blade may not even compare compare to a new blade of the same size and style. Charley

I once tried strips of sandpaper in the clamps, but loose grit from the sandpaper, falling onto the saw table left scratches as the work and clamp were moved over them, so I quit using the sandpaper. The stretching and bending of the all thread takes a long time and many uses of the clamp before it becomes obvious. It doesn't happen quickly, but eventually you will notice it and I recently had some of the stainless all thread begin to bend, but I have been using this clamp heavily for the past two years. If it bent because of the stress of tightening, it has taken much longer that the steel all thread,. I guess that I won't know for certain until it happens again. I don't mean these suggestions to be criticism in any way. You are doing great, but eventually, if you continue to do compound cutting, my tips may be of help to you or someone else who reads them. Charley

WOW !!! Rob and Barb, you are doing great at compound cutting. Was it fun? I knew the reindeer would be worthy money making products for craft shows because of the demand that I have created for them here. Now you need to get good at making smaller reindeer so you can make ear rings from them, because I'm certain that there is money in them too, but don't expect to make them as fast as the larger sizes. Their legs must be cut exactly right or they will fall apart, sometimes before they are finished. With the lacquer coating and jewelry purchase and assembly there is considerably more time and money involved in them, and two reindeer are required for each, so plan on 2-3 hours of time for each pair. I'm totally "hooked" on compound scroll saw cutting and rarely do anything else any more. My second batch of reindeer ear rings is in process now with 16 little reindeer already cut and waiting for lacquer and jewelry pieces. I'd have enough for 24 pair by now if my eyes didn't stop me. I switch to the larger sizes when my eyes get tired, so have made about 25 of them in the past week too. But I have other commitments, that are severely limiting my reindeer time. There's no chance of me reaching or passing the 426 count of reindeer that I made last year. I also have a Delta Q3 saw, but use the DeWalt most of the time, because blade replacement is so much easier on the DeWalt. The rocking action of a "C" frame saw makes these saws cut faster and I started doing compound cutting on the Q3 before I got the DeWalt. It's a great saw, if only it could have had a less finicky blade clamp design, but both saws do quite well on compound cutting. Charley

When you cut out of a block of wood that you know to have been cut to size square, and the blade breaks out at the top or bottom before it breaks out at the other end, your blade is not straight front to back. When you cut out of a block of wood that you know to have been cut to size square and the top and bottom of the cut is not parallel with the side edge of the block of wood, the table is not perfectly at 90 deg with the blade. When you are not cutting anything, but watching the blade closely using a bright light as it moves up and down at a slow to moderate speed, and the blade has a blur or side to side shift as it moves, one of the set screws in the blade clamps needs adjusting (this is for DeWalt 788 type blade clamps). These are what the thumb screws push the blade against when tightening the thumb screws. I use BLUE Locktite to keep these set screws from gradually moving on their own. A tiny dab on the thread of the set screw before installing it is all that is necessary. Be sure to only use Blue Locktite and not some other color. The blue Locktite holds the threads from moving but does not prevent it from moving if you ever want to change the adjustment. Other colors are for much more permanent bonding. You want the blade to move straight up and down, with no side movement. The thicker your wood or stack is that you will be cutting, the more important that these adjustments become. If you ever cut a moderately thick piece of wood and discover that a piece that has been cut free of the pattern will not slide easily out in the up or down direction, your blade is not moving straight up and down, and it can be caused by any one or more of these. With the DeWalt 788 and similar saws, the blade will move slightly forward and backward because of the arc followed by the short blade arms. This "orbital" action helps the saw cut more aggressively than a saw that moves the blade perfectly straight up and down because it helps to clear the blade teeth of saw dust with each stroke. As long as the blade is straight during this movement it is fine. There is no adjustment to correct for it anyway. Charley

They look great !!!! Compound cutting at it's best. Fun, isn't it ? Here is a tip, if you plan to continue compound cutting - After you do compound cutting for a while with your present clamp, the regular steel all thread that you are using will begin to stretch and bend. I now use 10-32 stainless all thread because it doesn't bend and stretch as easily, and because the 32 pitch thread lets me get the clamps tighter than when using the 10-24 all thread. The springs are nice, but I don't bother using them any more. My students were catching them in the saw blades and it was hard on the springs as well as the blades. Charley

Now I think I've given away all of my secrets to successful compound cutting. Isn't anyone even trying to do this? Come on, I want to see some pictures. It can be of reindeer or something else. Compound cutting can be a whole new and rewarding challenge. Since I started, I haven't cut much else since then, and most people have never even seen anything compound cut on a scroll saw, so the demand for finding a unique gift at a craft show is wide open for compound cut pieces and they should sell very well. I don't sell, and never have, but give my scroll saw work away as gifts. The reindeer are mostly given away During the Christmas Season to anyone who helps me in any way. Sales girls, clerks, cashiers, waitresses, nurses, doctors, etc. People frequently try to buy these and I have to tell them that I don't sell, but give them as gifts. It's quite amazing how much they are liked and wanted. One day last year I was in my local Lowes and had some of the larger reindeer with me. I had given them to all of the women who worked there last year and was offering one to a new woman Lowes employee, when I discovered that a line was forming behind her. Some wanted another and some were new Lowes employees. Since I try not to give someone more than one and since I only had 8 reindeer with me, I had to turn the ones away that had already received one. The demand is there for them and some of the ones who want to pay for them have offered up to $10 each for the larger 3 1/2" tall ones that only take me about 6 minutes to cut. If I could have an unlimited supply and a waiting line of paying customers, I could conceivably make as much as $100 per hour making and selling only the large reindeer. I don't plan on selling any, so I won't be your competition, but here is a possible great source of income to add to your Christmas Season revenue. Once you learn to make the reindeer there are already many patterns available of compound cut patterns that you can make, and at least for a while, you will have something unique to sell with no competition. All it will take is a little effort to master the art of compound cutting with a quality scroll saw like a DeWalt 788 or better that's adjusted for a perfectly straight blade side to side, as well as front to back. My posts have given you everything that you need to know, even how to get the blade perfectly straight in your saw. All you will need to do is to try it. Charley

For the few pieces that I've kept that are in the house, I was told a long time ago that cleaning them is my job, so about once a year I take each piece out to the shop, blow it off with compressed air, and then put it back in the house where it had originally been located. I've been told to do it more often, but tend to forget, until I can easily see the dust on them. Fortunately, I did not use a soft finish. They are either tung oil or poly finished. Charley

Coat your project with a clear finish first. Then, after the finish is fully dry, your markers will not bleed when applied. I use clear spray lacquer on my reindeer before applying the eyes and red nose with Sanford Sharpie marking pens. I don't sign the reindeer or my 3D ornaments because I haven't been able to do it successfully without it detracting from the appearance. Charley

How about telling us what make and model saw you are using. Every manufacturer uses a different style blade clamp, and sometimes has a different style clamp for each of their models. It's difficult to provide a good reply to questions like this without knowing more about the saw. Charley

Yes, start out with poplar or basswood as Scott ( NC Scroller) says. It's the soft/hard/soft transitions of strong grained wood that makes it difficult to cut. Poplar and Bass wood don't have these hard/soft transitions to deal with. Hard Maple is much harder wood and doesn't have the hard.soft grain to deal with, but it is more expensive and dulls the scroll saw blades faster. Poplar is easier to find and cheaper. Bass Wood is difficult to find and not nearly as cheap as Poplar. I frequently use pine for the larger reindeer, because I have a carpenter friend who saves me scraps, but I have to choose pieces with little to no visible strong grain lines ,The soft/hard/soft transitions as the blade cuts through the grain lines deflect the blade. but I also use poplar as it has no strong grain lines. I try to carefully choose only the white poplar, since reindeer don't look very good in green or shades of gray. On my tiny 1" reindeer I only use hard maple, because softer woods usually result in in them falling apart before I can even finish cutting them. I've made a couple of 1/2" tall reindeer out of hard maple once, last year, but it took eight to get two and one of them wasn't that good. I need to come up with some better methods before trying these again. Charley

Thanks everyone. I'm glad that I was able to help. I'm here on Scroll Saw Village almost daily, usually in the AM, so if you try this and have problems, post your questions and I'll do my best to answer them. Pictures of your problem would probably also help. If you don't want your problems and pictures on here for everyone to see, send me a PM to me and I'll help privately. In the pictures, notice how close I followed the pattern lines, either directly on the line or right next to it on the waste side of the line. This is very important when compound cutting, but with experience you will learn where this level of accuracy isn't quite as important, however it will be different with each pattern. For the reindeer, a slight deviation from the neck and back pattern lines toward the waste side of the line in either the face view or side view will not result in a failed cut, but more than two blade widths of offset will show in the final results. You also need to make smooth cuts with no back-ups and nice gradual curves or it will show as well, Sudden changes in direction where a smooth gradual curve should be usually creates firewood, since it is near impossible to fix these after they are cut wrong. Remember, these reindeer are too small to be able to do much sanding, so sanding off a mistake will be nearly impossible. Sometimes they get fuzzy legs - splinters, usually on the inside of their legs, especially in the softer woods. I usually use finger nail files, sometimes trimmed narrower with a pair of scissors, and use the fine grit side to kind of rub these fuzzies off of their legs but the rest of their bodies is usually smooth enough direct from the saw. It usually doesn't take actual sanding, but just bending the fuzzy back and forth a few times should break it off smooth with the leg. Cutting with a fine tooth blade eliminates the need to sand their bodies almost completely. Again these tips apply to most any compound cutting that I've ever done and not just the reindeer. Charley

A continuation of my previous post Here is one more reindeer picture that didn't seem to want to upload with the rest. It shows the four sizes of reindeer that I make. Also is a picture of how I put the nose and eyes on each reindeer, which is the easiest part. I have been spraying the ear ring reindeer with 1 coat of clear lacquer. It seems to stiffen them up a little, although they are still extremely delicate. I drill a tiny hole in their head below their antlers and behind their eyes, to allow insertion of the gold or silver 12 mm jewelry rings. Then I attach a small ring to this ring and then an ear hook gets attached to this small ring. The small ring is necessary for the reindeer to face forward. I always make a left and righ pair, so both reindeer face forward when used. Oh, now that the ear rings needed have been completed, I'll be making a batch or two of the larger sizes. I've also got some boxes to make before the big day.

Okay, pictures, as promised. I was cutting the smallest size reindeer this week to make ear rings for Christmas Presents, but the technique is the same no matter what size reindeer or compound cut pattern that you decide to make. Whatever the pattern is, it needs to have 2 views to make up the complete pattern and they need to be attached together on one piece of paper, so you can fold the pattern between the two images (the front view and the side view) They must remain attached to each other in order to preserve their alignment with each other. You fold them and then place the fold on the corner of your block of wood, so the face view glues to one side of the wood block and the side view glues to the adjacent side of the block of wood. Again, I use Stationery Store rubber cement, to attach my compound cut patterns because it's cheap and easy to work with, and because all of the the pattern pieces get trashed while still attached to the scrap. For reindeer, I like to use a FD #1R blade and I use the same blade for all four sizes that I make. I always apply paraffin wax to both sides and teeth of a new blade and again after each reindeer or other pattern is cut. I run my DeWalt scroll saw slow enough that the cuts don't burn. With pine, this can be faster than when using a hard wood like hard maple. For cutting 3D Christmas Ornaments from other kinds of wood, I adjust the speed to suit the wood that I am cutting. First picture. Again, this is of the smallest reindeer that I make. He is just a little over 1" tall and I always use hard maple for this since they are so delicate, but again, I use the same method regardless of the reindeer or other compound pattern size. You can easily see the face and side views of the pattern folded over the corner of the block of wood. The little extra wood near his antlers gives me a chance to correct before actually cutting the pattern, should I have a new blade that doesn't track the same as the previous blade. The reindeer's feet must touch the bottom edge of the wood and the wood must have a perfect cut on the bottom or the reindeer won't stand correctly when he is complete. Second picture. Here you can see the clamp that I use alongside the reindeer that I will be cutting. The clamp is made from two strips of 3/4" birch ply about 1 X 6" in size with 10-32 stainless rods between them and wing nuts on the long all thread side to tighten and loosen the clamp. All of the 4 sizes of reindeer that I make are cut with this same clamp. It's one of the first clamps that I made when I started compound cutting and it has a few battle scars to show for it, not all caused by me. I teach scroll sawing and have several of each size clamp. I let my students use any clamp to prove that it isn't the clamp that's giving them trouble because they can even use the one that I just demonstrated with, but even with all of it's battle scars, this one is usually my first choice. We've been through a lot together. When you install the reindeer and tighten the clamp, make certain that the reindeer block of wood and the clamp is flat against the saw table. Third picture Ok, ready to cut. The clamp is as tight as I can make it without hurting my fingers and the blade is passing through the space in the clamp above the reindeer. I always start at his top right antler and work clockwise. I cut all the way down and exit the bottom of the block of wood at his right hoof. Then tighten the clamp (about 1 turn) and then cut up the inside of the right leg and back down his left leg and out of the block and out of the block of wood again. Then I start cutting at his right hoof and go all the way up to the top of his antler and out of the top of the block of wood. Then I again tighten the clamp. Then a short cut down between his antlers and back out of the top of the block of wood completes the face view cutting. Fourth picture When you remove the clamp you should see this. All of the face view has been cut and if the pieces are separated they should look like this. No put them all back together and in perfect alignment with each other, open the clamp wider, and place the block of wood back into the clamp, but this time with the side view facing up. As you tighten the clamp, make certain that the bottom of the clamp and the block of wood are again flat against the saw table .Again I cut this side view in a clockwise direction all the way out of the wood at his hoof, then tighten the clamp. Then cut up between his legs and back out the bottom of the wood at his hoof. Then cut up from his hoof to his antlers, but this time I continue to cut all of the antlers before exiting the wood about where I began cutting. If all cutting is complete, you can carefully remove the clamp. Fifth picture - At this point you should have a perfect little reindeer (if you carefully followed the lines of the pattern) inside all of the scrap pieces, kind of like a chicken about to be hatched. The next succession of pictures will show the removal of pieces. I attempted to remove only one piece of scrap in each picture, but life and gravity made this nearly impossible, so the next group of pictures was after me cutting a larger reindeer and then attempting to remove only one piece at a time. It didn't go perfectly well either, so picture five is the completely cut larger reindeer. . Now to begin removing one piece of scrap at a time as best as I can Picture six and seven Show the top surface layer of scrap removed . Although you can see a complete reindeer in the top center of picture seven, it iis only a scrap side view. The reindeer himself is in the center of the larger piece with scrap surrounding him. Picture eight and the following show the rest of the scrap falling away Picture Nine Shows the two reindeer that I made during this photo session, the llargest and the smallest that I make together with a ruler scale under them to give you a size comparison. Picture ten Is a completed set of reindeer ear rngs mounted on a card and in a gift box. Picture eleven Is the result of two afternoon's production. Yes, I do wear magnification when cutting these.

If doing it on the computer is beyond you, how about the cut and paste method. Make a bunch of copies of the pattern at the size you want using a photo copier. Then take a blank piece of paper and begin cutting and pasting as many patterns as you can fit on the piece of paper. When the paper is as full of patterns as you can get it, print a copy of this pasted together sheet on the photo copier. You now have a full page master that you can make copies from. It will take more pieces of paper to get there, but it's simple to cut and paste. Even school kids can do it this way. Once you get the master sheet with all of the pattern copies on it, keep it for when you need more copies. Make them as you need them, and cut the patterns apart from these copies to past to your wood. It'll waste a few sheets printing the single patterns to fill the sheet, but from then on you won't waste any more paper. Paper is cheap in small quantities. DONE!!! Charley