Blaughn

Very nice, Frank. Jatoba wood?

Wow, that is a complex item. Beautifully done!

Beautiful. That is some very delicate work. I wish I owned one ...... Gulfstream G-550 that is. The pendent would be a very nice add on.

If that is your first try, I can't wait so see what follows! Very nice!!!

Welcome to the Village from Minnesota! Bruce

Bem-vindo à vila de Minnesota. Bruce

Welcome back to the Village from Minnesota.! Bruce

Welcome to the Village from Minnesota. Bruce

Well done! When working on "ambitious" sayings, using individual segments takes more than a little pressure off as you approach the end of the cutting. Bruce

My go-to finish is natural Watco Danish Oil followed by wipe-on poly. I allow time to let the Danish Oil soak in thoroughly and then wipe it down. I use compressed air to blow out any cavities that may have trapped the oil. My rule is to let the danish oil to dry for 72 hours before applying the wipe-on. Once the Danish is dry, I apply very thin coats of the wipe-on poly allowing 2 hours for each to dry before applying the next. I apply five coats and then apply the 6th coat using a small square of 320 grade wet or dry sandpaper to level any dust nibs. I then gently rub this still wet coat with my fingers (I use nitrile gloves) to even it out and achieve a soft rubbed appearance.

Hi Edward: I was working with my grandson teaching him to make sharp turns and stumbled across an exercise that sped up the process. Using a piece of scrap, drill a hole, insert the blade and practice rotating the workpiece with very slight pressure on the back of the blade. You will discover that this simple exercise will help you to acquire a feel for the art of making sharp turns. Done correctly, you can rotate the workpiece in both directions without enlarging the hole. This also helps when cutting small radius turns. You will find that on these you need to starve the teeth of the blade just slightly to stay on line. You do this by introducing slight back pressure on the blade which slows the rate of cut. There are two kinds of scrollers - 1. those who have screwed up a project and 2. those who about to screw up a project.

That is really nice. Another example of the grain of the wood enhancing the overall art.

Obviously you aren't in my neck of the woods. (It was in the mid-teens here yesterday). Great looking booth. Good luck on the show. Bruce Minneapolis (It is not the end of the Earth but you can see it from here)

NICE!!

As scrollers we live or die by the fraction of an inch or a degree of curvature viewed under magnification from 12 - 18 " away. The viewers of our work sees the whole work and seldom recognized a flaw. Aren't we lucky!!! Bruce

You are correct - this is designed specifically for my saw and the work I typically do. With a 20" saw the width dimension for a golden mean plaque works out to be 12.36" That is what this design yields with the cauls pictured above. In a pinch, I could make another set of cauls that are 2" wide which would give me capacity of 15.5" . This fixture is also compact enough and light enough to hang on the wall and out of the way. Since I have more tools (a legacy of 70 years of collecting) than I have floorspace in my shop that was a huge consideration. If I had unlimited space I would build a birch laminated bench top with the retractable bench stops which would serve the same purpose. All the best!!!! Bruce

Welcome to the Village from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Bruce

Welcome to the Village, Paul. Bruce Minneapolis

This is my solution for salvaging thin stock. I ran into a bunch of imperfections in the 8/4 Jatoba I was working with which would have rendered useless nearly 3 feet of 8/4 x 5" stock. After cutting away the imperfections, I ended up with 6 pieces that were 3 - 4" wide x 15.5" long. The pieces are just over 1/4" thick and trying to clamp them with traditional methods would be impossible. So, I spent the day making a clamping board. This consist of 24" x 24" x 1.5" MDF (two 3/4" pieces glued together) with formica top and a plywood bottom to reinforce the stiffness of the MDF. I used a 1 3/8 forstner bit for the holes and 1 3/8" poplar dowel for the stops. The wedges are cut from hickory with a 5 degree angle. The gluing cauls are fabricated from oak but you could just as easily use pine. The clamping cauls have one perfectly straight edge and the other edge is curved. Youtube has several videos showing how to use the clamping board and how to fabricate the cauls. The surface of the formica has a thin coat of paste wax applied. You use this device by applying the glue to the edges of your thin stock, pressing them together and then use the wedges above and below the cauls to apply pressure. You can then use a piece of scrap lumber to protect the surface of your work piece while you tap the pieces flush with each other on the surface and along the edges The multiple holes in the clamping board are to make it easy to vary the width of the panel being glued. Using multiple wedges on top allow you to easily and quickly adjust for different widths. The final picture is the finished panel as it came off the clamping board - no planing nor sanding. I have to say, after trying to do this with traditional clamps, this method makes gluing thin pieces a breeze. The flat surface of the clamping board keeps everyting registered as you clamp.

Thank you for the remembrance - and a salute to all my fellow comrades-in-arms. Bruce Laughton, Lt. US Navy - 1970-1977 Vietnam Nov 1972 - Mar 1973 (Linebacker 2)

My scrolling involves word-art plaques which means many very precise tight turns and the need for making straight lines straight and long smooth curves smooth. I have found that the angle I need to use to feed the blade changes (gets greater). I attribute this to the torque you apply to the blade during a tight turn. When this becomes noticeable - I change the blade. Given the time and energy I put into the piece, the cost of the blade is negligible to the cost of making a fatal error. As far as which blade, I tried them all and then tried the Flying Dutchman Ultra Reverse. These fit my style and, for me, ended the question of "Which Blade To Use?"

Great job, Kevin

We have had a tradition of adding ornaments for the kids and grand kids 4 generations back. These items and the memories grow sweeter each and every year. Nice Job!

I love it! Beautiful work!

Those will be treasured, Kevin. Beautiful.