munzieb

Beautiful artwork. A treasure. My wife and I miss them too.

Kevin, you keep your shoulder down and keep working, Amazing!

Great job! I enjoy cutting Sue Mey patterns. BTW a good white paint can nicely cover a cheap piece of plywood! Happy New Year and make more saw dust in the new year!

Lots of thin scary cuts. Great job!

A lot of work and the cutting is great. Front panel lighting is working well. Just need to add more lights on the back panel. Not able to see those cuttings well. It would make a big difference.

I've been working on this for a few weeks. I found the Pattern on Pinterest. The original was a little small so I took it to the UPS store to enlarge. Only problem was the pattern got rasterized. I rather follow a line than an edge and I had to guess the line with the rasterized edge. I did not stack cut because I tend to push too hard and distort the bottom pattern. The pattern is 1/8" BBPW. I cut the oak posts to 3/4" and dato'ed a 1/4" grove on 2 sides with the table saw to accept the pattern and the 1/8" amber Plexiglas. Initially left the protective backing on one side of the Plexiglas but it was too dark. I used parchment paper and glued edges with contact cement to the Plexiglas. I used 1/4" dowels to mount the posts on top and bottom and glued the bottom in place after mounting panels. Top is removable. I had to put a slight taper on the edges of the wooden panels since the grooves were a tight fit. I used a 40 W LED bulb and made sure it was one of the ones that shone both up and down. Some have a high collar that only shine sideways and up. Finish was 2 coats of shellac and 2 coats of lacquer. Used a roller on/off switch. There were many steps to make this project but it has a perfect spot in our hall foyer. In the next few months I'll be holding off on projects. I am having a 24 x 30 detached garage built in the back yard. It will have a small 1/2 bath, HAVC and a 14 x 30 loft. Stubbing water waste and HAVC for future expansion upstairs. Wife wants me out of the garage. Too much dust. The plan I've included will only have one garage door and the lav. on the opposite side. Entrance door will move to front. Still getting price for 2 dormers. Hope to have it done by May but it will depend on HOA AC approval.

Lots of scary skinny lines. Well done!

Great Job on the cutting. If he had ordered it from Gulfstream it would have cost 1000 times what your are probably asking for this project. I was in this business for many years and if it's an aircraft broker or completion/maintenance center, they made a HUGE amount of money from their customers on their aircraft. It is a nice gift. Don't forget to label the back. You may get some follow on business from the recipient for your excellent work.

Well Done. Perfect for the season!

Revisiting an old topic. This morning our mail lady came by today. She has been out on disability for several months and we hadn't seen her for a while . I had made another mail truck plaque as a donation for the NRLCA, National Rural Letter Carrier Association meeting in Lexington SC this fall. She was excited to tell me that the plaque had sold for $240 at the annual auction!! It feels good to help out.

Thank you all for your kind comments. The cutting went pretty quick. A little help from my buddy, Mr. Blue Tape. We are keeping the 1st copy to remind me , lesson learned. I may have to make another one if my sister bugs me. I'm getting pretty good at making the picture frames using my Integra Miter on my table saw. Trim is from Lowes.

I moved this over from Pattern request. Mahendra did a fantastic job designing this pattern. We had visited my nephew and family this summer and wanted to give them a gift to remember our trip. The photo was enlarged and put on canvas at the UPS Store and printed the Photo file. This was actually my second cutting. Got the first one done and when I lifted the pattern, some of the fibers of the BBPW came up with it. Tired to fill but the color contrast was too great.

Extreme Cuteness! Well done!

I want to see those Santa helper Elf Ears! You are a cutting machine!

Welcome to the village. You can already see that there is a lot of good information and also encouragement here. So here is my 2 cents of knowledge, blades break, it's the cost of making something beautiful. Heck, Michelangelo had to throw out brushes when they were worn out. If he had an errant hammer blow with a chisel, it was tough to put it back on, you have CA or super glue. It's a whole lot easier to fix wood. If you notice that it gets harder to move the blade through your piece, it's gone dull. It will start to wander and slow you down. Don't wait for it to break, just change it out. Blue tape is your friend. If your project is getting too floppy or wobbly, save your cutout pieces and tape them back in place (without obscuring adjacent lines) It will stabilize your work and helps when you are sanding the back to remove the fuzz. Nature is perfect... or not. Leaves, plants, trees, landscapes and even animals have curves, radii and irregular shapes. If you wander a little, it's not a problem and won't be noticed. Man is hung up on straight lines and sharp angles. If you make a mistake, do it in the waste area, you can always go back and nibble away with your blade and clean it up. If you are cutting where there are 2 sharp converging lines, cut to the point and then slightly deeper (the thickness of the blade) back out the blade and cut into the waste area to reverse the blade and back into the point and continue cutting in the new direction. If you notice a weak or floppy piece in the area of your cut, do them first. You will remove the load on that piece especially if the remaining piece is larger. If you are cutting parallel cuts with narrow strips between them, cut the line next to the piece you just removed. It will also remove the load on that narrow piece. If it looks fragile, tape it back in with blue tape. When starting a cut on a piece, avoid blending a cutting into a curve or straight line. Start at converging lines or a point in the piece. It will make for a crisper cut. Don't be afraid to drill more than one hole in a cutout. You can relieve pressure on some fragile pieces. These are some self learned techniques that work for me and I know the members can add to this list to make you cutting more interesting and rewarding. Keep making saw dust and enjoy!

Impressive work!

Nice Job Kevin, Especially like the manger scene.

That is a really sharp and crisp cutting. Great job!

Great info. I really like that halving technique with the long ruler. A big time saver!

Impressive! well done.

Rocky. Just found some 3v LED lights with pigtails but they are 1/2 as many for 4 x the price. I got 200 G-O-W for $12.00 and Led's are 100 for $52. Can't justify that yet.

Very Nice cutting. Are the lights corded or Battery powered? I really enjoyed the cutting on the ones I did but battery mount and soldering the 20 Grain-of-wheat bulbs are a pain. I made 6 for gifts and now my wife says I need to make another one.....

Great job on the clock. What kind of wood did you use? I am intrigued, what are the 2 holes in the wall behind the clock?

A few years ago, I built a scrolled lamp and lamp shade. I wanted a soft yellow/amber light. I ordered some thin amber plexi glass. The color was right but the LED light was still too stark and almost blasted through the fret work. Decided to use a parchment paper/Velum and it did the trick. Bought it at Hobby Lobby. Used contact cement to adhere to back/interior.

Welcome to the gang. Lots of good info here. Looks like you dove in with both feet into cutting and your background should be very helpful in designing patterns. Look forward to seeing some of your work. In another life, I used to hang out at that airport down the street a good amount and actually got my A&P license there.