RabidAlien

One of the few advantages to working (slaving?) in retail was the chance to get to talk to vets. Spoke with a guy who was a ball-turret gunner on B-24's, and made another gentleman's day by recognizing the Army Air Corps (NOT Air Force) logo on his hat and asking him what he did in the Air Corps. He was kinda surprised I recognized the emblem, and said he flew Lightnings. "Ooooooh, the P-38!!! Most awesome plane ever built!" We had a good chat.

That is just AWESOMENESS!! There's a guy in my office building who has various StarWars prints that he swaps out on his walls, the historical photos such as the Normandy landings on D-Day with Imperial Walkers on the beach, or a flight of P-51's and Xwings, a group of samurai in armor, with a stormtrooper ...love that stuff!

Nicely cut!!!! Is that a StarWars ATAT walking with the elephants, or do I need more coffee?

Nice!!!! I was wondering which version of the Stearman had a 10 bladed prop, but hey, wartime experimentation and all that...LOL

Love it!

Rock on! \m/

Top left, closely followed by top right, for me.

Those are AWESOME!!!! Do you still have the plans for them, or know if they're available online?

I can only think of one thing I've cut that has wheels....or that I plan to cut that has wheels. But, I'm a military history nut, so I had to cut this Steve Good pattern:

Nicely done!

World-famous WW1 flying ace!!!! My all-time favorite of Snoopy's alter-egos! Used to have a comic I cut out of the newspaper (yeah...dating myself...) where WW1FA was sitting atop his trustworthy Sopwith, moaning about the weather and conditions and general low morale, etc, and asked himself if there was no way to raise the spirits of the men? Linus shows up in the last panel and says "tell them they'll be home by Christmas!" Not sure why I cut it out, cuz it wasn't until many years later when I discovered a love for History (not just the rote memorization of names/dates taught in school), that I finally understood it. Charles Schulz was also good friends with Bill Mauldin of "Willie and Joe" fame, another favorite cartoon of mine. Snoopy can often be seen talking about going over to "quaff a few rootbeers with ole Bill Mauldin". Not sure who did it, but when Charles Schulz passed away, a cartoon was circulated with a smiling Snoopy walking up to Willie and Joe. Excellent cutting, sorry for the rambling!!!

Its a Hawgle!!! Nicely cut!

These are AWESOME! I'm loving the layered patterns (especially with backlighting). Do you have patterns available, or an online source for patterns?

Nicely cut! Never underestimate the healing power of sawdust (and, as a side product, sweating your butt off in a hot shop).

Nice!!

I can't even begin to imagine how you manage to design the animal shapes to fit within the shapes of states/countries!!!! You, sir, are AWESOME!!

The only hard limits on what a pin-ended blade can do are physical limits. The blades are going to be thicker at the ends to accommodate the pins, possibly shorter (unless yours takes 5" pinned blades). Other than that, they're still scroll saws and cut wood like every other scroll saw out there. Kinda like photography, every camera is the same once you push the button. Keep on cuttin', get used to your saw and what it can do, find ways to push the limits, cuz the big factor that separates a master from a beginner is practice.

Not bad at all!!! My first piece had two interior cuts. Keep goin with it! Check out yard sales, estate sales, or thrift stores for decent prices on printers. Just keep in mind that while inkjet cartridges are cheap, you'll pay more in the long run over a laserjet. A decent B&W laserjet isn't all that expensive retail ($300-$500), but a color laser can get up there in price...but laser toners last forever when just printing patterns, and don't have the nasty habit of drying out if you don't print on a regular basis. A trick with pin-ended blades...those pins can be popped out. My first saw was a Dremel 57-2, I got it at a yard sale for $25. 3" pin-ended blades, I started with Olsen blades cuz that was all I could find, until I found Bear Woods website and discovered a couple of different Pegas versions. Take a piece of scrap metal (I picked up a flat piece at the hardware store, near where all the drawer pulls and angle-iron is stashed), drill a 1/16 hole in the middle of it. Drill a 1/2" hole in a block of wood, and attach the scrap metal so the 1/16 and 1/2 holes align. Lay a blade on the metal piece, blade flat, pin's sticking up, and put one side of the top pin into the 1/16 hole (it should just barely fit). Tap it with a hammer, then use an icepick or punch or something similar to push the pin the rest of the way through. Now you can drill much smaller pilot holes for your blade, which will open up a lot of patterns for you! To secure the blades in the saw, take a medium-sized paperclip and thread it through the hole in the top of the blade. I ended up taking one paperclip and some wire snips, and cutting small lengths and bending them in half, that way when I invariably dropped one, it wasn't a huge loss if I couldn't find it.

Nicely cut! Same here, different uniform, different branch, same brotherhood.

Roughly 3/32? I bought two strips of 3/32 at the same time, they feel about the same thickness.

Howling wolf bookmarks. Found these ovals (I didn't cut the outer edges at all, that's how they came out of the pack) at the crafts store (Michaels), next to all the popsicle sticks. They're MUCH better to cut than balsa (they were completely out of BB ply), cheap, and come 8 to a pack. These may be my go-to if I need to cut any more bookmarks. The craft sticks: https://www.michaels.com/wide-wood-craft-sticks-by-creatology/10433016.html

Aaaaaaaand framed. Stopped by Lowes hardware (a weekly pilgrimage for us, it turns out) and I took a walkabout through the lumber department. When they get shipments in, some of the lumber is separated by these 1/2" x 2" strips. They're usually battered and beaten up and full of knots and tinged greenish, but once sanded, they take stain really well and make great frames. They had a trashcan full of them, so I nabbed a few. Plus a few extras. Two of the strips would've framed this, but if they're just throwing them away, I felt honor-bound to adopt more than what I needed....

Love it!!! The A20, A26, and B26 always confused me, as it seems the only major differentiations seemed to be the current mission profile and the number of rivets in the pilot's armrest. LOL Regardless, awesome planes all of them!

Nicely done! Thin cuts, like your stems, certainly show you how aligned your blade is!

Big anime eyes! Nicely cut, matted, and framed!