RabidAlien

My first thought was "ZZ Top did a Celtic album?"

That one is a fun, quick cut! Nicely done!

I've found a TON of papercutting patterns on Etsy, quite a few more patterns than are listed for scrollsaw use. A lot of them, there are details that I have to leave out due to pilot-hole size (an Xacto blade tip is quite a bit smaller than even a #64 drillbit), but for the most part, I'm loving cutting them!!! Very nicely done, great job on the thin details!!

My wife got us a re-home Eclectus parrot last summer, and has been looking at different tree perches and table-top stands online. Those things are EXPENSIVE!!!! So she had showed me a small A-frame style stand, of course I said I could make one for a LOT cheaper. One trip to Lowes for a 1x12x6' piece of pine, a 3/4" dowel, and a set of paddle drillbits (my current set went up to 1/2", the two larger bits being sacrificed to the "you must lose something" house move several years back), a little bit of tinkering in Inkscape, and I think I have a passable stand. We also made one out of PVC pipe, wrapped the cross-piece in athletic tape for grip, and use it in the bathroom, but no scrolling was done on it. Stack cut the two sides so they're equal and the drill holes matched up. Scrolled the center portion, and then scrolled the outer edge. About an hour on the saw and drill press. Sanded down the ends of the dowels a tad bit, everything is pressure-fit together. Since parrots are known to nibble on their stands, this will remain raw wood. They are also very susceptible to fumes, we have to take her out of a room for a couple of hours when doing touchup painting on the walls, so staining would require a long drying time to make sure that nothing is off-gassing anymore. Rosie hopped over to it from my arm with only a little bit of coaxing (and a walnut bribe....spoiled rotten, she is), and seems to approve. She likes being near her people, so we bring her over (she's less than a year old, and previous owner had her wings clipped at some point so she's still learning how to fly....she's starting to figure out that its easier to land with her claws than just slamming belly-first into the perch and scrabbling for a foot hold. Next, steering!!!) whenever we're congregating in the kitchen.

Ditto!!! Every time I see a car or truck done that well, I get the itch to search out (or dig up already-acquired) plans.

Been a few since I've done any Celtic knotwork, but here's a couple from not too long ago.

Yep, I'd do a backer as well. Nicely cut, however you decide to display it!

Same. Goes with the whole theme of the project. Love is never clean-cut and perfect (glares at Hallmark Channel). Nicely done Eric!!!

I tried bending it, but it looked like it snapped off a little ways away from where it attached to the center post. I may give that another go, I probably didn't heat it up enough at the time.

Just thinkin' out loud, but smoke...heat....friction.....plastic doesn't, traditionally, play well with these things. Wonder if the heat from the drilling has softened or loosened the plastic up a bit? I knwo when drilling metal or plexiglass, you need to keep the site lubricated to help with heat buildup. Would a drop of BLO or something work in your case, or would that muck up the pattern too much?

Dunno why I didn't do this sooner....I have a Dremel 285, nothing fancy, probably paid $100 at Sears for it 20 years ago. I picked up a plunge router and some router bits a year or two ago, thinking I was going to route edges onto picture frames with it, only to find out that the bits are, obviously, scaled for a Dremel and I get faster round-overs by just sanding the edges. The Dremel sat, still attached to the plunge adapter, for a long time. Until I ran into a problem with my desktop Porter Cable drill press. First problem was, the return spring broke (its the one that raises the chuck after you drill the hole, kinda like a tape measure retracts) and the replacement was out of stock or no longer available, with no alternate parts available anywhere....finding a "spare parts" drill press is almost as much as buying a new one, so I've just been manually holding the chuck up. Which isn't making my arms very happy. Second problem, the distance between the vertical arm of the drill press and the drill bit is significantly low, making it hard to get pilot holes into internal cuts on larger patterns. Then my eye fell upon the Dremel again (more likely, I was moving something around and uncovered it... ). On to Google!!! Yep, sure enough, there's a drill-bit chuck that fits most standard models of Dremels, and looked, based on the photos, to close enough to hold drill bits down to #64 or smaller. Heck, a two-pack on Amazon was only $13 (more, if your shopping cart is like mine and tends to attract books. Completely by accident. Woops.). So.....they arrived Monday, fit like a charm, and I'll be d*mned if they don't drop a pilot hole straight down into any pattern you care to hit with em!!!! I had a "scrap" tabletop, one of the first woodworking projects I tried,, that used to sit on top of an antique Singer sewing machine base that was replaced with a better version, but which I was loathe to get rid of for some reason. Been using that to keep from drilling random pilot holes into my workbench. I may end up unplugging my drill press and finding a place to stash it and just use the Dremel for everything that needs a small pilot hole. Here's what I got (and I get no kickbacks from Amazon for posting these. Unfortunately.) https://www.amazon.com/Dremel-335-01-Plunge-Router-Attachment/dp/B0000DEZK4/ref=sr_1_2?crid=IK7YEGWRUU4X&keywords=dremel+plunge+router+attachment&qid=1644353800&sprefix=dremel+plunge+%2Caps%2C91&sr=8-2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092RY3TMQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

It was definitely a fun one to cut. Lots of repetition. I may have to cut it again....once i get through a stack of H.Botas patterns I picked up when he reopened his Etsy shop...

It....did not turn out well. The contact paper I used to seal the bottom....didn't.

A couple of recent cuts. The first is from the last issue of SSWW magazine, we're dog people (Great Danes, so we don't have to bend over nearly as much, but its the sentiment that counts). Cut it out of a small bamboo cutting board that was being thrown out at work. Second is the "mechanical heart" pattern from Steve Good. Gears spin. I've cut the small (pendant-sized) pattern and the larger pattern, then blew up that pattern to 150% and cut it as well. Third is a little jewelry box I did back in 2020. Another Steve Good pattern, I think. The rose was one of the toppers he had in the pattern, cut that for my wife. The dragon is for my daughter.

I keep a small roll of blue painter's tape (3/4" width) near my saw. Once I cut out a piece bordering a thin section, I'll keep that waste piece in place, and put a strip of blue tape over the top of it to hold it in place, trying to keep it from covering nearby lines that still need to be cut. Once everything is done, I'll just peel up the tape/pattern as usual and these pieces pop out with it.

Very nice!!! Retention is one of my big hurdles, too. I have to re-watch the videos every time I put together a word-in-a-word pattern. LOL

"The top half is for Christmas. The bottom half is Birthday."

Nicely cut! I have this pattern somewhere, I think....really need to cut it.

Agreed. And my reasoning for using this was because 1) I really have nothing else to do with it, b) if its messed up, I'll just cut it again (it wasn't difficult, just repetitive), and iii) why not? Gotta take the leap sometime.

Its been a rough month and a half for our family, but I've managed to chisel out some sawdust time. Finally finished another mandala. 1" whiteboard, stained Minwax "Honey", used a couple of Pegas MG #3 blades. Good project to put on an audiobook or stream music and set the rest of yourself on autopilot. I started with the inner circle of smaller triangles, then worked my way outward, saving the inner spiral for last. I have some epoxy that I picked up over the holidays (Amazon), and am planning on giving it a try with this one. I'll post pics if it turns out.

Myself and a couple of friends were BIG into the OA at the time (the only reason we stayed in Boy Scouts), and we must've seen this movie 20 times in the theater. At one point, I think we were sitting in the dollar theater on base, with notepads, taking notes on various outfits. Nicely cut!

Do the Christmas lights only show up on Christmas day? Kinda miss mousing over and popping all the lightbulbs.

Yep, right word! And nicely cut! Love the details on the Eiffel!

I finished them all, then assembled. Well...technically....I assembled to check fits and use a round file on the inside of the axle hole on the gears so they would spin smoothly, but not bind. Once I knew the posts were the right height (more or less) and the gears spun relatively freely (wood on wood, so its not going to be fidget-spinner frictionless), I pulled it apart, glued the posts into the lower piece, stained everything (hearts/spacers are Minwax "Early American" and the gears are Minwax "Weathered Oak"....I need to restock my stains!). Once dry, I reassembled and glued on the top heart.

Got the large version cut in one day, took several to sand, finish, and assemble. Sanded the gears a little bit more than the two spacers, so they sit a very small fraction of an inch lower than the spacers, giving them more freedom to spin. That made them a LOT easier to move.