Doc58

Wichman, I'm not sure if it's any use to you but regarding points 1 and 2, I have put a link to a program and tutorial that should help you. Check it out here. Hope it helps. Doc from Australia

Here's a useful and simple to use piece of free software that will allow you to print any of your patterns to any size you choose. It's called BigPrint and only works for Windows computers but works under Wine if you are a Linux user. For example, you create/buy/download a pattern designed to fit on a piece of timber that's 150 mm (6") wide, but you have a neat piece of timber that is only 140 mm (5.5") wide. By inputting your measurements, you can scale the pattern to either enlarge or shrink to fit accordingly. Download from here. The site is safe and Matthias Wandel is a woodworking genius. There is a very easy to follow tutorial over here but if you get stuck, sing out - I use this a lot. The free version will print 'Evaluation' on the final print out but it's easily ignored during cutting. I actually bought the software because I liked using it so much, other than that I have no connection with the site or the software. My main use is for getting plans for a particular sized toy and scaling it up to match the timber I have on hand. Very useful for various sized rocking horses. As a quick example getting sizes from an image: I loaded an image in that had no measurements on so I 'told' BigPrint how big I wanted one of the sides. (Top image) Middle image shows what the image looks like now it has a dimension added. Having told BigPrint the side is 160 mm (6.25") long, I then got it to tell me how big the end piece would be and based on the size entered earlier, it told me the end piece is 117.6 mm (close enough to 4.5") (Bottom image). I know, now, if I have a piece of timber that I can use for this project. I'm still finding my way around this site, so my apologies if this seems to be the wrong place for this post. Doc from Australia

If it works, then it's not ugly. If it's free, then it's beautiful. Doc from Australia

Actually, I do know OF Crowie - we are in a few different woodwork fora but I don't actually know him personally. Doc from Australia

Hi everybody. I'm Doc from Australia. I make wooden toys for a living so don't do a lot of the intricate scrolling that I see here. Most of my work consists of drawing around a template and cutting said piece out usually on 19mm or 35mm pine and adding wheels or something. Some puzzles and a variety of 'sets' - animal families, dolls house folk and the like. Occasional portrait or commission work. I have a 21" and 30" Excalibur but actually use my 30" jobby for most of my work (it copes nice with long hours at a time cutting), since blade changes are so easy anyway and I don't have to walk to the other end of the workbench to use the 21". Yeah, lazy AND old Anyhoo, I'm hoping to help any new folks because there was so much I didn't know when I first started and I'd love to share it. Also not afraid to learn something new Should also apologize in advance for renewing old posts because I just know it will happen lol

What sort of blades are you using? Just curious because I usually use reverse or double cut blades that leave no frizzies because they cut on the way up and on the way down. I'm way too lazy to sand edges. Doc from Australia

If you don't have gazillions of scroll fonts, you can simply create a word document with the alphabet of each of the most common fonts that you use (I only have about five) and save the doc with a useful name like 'dontlosethesefonts' or something. This also allows for quick and easy copy and paste to a new document with your latest "Love" "Believe" "Leave Me Alone" or whatever. Doc from Australia

Puzzle Level: Zen Master

Something I found useful when I first started checking out blades (because my memory isn't all that good) was to buy a wide range of brands and sizes, then cut a wide range (actually, only the timber I usually use) and cut scraps into a variety of shapes. Note the finish and speed used for each blade. Label each scrap with the blade used. This provides a quick ready reference to which blade to use on what timber. Of course, years later I find I only actually use about four different blades

Now that you have found your font, create a word document and type out the whole alphabet and numbers in that font then save the doc with a name like 'scrollfont' so you can find it easily next time. Regards Doc from Australia