FrankEV

I've been President of my one person "Grumpy Old Man" Club for many years. About 41+ years ago at age 40, my first Grandson was born. At that time I said "I'm too young to be called Grandpa so just call me Grumps". The Monika stuck and I have been called Grumps by all my 'Grands' and many others, ever since. When I first started to Scroll, over four years ago, one of my earliest projects was this sign that is always on display on or near my Desk. BTW, nice cutting!

I found a B&W line image of a ‘Long Hair Shaggy Cat’ that I converted into an 11” x 14” scrollable pattern. The cut panel is 5/32” Maple solid core Ply affixed to a 1/4" BB Ply Backer. All cutting was done using Pegas # 2/0 Spiral blades. The cutting is challenging since there are many long, narrow, curved cut-out areas that are very close to each other. The lack of clear “white” space around the image was a deliberate choice to present an elegant, formal-like, portrait of this ‘Regal’ feline. Colorization of both the backer and cut panel, were done using Air Brush Artist Acrylic Paints. The finished assembled panel was protected with multiple coats of Clear Gloss Acrylic. The Frame is my standard 1 3/4" wide rails, made from Poplar, primed, and painted a dark Expresso Brown. I’ll post the pattern in Pattern Exchange for anyone who might be interested. This cutting will look good as a B&W with maybe only color added for the Eyes and Pink Nose. Comments and critiques always welcome.

This post got me thinking. I have been a advocate of using a frame to complete an Art panel project. Frames can be either readily available commercial frames (such as those available from Walmart, Hobby Lobby, etc.) or custom made, like I do for all of my recent work. The big advantages to custom made are: lower cost to make than buy, and panel size is not of concern as a custom frame can be any size. Frame construction can be very basic or very ornate and complecated. Equipment to make custom "profesional" quality frames is very expensive and not suitable for the common hobby type shops most of us operate. Also, most Scroll Saw Art panels celebrate the wood we use to create the art and overly ornate frames are not often suitable. Therefore, I find the frames for my work need only be simple flat frames similar to the many quality commercial frames on the market at rediculous prices. I my case, as I produce a lot of Art Panels, it is absolutely necessary to keep the cost of framing my work to a minimum. I have developed a method to make, in my opinion, reasonably nice simple flat frames that celebrate the Art panel while keeping the cost per frame to a minimum. I have posted a short tutorial in the Learning Center in Works in Progress & Tutorials that show the step by step method I use to make my frames.

It does not HAVE to be in color. As long the cut line can bee seen. Shades of grey will work.

Going to jump off the Blade topic and make a comment about this Pattern itself. It is a great pattern of Clint but I personally find it terribly difficult to cut any pattern that is just Black and white with no line work visible. I cannot see where the blade is while cutting and the thickness of the actual line work is very wide, so the cut out areas are not well defined, i.e.; the resulting cutouts may actually become somewhat larger than the pattern designers intented. The raggedness I saw in your cutting was definately part of the pattern itself. However, if the line work was thinner and more visible your cut path may have been slightly smoother. Here is the same pattern, converted to a thin red line with a grey fill. I think today, most pattern makers are adopting this way of offering a pattern as I've noted that a lot of the member herein have mentioned that they also prefer to cut patterns that are presented in Red lines with a Grey fill. Just something to think about.

I developed this Roaring Bear Pattern from an Image I found on-line. I invite you to visit my post in Pattern Making for a description of my experiment in creating this pattern. Also, you will note that my pattern is kind of backwards to the way most patterns result in creating a scrolled image. Since the bear is predominately Black, the cut-outs exposing the background are light colors as if sunlight was reflecting off the Bear’s fur. The pattern was sized to fit a 12” by 12” inch panel. I chose to cut the image in a 5/32” thick Walnut Solid Core Ply using Pegas #2/0 Spiral blades. The backer is 1/4” thick BB Ply. Most of the coloring was done with Artist Acrylic Air Brush Paints with a few highlights done by brush. The assembled panel was protected with multiple spray coats of a Clear Gloss Acrylic. I made my usual 1 3/4” wide rail Poplar Frame that I stained and finished with multiple coats of Wipe-On Poly. I ‘m looking forward to your comments and critiques on this experiment in pattern making and my…possibly poor…choice of using Walnut for the cut panel.

Ther are die hard straight blade users and die-hard Spiral blade users. And some that use both. I am one that uses both but prefer, for most of my intricate patterns I like to do, to use spirals. They alow me to complete a pattern faster because I don't have to spin the work and stop at tight corners as much. Like everything, if you want to use spiral blades you have to learn how to use them. Part of that includes; clamping, knowing witch way to cut, what size drill holes to use, how to get nice straight or long smooth curved lines, and, yes, how to deal with the fuzzies. All of which I have been able to do fairly succesfully. That being said, I agree, spirals are not for everyone. Yes you should concentrate on perfecting your cutting skills using straight blades if that is how you are most comfortable. If in the future you decide to try spirals again, do so with an open mind and a willingness to learn how, and dedicate a fair amount of time to the learning curve. From the sound of your frustrations I'm guessing patience is not neccessarily your strong suit. Let me say that your cutting of Clint isn't bad, but could probably have been a little less ragged, but I'm not familiar with the pattern, so I don't know if some of that is the pattern itself. However, I would be interested if you cut the same image with straigth blades how much better or worse it would look. Hope you do not take offence to any of this. Just trying to be of some help.

Great image and great cutting. I've worked with burl when I turned bowls. How was cutting such thick tricky material? And, what size drill bit did you use? Long smll bits are hard to find.

Beieve me the cutting is not clean. The painting hides a lot of the cutting flaws. Yeah, 4 feet away it looks pretty good, but I know how difficult it was to cut cleanly. Do appreciate the nice comment though.

Another subject I have been searching for, for quite some time, is a Pirate ship. Most of the ship images are great to look at but I was unable to find any that were suitable to convert into a scrollable pattern due to all the fine details. I found this Tattoo Image posted by Holy Trinity Tattoo Studio with no indication of copyright or use restrictions. The image is not very cluttered with a lot of fine details, but it took a lot of work to convert the image into a scrollable pattern. Inkscape did a pretty good job of making a usable SVG. However, since the image was really of a simple line-type drawing, Inkscape made the somewhat thick/wide lines into very narrow long open cutout areas. This required me to add a bunch of bridges. The result was in an 11 x 17 inches pattern that was a difficult cut. The pattern was cut in 5/32” solid core ply using Pegas #2/0 and #1 Spiral blades. The backer is ¼” BB Ply painted black. At this point I need to state that I am not happy with my cutting. The very close together parallel cuts and tiny bridges did not make for a neat clean cutting. I think I should have taken a different approach when converting the image to a pattern. Areas like the Spars and Mast should have been fully open to the backer. Might have made cutting easier and cleaner. Although the cutting was not as good as I would have liked I knew painting the cut panel would hide a lot of the flaws. I also knew I would be painting the cut panel like doing a coloring book, with the black lines showing. I decided ahead that the Flag would be Black with a White Scull and Cross Bones, Sails an Off-White canvas color, Ship and Spars Brown and the Waves Aqua Green with White foam (dabbled with a brush). Wasn’t sure about how to handle the wind effects but knew it could not be white so decided on a VERY Pale Blue to add to the effect. Painting was done mostly with my air brush using Artist Acrylic Air brush paints with some brush work on the Flag and Spars. The assembled panel was finished with multiple coats of Clear Gloss Acrylic. All in all, the finish product does not look tooooo bad but as much as I feel this is not my best work, I decided to mount the panel in an old existing frame that has some dings and dents and has been lying on the shelf for a long time. Kinda suitable for the subject. Just cleaned it up with a fresh coat of a rattle can Gloss Brown paint. Just showing it because of the amount of work I put into completing it. You can be the judge of the work quality.

Not neccessarsily the most correct wway, but you can also do the opposite. Use the thickest (largest blade) that fits the hole you dilled and cut the line with just one pass, shaving it slightly if necessary to elimnate the seeing the hole. A detail line as in your pattern, should, I believe, be wider than what we typically refer to as veining. It needs to be wide enough to see daylight (or the backer) through. Think of as Artistic License...and you are the artist...the pattern is just a guide not gospel.

Your are correct. However, as I use spirals most of the time, I have developed a feel for when the clamp is grabing correctly. By twisting/rotating the blade between the fingers while applying the clamp, you can feel when it is on a high spot or a more flatter area. Find the flatter area and clamp tight enought to hold the blade but not too tight to deform the blade. You realy do not need to tighten the clamp very tight. I like to think 'snug' not tight. If the blade slips out of the clamp, it wasn't quite 'snug' enough. I find this more difficult to get it correct in the initial clamping in the bottom clamp. Getting it correct in the bottom clamp is for me a SPITA.

Badddddddd!

Great first project. I did that pattern as one of my earliest pieces a long time ago. When you say you "went through" many blades, why? Did they break or get dull? If they broke, your tensioning is probably set too high, or, you may be pushing too hard, or, the saw speed is much too fast, or, actually possibly too slow. Or maybe, did you kink the blades when threading the drill holes? Assuming you are bottom feeding the blades, to avoid kinking the blades, the blade needs to be grabed by your fingers or a pair of pliers and pulled up tightly so the cut panel will slide down onto the table smoothly and the blade not get kinked which will allow the blade to break soon thereafter. Kinking occurs more frenquently when using small blades, but not usually with #3 or #5 blades unless the drill holes are too small. And, as an aside, #3 or #5 blades were, IMHO, way to large for most of this pattern. A #1 would have worked well for much of the cutting, only to change to a #3 or #5 for the long straight perimeter cuts that create the frame. If you used that many because they got dull...which I find hard to believe...i would suspect it is a combination of your tension being not set properly and you are pushing much too hard trying to move the blade sideways to stay on the line. Moving the blade too slowly and with a sideways component will heat up the blade which will dull the blade quickly. Here are a few tips to remember: You can test proper tension with the 'Ping' method. Pick the blade like a banjo string to get a high picth 'Ping' to tell if tension is set correctly, You must avoid the temptation to correct the blade path by pushing sidewards, You must let the blade do the cutting and not push too fast OR too slow, Do not stop/start frequently as you progress along the line. Only stop at a sharp corner if necessary to reposition your hands or the panel, Make sure you are sitting in line with the saw arm, looking at the blade straight on, in order to keep the blade cutting on line. Guide the wood panel with both hands gently with uniform pressure straight ahead and turning the work to follow the line, and, Relax and breathe, yes I said breathe. When I started I would tense up and hold my breath while making a difficult cut. Just made thing worse. Hope some of this may help.

Typical 3/4".

I make all my own frames. I buy either preimum Pine or Poplar in 12" wide 6' or 8' long. I rip the 12" boards to make 1 3/4" wide sticks, that I use as needed to make my frames. I cut the sticks up into appropriate length rails for the sides and top/bottom. I rabet the individual rails using my Router table and a rabeting bit to make a nominal 1/4" x 1/2" rabet. This rabet is sized for my art panels that are 1/8" thick cut panel affixed to a 1/4" backer (or a nom 3/8" total thicknes). I then cut my miters on a homemade mitering jig that I do not have to calculate the lengths. Just need to set the stop for say; 11'' top and bottom and then 14" for side rails to make an 11"x14" frame. Glue up with a band clamp and add a V-nail in each miter joint. Sand, finish with Stain, Paint, Lacquer or whatever. Install the panel loose using frame points (glazing points also work). Add one small sawtooth hanger in the center in the top rail. Wala...all framed and ready to hang and display. My definitions are: A Portait is any kind of art work that is framed (not just a people) Plaques are usualy unframed with a thicker backer(if needed). Your cuttingl could be done, and would look good, either way. PS, I don't like poster board for a backer. It is too flimsy and wil deteriate in time. A solid wood (ply) backer glued to the cut panel is much more long lasting. Especialy, cut panels with many cut out areas become very weak and need a very rigid backer.

When using small spiral blades, here are two tips to avoid breakage you might find helpful: 1. If the drill holes are sized for the blade, you should grab the blade with your fingers or a pair of pliers and pull it tightly through the panel as the panel slides down onto the table, or the blade will get kinked and break when tension is applied. 2. When clamping into the top clamp, bend the blade slightly with your fingers to reduce the tension on the blade a little when the tensioning lever is set. My saw tension is set for stronger blades and I need to do this or the small blades will snap imediately. Even applying these tips, I still kink and break my small blades frequently. BTW, nice subject choice for the test cut.

You could use the plaque as a template and trim the backer with a router with a trim bit. However, because the Plaque is pre painted, I might be inclined to make the backer smaller than the Plaque so the backer edges do not show when hung. To hang I would install two sawtooth hangers, one near each end close to the top. It will hang with out any tipping. Adding shaker pegs would be a nice touch, but not sure what would get hung on them. IMO, jackets or the like would be too heavy. Small fancy hooks might be better for hanging Keys or such. The backer colors sound good, just wondering if they will show enough. Potatoes are brown, aren't they. A simple dark brown might look nice also. These are all just my thoughts. Not trying to tell you what to do.

Very nice cutting. Counterweight a great idea. What are your plans for a backer and finish?

I give most of the credit to the original Artist (unknown) for the visual depth of the image. I use very thin cut panels so the vertical cut surfaces are not very visible, especially in this project, the small cutouts also prevent seeing the cut edges. So, to answer your question, no. When viewed from the typical 4 feet, the overall image looks more like a painting than a scroll saw panel. I'm getting better applying color using an Air Brush, and using color images as my guide for adding color I was able to produce a much more realistic image.

Ok, here is a project for those who like large…in this case around 750 holes…fretwork type patterns. I had been looking for a long time for an image of a Red Fox (face) that I could convert into a scrollable pattern. There are lots of Fox Images available on-line, but Inkscape cannot deal with the subtle differences in color changes or lack of strong edge definitions found in most of the images. I finally found and procured a stock pencil drawing image that Inkscape’s ‘Trace Bitmap’ command was able to manage, and I was then able to clean-up the trace into a scrollable 11x14 inch pattern. Inkscape was able to replicate the individual pencil strokes creating a pattern with tightly grouped, long thin cut-outs as well as many, small, short cut-outs scattered throughout the pattern. I will post the pattern for the interested in Pattern Exchange. And, just for information purposes, for this cutting I was curious to see how long the saw run time verses my total sit-down saw time would be. At the end of the cutting, my saw run time meter read 5 hrs and 44 minutes. My sit-down time was about 12-14 hours over five days. The eye strain resulting from trying to keep the Pegas #2/0 spiral saw blade within the narrow cut-outs would not let me work more than a couple of hours each day. The cut panel is 5/32” thick Birch solid core ply and the backer is 1/4"thick BB ply painted Black. The pencil drawing was a remarkably close pose to the various color images I found, so I was able to use them to guide my choice of colors for my Artist Acrylic Air Brush work. The assembled panel was protected with multiple coats of Clear Gloss Acrylic. And, once again I made a simple, 1 3/4” wide rail, Poplar Frame that I finished with multiple coats of Black Lacquer. Comments and critiques always welcome.

I see anout 40 holes, I assume the cut panel it is approximately 11x14, and the pattern itself is not too intricate With that in mind, I'm estimating it would take me about 1 hour to prep my cut panel, apply the pattern and drill all the holes at one time. My sit down at the saw time would be about 6 hours ( two 3 hour sessions.). Assuming I was not adding any color work, the time to prepare a backer, assemble the panel and apply a protective finish would add about another hour of shop time, excluding dry times for any applied coatings or glue-ups. Of course, I would make a frame for it that would add about 4 more hours of shop time, again excluding dry time for coatings. Say, maybe a total of 12 hours shop time, give or take, over maybe 3 to 5 days.

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If I understan to query, you have some hard copies of patterns that are larger than your printer/scanner can scan to produce a digital copy.. If that is the case, Office Depot/Office Max can provide you with this service. I have had images up to 36"x42" scanned by them and thye provided me with a digital copy via email. Large sizes are not cheap, but if neededs the expence is worth it vs. doing it inpieces.

Beautiful, but is your 'right' and 'left' looking from the back? From our view of the pics, it is just the opposite. Beautiful, just the same.