FrankEV

You did mean #2/0 blades, right? I can read the words, but can not really see the overall work in the pic. What is it? Can not see the crystals. Maybe show a pic of the pattern. Why was it so difficult to cut? Why did you need so many blades? Half inch thick BB ply should not have been dificult to cut, but I suspect a piece of solid wood woud have been a better choice for a table top standup piece. Just guessing, but it kinda sounds like your saw is not working correctly or you are not controling the workpiece properly. I think if you are looking for some help more info is needed. If you are looking for symphathy, you know where in the dictionary it can be found!

Thank you for the nice comments, but I'm not sure that "not being able to tell it is a scroll saw piece" is a good thing. It was not my intent, but as the colloration proceded, it did take on that almost a painting like appearence. My initial reason for colorization of my work was to make cuttings "POP" a little. No way was it the attemp to make imy work into paintings, which I think happened to some degree in this piece. Yes, the painting of this piece came out quite good, I don't feel it keeps the Scroll Saw cutting as the foremost work. And, NO, I did not consider an Oval Frame. As I said above, the painting like colorization process just happened so the rectangular panel was planned from the get go. Although I'm happy with this piece, I don't see myself pursuing this degree of colorization in future projects.

This great H. Botas pattern was slightly sized to fit a 13” W x 12” H panel. The cut panel is 5/32” thk. Solid Core ply affixed to a same size 1/4” thk BB ply backer. Both panels were hand painted with Artist Acrylic paints. The cut panel was cut using Pegas #0 Spiral blades. The assembled panel was finished with multiple coats of Delf Clear Gloss Lacquer. The Frame is a simple 1 3/4”wide Poplar, stained with Minwax Early American and protected with multiple coats of Minwax Clear Gloss Wipe-on Poly. Comments and critiques are always welcome.

Vert nice. I have two xmas projects ready to cut shortly. Might have to add some ornaments for our tree to the list.

Uing the "laughing" like button was not meant to be down putting...I just found your story to be funny! I know nothing about Padauk, so I can't be any help there other than to say Walnut or Mahogany might be acceptable contrasting alternatives, as we all know that they cut nicely. Still chuckleing about "2 hours and 8 blades" later only to have a "bad mistale"!!!!!!!!! Sorry.

When working with free stencil patterns or other images that can be found on-line, the image is not always made up of sharp clear deliniated line work. When I convert these types of images, I basically follow Brenda's procedure to convert a B&W pattern to a R/G pattern. However, the quality of the 'Trace Bitmap' fuction does not always duplicate the image acccutately if original line density varies or if there is any background clutter. The folloing is just for some FYI: In the 'Trace Bitmap' pop up box there are a number of setting that can be adjusted. There are 5 scan types. I've only had sucess using the first two. Brightness Cutoff works the best for most but I have done a few using Edge Detection. Then there is the threshold settiings for these that can be rasised or lowered to give varying results in the duplication. These 'Threshold' settings can help reduce or even eliminate background clutter and/or improve line detail. I'm not sure what some of the other setting do... yet! After converting to R/G and setting the line thickness, I will usually resize the pattern to suit the size of board I want to cut. I fit a pattern to a board, not the board to the pattern. I mainly do this using the "X', 'Y', 'W' & 'H' values in the top tool bar. This allows me to center the pattern and leave the appropriate balanced amount of "white space" around the pattern. I most often find it is necesssary to edit the actual duplicated pattern using the 'Edit by nodes' comand to move/delete linework and the 'Draw Besier' command button to add/draw linework back in as needed. As, mentioned, the 'Erace' function is not very easy to work with so I don't. It is easier to delete/draw back than to erace. I'm still learning how to use the many Inkscape commands. There is a lot to learn if you want to edit. As and example, even if the 'Snap' command is not turned off, it can make editing difficult. Learning some of the many commands found under 'Edit' 'Layer', and 'Object' can get you started to modifing an image into a scrollerable pattern. The 'Undo' command under 'Edit' being the most important and most often used . Inkscape is not intuitive and takes a long time to learn. Experimentation and practice is how I have learned what I have so far.

Busy, many hole, delicate and intricate patterns is of no concern to me. Usualy mistakes can be hidden and/or fixed in one way or another. It is those patterns with long straight cut lines or patterns with lots of block fonts that I shy away from. I totally agree, a many hole pattern is no differen than a small number of hole pattern. Just cut one hole at a time. I tend to leave the largest cut out areas for last, but that is just me.

I do the conversion to Red/Grey using the "Trace Path" command often. Works great, but there are a few things to watch out for. It does not produce an EXACT copy of the original. It tends to treat pointy intersections as curves and will sometimes merge adjacent line work that are very close together on the original. For original JPG or other bit map files that are composed of crisp and sharp lines, it works great however, if the original file is at all fuzzy you can get a lot of inccurate duplication. I have found a lot of patterns offered free in jpg format must be copies of copies or have been produced form screenshots, thus loosing resolution. When patterns are purchased form an orinal pattern maker, or their seller, the patterns are usually electronic copeis of the original and good a clear. And, just a BTW, I make my red lines .005 inches and use a 20% Grey fill. I don't try to split the line, but will have the edge of the blade cut follow the line, one side or the other, depending on how close adjacent cut lines are. However my general rule is "Stay in the Grey" when the cut out area is grey.

Great Job. Yep, like Danny said, Walnut would have been a good wood choice in liew of the poplar.

Great job. Fine cutting and a well done frame.

Great cutting job. Love the colorization and the oversized backer. Overall a beautiful piece.

I do and enjoy making boxes occasionally. Is that box a readiy pattern somewhere?

Beautiful is an understatement!

Great work. Now that is a box I would love to make!

All well done.

The hardest poart of the painting is the edges...they are one SPTA. When everything is painted and dry, I affix the cut panel to the backer, clamp and dry at leat 4 hours. Often, after unclamping, touch up painting is required, no matter how careful I was. I always seem to find some spot I missed or the worng color became exposed, etc. For something like this plaque and my frames I use poly as a protective coat. In this case 3 coats of clear Gloss Spray Poly. I prefer wipe-on poly for my frames. I do back, dry, flip and do front, dry, second coat, dry, filip, second coat onf back, dry, flip, very light sanding is any needed, third coat, dry. Add hanger on back. Finished. BTW, things do look better in the photo. Close up and personel you can see many flaws.. but as often quoted in NY; "You will never see them from Brooklyn"!!!!

Your work is very nice. I was about to ask; What is their purpose?, until I noted your TAGs to the post. Do you put them to use "magicly speaking", or just for display? Subjects and projects like this needs a STORY to go with them to satisfy curiousity of dummies like me!

Well done! Hope the Chemo does it job and your feeling return to normal soon.

Us either, only by the caendar.

Simply beautiful. Cutting, colorazation and symbolism is just outstanding.

I converted this pattern I found on-line and modified it to make it an 11” square scroll saw pattern. Had to add some bridges and modified the pumpkin shape a little to make the letters to read better. Both the cut panel and backer is ¼” thk BB Ply cut with Pegas #0 MGT R blades. The panels were hand painted with Acrylic Artist Paints and protected with multiple coats of clear gloss spray Polyurethane, as this piece will hang outside on the front of my home. And again, the Frame is Poplar…oh yeah, that’s right, there is no frame Critique and comments always appreciated. EDIT PS: Just sitting here looking at the pic and realized this would be a great pattern to use with a back lit orange plastic backer.

Interesting! Velly interesting! Nice work on the conversion. Well cut.

Very well done. Great mug on that Rottie!

Very super job. Color always makes things better! 5 layers if I counted correctly, What was the material and thickness of the varius layers?

Nice, very nice!