FrankEV

You did a great job. Your friend and his wife will be thrilled.

My Lowes also has glued up 12" wide Poplar boards. I cut up Poplar boards into 1 3/4" wide sticks that I make my frames from. Although expensive, 12" wide boards make the frames rather economical. But cant use the glued up boards as the uneven grain doe not work well for stained frames. I've settled on cutting up 8" wide 6' long boards into 4 sticks with little waste.

Very, very well Done! Every one of us needs to cut this pattern and stand it on our desk. It is a beautiful piece, patriotic to some degree and shows off our hobby/talent to the umpteenth degree. I have it on my to-do list, just keeps getting pushed back as other projects seem to jump in front of the line. I wonder how many have cut this piece? Maybe we can get a headcount as we get replys to you post.

Krylon makes a spray "Sealer". I found it at Hobby Lobby. It is made for sealing canvases and wood that will be painted. It smells and acts like a very thin Lacquer. Dries quickly. Will not soak in too much unless the wood is real soft....Walnut should not absorb the sealer too much. After painting and then sanding, the exposed wood should be like new so I would use Deft Lacquer, after sanding to min 600 grit, to coat the entire piece. I like Lacquer and I feel it does a good job making the grain pop. It works to protect the painted areas as well.

Awesome Work. Your cutting skills are top notch. Very crisp and clean. Nice to be able use real solid wood for projects. For the quanity of portraits I do, the cost factor for solid wood is just too prohibited.

No, any and all painting must be done before cut panel is affixed to the backer. I use the cut panel or a copy of the cutting pattern to act like a template to outline and then paint the backer. Very imortant to extend the backer colors beyond the cuts so there are no visable unpainted areas showing. If the cut panel needs to be painted, I do that also before attaching the panel to the backer. When the cut panels needs painting, the vertical cut edges of the cut out areas also need to be painted or the edges show up dramatically....not good. A very tedious job, but very necessary. Shading and blending of colors is the most difficult part of the painting process. Something I'm trying to learn to do better. Just let all paint dry completely before clamping the panels together or the surfaces can be marred very easily. Hope this info helps.

Your pet food bill must be very large!. Nice cutting!

Can't wait to see the finished product.

Although you may not be a religious person your prayers to follow the lines must have been answered since that looks absolutely perfect to me. Beautiful work!

Wow!!!!! Absolutely beautiful. Going to be cherished for a long time to come. Just curious, why one witn a monogram and the othe not?

FYI, you can buy the solid core Cherry plywood through HD. However, for such a beautiful project as that clock, solid wood is IMO the only way to go.

My Black Panther cut, that I just completed and posted in Bragging Rights, was actually cut because it was trully based on a nostalgia memory/reason. Back in the fifties my High School Teams were called the Panthers and this particular pattern is almost identical to the Black Panther Images use on the team jerseys and jackets. None of my other work fits the challenge criteria.

Wanting to add to my Whimsical theme, I found a free stencil Image of “Squirt” from Finding Nemo. There are tons of Squirt Images to choose from, but this one was best suited for conversion into a Scroll Saw Pattern. The cutting fit nicely on a 9X9 panel which is mounted of an 11x11 backer. The cut panel is 5/32” Solid Core Maple Ply affixed to a ¼” BB ply backer. Cutting was completed using Pegas #2/0 Spiral Blades. Both the Backer and cut panel are hand painted using Artist Acrylic paints. The assembled panel was protected with multiple coats of Clear Gloss Spray Lacquer. The Custom Frame is 1 5/8” wide Polar, finished with three coats of Minwax Pecan Poly/stain. While searching for appropriate images that would be suitable for conversion into a Scroll Saw Pattern, I ran across a stencil pattern for a Black Panther I just had to make. Way back when, my High School sport teams were the Panther’s and the team image was always a Black Panther. Since the image was always intended to be painted, I used 1/8” BB Ply for the cut panel which was attached to an 11x14, ¼” BB ply backer. Cutting was done using Pegas #2/0 Spiral Blades. The cut panel was spray painted with Krylon All-in-one Gloss Black primer and paint. The Backer was hand painted with Artist Acrylic paints. The assembled panel was protected with multiple coats of Clear Gloss Spray Lacquer. The Custom Frame is 1 3/4” wide Polar, finished with three coats of Minwax Classic Black Poly/stain. For an update on my knee surger recovery progress, check my post in Coffe House.

I have had blushing occur a number of times when using spray can lacquer. After the coat dries a subsequent coat will eliminate the blushing...don't know why, but it does. As I mentioned before, it has happened with lacquer by Minwax and Krylon, but never Deft. My Ace Hardwear used to only have one or two cans of Deft on the shelf. However, since I have been buying them out frequently, I noticed they are stocking more now. I only get two, maybe three 11x14 panels out of one can so I buy a min of two cans at a time.

I beleive any good quality brand of a gloss enamel is considered safe for children these day since lead is no longer use in paints. A good primer and then paint with multiple coats will give a hard, safe mouthable coating. Laike anything else, reading the lable is always a good I dea.

I also use Deft Spray Lacquer and prfer it over other brands. Available at Ace Hardware. I have had blushing/fogging problems with other brands. I see in you pic you use Krylon. Although I like Krylon for their paints, it is one of the brands I've had blushing problems with. I'm in Florida with high humidity and very high temps this time of year. I do have a small AC unit in my workshop, but temps still run well into the 80's in my small shop. Of all spray finishes, lacquer is the easiest to use as it dries quickly and provide a godd solid coating after multiple coats. Spray poly is hard to use with a long dry time and is effected by humidity. Oils do protect the wood, but they tend to allow the piece to collect dust and really require maintenance coats ove time. IMHO, unless you use a quick drying primer and paint, lacquer for natural or stained products intended for indoor use is you best choice. My Deft cans do not clog (at least they haven't ) on me. The proper proceedurre of turning the can upside down and flushing the nozzle after use is a good idea even though I haven't needed to do that.

Irreguaredless of how the speed is set, a "Push to ON and push to OFF switch" vs the more common "Push and hold to stay ON and Release to OFF switch" is something only an individual scroller could decide as to which is better. IMHO, I find it very important to be able to stop the saw instantaneously by the slight lift of my foot. I feel my foot would get severely tired holding it on/above the switch in anticipation of having to jab it to stop the saw. So, for me, the "hold to run" switch works very well.. When I first started to do some serious scrolling, the thing I hated most was having to switch the saw off with my hand, using the saw on/off switch. Once I installed the "hold to run" foot pedal it was soooooo much easier to control the work piece and there was much less tendancy to accidently damage the piece when stopping because I had to take my eyes of the work. For those long perimeter cuts, I find it easy to stop for a rest along the way at an apropriate point. On such long cuts my brain/eyes gets foggy keeping the blade track on line way before my foot needs a rest. Again, my leg/foot/ankle does not get tired when holding the pedal down because I have carefully arranged the pedal height such that I only have to use, nominally, slight toe down pressure along with the weight of my foot to hold it on. As the say, to each their own.

My table also scratched soon after starting use. The scratches have increased. However, it has not caused any problem but I do need to rewax on a regular schedule to maintain a nice slippery surface. The coating appears to be quite soft and just the roughness of the wood causes the scratches.

My Pegas sits on the Steel Pegas stand at the top of the adjusments in the back and one hole lower in the front. I sit on a stool that I had to modify the legs to get the right sitting position for me to work comfortably. When I sit on the stool my short legs do not reach the floor. So, I rest my left foot on the front horizontal cross brace of the stand. I use the HF foot switch, but needed to raise it upon some wood blocks so my right foot can reach it comfortably. The switch is mounted on a piece of 4 X4 (total 3 1/2" high) that sits on a 8" diameter disk of double thickness of 3/4" ply so the total height is 5" to the bottom of the switch. I added a piece of the rubber non-slip shelf liner on the bottom, but it is still easily moved around some such that I have to reposition it occasdionally during a cutting session. My foot does not get tired but as others mentioned, occasionally the leg/ankle will unintentioally relax, releasing the switch and the saw will stop cutting. Generally I do not need to "PUSH" down hard, I mostly just let the weight of my foot keep the pedal pressed down allowing a quick stop by just a slight lift of my foot. If a variable saw speed contol was used, the saw would have to be set at full high speed to accomodate the full range of the control. I'm affraid there would be tendancy to cut at much higher speed than is prudent. Holding a constant speed somewhere in the middle of the speed range would most likely prove difficult.

That is one of the best front door name plaques I seen. Very nice work.

That sled looks very nice. I know there are many DYI miter sled designs available. The one I referenced is basicaly designed for rabbeted frame making and only good for 45 degree corners. I like the this sled because it eliminates having to calculate the length of the frame rail. Because you set the rabbeted edge along the Square, you just use the panel dimensions + a tad (mayby a 1/16) to set the angled stop block. Works like a charm.

I thought your Frame and cutting went well together. I was in no way being critical of your work. My comments were solely about using Inkscape in liew of the string and pencil. I also noted that looking at the frame and cutting on paper before cutting would also prevent any size relationship problems that "could" occur. As far as miters, you might want to look at:

I watched the video and found it very good and well done. Great instruction on the actual making of the frame. That being said, any of of us who use inkscape can make the "layout work", a lot easier and possibly more accurate. His string and pencil method works, but it is slighly antiquated. Ovals are easy to create In Inkscape and can be produced and printed out like we do a cutting pattern, but for a frame instead. If I was going to tackle a project like this (and I will, as soon as I find the right scene), I would probably make the cutting pattern and frame pattern together to make sure the frame and cutting work together. Yours is perfect, but I could see where the scale of the cutting vs. the size of the frame could possibly be a problem. Eaiser to see the combined pattern and frame design before cutting either.

Well done...very well done. The pattern and cutting is great. And the frame is just wonderful. I've done an Octogon Frame but not an Oval yet. Will be on my to do list.

I can understand why you enjoyed cutting it. Just wonderful pattern and cutting.