FrankEV

I know I have seen the work of others who have done this 810+/- hole pattern called “Two Wolves by R. Beard, but this is my enhanced hand painted version. It was slightly modified to fit on a 11” x 14” backer with a 1” border. It took me 7½ hours of machine run time which equates to about 16 hours of sitting behind the saw. In addition it took at least an hour to just drill all the holes. The pattern was cut in 1/8” BB ply using about a total of fifteen Pegas #2/0 spiral blades. The cut panel was hand painted using Acrylic Art paints. Approximately another 10 hours of painting time in between drying times. About an overall three week project while doing other projects in between. The cut panel is affixed to a ¼" BB Ply backer painted with Krylon All-in-one paint and primer spray Flat Black. And, like always, the assembled panel was protected with multiple coats of Deft Clear Gloss Spray Lacquer. (Deft vs. Minwax and others - possibly a subject for a future discussion post in General Scroll Sawing.) The custom frame is once again made from 1¾" wide poplar and finished with three coats of Minwax Pecan Poly/Stain. Wanted a light color frame for contrast with this very dark piece. Don’t forget critique of my work is always welcomed and appreciated. PS: You might be inclined to ask what happened to the cut frame that is part of the pattern. Suffice to say, things happen, but it was not cutting related. If you get a chance check out my recent post "Gonna be gone for a while." in the Coffee House Forum.

Really nice work Grandpa!

Nice job. Back when I had my shop in NC and used to turn bowls and such, I often used to use superglue as a finish. Easy to do when the work was turning, Never thought of using to finish a small piece like your pendant. I suspect you have to work very quickly and it must be difficult not to glue your fingers to the piece .

I have, and have used a few time in the past, Deft Sanding Sealer for that same purpose. However, It has a silight tendency to add a little yelowish darkening of the wood, more so than just using straight Lacquer. When wood like Maple, or even BB, is left un- stained, I want the wood color to remain as natural as possible through the final finish. I do most of my sanding pre-cutting and only do a little touch up sanding if absolutely necessary, so the need for a sanding sealer in my opinion is not as important for scroll saw panels as it is for wnen making furniture or other large projects that require extensive finish sanding afer assenbly. Thanks for the reply. I'm always egar to learn what other processes people do and why.

Always have used shelf liner. Much cheaper than painters tape. As others have said, the trick to keep from lifiting wood fibers is too sand well just before applying the liner. I use 220 followed by eithe 600 or 1500 grit to get a VERY smooth surface. I have two palm sanders fitted with these grits and it only takes a few minutes with each to get that really smooth surface and follow with a clean tack cloth to remove all dust before applying the liner. I also agree that it is not a good idea to leave the liner on too long and keep it out of the sun and high heat. I use a lot of BB Ply and the solid core project panels from HD. For projects with the natural wood exposed, I prefer the Maple or Walnut Solid Core product as it is a little harder and much less like to have any fiber lift. I mostly use BB ply for backers and cut panels that I will paint. Nothing to do with fiber lift, but I do prefer Maple Solid Core Ply to the BB Ply for it's nicer color and prettier grain for many of my projects.

I considered yellow, white, purple and even Black Roses but Red Roses are commonly associated with LOVE. so.... But not to fret, I'm in the process of cutting another Rose Piece... and seriously considering Yellow. Roses.

I converted a free stencil version of this image I found on-line into a scroll saw pattern for mounting on an 8” x 10” backer. I cut the image using Pegas 2/0 spiral blades in some scrap 1/8” BB ply. I positioned the cut image on the 1/4” BB Ply backer on a diagonal for a more pleasing visual effect. After deciding how I wanted it to align on the backer, the cutting and the exposed cut out areas of the backer was hand painted using Artist Acrylic Paints. Again the painting of the cut piece was tedious and time consuming. And again as usual, after the cutting was affixed to the backer, the panel was finished with multiple coats of Clear Glossy Spray Lacquer. The frame is 3/4” wide Polpar finished with Minwax Classic Black Poly/Stain (I see in the photo I have to clean a few fuzzies off the frame that went undetected until you get up close with the camera.) This piece uses an additional leftover cardboard kick stand backer from a cheap frame I had purchased way back when for another project, making it a Table Standing Piece. I decided to do this piece to replace a similar but different piece, that I had previously made, which has been sold. Critique of my work is always appreciated.

Very well done, but have to ask: What is the reason for not using smaller drill bits and bldes? I would never consider doing a complicated piece like that with a large blade. I own a few # 5 blades but hardly ever use them.

Very nice and well done. Quick question. I've seen you mention this before but never asked: Why do you use the diluted Shallac, prior to spraying with the Lacquer? I recently bought a can of Shallac to try this process, but just haven't gotten around to trying it. I have finished many wood working projects, both prior to getting into scrolling and now for my scrolling projects, just with Lacquer

Not sure I can answer your question, but will throw something out just for your consideration. My small workshop is an 8' x 14' plastic shed and I'm capable of having quite a bit of equipment in this small space. If you are going to be living in the RV and moving from site to site, staying a while in each, you might want to consider a decent size tailer to tag along behind. I can see setting up a trailer with a small table saw, scroll saw ( My Pegas would work as it is not very heavy), a small work bench and even a small drill press. Cabintry can be installed for hand tools, wood materials, etc. All the power tools can be secured to the floor so no concerns while towing. If you plan to tow a car, you could consider a large auto carrying trailer that has enough room to also carry the power tools that could be set up for doing the wood working while staying at a RV park. A little inginuity could make this work as long as the pocketbook can handle the strain. I've seen a lot of commercial workshops on wheel (in trailers) so it is possible to do.

Great dog, the cutting .... Just kidding, cutting looks very nice! And Nugget is really cute!

Now that wood and cutting go together. Very nice work. Hemmmm! No turns if you use spiral blades. Is the Alderwood a softwood or hardwood? How easy is the cutting?

Wonderful work all. The last one with Humming birds looks very intricate. I find it hard to do repeating patterns like these. Recenlty finished some Dream Catchers that had disks with a repeating pattern. I managed and they don't look too bad, but not quite as neat and perfect as yours. Any chance you could elaborate with some details like: Wood used?, Size? Blades used? etc. Did you count the number of holes in the Humming Bird disk....looks like a lot.

Well done!

All $$$ concerns understood and very much logical. I just have two quick comments: Boxes of 12" x 24" Baltic Birch panels can be purchased on line in 1/8 and 1/4 thicknesses. Yes, not overly cheap outlay but only works out to be about $3 per sheet and affords a lot of cuttting to be done. And, BTW, it is difficult to find any quality wood at the local lumber yards. Maybe jus a little bit more costly on line, but much better choices and availability. As far a paint is concerned, you can purchase very inexpensive acrylic paints in Walmart and Hobbuy Lobby, but until you get your feet a little bit more planted in this activity, it might be a good idea to just stay with the B&W format for a while.

Welcome to RAIN...I mean Florida. You have probably mentioned it before, but what part of Florida did you relocate to?

Rodney, First let me say you did a nice job on the cutting. If by any chance you have looked at some of my work you know that I'm in favor of adding color to scroll saw work. And I also knoiw every one sees things differently, but in this case, IMHO, the color of the "Blue" you chose is not right. Much tooooo bright. It just dosen't not look like water to me. It draws the eye away for the oveall image. The entire area below, what is supposed to suggest a pond,is representing the waters surface, so to me the black, or a very dark color, reflection is more appropriate. Now, if I was wanting to color this cutting I would consider the horse itself. Using color like white or bright yellow/tan and adding a little detail like a Horses mane would make this very basic pattern into a more apealing piece. Again, this is just me, but I feel the very strong grain of the pine is not a great choice for this piece. It actually works well for the upper half, almost looking like sky, but not for the bottom half. This actvity of scrolling really has very nuch to do with the choice of wood as it is about the cutting. I'll apologise ahead of time if you feel this critique was unwarented.

Very well done.

Absolutely great cutting. Very intersting piece.

Answering the questions out of order: Only one place is the geen stem very thin due to me wandering off the line a little. I was able to hold the cut panel in my hand for painting without concern. After it is glued to the backer, yes if struck or the like, a piece could be broken off. True of any "positive" type cuts. Fine Art is delicate and should be treated as such. The light Red, light Green, Blue and white are painted on the backer. The cut piece is painted with the darker Red, Darker Green and Black. It is a good idea to prime the wood with a Acrrylic Gesso (white art primer) before painting. However, that becomes VERY difficult for the painted areas on the backer. The spaces under the cut panel is so narrow it is hard to keep from going beyond the colored area. I did not prime but did apply multiple coats of paint. Priming the wood makes the paint flow easier and lay more evenly. Finishing with a coat of lacquer tends to even things out nicely. Now to that orther idea....nah!

I found this free simple, yet elegant, B&W Wood Burning Stencil on line that I converted in Inkscape to a scroll saw pattern. The conversion was mainly the addition of bridges and resizing to suit an 11 x 17 panel. The cut panel is 1/8” BB Ply affixed to a 1/4” BB Ply backer. The cutting was relatively easy and was completed with Pegas #2/0 spiral blades. From the onset it was my intention to make this a colored piece. Both the cut panel and the backer was hand painted using Acrylic Art paints. Since the image is raised, all edges of the cut panel needed to be painted also. This is a real pain in the butt process. The painting process took quite a few hours to complete. Of course as usual the assembled panel was finished with multiple coats of Clear Spray Gloss Lacquer. The Frame, once again, is a made of 1 3/4” wide Poplar but finished a little differently this time. I used Minwax Classic Black Poly/Stain laid on heavy (3 coats) to create a high gloss finish. I think it adds a little “pop” to this piece. (I need to get a different color backdrop for my photo booth to use with black frames.) Critique of this work is always welcomed. Edit: Changed back drop in my photo booth.

You did a great job. Very nice cutting. Using solid wood for a sign like that is always a winner, although I would have probably chosen to use a thinner material for the cut panel, but that is only me.

Well done and absolutly beautiful. The silver did not photograph very well mainly because of the competing background...a dark background would have made the silver stand out. Now If I was making this lovely keepsake, I would have painted the rose red, the leaves green and the rings gold.

If you own a vertical belt bench sander you can make your circles just about as perfect as possible. The cut panel should be affixed to the backer either permanently, or with double stick tape, before cutting the disk. I cut out the disk making sure I cut on the OUTSIDE of the line. Slow and carefully but not worrying if the cut is real smooth. the cut line needs to remain visable all the way arount the disk. Then, using the table on the vertical belt sander to get a true vertial edge, you can carefully and gently sand away the waste until the line is just removed evenly all around. Actually this is easier than it sounds, However, the trick is to keep the disk moving/rotating while the sander takes the material off slowly.

Very Well Done! If, for the backer, you had used a darker wood or stainded it darker there would have be a little more contrast to make it visually pop a little more.