FrankEV

I don't! My single 28 year old grandson who lives on LI in NY has just purchased his first home. He is fixing it up, but things like wall art is not one of his priorities at this time. And, although he is 28 and an IT Tech for a large Senior Health Care facility, he still loves computer gaming, and likes watching odd entertainment like Adult Anime Animation. From what my daughter tells me, one of his favorites is called Castlevania...I've never heard of it, but found a lot about it on-line. I decided I would make him a house warming portrait piece as a present for him to hang on his wall. I found this image of a Castlevania character, Alucard, which I converted into a 11” x 15” scrollable pattern. Cut in 5/32” Maple solid core ply with Pegas #2/0 spiral blades and attached to a simple black painted 1/4” BB Ply backer. The panel was finished with multiple coats of clear gloss Lacquer. Cutting was a little chalenging as there are a lot of long unsupported thin pieces. The panel is mounted loose in a custom frame made from 1 3/4” wide Poplar, stained with multiple coats of Minwax Ebony and finished with two coats of Minwax Satin Wipe-on Poly. I think the Dark Ebony stain color affords a nice rich contrast to the portrait rather then just being painted black. Mailing it to him this comming week. Critique of my work is always welcome.

Lots of very clear crisp sharp points...very nicely done!

You only go clockwise if you live south of the equator!

I only finished the Red Oak with the clear Lacquer. The color is not very deep, but I is much richer looking in person than what is seen in the photo's. Often when I use Red Oak for my Frames, I will deepen the color with Red Oak stain. That improves the contrast between Frame and portrait, but in this case I prefered to just maintain the natural wood color. Thank you for your comments. Much appreciated.

Very nicely done, both cutting and Frame...nice tight miters. Your friend will be thrilled. Glad to see you are back. For us not in the know, your absence was dully noted. And, I see, back to you old tricks of using phrases somewhat like, but not the same as, we use over here across the pond. You said: "not perfect by a long chalk". We would say "long shot". To me Chalk is something you write on a blackboard with.

Yes it is Woodsmith pattern, but in my computer file of patterns I had not labled it so I did not know where I had gotten it from. And I had not donloaded the construction details, so other than the scroll patterns I had nothing else to go on. The Woodmith build was a lot more complecated than what I did. Your better half could have this one for the right price...I would ship .

LOts of good avice above, but lets talk a little differently. I really can not speak directly to skip tooth blades as I don't use them. I very rarely use blades larger than #1, I use very samall Pegas MGT R and Pegas sprials to do more tha 99% of the cutting I do. If you are using a 2/0 blade to do very intricate fretwork and having difficulty tracking the line, I suspect you are probably pushing too hard and have the saw speed is up too high. Proper tension is important, but yolu must let the blade do the cutting. I do not like to spin the work piece to turn a corner when Im using a small blade so I tend to use what I call the double cut method. Fully enter the corner, back out and cut a new cut over to the corner on the oppisite line leaving a small cut out that the piece can be rotated around the stopped blade to continue on the new path. Rotating a work piece around the blade while cutting always leaves a rounded corner/intersection, rather than a very sharp point, especially when the corner is supposed to be very sharp. I'd rather double cut than bugger up a corner or sharp point rying to rotate the piece while cutting. Oh, just one other thing, you must look at the blade and line you are cutting and not look where you do not want go...if you do the blade will goi there...trust me, I know. Now lets talk a little about tracking along the line. When I'm able to, in Inkscape, I make the line width just about visible in RED at .005 inches and try to use a very light Grey fill. Since I use a very thin line, I do not attemp to split the line, but rather keep the blade tracking as true as possible tight along the waste side of the line. If I lose some control, I attempt to do so on the waste side so I can shave back to the line or even sand it smooth with my dremel burrs later if necessary. Also, as you are well aware, in many intricate patterns adjacent cut lines may be very close together. Using a thin line allow me to move the blade to the other side of the line to provide a little bit more space between parellel cuts. Since the cut line is so thin this variation on which side of the line I cut is not even visible when all said an done. I do not find the wood thickness to be of concern when using small blades. However, the thicker the wood the slower the piece must be pushed. Again the blade must do the cutting and it can't be rushed. Unless I'm cutting something like block font or long straight or smooth curved lines I have personally gone to using spiral blades for cutting fretwork. No rotating the work piece and much better line tracking once you master using spirals, That being said I stll use the same method of tracking the blade along the cut line as I described above. For most fretwork I do, the pattern cuts are very forgiving if there is minor deviations in tracking the cut line. HTH

You got to work with what you have. My lady chose the color of the backers and the red felt went perfectly with it. If I had just used a contrasting wood backer, a Royal Blue would be an excelent choice, but I wasn't about to go out an buy different felt when I had the red already. Thanks for taking the time to offer a thoughtful suggestion.

I would love to use more exotic wood, but I can't justify the material cost as I can't gaurentee I will be able to sell it. As is, the cost of Red Oak is outragous, but the only decent hardwood readily available at Lowes. I wasn't even sure about this project as the scroll work was not that spectacular. It was only after stack cutting the box walls and base did I decide to actually complete the project. It was more just need to do something different project to keep control over the duldrums from doing the same work all the time. All that being said, I'm seriously considering making a fretwork clock like others are doing. If I do, along with spending for a quality movement, I will definately spend to get nice wood. However, it will probably not be a for sale project as my lady will want to keep for ourselves, so cost is not a consern .

Needed to take a break from doing framed, flat panel portrait work and make something different. I have had this Side and End wall bird battern for a very long time and have revisited it often. It did include the base pattern, but there were no patterns/details for the top or bottom. I had to design them on the fly. The box is nom 12” wide by 8” deep and 4” high. I really did not realize how large the box was until I began to assemble it. Since the box was quite large I decided it needed a divided drop-in tray. The box outer walls, base, top and bottom is solid red oak. The red painted wall backers, inside box bottom, inside base top and the inside box tray supports were made from 1/8” BB ply (cut from my cut-off scrap pile). The tray was made from 1/4" Red Oak solid core ply and has a depth of 1 1/4 inches. Because I did not realize the size of the box, I was forced to purchase a 6 foot length of Red Oak 1” by 12” (3/4” by 11 1/2“) to make the top and bottom. Big $$$$$. The available 2 foot long boards at Lowes were not quite long enough as I need 26 inches. So I now have a nice 3’-10” length left for another future project. I planed the bottom down to 1/2”. For the top I rabbeted the bottom perimeter 1/4"deep so the top has a lid keeper that projects into the box. I sanded a small round on each corner and I used a small ogee router bit to put a decorative edge all around the top and bottom. Everything was finished with many coats of clear gloss Lacquer after which I lined the tray and the lower box with red felt. A very sticky job as I was using contact cement. I'm contemplating installing some small hinges as the top is heavy and will be cumbersome to remove and replace during use. I’m attaching a few pics as it is hard to show all the detail in one. Feel free to critique my work. . Edit 7/3/21: It was requested I post pics with the hinges installed. I was able to mortice the hinges into the box and lid to get the lid to land flat on the box. The lid does not need a hold open device because of the lids overhang.

Not sure you can cut 18" wide material on a table saw.

Look for as "real wood " cabinet maker in your area and check if they have a band saw set up for "resawing". May cost you a few bucks but worth it to get a number of thin pieces. If they will, have them run the pieces through thier wide belt sander to remove all the saw marks.

Very nice work. I was confused about how you morticed the legs in using your scroll saw untill I realized the top is made of two layers. Great idea. You call it a "Puzzle Stool", does that mean the letters are loose?

Too Complicated Tim, Thanks for the feed back. I dislike haveing to use JPG of a pattern, because it can not be manipulated with out converting in Inkscape or similar program. JPG's are OK if I'm converting a photo into a pattern, but would prefer to receive downloads in PDF or SVG. I have never worked with TIF files and do not plan to purchase Adobe Photoshop to do so. I'll have to live with Inkscape.

Studing both in detail I find both very apealing and well designed. I can see both being done by many. Very hard to say I like one over the other. I, personally, have only one very minor preference. It would be to use the open font for the N,E,S & W , as used in the one with the steering wheel, instead of the boxed font on the other. For some unexplained reason, I find the boxed font is distracting to my eyes. I know we don't typically place Scroll Saw work in a frame under glass, but either of these would look fantastic mounted on a contrasting ROUND backer and mounted under glass in a ROUND frame presenting the illusion of a real maritime compass.

Ditto to all the above! Great job!

WOW! My waste pieces never come out that neat. I'm betting it took the six months to put the puzzle pieces back together.

You are totally correct. For me the title "Bragging Rights" is OK but if one is going to reply to a posting and only give praise, IMHO, there is nothing of value to be gained except to boost the OP's ego. The question is then: Why do we all comment on post in this thread? Maybe this forum needs another subject for posting. Something LIke 'Critique my Scroll Saw Work' where both positive and nagative comments are expected and welcomed. If one does not like to or want to receive criticism they would not post in that thread. You are also corrrect, I never asked for "constructive criticism", as I just assumed it would be offered if appropriate. And although I'm happy with the work I post and like to brag as much as anyone, that dosen't mean the work I do couldn't be better. So from now on I will add a statement for "constructive criticism" to all positng I put up. Now I will give you some unsolicited criticism to your reply: One long parragraph is VERY VERY difficult to read, even on a large screen like I have.

Extreamly nice. Nice neat cutting of the font. Guarentee it will be cherished.

I had stack cut a bunch of the feathers, so I had extras. And yes I did break a couple that I had to replace. The quills are quite thin, thus fragile. I would do something different if I was to do them again, which I'm not likely to do. An eylet at the end of the quill would allow the fethers to be hung like Danny did, but I was looking for the fan arrangement that Sue May showed. I had to take the pics, get the pizza boxes, bubble wrap and store away right now so she dosn't see. I'll be careful to not let her look over my shoulder when I might have the pics up. A buck apiece for the Pizza boxes was a steal. Now they will be outa sight out of mind until the trip in July. Not going to post on FB or both my DIL and Daughted would see them. I'm glad to have the project put to bed.

Some of you might know how difficult it is to keep a scrolling project a secret from a better half that likes to visit you in your shop and see what you are making. That was the case with this project. I’m hosting a family get together in Virginia Beach the third week of July that includes my Son and his wife, my Daughter and her husband along with my Lady and myself. It has been about 10 years since we were all together. I’m trying to make this vacation a little special as us all being together at one time is difficult to arrange. We live in different parts of the country, namely NC, NY and FL. Back in early May, Danny Knappen had posted a couple of Sue May Pattern Dream Catchers he made that caught my eye and decided I would make one for each of the ladies as a surprise, hence the need to keep the project secret from my Lady. Sue May has a couple of offering including a Dragonfly that is perfect for my DIL and a Hummingbird that is good for my Lady, but wanted something different for my Daughter. I found a Butterfly pattern on-line that worked well. I stack cut 1/4” thick solid Walnut for the circular body. The creatures were cut from 1/4” solid Maple affixed to a hand painted 1/16” thick plywood backer material I found in Hobby Lobby. The feathers are cut from 1/8” thick solid Walnut and Maple. All cutting was done using Pegas #2/0 and #0 spiral blades. Based on the write up that came with the pattern, I decided to fancy up the cutting by adding Gold colored beads and a hanging chain, which I added after the wood work was all assembled and finished with many coats of clear Gloss Lacquer. The feathers and beads were fixed in place with Cyanoacrylate Glue. I spent a lot of time in the beading section of Hobby Lobby trying to find what I wanted/needed. Deciding on what chain to use and finding tiny screw eyelets was difficult. Cutting and assembling the various parts of the Dream Catchers, times three, was very time consuming. Not something I would care to do on a regular basis, but I enjoyed doing it for these special gifts. I now need to find some approximately 12” square by 2” deep boxes to bubble wrap, store and carry them in, as they are quite fragile. I may have to resort to some Pizza boxes from my local Pizza place . Thanks for reading! Yep, the Butterfly got placed a tad bit off center during glue up. I don't think it will matter to my Daughter.

Nice cutting. You might want to think about doing some detail sanding and using a butane torch to remove the backside fuzzies in the future. They do detract from a very well cut piece.

This is not really a Q&A subject, but just open for general discussion. My "cute" reply to Tbow388 in his post "Pattern Attachment" got me thinking about what do you all prefer to get/use when you obtain a pattern electronically? JPG, PNG, PDF and SVG are the common options. The SVV pattern library is JPG or PNG because of the way the site is set up and is really only a photo library. I personally do not like to use a photo file to produce a final print out of a pattern since there is no control over what is printed. When I use a Photo file I will convert it using Inkscape/Trace Bit Map to convert it to an editable SVG so I can change line weights, line/fill color, eliminate islands, resize, etc. I prefer to cut patters that are printed in a very thin cut line that is printed in Red with a light grey fill. I prefer it when the cut/waste area is the grey area but I havn't been able to figure out how to get it that way all the time. I also like to size the cut pattern to suit what size panel I want to produce it on. My printer is limited to a maximum 11X17 so most of my framed art is 11" X 14" - 17". I usually center the pattern and leave about 1" of free area all aroung the image either as a cut border or as a borderles piece. After editing in Inkscape I then save it as a PDF for printing purposes and/or in case I want to send/post electronically. JFYI, there is a free online service called PDF2JPG that allows you to convert PDF's to JPG's if needed.

If the wood has been stored in high humidity there is a possibility it would cup if transfered directly into a low humidity environment. However, if the wood is dry and you lower the humidity slowly ( which adding a new AC unit will do naturally), it will not likely cup. Flat stock should be stored flat with sticks seperating the wood to alow air to circulate around all sides of each peiece (easier said than done, I know.). Ply stock should not be affected by a change in humidity, but sugggest it be stored flat also or trully vertical. Leaning stored plywood can allow it to warp/bend over time no matter what the humidity is.

As PDF's Sorry, just couldnot resist. But, like others, shelf liner and spray adheasive. Shelf Liner from Walmart is a lot cheaper than Painters tape. The adheasive on painters tape is very week and any little dust will prevent it from sticking well. I personally do not like wetting the wood with MS to get a pattern off. Takes some time to dry and I find it interferes wuth the finishing process.