FrankEV

Interesting comment Charlie. I use on-line photos of my subject to try to get an idea of a fair color rendition. My shading and blending of colors still needs to improve. Just for the record, I'm not trying to make the illustrative image "real" but I don't want it to be tooooo "funky" or "abstract" either. Using color to enhance some of my scroll saw work kinda makes my work a little different from much of what this community does. I seems to be getting positive reviews and I see a few others adding some color to their work. I like to think some of what I have been doing is, in some small way, an insperation to others to think outside the box.

Hey gang, just wnat to say thanks for all the nice comments. But JFYI: It is funny how different people are attracted to differnt things (I guess that is what maks us human). None of the boats gat a mention and I thought they were the more appealing pieces. My lady raved over the Fishing Boat which see saw as a Tug Boat. Each of the sea creachers got at least one or more "like comments", even the Octopus, which I thought was kinda not so great. It is fun to post a group of pieces and see what comments people have. I get a better feeling about the opinions of the work rather than when each piece is posted seperately. Also, here is a observation I've made. The SVV group is very supportive of each other, a great thing, but "I feel" they tend only to give praise. Very little, if ever, is constructive critisim offered, which I find sad. Positive comments are always a god thing but there are times when a little nagativity is both worthwhile and instructive.

Yep. As I said , I do feel I could have done the paint work better. Eventhough these pieces are not supposed to be an true representation, I had looked at pics of Octopus on line to get and idea of what colors I should use. I had difficulty trying to produce an appropriate body color. Adding the white dots representing the suckers was done after the cut panel was affixed to the backer. These could/should have been more consistant. My detail brush work is not very good.

Rather than buying brush cleaner I use MS for that purpose. It is also an appropriate oil base paint thiner (art paint or house paint). Yes I clean my hands with it also. In the past I did NOT wear latex gloves when finishing but I do now and my use of MS for hand cleaning has gone way down. I will ocasionally spray the spray adheasive inside if it is raining, being careful to use a drop cloth or paper, but overspray can get on things...the MS will remove it. It will even clean up greesy tools when working on machinery of any kind. I buy it by the half gallon and it lasts a long time. You can get it in small (quart I think) cans also. I find it handy to keep around.

I though hard about using color for the MM and fish. Just could not decide if it would look correct. The image is very strong as a silhoette and color, in this case, may not improve it. But, you are correct, it might.

I’ve been busy over the past couple of weeks producing this group in between multiple doctor appointments, blood work, CT Scan, Colonoscopy and a short, but much needed, vacation trip to wine country of North Georgia. We had a grand time taking in all the Wineries. We drank and purchased a lot of wine over the 4 day trip. All the medical stuff is to do with a gastro problem that hopefully is resolved. The big C was negative. I’m told I just need to get MORE fiber. However, I also needed to get cleared for, in late July after another trip to Virginia Beach for family get together vacation, a scheduled partial knee replacement. FUN RIGHT? I’m hopeful it will be a short recovery until I can sit at the scroll saw and operate the foot pedal again. I presume the recovery period in order to be able to ride my motorcycle again will take considerably longer. Now back to bragging about my project. I converted the patterns for the following projects from various free stencils or illustrations available on line. These projects were made to supplement my portfolio to include pieces that may be more attractive to the local beach community citizens who frequent the Gallery that I exhibit in. All pieces are my typical construction using 5/32” Maple or Walnut Solid Core Ply Cut panels affixed to hand painted 1/4” BB ply backers. All cutting using Pegas #2/0, #0 and/or #1 spiral blades. All hand painting was done with Artist Acrylic paints. Panels were finished with multiple coats of Clear Glossy Lacquer. All the Frames are simple 1 3/4" wide Poplar, stained and then finished with multiple coats of Satin Wipe-on Poly or painted. Mermaid and Fish, 11X17, Painted Black cut panel affixed to a BB ply backer. Frame Painted Black. Crane on One Leg, 11x17 Fishing Boat, 11x14 Sailboats, 11x14 Sailboat at Sea. 11x14 Crab 11x14 Jelly Fish, 11x14 Octopus, 11x14. (The hand painting on this piece could have been a loot better.)

I purchased one of those personal coolers at the end of last summer, but never got to try it. As I have posted elsewhere, I have installed a small A/C unit in the gable wall of my small shop. It is now tolerable to work in the shop for a better part of the day, although I limit my time in the shop to early monings anyway. If an A/C unit is not feasable for the Garage, I would suggest trying a very high volume exhaust fan to help cool it down. Then the personal cooler might help at the saw.

Great Job. I'm with you 100%, I hate cutting loose block fonts. One trick is to drill a blade hole near the first. letter. Cut the letter and before it even has a chance to get away, use a piece of blue tape to keep it in the cut out. Cut over to the next letter and do the same, etc. After the last letter is cut and taped into place, the entire panel can be removed from the saw and all the letters will stay with it until you need to use them. Of course you need to cut out the center of "o's" and others first.

A piece of 3/4" thk good flat ply between the warped piece and the weights might help provide a more uniform flattening. It is also a good way to store flat stock to prevent warping.

Looks nice, but the Intarsia forum would be a better place to post.

Great box, fantastic cutting. I have a couple of similar box patterns I want to do., just not enough time to make it happen.

Well done!! Horses are a great subjec! Display it with pride.. JFYI, I found the pattern on line in Pintest: Horse Scrollsaw Fretwork Portrait Cutting | Mike Fehrings Artistry In Wood custom, free, free scrollsaw patterns, Fretwork, fretwork portraits, handcrafted, mikefehring.com, pattern, Scrollsaw, scrollsaw pattern, scrollsaw portraits, scrollsaw signs, Woodworking

Can't help with your other questions but I'm guessing at 79 years old I'm close to you in age and just bought myself a planer. It is a Craftsman bench top planer, even though I don't have room on my bench to mount it or even just stand it for use. The Craftsman is physically quite small even though it is a 12 1/2" wide unit. I built a very small wood stand (24 " w x 16" d x 29" h with locking casters so I can pull it out when it is needed. I'll do most of my planing, like I do my table saw ripping, out side, and most of the wood will be relatively short lenghts. And, I am happy that the planer on its stand tucks away in the corner while not in use. Like yourself, I'm not sure how often it will get used between now and when my time is up, but decided I realy can't think that way and decided to splurge the $349 at Lowes (of course with my 10% military discount helping). I have a local source of rough sawn wood and I'm hoping the planer will alow me to use some different woods mostly for frames and projects such as boxes and the like.

Great work on all the projects. BUT, that bowl won't hold any water!

I see in your pic you are using Createx AB specific paints. Is it necessay to use paint that is specifically intended for air brush work. I just purchased a relatively inexpensive AB kit with compressor that came with a gravity fed pen. I plan to only use with Acrylics. I have a ton of Acrylic Art Paint that come in bottles that I use for brush work. Can that be used? Thanks

Lots of good suggestions above, BUT, Poplar is not the best wood to get a decent stain job on. On raw Poplar, stain will look "Blotchy". To get a nice uniform stain job, the Poplar it first needs to receive a coat of pre-stain conditioner. It is unfornutate the dark grain is across half of the cut are. The difference betyween dark and light will only be emphasized by ANY stain or finish. My suggestion would be to make the backer a dark brown, maybe a Walnut Stain or my preference would be a dark brown paint to eliminate any visable grane of the backer. I would then apply a Natural stain to the cut panel which will tend to change the color slightly to a nicer uniform slightly yellow tint and then apply a protective coat of either Lacquer or Poly after the panel/backer is assembled. And always apply the protective coat to the back of the backer as well to prevent any chance of warping due to uneven moisture absorbsion Poplar tends to darken over time if not finished with a good protective coat. If the cut panel had a uniform grain, like maple of white oak has, coloring by selective area staining of the Wolf and Indian Face would have been a very appropriate choice. However, I'm not convinced it will enhance this cut. BTW, very nice cutting.

Pretty, but...tell me you really did not use the scroll saw to cut that. A band saw of jig saw maybe, but a scroll saw????

I really like it. Nice job on the cutting and the framing.

very nice. Got the B4UGO, but what does the P mean?

I use a sanding mop (Silverline Tools - Dome Sanding Mop - 75mm 240 Grit), I have mounted into a motor driven carving wand, every so often during a cutting for the same reasons. On a many hole pattern the fuzzies can even start to restrict the piece from sliding freely on the table. At the end of a cutting after a quick job with the mop, I will also sand the back with 220 grit on the palm sander and then finish cleaning all the little tight spots and any remaining fuzzies with a butane torch. I do almost everything with spirals also. Just finished a cut that had a bunch of long parralel curved lines with only about a 1/16" separation...a few wiggles but no cut throughs.

One of my favorite singers of all time. Well done! Nice spiral blade cutting.

Don't you just hate it when you glue the backer to the wrong side? I won't say anything about... you know what!

I own a Craftsman Spindle sander. It is in storage along with a few of my other previous workshop large power tools that I can't fit/use in my little shop. The Craftsman spindle is very large, When I was doing large wood working projects, I used the spindle sander a lot. Would love to be able to use it but just don't have the room.

Marvelous Job and thanks for the great story. Hope you signed and dated your work so it can be remembered when Jacob gets older and wants to know where it came from.

Your "Buchery" is well done. I don't see any reason to apologize! The grain in the Poplar almost looks like clouds streaking in front of the moon. Nice job on the wood orientation.