FrankEV

Here is what I did:

octoolguy described a BF correctly early on herein. However, a BF is usualy based on rough sawn dimensions. So when you pay by the BF for say "a dressed 1X6" you are paying for the waste and getting only 3/4 X 5 1/2. Lumber yards that sell dressed lumber ususally sell by the LF (linear foot) and the price per LF may vary based on the length of boards available. Some specially lumber providers sell rough sawn material priced by the BF for the various spiecies. This can be quite cheap but they will charge for planing services over and above the BF price. This can be as much as an extra $1/bf. Rough sawn is only great if you own a planer and can plane you own material to the thicknesses you want. You really can not equate BF prices to stock dressed lumber, but need to compare LF pricing.

Great idea and beautiful work on both the scroll work and bird house. Of course you aren't going to let any real birds use it...right? If you are going to use it as a real BH, make sure the bottom is a hinged trap door so it can be cleaned out and you need to provide a dowel on the front for a pearch. And dont forget to finish it with a non toxic finish that will stand up to the weather. A while back I made 8 bird houses (no scroll work) for my DIL with different size holes for different kinds of birds. I used untreated cedar so I did not have to worry about a finish. I had done a lot of research on what bird houses need to have.

Very neat cutting. I hate cutting font!

After seeing the post from Joe W. titled Nautilus Gear, I just had to make one. A quick - just for fun - project with every part made from Walnut and Pine scrap. Pegas #1 MGT R blade. And like Joe said "You can turn it in a complete circle over and over and . . . " Finished with spray Lacquer...it was fun trying to coat everything and not having it stick the moving parts to the stand . Sorry about the clinging dust in the pics.

Very very nice. I know those palm trees are a PITA to cut .

Very nice job. "The man in Black" was one of the best ever.

I'm sure you will find plans for a stand that will work. However, in reading the above included in the text, it remines me of what I did when I started scrolling. Created my shop in a very small shed. All was fine in the begining and just thought I could sweep up the sawdust and cuttings and all would be fine. After a few months, my small space was covered with sawdust top to bottom and no amount of sweeping or even using a shop vac to clean up worked. Scrolling is realy, realy a major dust producing craft. I hope you have thought about that and the space has good ventilation and the possibility to install some kind of dust collection system. I learned the hard way and have now a small system that works great. My shop is still quite dusty from the work I did in the past, but as time goes by I get to clean a lot of the nooks and crannies where the dust has collected.

Beleive it or not, I only spend about 3-4 hours a day in the shop. Usually very early in the morning. Painting is done in short spurts to allow for drying time whenever time permits.

This 1/8”X9”X17” BB cut panel affixed to a 1/4”X11”X19” backer is another ZM Creations Illustration I converted to a scroll saw pattern. The cutting was done using Pegas #2/0 and #0 Spiral Blades. I actually finished the cutting a few weeks ago and set it aside because I was unsure how I was going to finish it. The ZM Creations Illustrations are somewhat simplistic but very colorful making them suitable for conversion to a scroll saw pattern with coloring in mind. This particular Illustration was interesting but I was not happy with just a colored Illustration on a white (or in this case a natural wood color) background. I felt it needed the water and sky to be in color also but wasn’t sure how to handle the border of the cut panel. When I finally decided to do the painting I decided to leave the cut panel border natural and make the backer border black. I sprayed the panel before removing the liner/pattern. Please I took a lot of liberties in the painting colors. The painting of the cutout areas on the backer panel was done using Acrylic Art Paints and the cut panel was colored using rattle can spray paints. I like the Krylon Fusion All-In-One products as there are a lot of colors available. I’m learning to do wet on wet spraying to get some blended/shaded colors. Once again the Frame is a simple 1 3/4” Poplar frame. The wood had a fairly clear grain so I just used the wood pre-stain treatment and finished with an application of Minwax Classic Oak Polyurethane/Stain. This was the original Illustration.

While I was finishing up my Double Trouble project a while ago, my Lady (Robin) had seen a magazine with pictures of beautiful ladies fans on the cover and ask me if I could do a cutting of a fan. The fans in the picture were very ornate and they were not suitable for making a pattern, so I went hunting for fan patterns. I found four on the Sue May web site. I did not feel only one fan would make a nice presentation so I decided to do all four and present them as a group. Yes four individual patterns but over 500 holes in total. One panel was done in one 3-4 hour cutting session using both Pegas #0 Spiral and #2/0 MGT R Blades. Four days total. All cuttings and backers were cut from 1/8” BB Ply, painted with various colors of Krylon Fusion All-In-One rattle can spray paints to “sort-of” match the colors shown in the Sue May Patterns. I use 1/4” Birch plywood to create a colored 18” x 24” full backer that the individual fan panels were affixed to. This full backer was set loose into a custom made frame cut from pre-primed Brick Mold available from Lowes. When the better half asks for something you just got to drop everything get it done as soon as possible. When she is happy, I’m happy. Now I can go back to my projects.

Very nice. I've cut that Hummingbird (Steve's) pattern which he uses in many of his patterns.

I like very much. Should be a great conversation piece. Boy am I dumb...brain fart! Read your post over and over. Could not figure where a tensioning piece was on the cutting. Light bulb finally lit up after rereading again and realized you were talking about your saw, dahhh.

Again nice cutting. Same comment as in my reply to your post "Curiosity".

Nice looking project. I have seen this pattern and considered cutting it a few times. Would be nice to get some details with a posted pic. Panel material, backer, blade used, finishes, etc.?

Spirals require a lot of practice, but once the eye/hand coordination is mastered they are a lot easiier to use for patterns like this one with a lot of small cutouts. I hate having to spin my panel. Small spirals leave quite "visually" sharp points. Stack cutting almost 1" thickness with straight blades is going to make the cutting very difficult. Your blade holes must be perfectly perpendicular to the panel or the lower panels will not be a true duplicate of the top panel. Blade tension and slow cutting is critical or cuts will not be perfectly true. Also because you need a larger blade for the thick stack, the small cuts are much more difficult, even if you use spirals. And, JFYI, I do not stack cut portraits type panels as I consider each piece I do as a "one-of-a-kind". I'm not into production.

Cuttings look great, but our opinions don't matter. What matters is what did they think about being emortalized in wood?

My Condolences from somebody who has been there...lost my wife 10 years ago. But a big welcome back to the Village from the East Coast of Central Florida. I'm rather a newbie as I only joined about a year ago. Lots of the gang have been around a long time but there are a lot of other newbies as well. You will get to know us bye and bye. So fire up the saw and show us what you can do.

Very nice. Three pic's...three crosses? They look the same but different.

They are ALL absolutely beautiful. The cuting and finishing just wonderful.

JUst one word: Beautiful!

Majestic Eagles! A very favorite subject of mine and many others. You did very well on a very nice pattern (which I also have in my "to do" file). The HL frame finishes perfectly. Question: Is there any difference between what you call "laminated Russian BB" and what is commonly called "BB Plywood"?

Maple is a great contrasting compliment to any dark wood, especially Walnut. Yes it can be exspensive but if you are only going to use it to make inlays you can get a lot out of one board. https://ocoochhardwoods.com/ is a good source. BTW, nice work.

Excelent job. Great Idea for storing the puzzle.

WOW! What a great job. Great cutting and presentation. Love the cues and rack of balls in the center.