FrankEV

Neat, very neat. All the Dragon lovers out there would love to have that hanging in their den (pun intended).

Absolutely beautiful. Had to look up what Mandalas are..hope your dreams are fulfilled!

Great job on both! Just wish her patterns were available for purchase without restrictions of use. And wondering if all those little holes on the bee's head was actually cut on the Scroll saw or just drilled holes? Hard to tell in the photo.

Interesting subject and nice cutting. Decals are not always easy to convert to Scroll saw patterns. However, the coloration of the cut panel leaves something to be desired. Not sure what kind of Plywood you used or if you stained it, but IMHO, a nice clear BB Ply or something like a Maple solid core ply would have provided a better contrast. Cut panel grain can both improve the product or can detract. To me. it seems to detract in this case.

Things happen, and they did in a big way, in my second attempt at a fretwork/sculptured project. The pattern is Owl by Seyit that I modified to suit an 11”x14” panel and adjusted for carving. The panel ‘started out’ as a piece of 3/4”x11”x14” and the pattern was cut with Pegas #1 spiral blades. The many-hole cutting itself was quite time consuming as the pattern has many very close together cut outs and required very slow cut speeds. After completing the scroll work I attempted to lower the background using a small trim router and a router sled to create a uniform lowering. I was removing 1/4” of material and as I moved across the piece the panel began to warp, causing the cut depth to vary, making the surface uneven. I stopped and when I returned to the shop the next morning, I found the panel had flattened out and I was able to clean up the uneven cuts. I was close to being finished when, in attempt to clean up a remaining small area, I proceeded to put a big, unrepairable, gouge in the panel. In order to try to save the scroll work I cut away the background from the image area. I then proceeded to do the necessary carving and painting of the image before affixing it to a 1/4” backer that I embellished with some colored work. The Frame is just pine with a detail trim strip, stained with a Minwax water based stain called Royal Pine that turned out to be very ‘Blue’ and not the color I was looking for. I added the gold color to the beading with Acrylic Craft paint and then finished it with Minwax water based Polycrylic clear satin protective finish. The water based products do dry much faster but I don’t think I will be using this system in the future. Every project is a learning process, and boy, did I learn a bunch with this one!

Very nicely done. You handled those thin cuts very well. That Botas pattern is really unique.

Excelent work. Very nice cutting. Wondering what the frame is?

There are a zillion individual type "corner/45 degree" clamps available. All work to some extent, some better than others. I had a bunch that I used to use for making various woodworking projects when I had my full blown shop a while back. However, even though they can be used for making simple picture frames they are cumbersom, hard to set up quickly while glue is drying, do not ensure there is even pressure all around and are not necessarilly self squaring. The opposite being true is what makes the SEDY so good. Of course you are very correct, no matter what kind of clamping you use, to get good clean, neat looking, joints the miters have to be dead on. But that was the subjectr of other posts...Re: miter saws.

I tried a couple of mini chucks from different sources. The 3 split chucks do not work well. However, the Dremel 4 split chuck does work but only works in a Dremel. I posted the following a few months ago and it has worked very well since: The Dremel drill press as is, because of it is only 3" from the bit to the post, is imparactical to use for drilling blade holes in almost any fretwork larger than 6" wide. However, I had the idea in my head I could do something to make it work and Home Depot near me had the Dremel Drill Press/Tool Station in stock for $45. I took a chance (knowing I could return it if I could not make it work) and bought it this morning. After I got it home and did some investigating how I could make it work the light bulb lit up in my brain and this was the result. There is a shelf above my workbench that was just the correct height to allow me to mount the base upside down. I slid the Drill press body on the post opposite of what is normal. The press can be rotated around the post allowing it to be swung out of the way if necessary. I use a piece of 1/4" ply as a drill backer and set the stop so the bit will not punch into the workbench top. Very easy to locate the bit ove the point where the hole is needed. From the bit to the wall is about 11" so as positioned it can accomodate panels up to about 22" wide.

Love Eagles...great job.

Great cut. Down here in Florida the Robins don't hang around too long. But right now they are migrating North and stopping to visit. We have had many of them roosting in our trees over night. In a week or so they will be all gone and we will back to seeing mostly Cardinals that are around almost all year long. When I lived in NC we had a few Robins that hung around all year and yes they can be very protective of the teritory.

Excelent work. The HD sign puts mine to shame.

You met the challenge beautifuly...great Job. Yes, finding where to paint behind the cut panel is hard. The frame complements the panel very well.

I have a similar rachet type like yours, but the corners are metal and do not stand the strap off the frame so the rachet is very difficult to use and can bugger up the wood frame. That is why I looked for another solution and found the SEDY. I also found this kind a SPITA to set up quickly befor the glue dries.

It is best to just snap a pic, transfer it to your PC and then drag and drop it into the bottom of your post for all of us to view and comment on. I personally do not do instagram or click on any links that I'm not 100% sure about. You will hear this over and over...WE LOVE PICS!!!!

I finally found a source for many spieces of both Hardwoods (Maple, Walnut, Cherry, Hickory, Mahognay, Sapele, White and Red Oak, Ash, Alder, Bass and Birch) and Softwoods (various kinds of Pine, Fir, Cedar, Spruce and Cypress). It is: M&M Enterprises, LLC, 1502 State Avenue, Hoilly Hill, Fl 32117, PH: 386-672-1554 Chuck, the office guy, was extreamly nice, showed me around and said I could hunt through the stock any time I wanted. They only sell full board lengths (what ever they have in stock) and the price is by the board foot. The great thing is that they have quite a few pieces in various verieties that are greater than 10" wide. Most of the material is rough sawn, but they do offer a planning service. Adds about $1/board foot. I found a piece of 4/4 Superior Walnut x 17" W x 8' long and a piece of nice 5/4 clear Maple x 12"+ W and about 70" long that is slightly warped. Both will be be planed down to a full 3/4" thickness with one straight edge (S3S). Hopefully the planning will flatten the maple. Their prices are NOt cheap but not as bad as one might expect.. These two boards should keep me in project maateial for a while. They also have a lot of smaller size stock (4/4, 6/4 and 8/4) in the various verieties that I plan to explore for making frames. The Poplar I have been using is inexpensive, but not very pretty wood and only availabe in 3/4" boards at Lowes or HD. I would like to add a profile to some of the frames I make, but the wood must be at least 6/4 to do so. Sorry that this find is only for those who are fairly local to me.

I've use this kind a while ago. Yes they do work, but the tension exerted my not be uniform, take a lot of time to set up/break down, needs a wrench to adjust the tension , and are a SPITA to store. The SEDY or the other identical brands like the Power Tec are so easy to use, set up and break down is very quick, uniform tension all around with just a simple twist of the wrist, and it stores in the draw nicely. Like I said, it is IMHO the best tool out there to square up a SIMPLE frame during glue up.

I found this Kenny Hopkins pattern in the Library and thought it was something that would be nice to make. I resized and modified the pattern just a little to suit an 11”x14” panel with a 3/4” perimeter frame. The cutting was fairly easy and was done with Pegas #1 spiral blades except for the straight cuts on the frame which was done with a Pegas #5 MGT R. The cut panel is 5/32” Maple solid core ply affixed to a 1/4” BB ply stained dark with MInwax Ebony stain applied over a base coat of Walnut stain. Again, as usual, I finished the panel with multiple coats of clear Gloss Spray Lacquer. I made the custom frame from 1 3/4” wide Poplar. In an attempt to improve the looks of my frames, after sanding to a fine finish with 600 grit paper, I used a Minwax pre-stain treatment and then finished it with a Minwax Gel Stain in a new color I found called Brazilian Rosewood. This color stain is medium dark but fairly transparent, exposing and beautifully highlighting the Poplar grain. I thought this looked very good and complimented the panel nicely. The frame was then protected with a couple coats of satin Wipe On Poly.

In the thread re: Thinking About a New Miter Saw, discussion moved off track to making Frame miters. This got me thinking that it might be a good idea to offer this tool for those who make frames There is a lot of ways and tools people use for squareing up a frame during glue up. And, I'm sure many know about, and use, this tool, but for anyone who may not be familiar, the SEDY Band Clamp is, in my opinion, about the best one out there for simple rectangular frame making. I have purchased and used more than one kind of band clamps in the past. The rachet type is great for furniture work and such. I even had one that came with many different corner pieces that you could make all kinds of shapes up to an octagon. However, I found all the rachet types were dificult to use when making frames. The SEDY is quick to set up, easy to use, very strong clamping strength, and, assuming the miters are fairly accurate, will make good tight joints. I do not pin nail or spline my frames and I have never had a Titebond glued frame joint separate. However, I will use Frame V-nails in soft wood frames to ensure this cannot happen. And, just one other trick. Apply painters tape to the finish side of the frame at the joints before applying the glue so the glue squeeze out does not get on the surface. No mater how much sanding is done the surface that gets glue on will never take stain as well as the other wood areas.

Les, Please read my reply to kmmcrafts above. I highly suggest you don't waste your money on a power miter saw for making picture frames...YOU WILL NOT BE HAPPY. If you have a decent table saw, buy a good frame miter making sled. Perfect miters every time and lengths exactly repeatable.

My shop is so small I do not have room for a powered miter saw. So I actually bought one of these (not Craftsman, but almost identical) recently to make my frames. Yep, not a quick as a powered miter saw, but it is very accurate as long as you make sure to clamp everything down well before cutting. A power sliding miter saw is very expensive just to use to cross cut wide boards. If there is room, a radial arm saw is a much better choice for cutting wide boards. Great for making dados also. IMHO, even the most pricy power miter saws are not as accurate for cutting precise miters as this hand powered saw or as good as a professional miter sled for use on a GOOD table saw. I had both, a good power miter saw and a profesional table saw with a mitering sled, when I had my full workshop back in NC. The sled was, hands down, much more accurate then the Miter saw.

Welcome to the Village from the East Coast of Central Florida. We transplanted down here from Fletcher (S/o Asheville) in the Mountains of Western North Carolina about 6 years ago. Had lived there for almost 19 years after retiring and relocating from LINY in 1996. Loved the area, but even the Winters of WNC was getting to me and, having to blow and pickup the Poplar leaves from the many trees on my property that fell from August to January was becoming just too much of a chore for this old man. I gave up a fully outfitted 24 X 30 wood workshop, that I sorely miss, when we moved down here. Currently working out of a smal 8X12 shed making saw dust a dust pan full at a time.

Don't know who that is, but the cutting and overall clock is really nice. I might have darkened the background under the Hair to male it read just a little bit better.

Love the pattern and the cutting is very nice.

It has taken a few days to get back to cutting again after installing my Dust Collector (DC) System. I have been working on a few projects at the same time, one being a sculptured piece that required removal of material with a Router. Using a router sled to lower areas on the project, my hand held trim router produced a tremendous amount of cutting materials. This material would have filled up my small shop vacuum quickly. Using the DC pull around hose, the cutting material was easily and quickly picked up. I also had the need to do a little sanding on my table mounted combination disk/belt sander. With the DC operating the sanding dust was collected and no noticeable amount disbursed into the air. In preparation of another project I used my table saw to cut panels and with the DC system attached and turned on, the saw dust was collected and there was hardly any material disbursed into the shop. The little saw dust that comes off the top of the saw was again easily picked up with the pull around hose. Then yesterday morning I spent over 3 hours at the scroll saw. I let the DC run continuously while cutting. My dust collector box under the table worked like a charm. Most of the generated saw dust and small pieces that would normally drop to the floor or onto my apron and shoes, was almost collected one hundred percent. I simply picked up, and tossed into the collection box, the small cutout pieces the popped up out of the cutting. Only a few got away and landed on the floor. Large cut out pieces were simply grabbed and pitched directly into the trash can. Since I did not add a top of the table collection hose to the system, I did get a little saw dust on top of the work and table but this is very insignificant and again easily cleaned up after cutting with the pull around hose. Previously, the floor of my shop would be littered with cut out pieces and saw dust for a few days until a project cut was completed and I stopped to actually clean up. Yesterday, it took less than a minute to clean up the floor around the scroll saw to pick up the few pieces that got away and the minimal amount of sawdust that dropped to the floor. I can see that a few minutes of dusting the shop walls, shelves, stored materials, etc., now and then, will keep the shop a lot cleaner than it has been in the past. Just a little FYI. The temps are cool these days and I have a small heater to warm up the shop. While cutting yesterday with the heater on, it started to get too warm so I shut the heater off. The DC system pulls a lot of air out of the shop and it immediately began to noticeably cool the shop down. This is a problem I will easily live with. Hope my DC install post and this followup was helpful.