FrankEV

I’ve mentioned before that my workshop is a small 8’ x 12’ Resin Suncast shed purchased from Lowes. I also have a previously installed 7’ x 10’ Resin Suncast shed that is for my garden equipment. The back of my workshop shed is about six inches from the side of the garden equipment shed. Sawdust control has become a problem in the work shop. I only have 4 machines in my shed. Between my scroll saw, router, sander and table saw I have been generating way tooooo much sawdust and it was getting impossible just to sweep to keep the shop clean. My small shop vacuum was filling up the bag quickly and was not very practical to get in and around the equipment stations and work bench. A dust collection system seemed to be a necessary investment. Since my shop is small there was no room to install a dust collector inside the shop, so I decided that I would look for a system I could install in the garden equipment shed and run the collection piping and a remote switch through the walls into the workshop. Locating the Dust Collector remotely in the garden equipment shed reduces the noise of the loud dust collector in the workshop. I also did not want to spend a lot of money for a system, so after some Google searches and a lot of research, I decided to purchase a Woodstock International Shop Fox model W1727 1 HP Dust Collector that was recommended for 3 machines for about $450. Since my shop is so small I figured it would be good for my 4 machines and a drag around hose.. Four inch diameter hose was used to connect the Shop Fox through the walls into the workshop where the interconnection hoses was reduced to 2 1/2” diameter throughout the workshop. This is the hose between the sheds wrapped with foil sided tape for protection. The switch wire also under the tape wrap. This is the tansition from 4" to 2 1/2" inside the workshop. m I removed the On/Off switch that came mounted on the Shop Fox motor and relocated the switch to inside the Workshop. A twist lock male plug was installed in the gem box on the motor where the switch was and a female plug attached to the wire coming from the relocated switch. This prevents the connection from becoming dislarged due to vibration. There is a blast door at each machine so only one inlet at a time will be operated when the machine is operated. I also added a fifth blast door for a 1 1/4” dia. drag around hose for shop cleanup of sawdust generated by portable tools like palm sanders,Dremel carving tools and trim routers. This is to the back of the disk/belt sander. This is the connection to my router table. There is also a lower inlet in the back from the box below that cannot be seen. This is the connection to the back of my contracto table saw. This is the connection to the Pegas and the drag around hose. I made a collection box for under the Pegas table. Although I have not used the system for actual machine operations yet, I have tested the system and it seems to be working just as exspected. Plenty of suction and the Dust Collector can be barely heard. The air flow at an inlet is louder that the sound of the remotely located motor. Not sure if I will run it continuously while scrolling. Might turn it on when dust and pieces collect in the box below the table. The hoses, fittings (i.e.; Tee, Wyes, Blast Gates), hose clamps (lots of hose clamps) and hose mountings added about another $250 to the cost of the system. It took about 16 hours over three days to install the complete system. Hope this was not too boring and possible useful information for any one consdidering a small dust collector system. EDIT 1/14/21: There is a tour of my shop in a reply to Ken toward the bottom of this post.

Great job. Love all his songs, but really like the lyrics to 'Don't Mess Around With Jim'.

That's an awsome cut and presentation. The Frame makes a great job even better.

Well done and cute...the best acalades I can come up with.

Very nice. Not sure what your plans are for displaying it, but I could see it made into a very nice night light. If you made a round box about 2" deep with a backer, a little velum or colored plexiglass behind the cut out, a small socket w/ LED buld and a nice solid wood base....,"wal la", a night light for your daughter.

Everyone has said it already, but it is worth repeating...great cutting. Those spirals work great once you get used to them. The subject is beautiful but the pattern itself is very busy. It took me quite a few minutes before I actually saw the second cub below mamas jaw. You said you still had to stain and finish the panel so, and this is only my suggestion, you might want to consider selectively highlighting the lion and cubs and/or jpossibly just darken the background a tad to enhance the viewability of the piece.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Columbia-Forest-Products-1-4-in-x-1-ft-x-1-ft-7-in-Walnut-PureBond-Plywood-Project-Panel-2-Sided-10-Pack-5159/313817256 5/32" also available as well as many other wood verieties. I like the combination of Maple and walnut for many of my projects.

That is very classy and a great gift. Well cut!

I ditto Dan.

YES. Apply the stain liberally. Let it sit for 15 - 20 min. Wipe off. Let dry. Add another coat the same way if you want it to be even more dark. Repeat as necessary. I use walnut ply project panels I get from Home Depot and stain them with the Minwax Walnut stain. Then the panel is real dark and the contrast is beautiful. The backer you show looks like Luan. IMHO, too grainy and detracts from the cutting. A better choice, if you don't have better material, would be to use BB ply and paint with a very dark brown paint. Would be almost as good as a stained Walnut poanel. Look at my "R and Hummingbirds" I made for Robin:

Your Sharon and my Robin must be kindrid spirits. They both love hummingbirds. I've already made a bunch for Robin. I like that pattern an I like the cutting you did of it. Very well done. I think I have it downloaded to do one of these days. If you darken that backer a little bit more the cutting will really pop.

Beautiful job. Great subject. What is the panel size and was that 3 at 1/4" of 3 at 1/8"? To me, that seems to be a large blade for such an intricate cut, but if a 3/4" stack I guess I can see why.

NOPE! And BTW, I'm Frank, not Les! IMHO, an Artist has the ability to CREATE the Art in the first place in whatever form. A Craftsman can mechanicaly COPY, PRODUCE and/or INTERPRET that Art in other mediums. If it is duplicaed in the same medium, and an exact copy, it is called forgery. As an example, an Artist paints a wonderful painting. A craftsman can make a beautiful lithograph of that painting. Both result in Art but the Craftsman is not the Artist. Let me say that these are only MY definitions and my belief what the difference between the two is. PS: I guess my ability to draw (as in drafting) could be loosely mean I could be considered an Artist as what I created was an original product. However, even then my work was not a creative endevor as my drafting skills was just replicating physical objects and interpretations of various data inputs on paper. Much like how Inkscape can, using the Trace Bitmap command can reproduce a photo file, computers do many othe drafting work today. I don't consider a computer an Artist.

Love your work. The wood slabs are beautiful, but how are you preventing them from splitting. I did wood turning in my real woodworking days ahd tried to do turnings with cross cut wood blocks/logs only to have them split over time even after they had been dried slowly for a long time. Nearly impossible to prevent. I also know that Burl has a lot of internal stress and tends to crack and split due to those stresses. Are you applying a backer and what are you using?

I don't consider myself an artist because I have to rely on others to "CREATE" the art. My whole working career involved drawing (drafting actualy) but always needed a straightedge and compass. I can't draw freehand, in any form, for a lick. I'm quite decent at doing the mechanical work such as doing the cutting, or making frames, etc. and, I'm even learning to work a little in Inkscape to modify others work when needed. The painting I'm experimenting with is more like "Painting by Numbers" as all I do is fill in the blanks. Learning to mix colors is more logic than art. I'm very greatful that my scroll work is often touted as being nice and sometimes the end result considered "art", so I do not consider mysel an Artist but rather I do consider myself a fairly skilled, but still learning, "craftsman". Thanks

This project had two goals. First it was an experiment in presentation. The 10” x 16” cut panel is 1/8” BB Ply painted flat black after cutting. The backer is a 12” x 17” 1/4” BB Ply that was left natural except for the colored pattern that was hand painted with Acrylic Craft Paints. The glued up panel was further finished with multiple coats of Clear Gloss Spray Lacquer. The oversized backer creates a matted effect when placed in the Frame. The custom frame is made from Red Oak that was enhanced with Minwax Red Oak stain and finished with multiple coats of Wipe-On-Poly. This rather simple pattern was a free decal stencil that was found online that I converted to a scroll saw Pattern in Inkscape. I cut the panel in less than two hours with a Pegas #1 MGT R blade. Second, in addition to the presentation experiment my intention was to provide the members a simple pattern for those who might be interested in attempting to make a colored fretwork piece. A very inexpensive set with a variety of color Acrylic Craft Paints and a few cheap artist brushes will get you started. I know we have some budding artist, often the Scroller’s spouse, out there who has already added color to some pieces. For those, this would be a piece of cake. I’ll be uploading both the pattern and the original color version to the Pattern Library for those who may wish to give it a try. Just a little hint for those who haven’t done any painting like this is: You start with light tints and build up in layers to the finished darker tints letting each layer to dry completely before adding the next layer. This makes shading effects easier to accomplish. And JFYI, I don’t pretend to be an expert or even an artist as I’m actually just experimenting, practicing and learning myself. Here is the original artwork:

That is assuming the scroller using the flat blade is very good at following the lines and making the inside points meet and the outside points are neatly accomplished. In reviewing many of the photos of projects shown in this forum, I can state, without any reservation, that there are more "buggers" visable by the straight blade users than those who use spirals because the spirals "look like" they are intended to be that way. When using straight blades and spinning the work piece at changes of direction, the point/corner is often messed up worse than any spiral blade would do. I know because it happens to me quite often, even on simple cutouts. In my opinion, spiral blades, for patterns like the one the OP mentioned and most wildlife portraits, are much more forgiving for tha apperance of the overall finished project. FEATHERS AND FUR are not smooth.

I'd bet if you use a #2/0 spiral, after the cut is complete and a backer affixed, you won;t be able to tell that the points are "round" when viewed from a typical viewing distance of a few feet. You can only tell they are "round" under the magnifier light. And. cutting time would be MUCH quicker. It will be very intersting if you do it both ways...Please return and post your findings.

I hear you!!!!! Somebody else somewhere herein said to grab the blade with a pair of pliers pulling the blade straight before letting it slide down to the table to prevent kinking the blade and allowing it to break. This does work and you may have only broken 20 blades. I'm in the process of cutting some 3/4" Poplar with #0 and #1 Pegas spiral blades in a many hole pattern. I still break some blades but because most get dull real quick and when I tend to push tooooo hard, they break.

From my woodshop days making a glued up panel requires a lot of work and equipment. If I was making a 24" wide panel I would use four nom 8" wide boards (yes that is 30") and a min 3/4" thick (or what ever the carving machine requires). The edges need to be jointed or they will NEVER pull together. Yes you flip the boards so the growth rings alternate up down up down. I would use biscuits, but for a csarving panel this might not work well unless they can be place outside the cut area. Then to make the panel appropriate for carving the panel would need to be planned to a uniform "flat" thickness. Hard to find a planner that wide. Of course the panel then needs to be sanded smoth with a wide belt sander. Only after all that you then cut the panel to the final panel size the pattern needs. Way too much work to make the panel yourself. I didn't have the wide sander but I've made table tops this way...lots of sanding work is necessary to get a flat surface.. I would suggest you check out some local custom cabinet maker shops that deal in making solid hardwood cabinetry. They deal in doing this kind of work all the time and they have the wood and equipment. I'm betting you can find one who would be willing to make the panel for you and even do grain matching so the panel would be very uniform. Might be a little coastly but worth the cost to eliminate the hassel of making it yourself for a one-off project.

Excelent cutting. I'll make a wager that over time, for most "many hole portrait type cuttings" you will go to spirals more and more. I found that to be the case. Now I dont like using straight blades unless it is for long straight or curved lines and/or doing lettering. After a while you will hate to have to "spin the work" at every corner or point. Follow up in a few months and let us know what you opinion of spirals is then!

Bump: Original post edited to add updated photo.

You all realize that you don't paint each cut out area. I paint before afixing the cut panel to the backer and I paint well outside the lines and cover all of an area having a common color. The hardest part is to make sure the entire cut out areas are covered. It easy to miss pointy corners and areas where two colors are very close together. Painting is just time consuming...multiple coats and drying time in between. I dont pretend to be an artist, so I use the original to copy the collors. Mixing paints to produce shading effects does take a little practice and patience, but it is not rocket science.

I like it a lot. Extreamly nice. Going to put that one on my "to do" list for next year. I will probably make it much larger and put it on a 1/2 backer with a poly finish so it could hang outside.

Very nice subject and well cut. If you formalized the pattern you might want to upload it to the library. I know I might like to get the pattern. The frame is well done also, but just wondering if you considered a wider dark frame? Just my opinion but I feel the frame gets lost against the light colored cut panel. JFI, most store bought standard "picture" frames (not "document/certificate" frames) are approximately 1 1/4" tp 1 3/4" wide. A narrow frame of a contrasting color works well when the picture iself is single or double matted.