TAIrving

@Gene Howe A few more things about scrolling with mesquite: it is a very good wood for scrolling. The blade goes where you point it, does not try to follow the grain. I have never had a burn when scrolling with mesquite. No fuzzies. I think that is because it is a hard wood. No breakouts, again because it is a hard wood. Placing and removing patterns is easy. I use full sheet labels and put them directly on the mesquite, no blue tape, etc. The pattern stays in place and,after cutting, pulls off easily without pulling wood fibers. This again because it is a hard wood and it helps that I sand the wood before cutting, usual to 240 grit or finer. The only real issue is that dark wood is not the best for all projects.

The surgery business must pay well. How much did he charge you for yours? Just kidding of course. That is quite an airplane and a beautiful cutting of it.

@Gene Howe I like mesquite and enjoy working with it. It is hard and dense and it is dark and finishes up very nicely; some would say it looks rustic. You are lucky to have live edge boards, you can use that to achieve a great rustic look. A lot of mesquite does have cracks, knots, etc and you do have to be judicious in using it. For scrolling, I resaw and plane mine to the desired size and thickness, paying attention to flaws in the wood. I often place the pattern to work around the flaws and to use the character of the wood to go with the character of the pattern. It is an interesting wood to work with. Post pictures when you do something with yours.

I am really not a neatness freak but I do have my limits. So I do work at cleaning/vacuuming up the sawdust in my shop. I conclude that my shop vac is performing as a Dust Pump! Read on. Recently I notice that I keep getting a film of fine sawdust on every surface in my shop. I clean up as best I can, go about my woodworking tasks of the day and, at the end of the day I clean up and vacuum. The next day the film of fine sawdust seems to be a bit thicker than it was the day before. It appears to be caused by my shop vac and the bargain vacuum bags I bought for it. I compared the bags available and got what I thought was the best bargain. I now conclude that these bags filter nothing, at least not the fine sawdust I am finding all over my shop. I am now back to shopping for bags and looking at their filtering specs. I see some that claim to filter 87% of particles 0.5 microns. The bags I bought previously say nothing about their filtering capabilities. I have a Wen 3415 air filtration system in my shop and it helps. I observe that the first filter, the 5 micron one, collects a lot of sawdust but that the second/inner filter, the 1 micron one, collects very little. Thus I conclude that most of the sawdust in my shop is 5 microns or larger. But apparently a lot of the sawdust in my shop settles out before being sucked through the Wen unit. Have any of you had a similar experience? What did you do to solve it? BTW, I will make someone a real deal on a package of shop vacuum bags, 9 remaining of an original package of 10.

One more. This is a Steve Good Nativity scene published several years ago. The wood is 1/2" mesquite.

This is a modified Steve Good pattern. I alternated layers of 1/4" Maple and Walnut. We use this bowl to hold the TV remotes in our den.

Work in progress on Steve Good Valentine's Day pattern. I still need to paint them. The wood is 1/2" Ambrosia Maple left over from a previous project. As others have said, I have cut many of his patterns and they are a big part of what got me addicted to this marvelous hobby.

Lots of good advice already. In addition, ensure that the layers are securely attached so there is no movement between layers while cutting. With fine detail in the pattern, any shifting during cutting means that the lower layers will be unusable. Don't ask how I know this.

Thanks Scott @Scott M.. I will call him. I talked with Michael Murray today and he was most helpful. Per his suggestion, I loosened the 4 hex screws which hold the tabletop in place and shifted the tabletop to where the blade fit in the slot when the head is tilted. That did the trick with one minor issue. When the head is tilted beyond 36°, the blade guard (the one under the tabletop) hits the underside of the tabletop and makes a lot of noise. Michael suggested removing the lower blade guard as it serves little purpose. it is not very often that any of us put ourselves at risk of cutting our fingers on the blade under the tabletop while running the scrollsaw. Kudos to Michael and Pegas for good technical support!

I am frustrated. I was attempting to make a scroll saw bowl, along the lines of this one from Steve Good's pattern library newbowl.cdr (stevedgood.com). i.e., start with a flat board, cut concentric circles of decreasing diameters at an angle and then stack them to make a bowl. I wanted to cut my wood at a 40° angle but ran into an issue. The manual for my saw, Pegas 21”, says it will cut up to 40° to either side. After some attempts, please don’t ask for details, I discovered that the blade hits the side of the slot in the table at 25° on one side and at 20° on the other side. I had thought that I should be able to cut at up to 40° to either side without making any major adjustments. This tells me, among other things, that my blade is not exactly centered in the clamps – minor issue. Question is, do I have to shift the tabletop in order to be able to cut at the desired 40° angle? And then shift it back when I have finished this cut. I haven’t tried, but don’t think that shifting the blade all the way over to one side of the clamps will do the job. Has anyone else run into this problem? How did you manage it? Does your saw allow you to do this easily and if so, what brand saw?

Happy New Year to all, especially Villagers! And happy scrolling with lots of wood (inexpensive, new to you and exotic varieties). And post pictures.

I attached my vacuum hose to the hold-down on my saw. I can lift it up and down as needed and I can rotate it out of the way.

Very nice Alan! There are a lot of small cuts in that one and you did them all very well. What type of wood did you use, how did you finish it and what size is it? Hope you had a Merry Christmas and wishing you a Happy New Year!

Use a vacuum cleaner that has a fine filter, for small particulates, otherwise the vacuum cleaner itself is just blowing the dust into the air where (as NC Scroller said).

I recently heard about the Southwest Association of Turners Southwest Association of Woodturners (swaturners.org). I haven't been to one but will try to go in 2023. It is a 3-day event for wood turners. Not scroll sawing, but at least wood working. it sounds like quite an event. Maybe someday the world of scroll sawing can do something like this.

I would shave off the pattern first, then...

@OCtoolguy The 3D reindeer are cute. The problem with hard maple: I cut some toys (dinosaurs) for a niece but never could give them to her. The hard maple cuts nicely but the cut edges are SHARP! And impossible to sand satisfactorily. I still have those lying around somewhere. I could sand the outer edges with some (a lot) of effort, but never could get the inner edges.

I was wondering about that myself. But then I realized that I have been checking the site but not posting, so I am guilty. I have been doing other woodworking, but not so much scrolling as of late, cutting boards and turning bowls on the lathe. Hope all Villagers are doing well and getting ready for the holidays.

I also have an Ottlite which I bought at Joann Fabrics. Mine has glass lens and LED light. I am very happy with it. But, as others have said, find what works for you. My wife has an account at Joann Fabrics and sometimes gets a coupon for discounts, which got me a good deal for mine.

I have also had a problem with the 2/0 blades breaking under normal tension. My fix, which works well for me, is to press on the side of the blade when clamping, putting a little bit of slack in the blade. Then when I flip the white tension lever, the blade has slightly less tension. It takes a little practice to get it just right.

Me three. Actually, Steve Good first, then SSV.

The description on the Rockler site says the core is "solid fir ply" and "solid wood core with between 5-7 plies depending on thickness".

Rockler is listing "American Birch Plywood" American Birch Plywood (rockler.com). It sounds like they intend it to be an alternative to Baltic Birch Plywood. Does anyone have any experience with this? How does it compare in quality? In price vs what you are paying for BBply?

You have to look in the SDS to find the VOC information. Below is copied from the SDS although the formatting did not copy. In the "Product Identification" line it says 350VOC and that is the only place I find mention of the VOC. Safety Data Sheet * Trusted Quality Since 1921 * www.rustoleum.com 1. Identification Product Name: WDCARE 1GL 2PK WATCO DAN OIL NTRL 350VOC Revision Date: 4/24/2015 Product Identifier: 65732 Supercedes Date: New SDS Product Use/Class: Wood Coating/ Watco Supplier: Rust-Oleum Corporation 11 Hawthorn Parkway Vernon Hills, IL 60061 USA Manufacturer: Rust-Oleum Corporation 11 Hawthorn Parkway Vernon Hills, IL 60061 USA Preparer: Regulatory Department Emergency Telephone: 24 Hour Hotline: 847-367-7700

I had not picked up on this previously and had to look. I found 2 versions of Watco Teak Oil listed on the HD website. The cans look the same but the prices differ by more than 2X. I could not find any difference in the HD listing and had to go into the SDS to find the difference. The more expensive one is 275VOC and the solvent listed is Ester Alcohol. The less expensive one appears to be 350VOC and the solvent listed is Naptha. There might be other differences but I stopped reading there.