Dak0ta52

Nailed it again, Frank. The colors really make this piece. Awesome job with the airbrush. I've found the airbrush leaves a much smoother coverage than using a paint brush.

Nicely done, Ron. I hope you have plenty of little ones around to play with all these toys you build.

AWESOME!!! It took a little while for me to get it set properly. I had to adjust the upper arm tension and align the blade clamps so they were centered properly in the table hole, but WOW, what a difference. The WEN I was using gave me good service considering it is a $100 saw. The vibration wasn't bad at all, it was just having to replace the blade clamps about every month. The new Pegas is heavy, quiet and extremely smooth! It will pass the nickle test throughout the entire speed range. Being able to lift the upper arm to feed blades and then simply moving a lever to apply tension makes cutting so much simpler and FASTER! I highly recommend the Pegas-30 and I also recommend Artcraftersonline.com as the dealer of choice. I haven't cut a piece that would require the 30-inch throat but I have a pattern that will require this as soon as I purchase the wood I plan to use. I'll also have to build a couple side stands to support the piece. Thanks again, Denny for the great service and fantastic deal.

Another nice piece, Denny

Awesome job, Dick. I can feel your pain concerning the heat. Here in NC we have the heat and humidity which kicks the heat index up several degrees. I run two ceiling fans and a shop fan continuously while in my shop. The wind from these fans along with the perspiration at least keeps it somewhat tolerable. I've considered getting a mister but with the sweat I'm already generating, I feel it would just saturate me rather than cool me. In AZ where you have the dry heat a mister may be beneficial for you. Just remember to drink plenty of fluids.

Great work, Barb. I always enjoy seeing your pieces. They area always refreshing.

Very neat project. Nice looking finish also!

All three of your clocks are outstanding! I, too, have wanted to tackle such a project but my hesitation is getting the quality wood needed. The availability of the wood is very limited in my area and the money to order such wood is also limited. I try to let my few sales fund the cost of my hobby.

Exceptional work, Danny. I'm still trying to figure how you did the three colors... Is the heart and piece in the lower portion of the cross a floater?

That's delicate work on such a small piece. Great job!

Wow, you're living up to your handle... "Wooden Engineering" Nice idea and a nice piece. Even catches the shavings.

Very nice pieces, Tbow.

Hey Charlie, that looks like Mel Gibson! Great job!!!

You have master the airbrush. Awesome painting on an awesome piece.

I feel your pain! I've often said, "If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all." My employer has a wheel that you spin with various amounts of money ranging from $10 to $1000 and at certain times of the year will allow employees to take a spin. I've always said if they had a space saying "You owe the company $XX, that would be the one I'd land on. I do believe you are a bit of a perfectionist... it shows in your work. Remaking these pieces to YOUR satisfaction prior to selling them to the customer may very well lead to many more commissions that will more than pay for the loss of the two botched pieces... hopefully! And as always, your two pieces above are exceptional.

Per your request:

The facility is Bon-Clyde Training Center and is considered one of the best dog training facilities on the east coast. Yes, Border Collies are super smart and fast. They also require a lot of attention because they are so active. My wife has gotten into Papillons and they are smart, and to be so little, very fast. We now have two. The oldest we bought more as a rescue from an abusive environment. I can't understand why he was treated so poorly because he loves attention. The other we got as a puppy and he is into everything but so adorable. The older Papillon (Kiss) has his CDX (Companion Dog Excellence) and is pretty much retired unless it is just fun classes. The puppy (Oreo) received his first 2 of 3 legs to earn his CD (Companion Dog) certification. Robin (my wife) plans to train him through all levels and possibly go into agility. The last of your dogs is a long hair Chihuahua. The most training he gets is eating and falling asleep in your lap. He's great at that. Another rescue, but from the pound. He was totally hairless from flea infestation when we got him. The wife wanted to name him Hershey because he was brown... I wanted to name him Turd because he was so ugly. We call him Hershey! Now that his hair has grown in he looks like a puff ball. I tell my wife we could put a stick up his butt and call him a huge, brown Q-tip. Anyway, Hershey is my buddy. If I'm home he's under my feet all the time. If I'm sitting down, he's in my lap.

Give something like this piece a shot, Jerry. I'm sure with your talent you wouldn't have any problems. My most complicated piece was Jim Blume's 6-team stagecoach with nearly 1500 cuts. By tackling that I have no hesitation taking on something like this Border Collie. It's just one hole at a time. I hope to start a piece in the next week or so that is 4-feet long. I have to build some side stabilizers before I take on that task.

Beautiful pieces, Paul. As Dick said, doing dog portraits can keep you busy in commissions as long as you want to do so. I did one for a waitress in a restaurant I frequent and have had one commission after another for about two months now.

Great job. Smart use of the dropouts.

Very nice, Denny!

Very nice. That would make an excellent Christmas ornament.

A North Carolina welcome to you.

Thanks, Frank. I was purchasing some hay from a friend for my horses years ago and I noticed a huge rack with assorted framing material. I asked how he came about it and he said his son had bought it from a picture framing company that was going out of business. I told him to let me know if he ever decided to get rid of it and he said you can have it if you get it out of my barn. There was so much that it entirely filled my full size pickup. At the time I was doing nothing to use it as its intended purpose so I used it as kindling. Nice and dry. I had burned over half before getting into scrolling and found I could use it as it was designed. I sure wish I had what I burned back in the stack. There was some really elaborate pieces that went up in smoke.

My wife, who has trained dogs most of her life, said this is a typical pose for a Border Collie when herding. The stare is believed to intimidate the sheep/cow/etc. This was cut on 1/4-inch Maple and stained with Minwax Natural. The backer is 1/4-inch pine painted black. The piece was spray with 3-coats of Polyacrylic with 320 grit sanding between coats. The frame is pre-fab framing material cut to size. This was cut using Pegas 2/0 spiral blades on my Pegas saw. The pattern is my own and will be posted in the Village library. I'm setting up a booth for the first time in a week and the facility where the craft show is being held is K-9 training facility. The lady that owns the building is into Border Collies. (Talk about targeting your audience.)