Eplfan2011

Hahaha thanks Ray!

I'm over it now ....lol

Second attempt at cutting this Jim Blume bullrider pattern. The first attempt on thin ply resulted breaking off pieces while sawing, so I decide to try cutting it out of 5/8 Maple boards 16x16. I was progressing Nicley with a few cuts left. This morning before finishing it up I decided to clean up and vac the workshop, caught the cutting with the vac hose and it hit the floor hard and shattered a good few chunks out. It's beyond super glue I'm afraid .... I need to take a break I'm bummed ! I guess I leant some stuff cutting it, on a accomplished scrollers advice I changed blades half way through from FDUR to FD Polar and it made cutting so much easier.

Different strokes for different folks, the reason I'm learning to scroll is so I can combine it with other crafts, I don't need to be a master but want to be proficient. When I'm at the level I need to be I'd like to do some furniture inlays and piercing amongst other things, plus my wife's always wanting a sign lol most of all I want it to be fun and enjoyable. There's nothing wrong with being a jack of all trades, it's a shame that name carries a stigma, being just proficient in many areas still means you can make, many different attractive projects.

I'm Colin and I'm ........ ADHD and can't makeup my mind what I want to do, but I'm going to try everything!

https://makerpatterns.com/product/tree-of-life-scroll-saw-pattern-by-sterling-davis/ There you go Ray!

Thanks Marg! Unfortunately my health problems are something I have to live with, but I'm back to normal...... No no one's ever called me normal

You may remember I picked this saw up before Christmas. Ever since I've owned it I thought it was overly aggressive and on delicate work I'd defer to the hawk. I would over run cuts and the blade would "bounce" round tight corners, I put this down to my inexperience even though I didn't have this problem on the hawk. Well I was watching a you tube video by Steve Good about this and he was addressing the front to back movement or the blade and how to measure it. He recommended about 1mm of movement so I decided to measure mine, low and behold mine seemed to be moving about 2.5 mm. Steve mentioned a mod to correct this so I found a video showing the modification, it's basically enlarging the bolt holes on the lower arm so it can move forward a fraction. I've done the mod and the aggressiveness has decreased quite a bit, I'm at about 1.5 mm travel now I still need to remove a tad more material but I'm happy with the results so far. I haven't linked the videos but if anyone needs them I'll be happy to. I'm just posting this Incase anyone else has this problem, I really had been wondering how all you DeWalt/ Delta guys were making these smooth tight turns and shame on Delta quality control!

As the title says I've been MIA for awhile due to health issues and unable to saw for a few months. Being on light duty wasn't so bad as I got to play with my other hobby as a radio amateur even got a new radio or two lol. As I was away from the saw for so long I forgot a lot that I had learned and took awhile to get back into it and really I'm not back up to where I was even after a couple of weeks. Here's some stuff I've cut since I've got back at it, not sanded or finished yet and lots of mistakes as usual, but I'm told if I don't make them I'm not learning . Good to be back and thanks for looking

Haven't been using spirals that long but Ive found is a darn site easier in the Pegas Clamps.

Welcome to the Village Russell, from Illinois.

Some of my other things came home to roost today. My daughter came home from collage last night and this morning had her tonsils out this morning. Not a pleasant thing when you're going on 20 (I know she's still a baby) so I guess looking after her is going to be my priority, at least while her mother's a work .....

Great work !

Unfortunately what with Thanksgiving, the world cup and keeping up with all the stuff I need to do my scrollsaw has been redundant for a couple of weeks. I've checked in here but just browsed and not participated due to time restraints, I sure things will calm down soon and I'll be back at it !

LarryEA, I don't cut anything I don't like, unless my wife or kids ask me too, my problem is most of the stuff that really appeals to me is way above my skill level Of course my aim is to finish it, but unless I challenge myself to try them I'll never get there. If it ends up as firewood oh well, I've tried and learned something. Some wise person once said the road to success is paved with failure.

Welcome to ssv!

Nice work Kevin and I wouldn't have noticed if you had not pointed it out. But if that had been a letter with a chunk missing it would be in the trash, funny how that works

Yes yes ...I've had to learn to step back. I've made some cuts that look awful under the light and looking through the glass, stepping back and seeing the whole piece you wonder what the drama was about

Yeah ... I agree! This is what drives me to be better, TBH I'm a little ADD and I've been known to jump between hobbies like a Kangaroo. I'm enjoying this hobby, mainly because of the "customer support" here, there's always someone who's willing to offer support and it's always positive and helpful... You all need to get together and write a scrollsaw book there's so many talented and experienced people here. There's even people here with a sense of humour! Anyway keep doing what you're doing cause you're all doing it right!

I love that you'll all chime in and give advice on how you all do this, you have no idea how helpful this is. Here's a glimpse into my thought process. I've no where near mastered a straight blade but I can muddle along and cut something passable, and I figured I'd try spirals before the straight blade got too ingrained into my process and just became automatically my choice. Probably because I'm a inexperienced sawer I did not find spirals difficult to use as many have said, to be honest it feels like cheating. That said, with what I cut once the patterns off your not going to know how well I did as the whole is just made of abstract shapes, unlike lettering where one small mistake will stand out as they are predetermined shapes we are all familiar with. Overall spirals were fun to use for me but there's also a lot of cons too, they're messy and I don't get the clean lines I do with a straight blade, as for the fuzzies I found if you go round the cut using the blade as a sander you can keep them down to a minimum.

Thanks Hawk, nice portraits and nice to know you can get by with straight blades.

Thank for your input too Kevin, what you say makes perfect sense for you as well. With the amount of sawing you do you could probably knock one out while you're taking a nap

Thanks Paul, good answer makes sense, I guess it a easier choice when you know what your capable of

Sorry ...I got that the first time ... What I meant was what makes you choose a spiral or a straight blade or do you only use spirals for widening viens?

When you say you use both, what's your reason for changing from one to another ?