Tallbald

Salvaging lumber from old furniture to use for scroll saw stock, I often find screw and nail holes that need addressing. I learned long ago that for blond woods, I can quickly take bamboo chopsticks or Dollar Tree bamboo kabob sticks, sand them on my disc sander to a cone shape, and clip them off at about 1/2 inch length with pruning shears. I dab them with glue and tap them into the screw or nail hole. They sand down easily and make for a solid fix that takes finish, screws, nails and stain well. My jet scroll saw doesn't know the difference between the plugs and the base wood. I don't mind if the plugs aren't a perfect color match, because I'm rescuing otherwise wasted material. And proud of that. Don.

Penny was tossing her old CPAP air hose (time to change it out---part of routine care). Very flexible and durable, and not big and bulky, she said "Don would this maybe work for dust collection on our scroll saws?". I'm going to work on this idea. The hose has soft rubber joints that can be adapted to a few solid fittings. Penny and I are repurposers through and through. Just wanted to share my beloved Penny's inspiration. Don.

Denny is my go-to man for blades. Excellent to deal with. Don.

Thank you all for your kind words. Means a lot to me! Don

Thank you each and all for your kind and encouraging words! Penny's still tickled with it after 24 hours. means the world to this Old Bald Fat Man. Don.

Thank you so much! Such fun to make too. Don

Wanting to give my beloved Penny something not available at a florist shop for Mother's Day tomorrow, I made a small walnut sasquatch and doweled it to a 1 inch thick oak scrap. The gravel is from our landscaping and "dead shrubs" are dogwood twigs from our trees. A layer of epoxy secures the gravel and drilled holes hold the shrubs. Finished with a coating of brushed on walnut oil. Model is about 8 inches tall overall. Penny was excited and loved it. We both enjoy Bigfoot stories and speculation. A message of my love is underneath. So much fun folks. The Pegas 7R MGT blade let me make one cut for the entire sasquatch outline in the 13/16 inch thick scrap walnut and 1 inch oak. No sanding needed except to break the edge. Did I say it was so much fun? Thank you each and all for your kindnesses, and my best to you all. Don.

Anyone know why J and J ceased making paste wax they had made for years? My can is still pretty full but everything good comes to an end. Don.

Thank you all for the kind words. Doodling with a pencil making the interlocking piece lines is relaxing. I am still quite new to this art form and was hesitant to start cutting 1 inch oak. But the 7R MGT Pegas blade really met the challenge for me. It's very satisfying, seeing each piece separate from the others with clean, smooth surfaces revealing themselves. If anyone is interested, I checked Lowe's home store online and learned that a solid red oak bull nose, edge jointed stair tread , 48 inches long X 11.5 inches wide X 1.03 inches thick right now runs $24.98 here in Southern Kentucky (USA). Really, I think that's pretty good for the quantity of projects an artist could craft from it. I do appreciate everyone's enthusiasm for sharing their body of wisdom with new folks like me. It sure does make the road toward success easier! Don.

Thought I'd give it to her unassembled and let her wonder what the heck I made her. Grin. make her work for it. Thank you for the kind words. Don.

Only accomplished through the encouragement and inspiration of folks here and on a couple other scrolling enthusiast sites. Thank you for your kind words. Don.

Goodness it's hard for me to express to non-scrollers just how satisfying this craft is to me. Finished this mounted standup puzzle today. 1 inch thick oak stair tread offcuts from someone's curb, mounted with epoxied doweling to a scrap walnut base. Used the angle cutting feature of our jet saw to cut the walnut at a 10 degree angle for visual interest. The Pegas 7R blade handled the cutting nicely with virtually no need for sanding. One of our daughters raises heritage breed hogs on her and her husband's small farm and she just loves the critters. Expect this will join the stuff on her desk at the local Agricultural Extension Office. I plan to draw up more hogs, some goats, sheep, chickens and other farm critters to turn into mounted standup puzzles for gifts as I go. Thanks for looking folks. Don.

I am not bragging here but rather want to show others maybe unfamiliar with rescuing or repurposing woods, just what a wealth sometimes can be found. I carefully disassembled the black walnut end table(?). It involved drilling out a dozen walnut dowel plugs to access slotted screws (so hatefully 1980's) and popping out some finishing nails. End result, remeasured with a tape measure which revealed over 23 board feet of 90%-95% usable walnut. And several square feet of nice 1/4 inch plywood. Large boards are 13/16 thick. WIsh I knew about the craftsperson who built this piece. Their work and design thoughts remind me of my own works in the 80's. No idea who they are or were but following my belief system I felt a desire to say a brief prayer for the craftsperson. If they are still with us a stranger's thoughts may be good. If they've moved on I want them to know I value their past skills and that they did well. Good things to everyone here and thank you for looking. Don.

I just finished disassembling the oak table. All good and solid. Only things not usable to me were the short, rough corner braces with pocket hole screw holes up under the apron sides. I also salvaged about 1/4 pound plated, hardened steel Philips drive #12 wood screws, eight perfect 2 1/2 inch 1/4-20 slot head bolts and 8, 1/4-20 T-nuts. The walnut end table will be a little more ticklish. The maker hid screw heads under walnut dowel buttons glued and sanded flush. Some nails were also used to craft the piece and I'll need to take care disassembling as I study it for metal anything that would ruin planer blades. This is rewarding though for sure. Don.

It's been shared here that some scrollers among us repurpose abused, discarded and unwanted furniture as raw material for scrolling projects. With that in mind, my beloved wife Penny and I visited a "junk shop" and happened on these two unwanted pieces. The end table appears to be someone's old project and is made from a measured 14+ board feet of solid black walnut, a little over 3/4 inch thick. We paid $25 for it. The solid oak table looks like an early-to-mid-80's inexpensive designer style table popular as I recall back then. Measures out to over 5 board feet of solid oak almost 1 inch thick, for which we paid $20. Happy with the good luck. This makes walnut, cherry, oak, poplar and pine in our small library. Don.