Lester Willerton

Very nice Norm.

Very nice. I like them both and the color adds so much to the detail. They make me want to add color when I can. Thanks for the inspiration.

Nice pattern. Turned out great. Good job with the spirals.

After I retired from farming I built myself a woodworking shop in 2015 so I would have some place to keep busy and started buying tools. I did not know anything about scrollsaws so my first was a 16 inch King. It used pinned blades and had the tension knob at the back. I grew tired of it pretty quick and found a like new Delta 16 inch 2 speed saw at a yard sale. It was much better but the arm did not lift. I did not use it much but then found a good used Dewalt 788 and stand on kijiji. This was a great step up so I sold the King and Delta. I put pegas blade holders and an arm lift lock on it. After that I started to do more scrolling and enjoyed it. My daughter then expressed an interest in scrolling so I gave it to her a couple years ago and bought a 21 inch King Industrial that I now use quite a bit. I did not care for the blade holders it came with so i changed to the pegas blade holders. I wanted Pegas 21 inch saw but to get it here the freight was half the price of the saw so I bought the 21 inch King I could get close to home. I believe it is basically the same as the Pegas. So far so good. Last week I recieved picture of my Dewalt in use by my eleven year old grandson. He seems to like it so I hope he keeps at it. He is waiting for some pointers next time I see him.

I do not make patterns other than a couple portrait patterns of my grandsons so I rely on others patterns. Free or purchased. So I would like to thank all those that make patterns and make them available to the rest of us. Without your hard work my time at my scrollsaw would be very limited. Your work is greatly appreciated. Lester

Thanks for the kind comments. It was fun to cut and I enjoyed the spiral blades and not have to be spinning the 11x14 workpiece when using straight blades. I will use them again but will still use straight blades on many projects as well.

Thanks Octoolguy. I did use Elmer's a few years ago but had a few times the pattern lifted at times so I went to 3M77. If it continues to be problem I will try Elmer's again.

I completed this Sleigh Ride. Pattern by Charles Hand. I stacked three layers 1/8 Baltic birch covered in green painters tape. Pattern attached with 3M77 spray. Cut with Pegas #2/0 and #0 and #1 spiral blades. Slow going. 13 hours seat time. Cut on my King Industrial 21 inch saw. My first project completed with spiral blades. It was a learning curve but I will use them again on similiar patterns. After getting rid of as many fuzzies as I could and sanding I sprayed with laquer. The one in the grey frame will go to a friend who took my wife and I and our kids and grandkids on sleigh rides through the forest on his property a couple times. Grandkids still talk about those rides. When I saw the pattern by Charles Hand in Scrollsaw Woodworking magazine issue 89 I knew right away I wanted to cut it for Al as a thank you.

Well I did some test cuts on 3 layers 1/8 Baltic birch covered with greenn painters tape and pattern glued to the tape with 3M77 just as I did in the project I was working on and started this conversation. First I used my old can of glue. A light coat on first piece and heavy coat on second piece. Then I used a new can of glue. Light coat on first piece and heavy coat on second piece. In the first picture I cut with #2/0 spiral blade on all four pieces. In second picture I cut with a #3 modified geometry blade on all. In third picture I cut with a #1 spiral blade on all pieces in-between the first two cuts. All test cuts were made with just my vacuum running and I did not use the blower. I will say that none of the tests created as much dust as on my original work piece but I think there were slight differences.There did not seem to be any difference between old and new cans of glue. But I did see increased sawdust on the pieces with heavy layer of glue. Harder to see in the pictures than while I was cutting. Unfortunately I had to clean dust off between each cut as my fingers messed it up as I cut each time. I was hoping for more definitive results but this is what I got. Sorry for the long post. I hope the pictures show what I was trying to do. Thanks to all who previously replied and if there are questions please ask. Sorry my writing does not show good in the pictures. The top two in each picture are old glue with light coat on left and heavy on right. The bottom two in each picture is new glue light on left and heavy on right.

That is an excellent looking piece of work. The lights are a very nice touch. We'll done.

Hi Norm It was good to meet you and your wife when my wife and I visited your shop during the Nipawin art tour. You do very nice work and variety of styles of scrollsaw work. Thanks for showing me around your shop and answering all my questions. I have also noticed some different species produce different sawdust but none seemed as difficult to vacuum as this current project. That is why I am leaning towards too much glue. Tonight I put together four small separate workpieces of three layers of 1/8 Baltic birch covered in green painters tape just like the one I am cutting. Then I glued on patterns. On two I used my old can of 3M77. One with light coat of glue. The second with a heavy layer of glue. I bought a new can of 3M77 and used it on the other two. One light coat and one heavy coat of glue. In a few days I will cut on all four and see if there was a difference. I will report back with the results. Lester

Thanks OCToolguy. I am leaning towards too much glue aswell but will need to do some test pieces later. It I hard to get enough shop time right now. Also my can of glue is getting closet empty. Is there a possibility the consistency of the glue could be different near the end of the can. Maybe I have not been shaking it well enough in th past. I may buy a new can and experiment with that as well as time allows. Thanks Lester

Thanks FrankEV. I have checked and my blade is installed correctly and cuts well.

Thank you to all who replied. I had not thought of static electricity but will look into it. I know I put extra glue on this pattern to make sure it stayed stuck down. I wonder if heat generated by the blade could be making the glue and sawdust have a rubbery texture so it is sticking in place and not allowing the vacuum to suck it up. I think when I get time I may need to do some test pieces with light and heavy glue applications to see if there is a difference. Thanks. Lester

I am sorry for lack of details. I have three layers of 1/8 Baltic birch stacked together covered with green painters tape. Then I attached pattern with 3m77 glue. This is how I do all my projects. Normally I do not need to use the blower as the scrollnado attached to my vacuum does a good job collecting the dust. But on this project the dust seems very sticky and the scrollnado cannot pick it all up. That is why I need the blower to keep my lines visible. Thanks Lester