rafairchild2

I have an Excalibur that I have tuned up really well. The cutting is not so bad, though I am slow anyway, as I want to be as accurate as possible on all my cuts, it's the hand finishing that takes time. I sand from about ~100 grit to 1500. I do a mop sanding at 220, but everything above is by hand. After the linseed oil/finish cures, I go back at 3000 grit. These are one-off (or two) gifts, so time is not an issue. I want to have a well-made and finished product to give.

Your shop looks great! I too use my garage as a shop, but I occupy one side of it about 20 x 6, as I still put my Mustang convertible in it too. One day, I might dedicate the whole garage as my shop, retirement is a couple of years away... I just spent the weekend installing ridged dust collection pipes and a two-stage vortex collector for my vacuum. I am still working out the top vac for my scrollsaw. The current setup as pictured does a good job, combined wit the bottom vac from James, I have nearly zero dust blowing around.

But, but... the beaver is ruining good intarsia wood!!! How could you!?!?!?!

It seems the designer made the dotted line so you can rough cut on that, and then sand to the solid line. I do not like doing that. I split the solid line with my #5 Ultra Reverse.

Since each piece is cut separate vs a segmentation, the key is going slow so you split the lines perfectly. this will give you the needed fit. The regular sanding will loosen the pieces up a bit so the child can play with it. Additionally, I finished the back side the same way with the profiling of the edges, so they can make a reverse puzzle or just play with the pieces individually.

One other advantage of clear shelf liner is you can still see the wood, thus the grain. When doing intarsia or other types of projects where grain direction, coloring variations, and/or patterns are important, you can easily arrange your stencil in place and orientation. Below is a recent project at the stencil application stage. You can see the clear shelf liner that the stencil is glued to. A lot of the times, I fold the liner down on the sides, sometimes not...

Another one.

DAng... really nice... How long did it take?.

Rolf Can you post a photo of your setup? This sounds like something I should consider. I am big on profiling my work, and this sounds like a logical next step.

And here we are profiled, sanded, and dipped in linseed oil.

Thanks Rolf. Yes, I treat this like Intarsia, I go slow and nail the lines. I only had to do a little extra sanding on the octopus so it fit a little looser. Everything fit wonderfully. Using a #5, and splitting the lines, the kerf gives me the fit I want. Not too "sticky" as this is for little kids, and it needs to come apart and put together with easy sliding. I just finished profiling the edges, mop sanding, and finished with raw linseed oil. For that, I take a tin pie plate and put about 1/4 inch of the linseed oil in it. Then I dip each piece... both sides and use a foam brush to mush oil into the nooks and crannies. From there I take a cloth and hand rub all the excess oil off and air dry. After a few days of curing, I will take 3000-grit paper and get the final finish. I will post another photo with the linseed oil finish shortly.

Like all of us, I have a couple of boxes of cast-off wood, eg. waste wood, from previous projects. I decided to do a simple 12-piece animal puzzle, using nothing but cast-off pieces. I am hoping this will be a gift for a young man who used to live with us when he left an abusive home life. 10+ years later, he is now married and successfully in a well-paying career. His wife is pregnant again (lost 2 previous pregnancies), and I am praying for this child to go full-term. Thus the gift will be waiting. As you can see each piece was done individually, thus it was imperative that I nailed the lines dead center on the cut. Mainly used FD Ultra Reverse #5, for the 300 Janka pieces I used a Pegas Modified Geometry #5, and then used a spiral blade for the accent cuts such as the ears and mouths. I decided I wanted to go all-natural color, no paint or stains, thus using 12 different species of wood... Janka from 400 to nearly 3000... Can you list what wood I used? I completed the rough cut stage and will next profile the edges, and final fitting. From there I am going to build a frame and backer. Below is the loose fit after cutting. Edit to add: The Octopus is not showing its true color, a hint... it is one of the higher Janka's. Also, wound up redoing the fish, using Black Limba so it stands out more from the lighter browns. Perfect fit.

I use clear peel-and-stick shelf liner... WOrks on every type of wood. Come off real easy and leaves no residue.

This is one of my projects for today. Started carving at 3/4" thick blank stock, I was only going to go to 1/4" on the leaves, but I wound up going REALLY thin after I did shaping and sanding. Also working on my undercutting technique to get more dimension and shape. Still a bit more sanding before laying the Old Masters clear gel finish on it. My inspiration is the calla lilies in my garden.

Ocooch Hardwoods and KJP are my two go-to sources. I have not been disappointed with either of them. I decided that if I was going to produce "heirloom" quality pieces, I would NOT cheap out on wood.

Did two spoons out of the same slab of Cherry. Have not been in the shop much due to the heat, and also extra hours at work.

Nice job. How thick were the fence boards?

Welsh Love Spoons...

Hmmm.. I had to think about this. I have a little within hand reach when I am at the saw. But I have a pick, a small piece of 1/4 inch wood, a small angle, sharpening stone I use on the blades right under the saw. (you can see the pick). Down below I have a lot more stuff, not really in hand reach. But my sanding and gluing box, and then a cup of different picks and scrapers. Also, when I spin my chair, I have my drilling, sanding, and carving station right there. However, I put all my tools away at night, after cleaning, oiling and sharpening, then take out what I am going to need just before I get started. Does that count? The devices behind me, are all foot pedal operated, I also put them on a vacuum switch, so that turns on a few seconds after I hit the foot pedal and then runs for 5 seconds after. You can see the black hose that I can move to each station to direct the vacuum suction. I also have hand held controllers for lights and the window a/c. (Mid-Atlantic here).

I carved the larger spoon and the one with hearts with gouges by hand. For the smaller walnut spoon, I used a Kutzall burr on my rotary tool. I have been experimenting with different techniques with different types of wood.

Well, as people have noticed I have been quite the Welsh Love Spoon maniac of late... All thanks to James WeIch! I said I was going to take a spoon break (I lied and posted those) and do some clocks. Well, here is one that I just completed yesterday, just waiting for the finish to cure so I can do a 3000 grit final sanding. I also decided to fit the brass finish clock insert vs the silver. It is made out of oak, ang finished with Old Masters satin polyurethane gel. Rocking chair clock measures 6h x 5d x 6w Pattern comes from the Fox Chapel book: Miniature Wooden Clocks for the Scroll Saw ps: I have four more clock inserts, so I need to make some more

I think we need to start an "addiction" thread. As I looked at your mini-bird houses, I was thinking about how I recently became addicted to Weslsh Love Spoons. I wonder how many other people veer off for a while and just obsess over one thing.

Nope, no debate, you made that clear for sure my friend. I was just saying that I had similar issues and observations. Remember Occum's Razor simply states that the simplest explanation is preferable to one that is more complex.

This weekend, I again tried the Pegas #3 modified Geometry blades on my two new spoons. Walnut (3/4") and Black Limba (1/2"). Switched to a #5 on the 3/4" Walnut. I had some issues with the blades getting caught and thus being pulled out of the chuck a few times, bent badly, but no breaky. Sanded the blades at the point of chuck contact, etc... Because I do not use clear contact paper when I will carve after, (vs all other times) I use a removable spray adhesive direct on the paper to the wood, so I lose some lubrication of the blade. I did turn my machine way down as I find the Pegas Modified Gemonitry to be fairly aggressive, but I have to admit sharp. Still, I favor the Flying Dutchman Ultra Reverse #5 as my go-to blade, but I think for me there is some utility in using the Pegas on some types of wood/projects. Like everything in the scroll saw the world, each person finds their own preferences and go-tos. There really is no wrong answer.

BTW, this was my other spoon I finished with the above, made of Black Limba. Did all the carving by hand on this one. This too was finished in raw Linseed oil.