Steve Good’s mini Nativity

[dgman]

Cut twelve of Steve Goods’s mini Natives. I always use hardwoods instead of Baltic birch plywood. All cut from scrap wood. I used Mahogany for the body and roof, Walnut for the base, Maple for the figures and a mystery wood for the palm tree. Based on the grain, it must be an oak, but it does have a greenish tint to it. All woods are 1/8”. Stack cut four at a time using Flying Dutchman Ultra Reverse #1 blades. I decided to turn them into ornaments. 

[Rockytime]

Those are beautiful. Some ambitious cutting there. 

[Gordster]

Way to go .Perfect dozen...nice wood also

[meflick]

Nice work Dan. Like you, I much prefer hardwoods over Baltic Burch plywood. However. I thought I would cut some of these this afternoon and thought I would do them first in the BB plywood since I had some available that way if I messed them up, I wouldn’t mind as bad.  I went with the middle size on 1/4” thick. I have glued the stable pieces together, but am thinking about how I want to finish out the overall pieces. I am thinking of staining the stable and the base darker and leaving the other pieces more natural. I am also thinking of trying one maybe with some colored stains on them or maybe doing some wood burning.  Not sure yet, I am muddling it all over in my brain overnight at least.   I did decide to turn the tree around because I thought it hides Mary’s face too much although yours does not appear to do so like mine did when I set it up together. Also, did you glue Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus to both the stable wall and the bottom ground or did you leave a little space between them and the stable wall? 

I had some 1/8” thick scrap of walnut that I had stacked up to cut 4 of the smallest ones like you have done but I have not cut them out yet. Pattern on and ready to go. Maybe tomorrow. I like how you turned them into ornaments. After cutting the 1/4” and seeing how small it was, I was hesitating about going smaller with these. May cut them and steal your idea and make them into ornaments as well. hopefully mine will look half as good as yours. Thanks for sharing.

Edited October 14, 2019 by meflick

[edward]

Very  nice done, I done a couple myself, and also I did one in 1/2" BB, I would like to do some in !/8" oak but I don't have any.

[Charlie E]

Nice job! Like those a lot.

[Ron Johnson]

Beautiful work Dan. Like your choice of woods. 

[wombatie]

You've been a busy bee Dan.  They are terrific and I love the idea of making them ornaments.

Marg

[Scrolling Steve]

I like what you did there !

[daveww1]

very nice, they are beautiful

[rdatelle]

I like the way you did those. I did 8 in B/B but I think I might do 4 more in different hard wood.

[amazingkevin]

21 hours ago, dgman said:

Cut twelve of Steve Goods’s mini Natives. I always use hardwoods instead of Baltic birch plywood. All cut from scrap wood. I used Mahogany for the body and roof, Walnut for the base, Maple for the figures and a mystery wood for the palm tree. Based on the grain, it must be an oak, but it does have a greenish tint to it. All woods are 1/8”. Stack cut four at a time using Flying Dutchman Ultra Reverse #1 blades. I decided to turn them into ornaments. 

You,ve got me thinking now what to make with hardwood scraps.it does make them stand out that much more so why not. Another thought is making so many and showing them it a possibility that they will buy several.one for each cherished friend!!! Love seeing your work!!! Keep it coming!!!

[Bill WIlson]

I'm unable to locate that pattern on Steve's site.  Anyone care to provide a link?

Thanks

[meflick]

1 hour ago, Bill WIlson said:

I'm unable to locate that pattern on Steve's site.  Anyone care to provide a link?

Thanks

@Bill WIlson here you go: http://scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/2019/10/download-below-sometimes-we-need-simple.html

He posted it on Sat., Oct. 5th, 2019 so a little more than a week ago.  Have fun making some.

[Bill WIlson]

Got it, Thanks Melanie!

I've been looking for a unique ornament to make this year.  Only problem is, I'll be making about 100 of them, so that means I will have ~ 900 pieces to cut & keep track off.   

[dgman]

2 hours ago, Bill WIlson said:

Got it, Thanks Melanie!

I've been looking for a unique ornament to make this year.  Only problem is, I'll be making about 100 of them, so that means I will have ~ 900 pieces to cut & keep track off.   

Bill, they are really easy to cut. You will want to stack cut. I cut four per stack. Fortunately for me, I have a planer so it’s easy to come up with 1/8” material. I used Aleen’s tacky glue instead of CA glue. The tacky glue sets up real fast and you don’t need to clamp. I built a little glue up jig tp align the roof pieces to the back.  

[meflick]

4 hours ago, Bill WIlson said:

Got it, Thanks Melanie!

I've been looking for a unique ornament to make this year.  Only problem is, I'll be making about 100 of them, so that means I will have ~ 900 pieces to cut & keep track off.   

Your welcome Bill. Wow, 100 - not sure I would be up to doing 100 of those tiny ones. I stacked cut 4 earlier, those sheep or cow and baby Jesus or pretty darn small! My husband wanted to know how I saw to cut them, and you sure want to make sure you have the hole covered on the table top! Was trying to decide if I was going to cut more and use as family Christmas ornament gift but even if I did, it would be no where near 100! If you do 100, I want to see a picture of them all!  

i like Dan @dgman‘s jig he made for alignment of the stable and the roof pieces. Definitely be good if you are going to do 100. Thanks Dan for the tacky glue idea, I used Titebond wood glue but will try that as will probably setup quicker.

[Bill WIlson]

14 hours ago, dgman said:

Bill, they are really easy to cut. You will want to stack cut. I cut four per stack. Fortunately for me, I have a planer so it’s easy to come up with 1/8” material. I used Aleen’s tacky glue instead of CA glue. The tacky glue sets up real fast and you don’t need to clamp. I built a little glue up jig tp align the roof pieces to the back.  

Thanks Dan.  If I go that route, I'll be stealing that jig idea.  

Definitely will stack cut.  Cutting ornaments is where I learned that trick 20+ years ago.  

I'll probably try both Aleene's Tacky Glue and CA glue.  I use a fair amount of both.  

Did you use a screw eye to attach the string?  I figured it would have to be to the right of the peak of the roof, to hang straight.  How did you determine the location?

[Bill WIlson]

12 hours ago, meflick said:

Your welcome Bill. Wow, 100 - not sure I would be up to doing 100 of those tiny ones. I stacked cut 4 earlier, those sheep or cow and baby Jesus or pretty darn small! My husband wanted to know how I saw to cut them, and you sure want to make sure you have the hole covered on the table top! Was trying to decide if I was going to cut more and use as family Christmas ornament gift but even if I did, it would be no where near 100! If you do 100, I want to see a picture of them all!  

i like Dan @dgman‘s jig he made for alignment of the stable and the roof pieces. Definitely be good if you are going to do 100. Thanks Dan for the tacky glue idea, I used Titebond wood glue but will try that as will probably setup quicker.

Yea, I'll have to weigh the tediousness of cutting and keeping track of all those little pieces vs the uniqueness of the pattern.  I like to do something a little different each year, for my ornaments.  They need to be challenging, but not oppressively time consuming.  A few years ago, I made a handful of painted segmentation ornaments, for the grandkids.  The patterns came from SSW&C magazine and were originally intarsia projects.  They were really cute and fun to make, but the thought of cutting and shaping 100 of them was just a little too daunting for me.  

[heppnerguy]

Excellently done the different color woods helps to make this an outstanding project. Might also give them a try

Dick

heppnerguy

 

[dgman]

On 10/13/2019 at 5:42 PM, meflick said:

Nice work Dan. Like you, I much prefer hardwoods over Baltic Burch plywood. However. I thought I would cut some of these this afternoon and thought I would do them first in the BB plywood since I had some available that way if I messed them up, I wouldn’t mind as bad.  I went with the middle size on 1/4” thick. I have glued the stable pieces together, but am thinking about how I want to finish out the overall pieces. I am thinking of staining the stable and the base darker and leaving the other pieces more natural. I am also thinking of trying one maybe with some colored stains on them or maybe doing some wood burning.  Not sure yet, I am muddling it all over in my brain overnight at least.   I did decide to turn the tree around because I thought it hides Mary’s face too much although yours does not appear to do so like mine did when I set it up together. Also, did you glue Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus to both the stable wall and the bottom ground or did you leave a little space between them and the stable wall? 

I had some 1/8” thick scrap of walnut that I had stacked up to cut 4 of the smallest ones like you have done but I have not cut them out yet. Pattern on and ready to go. Maybe tomorrow. I like how you turned them into ornaments. After cutting the 1/4” and seeing how small it was, I was hesitating about going smaller with these. May cut them and steal your idea and make them into ornaments as well. hopefully mine will look half as good as yours. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, I glued the figures to both the back and bottom. I glued the sheep to Joseph and the bottom. I use a DeWALT saw which has a large blade opening int the table, but I don’t need a zero clearance table as I know how to keep small parts from falling through. 

[dgman]

13 hours ago, Bill WIlson said:

Thanks Dan.  If I go that route, I'll be stealing that jig idea.  

Definitely will stack cut.  Cutting ornaments is where I learned that trick 20+ years ago.  

I'll probably try both Aleene's Tacky Glue and CA glue.  I use a fair amount of both.  

Did you use a screw eye to attach the string?  I figured it would have to be to the right of the peak of the roof, to hang straight.  How did you determine the location?

Yes, I used screw eyes to attach the strings. They were the smallest I could find. They are a #000000. I found them on Amazon. 
The directions or pictures do not show how to assemble the roof pieces to the back. I had an issue with leaving the palm tree just glued into a slot in the base. It seemed it was to easy to break off from normal use. So I glued the roof pieces to the front of the back instead of the top. That way the tree can be glued to the roof in addition to the base to give it more stability. So you have to make sure the roof pieces are cut perfectly flat for better glueing. I used the sharp end of an Exacto knife blade to find the weight center to place the screw eye.

So far, I have made 20!

Edited October 16, 2019 by dgman

[namunolie]

that is great 

please tell me that coin is fake and big coin ~~

 it is so micro sawing work 

you have done it nicely

 

[John B]

Nice ones Dan. I like the way you have turned them into tree decorations.

[spirithorse]

Very, very nice and I really like the idea as a Christmas tree ornament.

Thanks for sharing and God Bless! Spirithorse