Leaderboard

Here's my latest. My pattern with permission from the artist Mike Worthen.

Summer Santa is coming tomorrow! He arrives in a big brown truck wearing brown shorts and shirt and he's making a special delivery to Iggy because he's been a good boy... well, he hasn't been mean for a few hours... A brand new Hawk saw will be on his brown sleigh... Counting down the hours... Can't come soon enough, I'm down to my emergency back-up DW788... it sure is cutting smooth compared to the one I recently wore out.

I use FD UR blades. They have the sharp teeth on the right, as you face the saw. Open the pdf file to see how I cut circles. Here is why; After the first cut (shown with a red line), back the blade all the way out to the Starter Hole. Spin the piece 180 degrees and back the blade into the first cut. To make the 2nd cut (blue), it does 2 things. 1. The blade is already on the line that you want to finish. 2. Now the sharp side of the blade will keep it from trying to follow the 1st cut back towards the starter hole. See the image for an example of a lot of circles. This method makes your life easier. Hope you can understand it. I sure as heck cannot. jerry SSV Hint.pdf

Here are to signs I made for a customer and I charger $85 for each and the patterns where pretty much done except for the names. Both are made from cypress for fronts and red cedar for backs and are roughly 20" long x 15" tall

I finished this project this weekend. The pattern is by Sue Mey and found in CWWC August 2013. I wanted to make this project for some time, but didn't have the right wood. I used 1 1/4" Maple discarded by the local La-Z-Boy chair manufacturer. The trim is 1/8" Walnut and the backing is Red Oak plywood. I used FD Polar #9 blades and finished with spray Shellac. Ideal for displaying small items. Any ideas? Comments welcome.

Are you ready? Did you clear out a space in the workshop for it? Rewire the shop yet? You do realize that it's made in Kansas. It won't work with a normal 110v outlet - you need to hook it up to a windmill - I'm pretty sure I read that on their FAQ page.

Wow Dave, that came out great. Did you use a router for the circle.

http://www.scrolleronline.com/?gclid=CM6D_IX7htUCFZSLaQodn9QLBA Pattern # SLDK224 The pattern is 8 X 10. Ours is 10 3/4 X 13 poplar. 1/2 thick. Cross is 1/8" BB. We give away 95% of what I make, but this hangs in our living room.

Switched to Basswood - they had no good poplar pieces at the store.

My grand daughters are nuts about cats so I made this cap rack especially for one of them. Simple design but she loves it. I counter sunk holes behind the outside hooks to mount it to the wall.

Iggy, I wouldn't touch that request in any shape or form! There is no way that what you come up with a pattern than request her approval of the pattern than round up the wood, plane, sand, cut the pattern, finish, apply the finishing coats, the drying time, prepare the sign for shipping and unless it would be sent overnight express it would never see the 18th! On top of that, $35 might be a very small deposit to start with and $100 would be more like a starting point for a price. I am about to reach the point of no longer accepting special orders for that very reason. I had one customer that we had made up name shelf standers for and I use poplar wood as white as I can find and she has seen the word art I cut at the shows, but when she picked them up she was not happy with them and of all things she even said they looked like plastic and should have been done in a darker wood! Iggy, you have a market going with your puzzles, and if I were you I would stay with that until and if that market dries up. This is just my opinion but you have a good thing going and looks to get better! Erv

Just curious, why do you mix Shellac with Alcohol? The Shellac is really thin, least the can I have is. It is at least as thin as a 50/50 mix of BLO/MS. And Shellac dries quickly, almost too quickly sometimes. Mix BLO/MS to speed up the drying. So I understand the reasons for mixing BLO/MS. Are you mixing S/A for the same reasons?

No offense. I gave her that price when she gave a very bland, generic description of what she wanted when we were on the phone. When she provided examples, they were more complex than she led me to believe. No worries, I'll let her know the timeframe is too tight anyway. Thanks everyone

If there was a designed pattern already I'd cut it out for her.. but.. she'd have to finish it.. because I don't see enough time to cut, finish, finish dry time, and then package and mail out to her to get it by the 18th.. quite honestly I don't even have any good lumber for outdoor signs on hand either since that really isn't my thing.. Wish I could help though.. this month is started out kind of slow and could use the order.. but not real king on time crunching a order that would need shipped.. scrambling around to gather material for the order would cost me the profit price too :(

I for one will not take special orders where I have to make a pattren#1 you can't make a pattrn to suit her you have to make adjustments, thats not too bad but by the time you have them made she will come up with more added to it. So i don't take special orders and when i do ishow them the patte and say this is it, what you see is what you get and then when they say od and then want more changes i tell them to forget it I will then not make the project for them.IKE

Don't know if it is big enough but how about thimbles perhaps? Rob

I don't dip my projects. I would think a clear shellac would work. It is fast to dry and mixed with denatured alcohol. I would try it on a few test pieces just be safe though.

I used the 50% BLO and Mineral Spirits for dipping. I now use 50% Shellac and Denatured Alcohol.

A "super" job. I like it and great gift for that super man in any one's life. Thanks for sharing.

For me personally, my problem with Mikes' chucks was that they didn't seems to self center the bits, if that makes sense. I didn't have any problem with the chuck wobbling, but if the bit wasn't set just right, the bit itself would wobble bad. I could fiddle with it for a few minutes and eventually get bits set so that they were wobble free, but I despised the process and never found a sure fire technique to get it adjusted without the fiddle process. I'm sure this arrangement is fine for many folks, but patience isn't a strength of mine. When I got the Dremel, and the Dremel chuck, I was relieved beyond measure. These chucks seem to draw the bit to the center and line it up.

Years ago some of the small chucks from Mikes workshop had a real problem with wobble. I do wonder what Contractor quality is. I expect them to run true.

If you want to use your existing drill press you can pick up a pin chuck like this: http://www.industrialboys.com/columnar.aspx?cat_id=9269&category_site=DTAP You put the drill bit in the pin chuck, and mount the pin chuck in your drill press' chuck.