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Going back and forth between trying to get my taxes entered and scrolling, I was able to cut a few items: The Lighthouse - needs a few more cuts and sanding and finishing. But a question - there are little "lines" (you may see them) should they be cut with a bigger blade to stand out more? Wife cut a new rim for the plates (2 stacked) - she doesn't like them, but I think they're fine And the waste from the rim we're turning into Plate stands Feel free to critique with advice and tips Thanks in advance

Jan has gotten back into quilting with a vengeance lately. She finally had some time to catch up on her painting today. I have posted these projects oiled and here they are painted. Jeff and Jan

This is the pattern that I was asking help to find, the other day and I was able to get it printed for myself. I have a neighbor who's brother has one of these trucks and when my neighbor saw the 36 Dodge pickup that I had cut from the pattern I had made, immediately knew he had to have one to send to his brother. I told him that it was one of the first patterns I had made and there was a better one in The Village somewhere, that I could cut for him. The first one I had cut had the lines of it so small that it was difficult to see and I wanted to cut one so that the end project was much easier to see. I chose to use a spiral blade that I had never use before and the cutting did not come out as well as I had hoped, but the neighbor really liked it so I gave it to him to send to his brother. Dick heppnerguy

Pattern by http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/profile/2119-jrpeteo/

Another Janevski pattern. 1/8th BB ply, cut with Sawbird #3 ultra reverse. Jeff

AS I was cutting a rather delicate piece, ( depending on what one might consider to be a little delicate ), I realized that what has become routine through trial and error, just might be of someone who had not come across the downfall of this task. So I decided to share what I have found has helped me. First let me explain one thing. The pattern I am cutting is a Steve Good free pattern on his web site, (www.scollsawworkshop.blodspot.com). Steve suggests using 3/4 inch material for this project. I believe the thickness suggested is to help support the delicate cuts and give it added strength so anyone can cut it successfully. I, however, do not enjoy cutting this kind of a pattern using that thick of wood because I feel it takes away the delicacy and beauty of the piece. I much prefer to cut this kind of a pattern with 1/8th inch material to bring out the beauty of the piece. So what I do to help combat the delicate parts from breaking off, is to first of all stack cut it in 2 or three layers. I still us only 1/8 inch stock. How I stack cut it to make the number of blanks to the same size, then I use blue painters tape to tape them together, after sanding the surfaces and cleaning them of well. I put the tape over the board I am going to put the pattern on. To hold the boards together I start by overlapping the tape on the far end of my blank about 2 inches and crease the closer end at the edge of the blank and tear it even with the blank. Then I hold the end that has the overlapped tape tightly together and fold over the 2 inch piece of the tape to the back of the second blank. I then rotate the board blanks so the second run of painters tape is now overlapping the end where the first was torn off even and this gives me an overlap on each end of my material. I continue to tape it by rotating and overlapping each piece of tape so that now I have ever other run of tape overlapping on opposite ends of my blank until the face of the blank is completely covered and ready for the pattern to be glued onto it. But, before I glue on the pattern, I also cut two strips of painter's tape approximately the length of the blanks and put it on the edge of the blank so that 1/2 of the width of the tape is overlapping the edges not already covered by the tape. Holding the edges of the blanks tightly together I crease the tape over the edge and onto the back side of the second blank. I use 2 1/2 inch painter's tape so that I have less passes and the coverage of each run of tape is covering as much as possible. Now the part that helps to not break the extended delicate parts from breaking while cutting it. ........ If one starts on the outside edge of the blank and does the final cutting from there, two things happen that is not good. ONE, as you cut away the outside edges of the pattern in this manner, you are losing the holding together of the stacked pieces and allowing more opportunity for the stacked pieces to move out of line as you finish the cutting. Two, you are allowing the now most delicate part to be unsupported and more venerable to accidental breakage. So, here is my hint for that....TIP 1 PHOTO .drill a starting hole on the interior of the outside to the outer part of the pattern so that you are leaving the painter's tape in it's hold down capacity and not allowing the chance for the second layer to move and possibly screw up the cut on that layer. TIP 2 PHOTO Also by doing it in this manner, the blank is continuing to support the entire pattern as you cut the outside of the pattern and it is less likely to break. TIP 3 PHOTO When you have finished cutting the outside of the pattern you can just life off the outer part and discard it. I have posted some photos of an example of what I am trying to suggest to you so you can visualize what I am trying to say. If anything is not clear, just ask and I will try to show you exactly what I am talking about with a photo of it. I hope this helps some newbies and helps them not to break cuttings as they try a more delicate cut. Dick heppnerguy

Originally it was only the jag pattern from Steve Good. Cut it and thought it was a bit plain, so I took some wood scraps and added a few things. Came out ok.

I was just looking through the downloads section of my computer to see what I had in there (I am bad about not cleaning out the downloads area after downloading something.) While doing so, I ran across a PDF file of an Assembly and Instruction manual for the GI Excalibur 21" Scroll Saw Model CTEX-21CE. I had downloaded it from somewhere when I first bought my used Excalibur so I had something as a reference. It says it is Revision 1 from February 23/07. I had a lot of trouble as I recall trying to find any manual. I originally bought the Excalibur used from Seyco and even contacted them and they told me they didn't have any of the older manuals for the older saws. When I saw it just now, I thought - Hey - that would be a good idea to keep as a good source for the Village. So I thought I would reach out to you folks here and ask what do you think? Good Idea? If so, do you have a PDF of your saw's manual that could be shared as well OR if you have a paper copy, could you copy and create a PDF for uploading here. My thought is that it would be great to have a repository for saws manuals for those who might be seeking one in the future like I was. We would of course what to make sure that we didn't have a lot of duplicates of the same manual so we would need to check and see if what we had was already here and figure out when models "changed" etc. I figured I would call @Travis into the thread and see if this is something he thinks would be good to keep in a group here and, if so, if he would like to create an area for doing so - other than this thread, and if he did - let him do so and then let us know how he wants us to share them here for such purposes. I'm willing to help Travis if he needs help in "tracking" or whatever. I'm going to go ahead and upload the one file that I have. I will look to see what I have on the Seyco and/or the Original Dewalt (if I can find anything on that one.) Then once Travis weighs in, I will add any of those that I have found. ctex21ce.pdf EDITED TO ADD: I just went to Seyco's site and did find a link to a newer version of the Excalibur's manual that is found on GI's site" here: http://www.general.ca/pdf/machines/excalibur/EX-16_21_30_ENG.pdf it is Version 8_Revision 2, May 2013. I am not sure what changes they made to the Excalibur over the years but clearly several versions of their manuals exist between the one I posted above and this one. I guess we could simply post "links" to PDFs of manuals but my concern is that they get "lost" as saws disappear off the market, are significantly changed, etc. so my thought was that it would be a good thing to keep copies somewhere we felt they would stay available like here (hopefully if we all continue to support the village! ) I did not see where they have the Seyco Saw manual available to download from their site.

Points down & facing you. No dumb questions here lol.

That's a good idea. Let me see if I can put together something.

Make sure you've got proper blade tension and also make sure you're using a new blade. Improper blade tension is probably the biggest enemy to a straight line, and worn blades tend to drift a bit more than a good fresh blade.

Veining cuts will stand out once finished. I cut mine with what ever blade I normally cut the pattern with. I do stain most of my work and that enhances those cuts.

I have not posted anything new in a long time. Been busy with life stuff, but I have been scrolling. Here is a gift for a friend made with 1/2" thick Oak and finished with a mix of BLO, MS, and poly. Cut with FD-UR #5 blades.

Ray. I will try with this.... Be sure you click on each picture as I describe it so you can see the entire photo. I only did half of the board for this demo. You would cover the entire board from one side to the other before you put the edge tape on. Remember to rotate the board after each strip of tape is applied so that the over hanging tape is on opposite ends from the previous strip. I hope this helps to you understand what I was trying to explain. if not I could make a video and send that to you. In these photos I only used one board but if you were stack cutting you would have 2 or more boards of exact measurements on top of each other and the folded over strips of tape would be holding them together, 1a. is one strip of tape overlapping 1 inch on the top 2. is the back side with the overlap tightly stuck to the back 3 is the pattern side with next strip overhanging on the opposite end of board 4. is the same shot with the roll of tape creased again the end of the board and torn off 5 is the same view with the overlap stuck to the back side but this time it is on the opposite end of the first strip (you continue this process until the entire board top is covered solid with tape...I did not complete the covering of the top of board in this demo) 6. After the entire top of board is covered for pattern, place another strip most of the way down the length of the top of board on both sides as shown (1 side only in photo) when you take a close look at the end of this photo you will see how each tape strip is folded over only on one end. they alternate ends with every other strip of tape. 8. turn board over and seal edges to the back of board 9. This shows 1/2 of top of board (which would be covered all the way across and down the right and left side when ready for pattern attachment)

i am having a blast with this stuff. i asked what it might be called in another post and a nice member said it might be "layering". i searched and found that layering was stacking separate thin, mostly 1/8" layers of wood following a pattern then adding the picture/drawing to the layers then gluing the layers together. this "3D cover?" is a comic book cover glued to 1/2" plywood, planning and cutting the cover into "puzzle pieces?" then using the layers of the plywood to adjust depth and hot glue each piece back into the body of the cover. very few of the pieces go back in "straight and level". for example all of the arms in this cover are made flush with the body of the subject and farther out at the hands to create more depth. in any case i love doing it and have been lucky enough to sell a few to help pay for stuff to make more. the last picture is a jig i made to hold the body of the project to make reassembly much easier.

This is a Sue Mey pattern made of walnut and ash for the base, no finish apply because it will be transported with me back in the White North next month

First compound cut on my Hegner. Definitely easier than my Delta Q3 because there is so much less blade travel. Pattern is from Steve Good. Rob

Thank you Rob,Kevin,Tony, and Ray for your quick responses. I really do love this site and appreciate everyone here.

Ok, here is what I just found out. I have the Quick clamp on my Hegner so I was able to cross check the two screws from the Dewalt. The threads are the same which would allow for someone to put the Dewalt clamp screw into the Hegner instead of the Quick clamp. The tips appear to be the same but I'm not sure they would interchange. The Dewalt uses a rubber o-ring as the holding device to keep the tip in. The Quick clamp uses a plastic sleeve. I tried to put the Dewalt tip into the Quick clamp and it fits but when you try to push the o-ring into the hole, it binds. It could probably be forced but I didn't want to do that. So, I hope this is understandable. If anybody has questions, just ask me. R

I have both of these saws. I'll have to take a look. Report back coming. R

Might be the same size as the DeWalt.. I've used the DeWalt set screws in other saws that didn't have the rotating part.. If it's the same as the DeWalt / Excalibur.. then Seyco is where I get mine.. They sell just the tips.. DeWalt you have to buy the whole screw.. Also note.. if you do order from Seyco.. a set is for both upper and lower arms.. somehow when I order the last time.. I ordered double the amount I needed

ya know, FD makes a blade with a little indent on the top end of the blade. cant remember exactly which ones they are, but sure make figgerin it out easy peasy.

Mike's Workshop--aka Wooden Teddy Bear--carries FD puzzle blades and they are great for jigsaw puzzles. Never did the Steve Good piece, but for 1/4" or thinner with tiny kerf, FD superior puzzle is a thin, good blade.

I have a near zero insert that I also use when cutting everything, but on this particular pattern the weakest part is on the outside edge so the playing card will not protect the outside of this pattern, if one was to cut away the very edge of the pattern as it was exposed while doing the last outside part. I have also used the playing card on my other saw and it certainly helps support the delicate pieces while one is cutting it. Thanks for responding to my tip and adding to it with the playing card tip. I remember how excited I was when I first read that suggestion several years ago. A simple suggestion that help so much. Dick heppnerguy

You never stop learning ask the stupidest question you can find and it will be answered.

I'm guessing you're talking about 3/4" stock as in the puzzles like Iggy makes.. The puzzle pattern CD I bought from Fox Chapel suggest a #5 blade.. I've cut puzzles from 3/4 hardwoods with the #5.. as well as a number 3.. Typically FD-UR blades but also have cut them with FD-Polar as well as Pegas.. Certainly don't want to go larger than a #5.. The #5 puzzles to me are easier to slide together.. but also are sloppier fitting because of the thicker blade.. Believe I've seen Iggy post he uses a #3 Olsen Mach Speed blade on his DeWalt and i think a #3 Pegas MG blade on his Hawk.. Maybe cut a couple pieces from scrap and see how YOU like the fit of the puzzle with whatever blade you have close to what I had mentioned.. Good luck cutting and more important.. have fun.. Puzzles...heh yeah .. not my thing.. but everyone is different.. I've cut about 20 of them over the years..

There are no dumb questions, we all been there, in fact some days I think I am still there, RJ

Track man perty much said it.

Hmm, the rest of us can cut totally straight lines - NOT! You can get better with practice and follow the advice given above, but if your looking for straight lines like a table saw, you have the wrong tool. What you think is not straight, may look just fine to someone else. Relax and have fun!

I agree it probably needed clarification. I tell my students to think of a pole in the firehouse. When you slide down from the top, you want it smooth. It’s rough to try togofrom the bottom to the top Seems to help them remember.

To clarify more what is said here.. since when I first read this I thought you put the blades in upside down.. but it took a minute to figure out what you meant.. Run your finger down the blade.. you'll feel running the finger in one direction it is smooth and the other direction the blade wants to grab the skin or feels like it wants to cut.. ( rough feeling ) the saw cuts on the down stroke.. so that grip or rough feeling needs to be placed in the saw so that the rough feel would be going toward the down stroke.. I hope that made sense..

I find that covering the pattern with packing tape after adhering it to the board etc.. you get a fine sawdust gets trapped between the layers and will sometimes cover up my lines.. if this is what you mean? I stopped covering it with packing tape on the top like that long ago..because of this.. I also pre-sand all my work.. and make sure the board it dust free before applying the shelf liner, tape or whatever you use..

I also run my fingers on the blade. Smooth down, way to go.

Many people ask why the hell I run my saw full speed. I personally have better control when the saw runs full or almost full speed.. better control in corners and straight lines.. I would suggest doing what Spirithourse said.. try different speeds and feed rates and see what one works better for you.. many times we tend to feed the wood too fast on straight lines and that many times will get you off track.. Not sure if you seen my video.. but this saw is running almost full speed.. I did slow it down some here and cut slower than normal.. because I laid the phone down on top of my magnifier light so the phone was covering my view and I was sawing looking through my phone screen which was just weird and odd to cut that way.. LOL.. At any rate.. I run my saw to where I am not pushing the wood hardly at all.. if anything I feel like I'm pulling back on the wood to keep it from going too fast and messing me up, LOL

very nice work

Looking good !

Beuatiful work.I sometimes use a bigger blade for veining.

as with everyone else I use blue painters tape but the tape needs to be fresh and not years old. I then spray pattern and cut making sure the glue is dry before drilling. If I get to a delicate situation I will use a pencil with an eraser to guide the piece so that I can get close to the blade without my fingers getting in the way. This is the spray adhesive I have been using for years.http://www.staples.com/Krylon-Super-Quick-Grip-Spray-Adhesive-11-oz/product_301433?cid=PS:BingPLAs:301433&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=301433&KPID=301433&cvosrc=PLA.bing-SALES.Office Suppli

Not sitting directly behind the saw will make me not cut straight,Try slowing down your speed till you can stay on the line.

Yes, a bigger blade for the veining Great looking project you too did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful work you've done flawlessly!!!!!

I use painters tape, spray the pattern apply to wood, no packaging tape, Works great, RJ

i have the same issue. so as i have been told my whole life "play to your strengths". don't get me wrong i still practice but have changed my focus. i am happy to say my straight lines with a spiral blade has improved much faster by moving side to side. i find my control in that plane to be more steady. just don't get down on yourself,,,, it will never help...

Greetings, The only suggestion I can add is, perhaps if you draw a few straight lines on some scrap wood and then cut some with the saw speed pretty high, some with the speed pretty low, and maybe a couple with the speed near the middle, you will find what speed suits you personally. What-ever speed you are cutting at you have to remember the adjust how fast you feed the wood into the blade and let the blade do the cutting. If you are bowing the blade and the blade has to catch up when you stop pushing while the blade is still running, you are pushing too fast into the blade. God Bless! Spirithorse

Do taxes or scroll... tough call. As for the lines (veining) if they don't stand out enough you can use a thicker blade or cut along the veining to make it thicker. To get rid of the "fuzzies" I just run a torch over them to singe them, but don't burn the project. Or you can sand them. If you use a reverse toothed blade you will reduce the fuzzy stuff.

Thanks for posting this. Good advice and practices too. If I only have to make one then I use a playing card taped to the saw table as a zero clearance which also supports the pieces.

Very nice work and words to live by too.

As has been stated here you have to allow for the drift. Some really great advice has been given.

Some blades cut straighter than others. Some woods have grain that make it easier to cut straight. It's also easier to go straight on thicker boards. But it's all about control. Slow down. Practice. Drink a beer. You'll get there.

Elm has a particularly unique grain that is easily identifiable - the wood can be a bit tough and stringy (if you have to split Elm firewood by hand you don't like it) - but it is great for furniture and I like to use it for frames - it works well for use anywhere you want to show off a heavier grain. Here are a couple clocks I made of Elm quite a few years ago - to this day, of all the clocks I've made, they remain my favourite - mainly because of the wood. Jay