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A new one I tried out.

thanks to a post I saw today, I remembered that I too had made this Steve Good pattern for my daughter in Heppner, several years ago and while we were at her house for Thanksgiving, she told me that here Indian Warrior piece had broken and she would like me to make her a replacement, so I did, and here it is. I added a backer board to give it more support, so it should not break again. I sure was glad that 'toothpick' posted a photo of the one he made; It rattled my brain and helped my remember the one I owed my daughter. So I downloaded the pattern and went to me shop and cut it, a couple of hours ago. Ready to mail, tomorrow Dick\ heppnerguy

Just 3 layers (one of them background), but it has nice 3D effect Size 8,5 x 5,5 inches pattern is available at https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlexFoxUA

We live in Southern Arizona, as a lot of you know, and it is a mecca for people from the north because the winters are so much warner here. We have several people who own houses on our street that are from Canada. They have purchased houses here and come down every winter. Well. our nearest neighbors are Canadians and are really interesting and friendly people. So this year when my wife makes her Christmas cookies and takes them to the people on our street along with a Christmas card, I decided to cut some ornaments or something I can find special for them. These as a couple of items that I decided to give a couple of our neighbors this year, along with the cookies and their card. The first one is obviously for our Canadian neighbor and the music one is for a single man that moved into our neighborhood and has quickly become a good friend as well. He plays the base and is in a music group and has other musicians come to his house and jam with him, so I thought he might like the treble clef, I believe it is referred to, so this will be his added gift. Both items are Sue Mey's patterns. Dick heppnerguy

I have been cutting out Christmas ornaments for the past 4 years. Started out the first year on a Shopsmith jigsaw, then picked up a Delta 40-560. Then this summer found a Delta 40-540 vs and thought I would be happy with that. It does work pretty well as it has cut out most of this years ornaments including 9 of these ornaments for the grand children and their parents. This is a Steve Good pattern of a door ornament that I downsized for a tree ornament.

First off Ray, I have to ask, why to you want to combine these products? I try to keep my finishing methodology within a few general rules of thumb. One is that simpler is usually better. Don't add steps to your finishing schedule, unless they bring something useful to the party. Next, you have to figure out what you want your finishing process to accomplish. Do you want to add color? Do you want grain enhancement? Do you want a protective finish? What level of sheen do you want? What application methods fit into your skill set? Next you choose your finishing product(s) based on the answers to the above questions. Only use what is needed to accomplish the goal. To put it another way, there isn't much benefit to applying a Danish oil, then topcoating it with oil based polyurethane, or even shellac, for that matter. Why? Because if you are using Danish oil to bring out the grain, you can get pretty much the same results with shellac or oil based polyurethane, so the Danish oil step really doesn't add much benefit and just complicates things. Now, if you were topcoating with lacquer or a water borne polyurethane, then that's a whole different kettle of fish. In that case, I might use BLO or Danish oil to pop the grain (I usually only do this with woods like cherry, walnut or mahogany. It won't do much for the red oak and maple), then apply a barrier coat of shellac Seal Coat. This prevents any adhesion problems between the oil and the lacquer or water-borne top coat. If you want a film finish, with a little bit of gloss, then I would just spray the whole thing with shellac and forget all the other stuff. If you want less sheen, then the Danish oil is probably the simplest option. You don't have to have a pan deep enough to completely immerse the basket. You just need something to keep the fun-off contained. Pour a little in a pan, put the basket in, then dip a narrow brush or foam brush and start slathering the Danish oil all over the basket. Don't worry about getting it nice & even. Danish oil is meant to soak into the wood, not lay in it like paint, so you want to slop it on heavy, working it into all the nooks & crannies. Pick it up and let the excess drip off. Set it on some paper towels and let it drip off some more, then start wiping down where you see excess. Maybe use a little blast of compressed air to blow it out of corners. Bottom line is you want full coverage and you aren't building a film finish, so getting it all even isn't really a concern. You just want full coverage without a lot of excess. This is probably long winded enough, but as a final point, I highly recommend a couple of books if you want to really up your game and take some of the mystery out of finishing. 1. Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Finishing - by Jeff Jewitt 2. Understanding Wood Finishing - by Bob Flexner

I think slowing down how fast you are trying to push through and I usually will put a sacrificial board under it so the bit will go into a waste board less chance of blow out.

finally got around to getting these done yesterday. first time doing these type of bowls and they arent too bad to do. 2 from 1/4" BB ply and 1 from 1/4" solid red oak. the pics may show how 1/4" BB ply isnt always 1/4" and NOW i see i had a little burning!LOLOLOL

Ray I thought we walked this path before and you shown that same basket. I agree with alot of what Bill said. I will again probably repeating things but. The difference between Danish oil and BLO and mineral spirits is that Danish oil has drier in it along with Polyurethane. BLO does not. unless you add it. But when you do then driers come into play because the ingredients dry at different levels and times. Manufacturers have this stuff calculated so you are better to buy original. Many companies make Danish oil or the like and call it something different. The final look is exactly the same with the 2 except that with Danish oil there is more of a sheen because of the poly. I love the look and that is why I use it all the time. With BLO no sheen at all. Dull finish but will enhance the grains of wood and add a warm yellow color to woods. With light woods like maple that can be OK but if you want a clear finish than stay away from all oils. You want a waterbase product. But now you get into grain raising and that will be a pain when talking a project like you show. Spray shellac can be used but again no sheen unless you use many coats and to spray in all those nooks and crannies, that would not be my choice. Top coating. Either Danish oil or BLO the use of poly or lacquer can be used providing and this is big that it is completely dry and cured. Not just dried but cured. I love lacquer because it leaves wood looking like wood and not plastic filmed. Again I do not use shellac for a finish. I use it for a seal coat or a barrier coat betweens dissimilar finishes. Dipping is the easiest finish to apply and that is why I like Danish oil. Can not screw it up. Small container and brush on is all you need to do but make sure it gets in all nooks. I have Danish oil by gallons so I pour in a tub and dip real easy. Not sure what else to say. Here are some keepsake boxes I make that use that same technique of ring stacking and they were all dipped in Danish oil and I use all sorts of woods including maple and oak. Also some clocks with that design and yellow heart is used alot. People love the finish.

Finished this one up yesterday. Wasn’t to bad to complete. My biggest piece yet. I need more wood, blades, and time!

Just finished up these plaques with crackle paint finish(wood glue is the secret).....1x8 lumber for main plaque with a routed fancy edge......name & decorations are 1/4" sanded ply painted black.....pleased with the way they turned out......2ft wide.....used "Bigtop" font on this one.....Comments are always appreciated. Thank you

I had someone order 11 custom names in animals last week and another single order... I received the patterns from Harvey yesterday and got them cut today... I AM DONE FOR 2018!!! Speaking of custom names, one of my zombies has taken order for at least 80 custom name puzzles in the past month. Amazing. And keeping poor Harvey busy drawing every single day.

The smallest brad point is probably the 3mm, which I guess is a hair smaller than 1/8". The reason I mentioned them is when I was cutting out the parts for a wooden gear clock, I needed some precise holes in several places. I started buying good Brad Point bits, from Lee Valley, buying individual bits of the size needed. Now I add to that collection from time to time. If you get into things that work with gears, like the clock, robots, etc. you will need to have some good bits to drill the holes in the wood.

Not so much a recall but like with cars there were bulletins out to dealers and repair shops about the Dewalt 788 when they were changing from Canada to China. They knew about the table hole being off center, they knew about the table not locking down, they knew about the clunking noise, they knew about the table not being level front to back. You take that saw to any Dewalt repair shop and they knew right away. RBI had problems with their motors and thus so many versions were made over the years and they knew but there was no repair shops for them so that was an in house problem that they knew about. 2 saws that I know about.

I think they look great! We are always our own worst critics. A few years ago I cut a quote for my mom, as I was framing it a delicate inside of an o snapped off. I trimmed the broken bits and glued the center to the backer board. You have to really look to notice the one o with out bridges, but every time I am at my mom's that o just stares at me.

Waste board underneath and good brad point bits.

There are two things you can do, (1) use a backer on the bottom, (2) put painter's tape on the back of the bottom piece!! rdv

The Danish oil should work well for you Ray. Get yourself a baking pan or dish and pour the Danish oil in. Soak your basket in the oil using a chip brush to wet what isn’t soaking. After about five minutes, remove the item from the oil and wipe off the residual oil with a clean dust free rag or paper towel. Make sure you use some rubber gloves to do this. Wipe off all the oil and let it dry. Pour the oil back into the can. After the oil is dry, you can spray whatever topcoat you like. Because of the cost of the Danish oil, I mix my own oil. I start with a quart size glass mason jar. If your wife does any canning, it should be easy to find a jar. I fill it half with the boiled linseed oil and half with mineral spirits. The oil brings out the color and grain of the wood, and the mineral spirits thins the oil so it easily soaks around your project and allow the oil to dry in about 24 hours. I pour the oil back into the jar for the next use.

I'm making a couple of the baskets that I have shown for Christmas gifts. These pics are of the first one I made out of red oak top and bottom and poplar in between. If I recall, I just used the spray shellac but I can't remember. I saved all the scraps from cutting the new ones so I can test them but I thought I would lean on you experts for some advice. Thanks Wayne.

I am posting a pic of the finishes that I have and this is where I get confused. Can anybody shed light on how to use these finishes together or should they not be used together? The wood I'm using is maple top and bottom and red oak in between. Seven layers of red oak. Maple top and bottom. I have sanded and glued them all together so any staining is not an option. I didn't want to stain anyway. I want a clear finish that will bring out the grain of both woods. They are very nice grain. I have Watco Danish oil in clear, Fromby's Tung oil and Zinnser's Shellac in clear. I put the other two cans in just for the sake of whether they could/should be used in any combination with the others. Sorry for being so ignorant on this subject but it is truly my weak point. Thanks for any and all suggestions. If anyone feels that I should get some boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits, I'd love to hear about that too.

Finished and ready to go. I used 1/2 inch Poplar . Works really well for ornaments. Very little clean up and takes stain very nicely. Two are done in Driftwood and the other (Sadie) in English ivy I believe. Thanks again Russ for the awesome patterns.

I had a request for a panda bear.....here he is...1/2" sanded ply for body, 1/4" ply for the rest.....comments welcome......ty

Thanks Melanie. I did find it on my pattern cd.

Yeah and I'm thinking those two happened before I even thought about woodworking and scroll saws.

Ray I meant no offense about the point of we discussed this. I thought you took that advise and went ahead to finish it and it was done. Ray there are so many oil finishes out there and on top of that there is various versions of each. Just because it says tung oil it may not be 100% tung oil and have additives. I can not go into them all because that would take days. I suggest you do a google search such as this one and it explains some differences. http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/understanding-oil-wax-finishes/ Again it is not fair for us to tell you what to do and how to finish. I told you my preference and I would use Danish oil alone. You will not want a sheen with the end grain cuts like that and whatever sheen you get on the flat top is a bonus. If it is to be used for food then you may want to consider other food safe finishes. All though when Danish oil is dried and cured it is food safe. Trying to spray even coats in all those nooks and crannies will result in pooling of finish I guarantee it. But if you want a quick light coat then have at it,. This is all I have for you on this subject. Sorry.

I tried it again yesterday and it worked. Not as much "crackle" as yours, but it worked. My last attempt I used an oval design. I like yours better and borrowed the shape of your plaque.

Marg, I have thought of trying to scroll through the summer months, but we spend a lot of time with the grand children and the next time I know it's fall. Winter months are out for me as I am unable to heat my shop. The other thing I've found is, what I think will sell doesn't, so I do 90% of purchases are cut to order.

great job

Oh what a lovely neighbor you are Dick, so thoughtful. Excellent work, they will be blown away by them. Marg

Certainly great looking work. Alex will be impressed. Marg

Thank you sir! Started on a Pittsburgh Steelers flag for a co-worker today. I know that flags can be a touchy subject for some, I have one tattooed on my arm. I'm not a fan of the Steelers, but I do love the $100 that he is giving me to make it!

Ray, what I have been doing lately I use the pre stain on my projects, let set for about 20 minutes give it a chan e to soak in good. Then wipe it down a little and then go with the Watco cover it good I use small brush or sponge brush let set for about 20 mins. or so then hit it again let that set for 15 mins then wipe off any excess.Let set and dry good for a couple days then spray with satin poly, let it dry good take piece of paper bag and wipe it down like you were sanding it very easy then give it a second coat of poly. That's how I do my projects. rdv

I use a scrap board for drilling.. a real good sharp drill bit helps some too.. also.. take it slow.. especially going through the last ( bottom )of the stack.. When drilling wood.. I find that if you are making a small pile of fine sawdust on the top board.. your probably going the right speed... if not then you end up with the drill clogged and as you bring the drill back up it unclogs and leaves you the packed sawdust strings rather than a sawdust.. if that's the case.. pushing to fast through the wood.. I push through most times if its away from the line into a waist area.. otherwise I go slooooow, LOL..

You should always back up your project with a scrap piece when drilling any holes. Prevents blow outs as long as the piece is secured to the backer.

Cutting plywood.. eats up the blades quite fast.. I've been sawing ornaments as much as I can just to keep up with orders and inventory.. and falling way behind.. sold out of over 50 different items...... yesterday was a slower day and today I'm not working much... taking a "me time" day off.. as much as I can anyway.. I've enjoyed reading the messages I've missed for the past 3 weeks.. I've been on here.. but not very much.. mostly just a quick pop in and back out, LOL.. Pretty much working from 6am to 10-11pm either packing orders or sawing 7 days a week for the last 3 weeks as my inventory depleted way too fast and all of a sudden.., LOL only cut for about 30min. today.. didn't even wear out one blade yet, LOL.. The next week and a half will be crazy with last minute shoppers ordering it today and asking if it can be there by yesterday, LOL.. I'm ready for the slow down...and so is the Hawk.. it's got a bad bearing or something... as it's squeaking down near the connecting rod or the motor.. area...stopped using it since those blades are all messed up anyway.. so now the EX-21 is getting a workout.. was going to use the old Hawk.. but dumb blades can't decide what size they wanna be LOL.. I thought having 50 each of my most popular ornaments would be plenty.. guess I thought wrong.. then some that was popular last year and I made 40-50 of and have only sold a dozen of.. just never know what will sell..

Dan, I don't have a pan deep enough or enough of the Watco oil to do what you say. Can I just brush it on? The can I have is almost full but I can get more if needed. I like the idea of the boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits. I'll have to go buy a jar. Glass containers are a thing of the past around here.

Well cut pieces and the black walnut is always so perfect to plaques like these. Keep cutting and posting your work, it is delightful to see Dick heppnerguy

Great job on the ornaments. I think your wood choice for these are perfect too. They look very nice Dick heppnerguy

First of all Dan. I have seen a lot of items with crackle paint on several sights, in stores and many people's houses. It is extremely desirable right now, so you pieces should bring in some extra work for you, I am guessing. Interesting to hear about making your own crackle paint. I thought it was one available from a store in a spray can. I also like the font and extra decoration you made for it. Nice pieces, indeed Dick heppnerguy

Just finished this one.

There are so many options for finishing. What you use will depend on what you want the piece to look like and what the finish needs to accomplish. I use several methods, depending on the wood and the project. I rarely stain, but when I do, I pour a little stain in a tray and using an old artist brush or foam brush, work it into all the frets. Take it out, wipe it off, lay it on a paper towel and gently blow out the excess from the frets with compressed air. I do pretty much the same process when using BLO or Danish oil. My go to finish for most fretwork is shellac. I spray it on with a spray gun, but spray cans are available most places that sell finishing products. I like shellac for several reasons. It dries very quickly, so I can spray several light coats from different angles to get complete coverage, without taking days waiting for it to dry and without getting an excess build up that causes drips and puddles. Shellac clean up is a breeze. Denatured alcohol will dissolve dried shellac. I'll even use ammonia, diluted with water to clean the outside of my spray gun. Frankly, I don't often clean the gun all that thoroughly, because all I need to do is spray a little denatured alcohol though it before I start spraying. I have a couple spray guns that I dedicate only to spraying shellac, so I don't have issues with cross contamination from other solvents and/or products. I use cheap guns and they work fine. I have one from Grizzly and one from Home Depot. I think I paid less than $20 for one and no more than $30 for the other. Some folks say the spray guns from Harbor Freight work pretty well and they are even cheaper. You can add color to shellac by mixing your own using dry flakes. The flakes come in a wide variety of tones. You can also mix alcohol based dyes with shellac and apply it with the spray gun. I've never used the dyes, but I've mixed from flakes. It isn't difficult. Zinsser pre-mixed shellac is readily available from most stores that sell paint. It comes in clear and amber color. The amber is fairly dark, so sometimes I mix both if I want something in between. There are all sorts of options. If you are intimidated by the thought of spraying, don't be. Spraying shellac is easier than spraying paint. I often do it outside, as shellac isn't temperature dependent, like many other finishes. Just needs to be dry and relatively low humidity for best results. But I do occasionally spray in my shop. The fumes are mild and dissipate rapidly, so that hasn't been a problem. I contain the overspray with a make-shift spray booth made from an large cardboard box, but shellac dries to quickly that any overspray will be dust before it lands on stuff, so I don't get a sticky mess all over like you can get with slower drying spray products. Sorry for the long-winded reply. Hope this helps.

very nice ornaments

I often do that. You are not in a race. It works and that's OK.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I've struggled all week trying to 'transfer' a picture onto wood with 'tracing paper', then I read this and 'Bingo' I had it done in minutes. Not only that I burned it this evening and I'm quite pleased with the result. I've put a pic in the 'Other Woodwork' forum. I couldn't have done it without your input. !!!

You may want to clean the ends of your blades. There is a small amount of oil left on them from the manufacturing process and while not a problem for the finish the buildup of it on the blade clamps can be a problem. I use s piece of 400 grit paper and just wipe off both sides and ends of every blade I use. Others use solvents but I try to stay clear of them. Way to many baths is weird chemicals from aircraft and equipment than I really needed. Fredfret

Nice job. It's all a learning curve. Just remember "it is supposed to be fun" Dick aka spotsdad

You did a good job. Don't mention the spacing and they won't notice. Too many good parts to look at. I know with my own work all I see is the mistakes.

Very nice work...

Don't knock it Brenda, I think you did a fine job on the plaques, As time goes by you will be more polished with your work, Thank you for posting, Bob

Well earned, my friend. Michaelangelo didn't start out painting chapel ceilings in Cistine, he started out with drawings his mother had to force a smile while putting up on whatever their equivalent of the fridge was back then. Yours....is excellent! Keep practicing, you can only get better!