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We escaped the record cold temps in NW Illinois by taking the motorhome to the Arizona desert. The day before we left I cobbled together a folding table for my Craftsman saw and brought it along. The saw is being powered by an inverter wired to the coach batteries. And those batteries are charged by solar panels. I found my table too tall to sit at a chair, but too short to stand. The hatch on the Honda CR-V was just right. The first project is this basket (my first basket too), made from maple, walnut, and cherry. Will probably finish with Danish Oil. May try an Alex Fox pattern next. Tom

Better late than never... My first project of 2019... Not sure if I should frame it or just leave it as is...

I'm a newbie at Scroll Saw Village and I just wanted to show a few of my favorite scroll projects I've finished... I started scrolling around 2005 when I made a wall clock for my wife's anniversary present... Since then, I really got into making fretwork clocks... My favorite so far is the brown dome clock that was so fun to make...

I've already posted some of my woodworking successes and I am quite humbled to have received such great feedback from the Scroll Saw Village Community... In fear of being rude, I figured I'd get on here and introduce myself... I started woodworking in 1981 when I was enrolled in a building construction class at a vocational technical school for 3 years at the same time I was in high school... I dropped out of the Vo-Tech program my senior year in order to take some college prep classes... After I left high school, I tried my luck in college where my vocation became computer programming... I hated college so much, i dropped out after my freshman year and I joined the Air Force as a computer operator... During my Air Force career, I continued to dabble in woodworking... In 1996, I made the waterbed-style headboard below... After that, I was pretty sure I wanted to get deeper into the woodworking hobby... I started collecting more and more woodworking tools and supplies and carted them around from base to base... I retired from the Air Force late in 2004 and shortly thereafter I received a catalog in the mail from Wildwood Designs... The catalog contained some amazing scroll saw projects that really intrigued me... I had never used a scroll saw before but I was hoping it couldn't be too difficult so I bought a $150 Dremel scroll saw from a local hardware store, ordered a nice wall-mount grandfather clock plan from the catalog, and set about cementing my interest in the hobby... This story is getting kind of long so for the sake of brevity, I'll just say the success I had with my first scroll project was beyond my expectations... I've been intrigued with scrolling ever since...

A pattern by Alex Fox. He lists this one as C15. I modified the pattern by increasing it by 25% and not cutting the bottom ring, but leaving it attached to the next to the last ring making the ring less fragile. I used 1/4" solid Walnut approximately 10 inches square. The holes drill with #68 bit and cut with FD UR #1 blade. The finish is spray Polyurethane Clear Satin. Comments welcome.

Well I made the mistake of looking at Paul's (Scrapile) circus with the added baby elephant so I decides to do the same thing. Thank's Paul. I shrunk this down to 60% and they look pretty good. I didn't attached them to the tails of the bigger elephants because it would make it to fragile to move around. I was only going to do one like he did but I was using 1/8 BB and it was easier to stack cut two so that's why there's two of them.

Nice cutting. BUT watch out for rattlesnakes. They are attracted by the sound of wood being cut. LOL

Got my John Wayne Orders caught up. I love John Wayne, but I am starting to hate John Wayne if you know what I mean.

Good day in the shop. Couple of quick ones after the "Sleigh Ride". My sister's 40th wedding anniversary is this year so thought I would get this one out of the way early. Saw the pattern on Sheila Landry's site and Keith did it up for me. 7 X 16 on more reclaimed laminated maple 3/8ths thick. The "Doctor and Doll" is from a Norman Rockwell painting and I cut it for Dad's Doctor. Kenny Hopkins did the pattern for me. 11 X 14 on 1/8th BB ply. Jeff

Too cold here for a sleigh ride, wind chill between -40 and -50 C all week. Charles Hand pattern 11 X 14 stack cut 1/4 and 1/8 BB ply. Used Sawbird 2/0 spiral and #3 ultra reverse. Jeff

Here is my latest cuttings from my new saw.I have the Semi and the Turkey sold.The Sign I made for a Dear Friend of mine who has a Garage where he like to work on old cars at his leisure.So far me and my new saw are getting along just fine.

This is a Steve Good pattern..measures about 20 inches long by 6 wide .I used 1/2 inch poplar and Painted black.Fist above a doorway.

I bought a cheap Dremel scroll saw a few years back and made this clock as an anniversary present for my wife.... She loves it...

Got my Circus Train done. What a project. It was fun to cut the parts and put it all together, but like others, I do not know what to do with it now. It takes of a lot of space. If I made another I think I will make it at 70% or less. I added the extra par of horses because I think it looks better, thanks @rdatelle, for the idea. I did two other things different. I made the body pieces of the driver, horses and elephants out of 1/4" instead of 1/8". Just to give then a little more heft and I could cover the tabs on the horses sides. Not sure it was worth it, but I did it anyway. I also had to add the baby elephant. Like the extra pair of horses, it just seemed better with a baby elephant tagging after it's mamma. I also use very little CA glue, most things are glued together or in place with the Titebond Quick and Thick. Slowed me down a bit but I really don't like working with CA glue very much..

That looks great. Love the wood variations.

Bob as Kevin said it will cause the arm to not be parallel to the table. For optimal saw tune you want the arm parallel to the saw table. I have read where people were using the rear knob to adjust the arm up and down quite a bit to get more use out of there worn blades. I also occasionally have to clamp and tension the blade and then re-tension before starting cutting. Don't know why but it seems to set everything In place and works for me. If moving the rear knob doesn't affect you sawing that's what you may have to do while using the spiral blades. Just a lot of extra work for you I don't think they have made the perfect saw yet, maybe close. Both of mine have there own quirks but I use them so much I guess I am used to it and don't notice anymore. I really hope you get it figured out and just have fun scrolling. Take care and make some saw dust grizz

I use both flat and spirals.. I found that unwinding the spiral ends help.. I use two pair of needle nose pliers and use the one pair to hold the blade while using the other pair to sort of un twist the blade ends.. Seems to work well for me then..

very nice job

Looks like you found a place to enjoy

Very nice and a great sawing environment!

I was just going to use clear epoxy to fill in the void area of the cutout after I glue the backer on.. this makes it smooth, rather than having the cutout being recessed and having jagged edges snagging the inside of peoples pockets or purses.. The epoxy would fill that void and make it smooth while hopefully remaining clear so I could have a natural wood color showing the contrasting wood backer color.. Inlace is a liquid material with color pigments in it.. many colors to choose from.. and it uses a activator to make it set up.. The smell of the stuff and consistency reminds me of fiberglass resin.. but with color, LOL.. and I suspect it is mostly the same thing just pigmented and no fibers of coarse.. Don't think it's quite as strong as the stuff used on cars / boats etc.. though..They do have it in clear.. but I've heard it's not really all that clear like the epoxy resin stuff..

I pretty much agree with what John said. I also use it for making pens, seam rippers and bottle stoppers. If you sand the resin you will have to sand it to very fine to get rid of the scratches and make it clear again. I usually sand mine up to 12,000.

Hi Bob. I am one of the rare scrollers that only uses spiral blades. I use a Dewalt saw so the tension works different but I have found a way that it returns to the same setting every time. I lift up on the blade with my left hand and push down on the upper arm with my right hand while tightening the knob. This gives me the same tension every time. Hope this helps.

I've gotta be honest.. I never pay any attention to the numbers on the dial on the DeWalt. I probably did 10 years ago when I first got the saw.. but now I just can tell how much pressure to pull on that lever to know what the tension needs to be.. That said, I do change it slightly on my Hawk sometimes for certain blades I use I'll add or remove a slight amount of tension..

Kev many thanks for your comment on tensioning and then re-tensioning I haven't tried this but will. Also I enjoyed your video always good to watch someone who knows what they are doing at work. Can I ask - as you have both the DeWalt and Excalibur - the DeWalt has an incremental tensioner 1 to 5 - do you always use the same tension on the machine regardless of which blades or work you are doing ? If you alter the tension as required on the De Walt what do you do on the Excalibur where the tensioner is only one position on or off ?

My only advice would be don't start with a piece of junk. Some of the cheap saws will vibrate from a little to a lot. Some don't have friendly blade holders. I would hate to see somebody get turned off to scrollsawing because of bad saw.

On my EX21 (top feeder) I put the blade through the hole an with left hand I use thumb and forefinger to pull down on blade an at the same time using small finger push up on the blade clamp. With right hand tighten knob. This takes all movement out of the clamps an arms. Done it so many times I don’t even think about what I am doing.

So basically what I have is a silhouette cutout on one piece of 1/8 bbply and another 1/8 “ ( backer) contrasting wood like Walnut and glued them together. I was using the “ unlace” resin material for some of my keychains but some I kinda wanted wanted to keep the natural colors of the wood. But some of the cutouts have pointy spots that I thought would snag on someone’s pocket or purse so I felt they needed filed in with inlace or epoxy resin. I just never got around to doing them in part because I didn’t know what to use. Below is my keychain I made back in about 2008. It’s a wheel horse lawn tractor logo filled in with red and black inlace. The inlace is sanded flush to make a smooth snag free keychain. This is quite worn from 10 years of carrying in my pocket etc. This is what I was wanting to do with clear epoxy so the backer wood color would show through rather than the colored inlace. Edit To Add: Many of the ones I have done that need finishing is patterns that Steve Good did years ago.. If you go to the pattern catalog and search "key" in all categories the patterns I did was on the second page all the way at the bottom.. These used to sell real well and quick easy to make a bunch of them by stack cutting 5-6 at once.. Some I made are from 1/16" hardwoods glued to a 1/8" backer.. The plywood ones look nice and these are so small many times they can be cut from scraps or odd places on a stack of ornaments that I make such as doing four ornaments on a blank.. the center of the blank has enough room to cut a stack.. sometimes two stacks of the keychains.. or the backers..

I sort of have an issue with both the DeWalt and the Excalibur with this.. It seems the upper arm doesn't always come down to the same position every time I switch to another hole to cut ( fretwork ).. on the DeWalt I got to where I'd use my one finger to push down on the upper part of the clamp bracket while tightening the thumb screw.. this made it pretty much always consistent enough anyway.. Then when i got the Excalibur the tension lever is kinda in the way to do it the same way as I do on the deWalt.. One thing I found helped was to clamp the blade and put tension on it then release the tension and then loosen the screw and the blade would rise up.. putting the tension on ( not all the way ) will pull the arm down sort of as if you was pushing the arm down.. then the arm is where it should be and you loosen the blade then re tighten it.. I don't know how to describe it.. and it does take a extra couple of seconds but becomes second nature to me.. These kind of issues with these DeWalt, Excalibur types saws really makes me like the design of the Hawk even better.. that system is pretty much fool proof and you get the same tension every time all the time.. To describe how it's done on the DeWalt. you can watch how I do it in this video on my blog.. To give the best view of me cutting I taped my phone on the magnifier light.. but then it was quite weird cutting because I couldn't see through the magnifier so I was cutting by viewing the screen of my phone.. so it was sort of difficult.. Many ask me how I place my camera because you get the same view as i do.. and no body else gives this view while cutting.. https://www.kevskrafts.com/post/397335857776/how-my-items-are-made

Very nice work, Jeff! Thanks for sharing and God Bless! Spirithorse

So where do you get smaller bits from?

Nice work Jeff,daughter tells me it's some cold in GP.

I had to press down the top arm on my DeWalt, but it doesn't appear to anything on my EX. Spirals have always been a challenge for me to get secure in the clamp. But they won't just loose tension, they pop all the way out. There is a set screw in the top of the Upper Blade Tension assembly, specifically in the Clamp Bracket. It seems to have something to do with how much travel there is in the clamp when the Tension Lever is engaged. I don't know if this has any affect on blade tension or not. I've never really messed with it much, but it may be worth looking into, if the Seyco has the same clamp assembly. I don't use the rear knob on mine to adjust tension, but it says that you can, in the EX manual. Just need to make incremental adjustments and I suspect that rather than let the adjustments accumulate, at some point you would need to return the upper arm to parallelism with the table.

Copied from a FB Post.. Totally me the last couple days going through the pattern files on here..

I don't do it 100% of the time but I often drill the same size hole on both ends of the vein line. I personally like the look. Be very careful if you are stack cutting that your lines and drilling are 100% perpendicular or the end holes will be off.

fantastic work

Some very fine projects Jeff !....Well cut Sir.

Fantastic work,Love the Norman Rockwell,my all Time Favorite painter.

@hotshot, you got any pictures of that move!!

Excellent cutting on both, lettering is perfect. Well done Jeff. Marg

Great scrolling as you always do.

Beautiful patterns and cutting!

That one turned out nice for sure.

This ornament was designed for a CNC and was actually designed to be cut on a plasma cutter.. original size was abut 20" long.. I first made a desk clock with this design but shrunk it down to about 9 - 10 inch.. then I shrunk it even more and made this ornament.. ornament is 4.5 inch wide and about 3 inch tall.. The veining was done with a 2/0 spiral blade.. I now have smaller drill bits but at the time all I had was a 56 I think it was.. I shrink down a lot of patterns to make them into ornaments... some actually turn out

"Veining" was the original way of showing definition to a cutting. Once the computer and the very talented designers learned how and what the machine could do, veining was not used as much. The pattern you have is using that technique on the letters for that definition as a Halloween design. Veining can and is still used but not as much as it once was. Erv

Plain sawn wood in thinner pieces tend to cup. It is the nature of wood and worse with some species than others. Quarter sawn wood is much less likely to cup or warp.

I'm late i see. But thought i would throw my two cents in. This is the way i would save the ones you cut until you could get a pattern sized correctly. Was thinking something like this. Russell

Ocooch Hardwood is a place I have used.

My first project was a big one. I am working on developing my technique of creating layered cartoon style scroll saw art. I spent roughly 40 hours on this project. The dimension (including frame) are 15.5"x21.5". I used naturally colored wood with no stains along with stained glass to pull this off. Aside from the silhouette layers, I did not use any paints. As for the woods, I used Padauk, Yellowheart, Walnut, Bloodwood, Oak, Figured Maple, Sapele, Aspen, Tigerwood and Mahogany. If you want to see more of my process - here is a link to the full build album https://imgur.com/gallery/BeB2nKi.

Another freaking knock-off. People can not think of new innovative ideas on their own so lets make the same saw paint it different and add a different name. Pretty red color. Goes with the green, blue and silver and black out there. Line them all up in a row and tell me the difference. Love my RBI even more now.