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Got myself a Dewalt 735 planer so I decided to make a BBQ serving tray ( yo don’t call it a cutting board), I think for my first one, it turned out pretty good, 3 coats of mineral oil and 3 coats of bees wax. The napking holder rabbits keep on multiplying, made some others for gifts. Anyway not golfing weather here so lot’s of time in the shop.

Simple cutting....but made my wife smile!!!

Cut this one tonight. Took about two hours to chew through it, most of that cutting the outline. 1x12 pine(ish) board from Lowes. I'll probably give it a dark Walnut stain. Pattern's up in the Library. https://www.scrollsawvillage.com/gallery/image/13510-karmapng/

Hello friends, I show you a small job. a little bit of scroll saw and a little bit of carving in dremel. I hope you like it and thank you in advance for your comments. Wolf keychains

As you may or may not know, from some of my previous posts, I have a grandson who is a captain in the Army Special Forces. I ran across this pattern on Sue Mey's site and just had to buy it and make it for him. It is made from BB Ply and it approx. 11 inches. I know he will like it and I will be able to give it to him personally because I will be seeing him at the wedding we are going to in Portland, at the end of May. Dick heppnerguy

Been working on this for 2 months! Been sick the last 7 to 10 days. Thanks to all that took the time to make patterns for the words, very much appreciated. Used Maple and Walnut. The buttons are for looks only, mounted from the inside of the shop. Didn't realize how bad the shop door needs painted. I also try to save the pattern when I remove them from the piece,, I was able to use it to spray paint the inside of the door.

I know I posted about this company last year but every so often there is a new batch of scrollers who need a good source to buy wood from. If you are like me and live on the West side of the U.S. there are not many places to buy from. It seems like everything is East of the Mississippi River. I just received my latest order from Cherokee Wood Products in Upland, Ca. They even have a "scroll saw wood" listing on their webpage. A very nice young man by the name of Chris is in charge of their online ordering. He had a question on my order and took the time to call me. I placed the order last Friday and just received it today. Can't beat that for getting it out and shipped. I checked my email today and found that they had sent me an email and for no reason at all, they credited my credit card for $19.95. Just because they felt like it. So, I hope you will give them a try. Here is their info. https://www.cherokeewood.com. Once you get there, go to "woodworking supplies" and the scroll saw wood is there. Click on it and start shopping.

I am really liking her patterns...this is cut from 3/4 mystery wood ....maybe Oak....used 2/0 and 3/0 FD new spiral blades...Minwax natural stain and spray on poly..Her patterns are a challenge , but worth the work...Hope you like it....comments welcome.

Just made this one for a friend. He gave me the casings. We go shooting once in awhile. I saw it on Pintrest and had to make it. Thanks for looking.

I use this on all my saw surfaces and my house window hinges man they fly open and my roller blinds great stuff and cheap. Roly https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/lubricants/7577134/

... for 2 weeks... Taking a 2 week break after cutting the 21 currently on my drying rack. I have 125 unique puzzles for display and 575 duplicates ready for a total of 700 puzzles to start the season off in two weeks. I have 3 big events back to back and I feel good about my stockpile. Goal is to not have to cut much in between events. If the weather cooperates this year my goal is to sell 1,400. Last year was crazy with double our normal annual rainfall and hurricane Florence hitting us head on. Time to relax before hitting approximately 30 events thru the end of the year. Iggy

It is never advised to use silicone on any woodworking tool surface as the silicone can interfere with some finishes.

Thank you Fish for the great pattern. The wife had to look it up. She knew it had to be more than just hands and someone on Facebook thought it was a "Pull my finger" work. Lol. Cut from box elder with a# 3. Pega mg

Around the ocean, a person can't stand still for fear of corrosion. I can feel it happening right now.

I guess what I am trying to say and did it with way too many words is, we sometimes use the word business to mean something else. There are 2 types of business. One that you make a living from and support a family with all the essentials and then there is the side business and that is where the hobby/ business falls in. When you Ray and others say they could not take a hobby and make it into a business is just not true. It is done all the time and this is my point. I have a business. My hobby is a business. It is a side business. When you collect taxes and deal with the government you are now a business. Not everyone can take it to the level where it is self sustaining. People that try may lose interest because it becomes more like a job and it takes the enjoyment out of it. They tried to grow their business but failed for various reasons that I had mentioned before. My point again is those same people wanted to make their hobby/business into a make a living business they would find the way if they were driven. Just human nature. But if they have other means than excuses are easy to make up such as government interference and so on. I can not explain myself any more and will just have to excuse myself from this conversation.

I've seen that stuff when I was looking for a dry lube for my Hawk saw lubrication.. they recommend a dry lube but that is all they say.. so I never knew what exactly to use.. I found a similar product but made by P.B. I think my next trip to town I'll get a can of this since my other can is about gone.. I ended up liking the stuff so well I use it on about everything from door hinges, brake cables on bicycles to windows as you say.. LOL Amazing how much the stuff works.. I went through most of the can in one day, LOL

The autobody and car stuff could probably be found locally. I come from a world of science labs and industrial labs. The article works on reference to compounds for the material and reference to type wheel. I buffed a collection of pennies dated from the first year of marriage to 50th Anniversary with their wedding picture in the middle. All the pennies were in date order mounted in fostner holes then clear coated. Gave it to inlaws. RJF

I'm going to do that. Thanks

I just went through this with Hawk I bought. I used a very flat sanding block with 220 grit paper. It came out great. I waxed it with Johnson's and it is very smooth and slick. No sanding marks or swirls.

For those with few tools and are scrolling in an apartment or kitchen here is a very simple scrollsaw table, cut to fit. RJF

Okay... thought it'd be fun to time my crosses since I'm making 10 of these ( picture posted in case someone hasn't followed my other threads about this order or run upon this topic later down the road).. For those that don't know I added hour meters to all my saws.. I got an order for 10 of the pictured crosses.. Cutting from quarter sawn Red Oak using #5 FD -UR blades.. So far I've got 8 of these cut.. 6 of the 8 came from the same board.. other 4 come from another board. Now.. I realize that the same board can have different densities throughout the board.. I've cut 3 on my 1998 Hawk 226VS Ultra... and 3 on my Excalibur.. The times are on the order I've done them.. (ie first number is the first one I cut on that saw.. last number last one I cut.. decimal is tenths of an hour (6 minutes for those bad in math LOL ) Hawk 2.3 - - 2.1 - - 2.0 Hours Excalibur 1.9 - - 1.7 - - 1.7 Hours Just for fun..... Times on the first couple I cut.. NEW Hawk BM-26 Pegas MG #5 first 1/4 of cutting then switched to FD-UR #5 2.0 Hours Excalibur with Pegas MG #5 blade 2.7 Hours The Pegas blade is typically my go to blade.. however cutting this Oak found to be too aggressive and it seemed to find the hard soft spots horribly.. like hard spots where slow so it naturally want to push a bit.. then the soft spot was like cutting paper.. real difficult on the Excalibur aggressive style cutting.. even though I have it tuned to be about as least aggressive as it can be set at.. Was much nicer cutting with that blade on the Hawk but still kept me on my toes.. LOL Cutting this quarter sawn Oak makes this grain very un-uniform.. like every couple milometers it's a soft or hard spot.. the soft spots might run a 1/8 - 1/4" then a couple millimeters of a hard spot.. There was a posting quite a while back about some sort of Pine - Fir type wood that was really bad cutting like this.. this is how the quarter sawn oak cuts.. LOL Nothing like regular cut Oak.. So getting these 10 crosses cut has been a challenge.. but challenge is fun.. also experimenting with the blades finding what blade ill cut this easier and the differences in the saws cutting it.. If I were still using the DeWalt to cut with it's real aggressive cutting.. I'd be saying a lot of bad words probably LOL Cutting these from a different type of wood.. I'm pretty sure these could be cut fairly easily in 1.5 or less hours.. Heading back out to the shop to cut the last 2 of these on the Excalibur..

I got my new DeWalt scroll saw all set up and it works like a top... I surely waited too long for the upgrade... I cut parts of my Dragon Intarsia with it and I can’t believe how smooth and quiet it is...

Been wanting to hook up a dust collection separator for some time. Either a Dust Deputy or a Duststopper, are the ones I know about. After watching a couple YouTube videos comparing the two, they compared so close that I went for the cheaper, the Duststopper from Home Depot. The reason I wanted one is the bags and filters for the Fein Dust extractor can get expensive quick. The do last a long time if I just use it on my scroll saws, but if I vacuum the floors with it, they fill up quicker. Anyway. I went to HD and got a Duststopper and a bucket. I also got the flexible rubber 90° connector and the rubber sleeved nipple for the two connections I needed. The Duststopper (DS) comes with a 36" hose and one 90° fitting. I wish it came with two. To purchase a second on to fit the vacuum system was around $15 with the shipping. PVC fittings did not fit. Any way this it the messy way it is temporarily set up. One of these days I will find a shorter hose that will hook into my Fein and go to the dust collection on the saws. When I first used it with the HD bucket, It started collapsing the bucket! I solved this problem by removing the 3/4" modular loc-line nozzles on the bottom dust collection so in effect it became 1". I also switch to a Behr Paint bucket I had because it is a heavier bucket. This system, although ugly, works great! For some reason it even reduces the suction noise down to where I can hear the Fein running also.

beautiful

Very nice work. I’d like to do that one. Where did you get it?

I've using Johnson's out of the same can for probably 20 years now. Amazing how long it lasts. I don't live where there is high humidity which helps on the rust area, I manly wax for a slick surface.

All I've ever used was furniture paste wax. Simple, easy, cheap and readily available at a Big Box near you.

Very nice you did an excellent job, you complimented the pattern.

Hi Steve: Nothing here not to like Super job Fab4

That is a great pattern, and you cut it very well!

JT, one thing I want to reply to. You mentioned my name so I took notice. When I made that statement, I wasn't referring to folks who tried to make a hobby into a business and failed due to the lack of business. I was referring to the folks who are too successful right off and find that they now don't have the time to do the things they enjoyed in the hobby because they are mired under the work that people want to be done. So, they become overwhelmed and are no longer "enjoying" what they do. I know that what few projects I have completed so far have been fun and enjoyable. But, if I wanted to try something else but couldn't because I had to finish up a dozen of that original project, the fun and enjoyment would go away very fast. I do see what you and Kevin are talking about and that is not what I meant by "failure".

So How is the New Hawk Cutting?

My Dewalt table was looking pretty rough, so I decided I would clean it up while I was cleaning up my new(old) jointer. Sanded it down to 400 grit, then a paste wax polish. It looks and slides better than it did when I got it new.

Well, so far so good.... I placed an order yesterday, at 0745 hrs. today I got a call from the "very nice young man named Chris" to ask me what lengths I would like my wood cut into. I failed do specify because I had somehow got the impression they came in 24" length unless you specified differently. Guess I was thinking Ocooch Hardwoods. Any way, he was very helpful as @octoolguy said he is.

I do constantly look for "New" customers as only about 5% are return customers.. that said.. I think any business is constantly looking for new customers.. You can surely tell who is in it for business and who isn't when you look through websites.. well that statement is wrong.. as some don't know how to do it as a business.. My wife has a co-worker who's husband does etsy.. makes rustic looking signs and coat racks etc.. business was booming for them at first and he quit his decent paying day job to do etsy full time.. Now their shop is dead.. and he has had to pick up a part time job.. His issue IMO.. is they never did any advertising.. they never did anything to build a following.. they just list and the buyers came... What many people don't know about etsy is.. Etsy gives "NEW" shop owners a boost in searches to get them off their feet.. so naturally a new seller is going to get some boosted page views for the first year.. but as a seller you should be trying to build a customer base to "your shop" . build back links.. The links in my signature here... every time I post a message or reply.. that is a back link.. The more of those you get throughout the internet the better boosted your website gets... especially when someone clicks on those back links.. Some of the way googles search works to put a site near the top ( first pages of search results ) is popularity.. If people are using links to a page from another site that boost your page in search.. so basically.. every time I post here it's as if I'm building popularity to my web page ... This is why they say to do Blogs..social media, and pins on pintrest etc.. building backlinks and followers etc.. Anyway.. this co-workers husbands etsy site has fizzled out.. I told my wife to tell them to raise their prices 15% and take that money to advertise.. I've never seen a retail ( that's what etsy seller are if they are selling ) store whether online or brick and mortar not advertise.. yet small online business's such as artist and crafters are cheap and don't want to pay for advertisements.. You have a choice to ether pay for ads.. or sit at your computer all day and build back links and post on social sites all day long trying to get attention or to be seen by new people... Or you can do both paid ads and work the social pages etc. too.. if you have time for that.. Either way you must not just list and sell if you want to survive... I do paid ads in multipal places.. from right on etsys promoted listings to instagram and facebook ads.. Just one example.. I paid in one of these places $420 but sales directly from the ads resulted in $3200 in sales.. so basically I spent $420 so I could make $2780.. A lot of "new" seller will run a daily ad budget of $1 run it for a week and no sales so they say they aren't doing that again.. as it was a rip off.. Some times my ads might not get any result in a sale for a whole month.. but over the coarse of the year there are results.. people aren't patient enough to see results.. many don't know how to do business.. Brick and mortar stores pay big money to print fliers advertise on the radio and tv etc.. what makes a person selling crafts think they can succeed without taking a portion of their sales and pouring it back into placing ads is beyond me.. If you don't do it.. your sales are going to be about as good as a local craft show that doesn't advertise well.. Its like opening a brick and mortar store and never put a sign out saying what you are or sell, LOL people drive by and wonder what that building is.. LOL I honestly think people are wrong when saying that one cannot make a living at scroll sawing or crafts.. I think they just don't have the mindset of how selling crafts works in an ever changing world.. Not picking on anyone here and saying you don't know how to sell.. but the way many people buy these days is not the same as they did 10, 20, 30 years ago... where is everyone's attention at these days?? The buyers are out there still.. but where they are at has changed..and still changing..and will always be changing.. faster changing than ever before as technology grows... so one in the business needs to constantly roll with those changes or sales will be dropped and go out of business..

very nice

I can't tell you how many of those I went through in the business... well not exactly like the one shown.. I first started buying the air powered ones.. they are much nicer because of better speed control on certain contours of a car body.. if not careful that electric one will burn the paint right off a edge on a car LOL.. No need to ask how I learn that.. LOL.. Took a long time to get used to the electric ones.. they don't loose power on some heavy buffing like the air ones do.. and the air ones you can make then just barely spin.. Electric spins lowest I think was 750 or 1000 RPM ? anyway.. certainly take getting used to between the air and electric..

Kevin, I can't begin to tell you how many of those I've sold.

Yep, looks nice and I bet your wife's smile made it worth your trouble.

I like it !...A tree of life pattern was what got me into scrolling !

There are always plenty of excuses to buy new toys. Hegner will give you better customer service so order it up.

Interesting topic, but it just serves to remind me why I don't make stuff to sell. I frankly couldn't care less how long something takes me to cut. When I show people stuff I've made, they always ask; "How long did that take?". I just shrug my shoulders and say, "No idea".

Good questions and I'm happy to answer... let me know if I miss anything you asked: 1) Unicorn is absolutely the favorite. Females of all ages go nuts over it, along with the Mermaid. 2) Overall, dogs are my top seller. I keep stats on sales by "category". Dogs account for almost 40% of overall sales and the rest are spread out between SEA/BEACH, ZOO/FARM, MYTHICAL/DINOSAURS and CATS/HORSES. I take 66 different breeds of dog with me just so that when someone walks up and says "I bet you don't have a Shar-Pei." I can say "I bet I do." and show it to them and more times than not, they'll buy it. If I don't have a specific breed with me, I rarely am able to get them to place an order for it after letting them know I can make it. My silly little puzzles are purely an impulse buy. 3) I don't ask Harvey to do anything that would be trademarked or copyrighted like Batman, Disney, sports teams, etc. 4) I'd say that at least half, if not more of my sales are for adults. I state that they're mostly for display purposes, put on a bookshelf and admire versus being played with by kids due to them being somewhat fragile. Dog lovers in particular simply adore their breed of dog and simply must have it. I sell a number of "manly" ones as well such as the Dragon and the Yeti that grown men get a chuckle out of and buy to put on their desk at work. 5) Least sellable... so, of the 172 different animals I sold last year, 61 of them I only sold one of. 19 of them I only sold two of. If I make something and it doesn't sell for a few months, when it finally does sell I simply don't make it again. No reason to waste space on my tables. I like displaying 125 different dog breeds and animals in order to give folks lots of options and it makes them linger at the booth longer and I'm able to convince them they must have one to take home. 6) The one I dislike making... Havanese dog is #1 in that category... hairiest damn dog I've seen. LOL The GOLDENDOODLE was another one I disliked making until I had Harvey change it to just say DOODLE. I have a couple of others that I'll groan when I see it's next to be cut, but nothing horribly annoying. And a couple of things you didn't ask, but I'd like to share that I feel good about... 1) I truly fell in love with Harvey's work in 2015 when I came across his patterns and am glad I was able to track him down, get to know him and then start selling his patterns for him. I make almost nothing selling them, but I wanted his work to have a 2nd life and be seen more widely and I think I've accomplished that. By sharing my work and my success making and selling them I have customers (puzzle zombies as I like to call them) literally across the globe buying his patterns now and I outsell Wooden Teddy Bear every single month as Harvey likes to let me know. And I give Harvey more per pattern sale than WTB does. Not knocking WTB, they have a full blown business to run. I'm doing it purely as a friendship thing for Harvey. 2) Last week I got a message from one of my new puzzle zombies letting me know how much he appreciates me sharing my work as well as suggestions, ideas and learning lessons I've learned over the past 3 years. He is a disabled veteran with PTSD and he said that cutting the puzzles is one of the most relaxing things he has come across. His wife loves the puzzles and is showing them to everyone they know and he's cutting them for friends and family and looking to start selling them at craft events soon. I always knew that I found it relaxing to make them and I'm glad to hear others do as well. A lot of folks find me on YouTube as I've done several videos showing me cutting them as well as my booth setup at events. If you're bored sometime check 'em out, just search on my name Scott Seifer And lastly, I'm as surprised as anyone how "successful" this whole thing has been... I started making basic puzzle items for my grand-daughter, next thing I know, I'm selling 1,100 puzzles at 25-30 events a year... all while maintaining a full time job AND starting up another business for tourist maps and guides for my home town. I love every minute of it. Everyone in town knows me as either "Scott the puzzle guy" or "Scott the map guy". I keep getting asked to run for mayor... that will wait for a little while. Iggy

So in the end what is the bottom line??? From this point forward will you be using one saw as the primary saw??? I do not see an advantage changing from styles of saws because each one cuts differently as you have proven. I know you did this as a test for fun. I have a Dewalt, Hegner and a 220vs and 226vs RBI saws. My every day saw is the 220. The Hegner is my bevel cutting saw, the 226 is my large project saw and the Dewalt sits and collects dust, not makes it. Have to say that is a way to spice things up cutting the same project that many times.

1/8" sounds like a lot, but some saws cut in a rocking motion, so at any point in the blade's travel, up & down, it may not be perfectly 90 degrees, front to back. You may be able to turn the motor of your saw, with a screwdriver (look for a slot in the end of the motor). If so, you can check for vertical cutting motion by taking a 2" machinist's square, place it against the blade and turn the motor manually. Watch carefully as the blade moves up & down to see if it exhibits a rocking motion during the up & down travel. You can also check this with a thick piece of wood, 1 1/2" to 2" thick, depending on your saw's capacity. Make sure it has a square edge. Turn the saw on and gently push the edge of the wood into the blade. Don't push hard, just enough to make a slight kerf on the edge. You should be able to tell if the blade is cutting to the same depth, top & bottom, by examining the kerf.

I'm glad you posted this topic.. I had been looking at the china made dust separator, but I like the more compact design etc of the one you show here.. plus it's cheaper than the actual dust deputy.. These are a great deal and work well too ( brother in aw has one on a sandblasting cabinet..) but I like the more compact of the one you have.. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dust-Collector-Dust-Seperater-Household-Cyclone-SN50T-Industrial-High-Efficiency/283443009681?hash=item41fe851891:g:WwAAAOSwaKVcqKv6

You certainly do nice work. Let's see,,, $20, -$5 for wood, -$5 for time , -$5 for a drink and $5 for donation,,,,, sounds like a plan.

Not much of a back story with this one, but this was something I did when I started scrolling - the pattern just made me laugh, so I had to do it.

Brenda, he has a site on FaceBook where all of his patterns are posted. Have been trying to copy and paste the link for you but am not having much luck. It is called Custom wood portraits. Hope this helps. Jeff