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It seems like almost everyone in our family are dog owners. So I thought, since they all love their dogs so much that I would make them an ornament with their dog's name on it. So on Thanksgiving we will be with most of them and it will be soon after that they will put up their Christmas decorations and I hope they will enjoy using these ornaments at that time. I usually do not like painting wood items but at Christmas it often seems like the thing to do, so I did this to these. Dick heppnerguy

Made a holder for my new business cards. Took it up to the flea market, I have a few things there, and the owner liked it so well she put it on the front counter right by the register! Her husband wants me to see if I can do something for his small engine repair business. It's another Steve Good pattern.

Sometimes I come home from work and catch my wife making sawdust. Here is a couple she just finished up.

Never saw such a bunch of absent minded people in my life !!! (Gave our saw to a son in another state 2 months ago. Became a top feeder & never looked back. First saw would only bottom feed. Too often was inserting the blade into a tiny hole I had already cut). jerry

Here is a picture of the set up. The John Wayne Portrait is by far my best seller. Sue Mey Crosses are popular. I make them out of 3/4 inch Poplar, Cedar, Oak, Aspen, and Walnut (when I can find boards the right size). The 3D Butterfly Cross flew (excuse the pun) off the shelves. I love the cross but hate making it if that makes sense. I also have two different types of ornaments and sell them for 2 for $5 (small) or 1 for $5 (large). They are good as well. This year Portraits are slow but steady.

I use a #61 drill with the pegas MG #3 and have no problems bottom feeding it. When I did try the top feeding I always felt like I was fighting the teeth in addition to trying to find the hole in the table

Using a larger bit normally that would mean changing bits, I am lazy. so ......... I have a wen dremel with the #61 and another with a 1/16th bit and the drill press has the 1/8th bit Drill press hardly gets used, and the only real time I use a #5 or larger blade is for outside pattern cutting, of course I rarely cut anything over 3/4 inch, even stack cutting doesn't get higher.

Every year i design a Christmas ornament, which this year is a stocking...anyway....one of my customers asked if i could incorporate the letter "G" in to the stocking design, in place of the christmas tree for his nephew, Grant, who is 3..... the stocking is cut from 1/2" baltic birch plywood...sanded, painted and glittered......the paper quilling is 1/4"...of course i had to add some Swarovski bling for Christmas....enjoy.... bob

That is a cool looking system is I had the room. Today I used my "in shop" paint booth. Works well and I even got a "Rocky Mountain High!"

I started on a single speed Delta that was a bottom feeder, which continued on my Hitachi. But when I go the DeWalt, I immediately went to top feeding. As for attaching the blade on the lower, in my youth, I worked in a newspaper darkroom and got good at doing things I could not see. In a way it is just like threading film on a reel. My mind's eye tells me where too move my fingers.

I was raised in a farming comunity and worked on a farm one summer for $35 a weak and got paid extra for baling hay $0.50 per hour. I enjoyed it very much ever the bailing.I don't do anything now on the farm except picking sweet corn for myself only, too old for farmwork. Now allI do is go visiting and fishing. I still love the country. IKE

I grew up and live in farm country and raised in the city. Worked a little on a farm when I was very young, and enjoyed it very much. My dad grew up and was raised on an orchard farm in Norway which I managed to visit many years ago. I feel the ones who were raised on a farm are much all around better people. Pattern of portrait attached is by Alex Fox done on ⅛” BB ply 11 x 14 placed within a 16 x 20 frame (stack cut 3).

We did our first show of the season and pulled in over $1500.00. Now I've got a one week break before our next one. I need to rebuild my inventory. I added pictures below in the comment section. Sorry for leaving them out.

Customer wanted custom gifts for family. Instead of saying proud to be along the top I put what it is with there names on bottom. Also another customer just wanted the EMS logo. So I took it from a proud to be EMS sign. All of these are from Sue Mey.

When I first saw this pattern I knew I had to give it a try. I struggled with the joints and the finish but over all I like it. I struggle with understanding how to put a good finish on my project which takes away from what it could be like in the end. Maybe I need to take some lessons from Scrappile when I go see him again later this month. I can always learn something from him. We usually just sit and chat when I visit with him but this time I may pick his brain and try to come home with some much needed knowledge Dick heppnerguy

Each letter has different ornament. 3 layers of birch plywood 1/8 inch (about 3 mm) Video of making project Merry Christmas pattern

Holy smokes, that,s incredible work.looks like she,s the boss of the scroll saw!!! I like her tastes in projects!!! Go figure a little feminism goes a long way in design!!!

That depends, the Jet is bottom feed because the bottom blade needs to be put is a holder first. Then the holder is placed in a clip at the bottom. Now you raise the arm and bottom feed the blade. I believe the Pegas blade chuck fixes this and allows top feeding.

Thanks for the nice comments. Usually, for me, the first show of the Christmas season is always the best. Mostly because in this area everyone goes to all the shows so after the 1st one they have seen all my stuff. I do have a lot of return customers or people who seek out my booth because they saw what another person had bought.

very nice

Glad to help

I seem to be on a segmentation kick lately....lol

Very impressive work. Love them both, well done. Marg

hi guys,havent posted any pics of my work for a while now ,but here are some of my most recent work, the split monograms are a quite popular piece ,and ive made quite a few, here are just a few, the Dinneens sign was made for my local drinking establishment,they had a leaded glass window in this design,

Neat card holder Gary. Well done. My business cards match yours for design and colour. You've got good taste...LOL

This attention getter will do it's job!!! I like!!!

Really great piece Ron!! What thickness did you cut? I really like that one, looked at it and a motorcycle on his site the other day. Now that I've seen what you did with it I may have to do this one!

Hummm, I don't see Abbey and Ali in that batch,,,,,,,!!

I see you live in Larimore. I work for the Larimore Pioneer Press as a very young man in the late 50's. I spent seven years with the Grand Forks Herald before moving to Denver. I keep track of Grand Fork's temperature. Brrrrrrrrrr! You system looks interesting. Thanks for posting.

Beautiful box, Dick, Some people seem to prefer a satin, butter-soft finish that can be obtained with a bees wax and turpentine or linseed oil which can be home made https://makezine.com/2010/09/02/how-to_beeswax_polish/ or purchased https://www.bing.com/search?q=bee's+wax+furniture+polish&FORM=QSRE1 and some people prefer a finish such as those shown from the earlier posts with spray finishes. That could include polyurethane, varathane, shellac, or varnish. Personally, I like a gloss shine with some of the aerosol products (polyurethane is my preference) but, some people say that appears more like plastic than solid wood so they prefer a satin finish of the same products. I guess I got long winded in saying that different people like a different finish. I just hope I have given some different choices for people to consider. Fantastic looking project you have made. God Bless! Spirithorse

So what is left now is the controller. As I said earlier the Ametek Lamb vac motor is universal, so I chose to run it on DC as it is far easier to control a DC motor's speed than it is to controll an AC motor's speed. This is also not the only way to do this. I can post links to YouTube vids of the other way if the controller I used is too difficult to find or source. My controller came from a treadmill. The specific type or model of controller is an MC-60. Best I can tell it is not manufacturer specific, which leads me to believe someone else builds them for the treadmill people. Regardless, they are on Ebay and can be found else where too. The 120 VAC inputs are clearly marked, as are the DC motor and potentiometer connections. Since I harvested my controller at the local dump, I kept the AC power cord but had to put crimp connectors on as the cord was cut free. I used a section of another power cord, again from the dump, with crimps again to connect the controller to the vac motor. I harvested the potentiometer from our scrap pile at work, I think its 0 - 5000 ohms. A 0 - 10000 ohms would probably work better as it would give finer speed control. The controller outputs 0 VDC to 90 VDC; I have found that about 30 VDC is perfect. Too much faster and the vac actually sucks the dust up from inside the Dust Deputy and then you get a cloud. Its quite quiet at the lower voltages also. Outside of the closet, at 30 VDC, its no louder than my Hegner saw. Draw backs to this are its a lot of messy wiring and the motor controller, as a safety feature from its treadmill days, has to have the potentiometer returned to zero speed every time it is turned off and back on. I guess they didn't want people flying off the treadmill. Just an aside, I have read people speaking of small work spaces and shops. Mine is a closet. Literally as you probably saw. It all fits and works so hopefully one day the kids move on and I will get a bigger inside room. But thats one day and a ways off.

As I looked up info on the web about alcohol dye, I found this interesting video about making DIY Alcohol Dye from fabric dye like RITS. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=alcohol+dye&view=detail&mid=4C2ACA84580A896C50AF4C2ACA84580A896C50AF&FORM=VIRE I personally found her voice a bit grating but, the information may be of use to some of the forum here. God Bless! Spirithorse

I decided to break it up into several posts to be sure I don't hit a pic cap or size limit or something. So next I will show my saw and how that all is working. I have 2 packs of Loc Line 3/4" flex pipe attached to a 3/4" pvc assembly to allow the suction to be applied directly where I want it. Its pretty basic; I'm sure you have seen this sort of thing before as I easily found pictures of other peoples assemblies to follow. At some point this is going to get rebuilt as I don't particularly like it right now but that will be a later task when I build a new stand or overhaul the one it is currently on.

i tried that top feeding on my EX. i couldnt get the hang of it so went back to being a bottom feeder.

Thanks, Gracias, I looked up alcohol paint to learn more about it.

That is pretty much what I do too. Maybe one needs to take that cap off the can first, but I have found after doing that, I need to keep buying more of them.. Cheaper to leave the cap on them Dick heppnerguy

And you were. Especially difficult with the aggressive teeth that blade has.

I find that it's more difficult for me to release the lower clamp and then have to fumble around to reclamp it. Much easier to see and do it all above the table. I can certainly understand if you're doing a lot of fine fret work it might be easier to see the holes on top of the work but to have to work under the table to reclamp the blade each time would be much more difficult. But, I'm old so what do I know!

I like John B's setup also. When we get back next spring I may try to build something like that.

I try all sprays but min wax does me good! Thats quite a box. Hope I remember to try it!!!

That is why I call our annual show "My annual Humbling".

I am also a bottom feeder, even though my saw can top feed. My first saw was a bottom only and it is a habit I just can not break.

I like John B set up. I can get a bathroom exhaust fan and have it vent into the barn. Should take care of the fumes.

I've tried both I find bottom feeding to be the easiest. For me, when the blade is in the top clamp and you start bringing down the arm to top feed, the blade end is actually moving in an arc, I found that to be harder to get the blade down through the piece and into the hole in the table. I bottom feed all the time. That said, I top feed when putting a new blade, clamp it to the upper arm, lower the arm and tighten the bottom clamp.

I've done both but actually prefer bottom feeding.. Maybe just because that is the way I started out on the scroll saw... I've had top feed capable saws for 13 years.. can do it both ways.. but always gravitate to bottom feeding. It's just habit and in order to top feed I have to make a mental note in my brain to do it.. There is way to many mental notes in there so this slows down the processor... Probably need more memory, ram, and a faster processor in order to be efficient with the mental notes.. Every time I tell my self I'm going to top feed on a project.. I do so on the first hole... maybe the second one.. then the 3rd one I have it already fed and ready to hit that foot switch when the light bulb goes off that I just bottom fed.. Not taking the blade out now to do a redo.. and that's how it all goes down.. Born a bottom feeder I guess..LOL What made me decide to just stick with bottom feeding was the day I kept getting mixed up and lost several new blades.. You see.. I got all confused about what I was doing and unclamp the lower clamp and then instead of raising up the arm to switch to the next spot I reach up and unhook the top blade from the clamp.. the blade falls on the floor with several hundred of other broken or dull blades around my saw.. after a dozen blades.. I realize that I'm wasting new blades with only getting one or two spots cut per blade..

I,m a bottom feeder,I tried the other way,just couldn't get in the habit.

If you are going to have a booth that you can not walk around in, you also need a turntable type thing so the work to be sprayed can be turned easily.

Nothing wrong with that box! Looks real good to me. Here is my total knowledge about finishing:

That's what came to me 1st also. I worked summers at a sod farm as a youth. We always reminded people, "green side up" Lame joke but hey, it was a sod farm. lol