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This time...my first puzzle! A big thank you to Scott for the guidance down the path to Puzzle Zombie land...lol. Love his show setup. Clean, well organized, and very productive! The Poplar got a dip in mineral oil after being worked over by a Pegas #3 blade. It was a fun cut...I can see how it could become an obsession.

Did our 2nd show for the season and did pretty good, over $1300. Portraits and Sue Mey crosses were huge. Plus ornaments again. The best part of this was I got an order for 60 $20.00 items. Gonna be busy right up till Christmas.

Hi All. I've been toying around with an idea I'd like to get your thoughts on. I made a customizable ornament kit that allows you to personalize Holiday ornaments. Basically, this is a Inkscape (svg) file that allows you to personalize ornaments with names (or dates). I would provide the SVG file, along with instructions and some promo pics you can post to social media. This is basically a mini business-in-a-box where you can earn a little extra cash this Holiday season. Here's what would be included in the kit: SVG Ornament File - Inkscape SVG file that you can use to customize ornaments. (US Letter & A4 size) Step by Step Instructions - How to use the Inkscape file, and how to export PDFs and PNGs from Inkscape. Promotion Banners - Pre-made images you can post to social media that advertise your ornaments. (5 pricepoints in $ & £) GIMP Promotion Banner Template - GIMP file that allows you to customize your promotion banner with your name and picture. Note: This ornament kit is meant for folks who have a working knowledge of Inkscape. You don't have to be an advanced user, but you should have the basics down. If you'd like to learn more about Inkscape, you can find my free online course here. Here's an overview on how the kit works: With this kit, you can either sell finished patterns to fellow scrollers or crafters. Or you can sell finished ornaments. Here are some selling ideas: Custom patterns for fellow scrollers & crafters. (suggested price: $1-2 per custom pattern) Post to your Facebook (or other social media) that you make custom ornaments. Friends and family would jump at the chance to have a custom ornament designed and cut by you. (suggested price: $10-15 each). Take orders at a craft show, church bizarre or event. Or even scroll on-site. (suggested price: $10-15 each). Sell on Etsy or similar online handmade marketplaces. Just give yourself time to make and ship the items. (suggested price: $12-20 each) Fundraiser for youth group, school, or sports team. (suggested price: $12-20 each) Or maybe, they’re just unique gifts for friends and family (suggested price: $0 each) OK. Here's where I'd like to get your help: What do you think of the idea? Is it something you'd find useful? Do you think it would be too difficult to use? What would you think is a fair price for this business-in-a-box kit (take into account all that is included, including source files). Any other feedback?

I used for this jigsaw puzzle a poster "Tategoto" by artist Haruyo Morita. "Tategoto" is translated from Japanese means "harp", that is, a stringed musical instrument. Size - 42x28 cm 300 pieces

Both patterns from Steve Good, no finish applied on the truck yet. Busy, busy, busy

Cut on a chunk of Box Elder with a Pega 3

Did a fun cut of Steve Good's Stratocaster pattern. Made a few changes and hope to make others in a future edition.

Finally finished this piece.

I really like the idea of an on going addition each year. I am with Merlin I think The $20 -$25 U.S. Range for the starter kit would be reasonable.

Nice Idea, wood be interested if the ornaments weren't so basic. As for price 20$ sounds about right but by the time I convert to NZ $ a bit expensive, but then there's no please everyone I suppose.... Merlin...

I know this is not what was asked but, if you could find a nice poplar board that has a lot of blacks and greens I think that would be beautiful left natural. As for what you have now I think a black or dark brown body with pastel green wings would be nice.

I like this Steve Good pattern. It’s hanging on a pallet wood piece I made a couple of years ago.

I have already made layered bee project (it was ornament style), but this time I wanted to make more realistic pattern Video of making Bee project Bee pattern

It hurt to do this one as I am a charger's fan. It is a very bad picture from my very bad phone.

I'd be interested but only for friends and family, as gifts. While I do some woodworking for money, none of it is scroll work. I think this would be of more value for those who use craft fair events to earn some money. Twenty dollars is pocket change in 2019 but for this old fart is still seems like a lot of money. I know precious little about Inkscape but after watching the video this looks very easy. I hope this is successful for you.

My holiday market crush has begun... 4 Saturdays in a row. #1 was today and was solid, beating my best day at this event out of 3 years. I had a new display rack for my key/leash holders and it was a huge success. My location was excellent and everyone saw it as they were walking by. I took orders for 10 leash holders before I sold my first puzzle. LOL Final tally 26 puzzles and 21 key/leash holders. I have a lot of cutting to do this week to fill the leash holder orders and to prepare for events, 2, 3 & 4 in case they're as good as today was. Photos of my booth setup today and my view.

@octoolguy, Interesting you brought that up as I was considering if that would work. Decided to ask the question on this site before proceeding. dgman directed me to the Pegas set without the tension lever, which seems to make sense and hopefully the rocker spacing is the same. I will give that a try first as they are less expensive than the lever style listed for the EX. Thanks much to both of you.

I made this last Christmas for my son to honor his 2 tours in Iraq. Sorry if I posted it before, but I just came across the picture again.

Finally I can give some advise back to you all, when stealing the wife's makes up brushes for cleaning the saw, don't steal the £30 contour brush it works great but wow was she mad lol

Yes on kit, yes on $20-$25.

They are addictive but then again all scrolling is addictive. Amazing work Gary, you nailed it. Marg

Frank , I would say as Ray said , you see less the dragon in your second one and less with the bottom one dragon and also because of the wood grain showing. So I would color the dragons. If you look at some dragonfly on the web , you will see as you probably know, that their wings are often colored. And they are beautyful ! planeur

I've seen the King saw at woodcraft and it has the same OEM clamps as the Excaliburs. The bottom clamp is made of cast aluminum. Over-tightening will literally spread the clamp, making it so the thumb and set screws won't tighten on the blade correctly. I was/am a constant violator of this and, always, kept a spare bottom clamp on hand to swap out when the problem arose. I second the recommendations to swap the OEM clamps out for the Pegas clamps. The Pegas clamps are made from a much stronger aluminum alloy and I have not had the problem since I switched. Denny Knappen, currently has the Pegas clamps on sale.

I like the idea. Not sure about the price. When you convert to CDN $ it seems expensive. I buy Steve's every year even though I have not used in the last 2 years as I had other ideas for personalized ornaments for the family. I think these are ornaments are pretty basic but I would imagine over the years they would evolve.

I think it is a great idea, I know steve good has personalized ornaments that he sells for 1.00 each with a 5 name minium that he puts the name in, i like this way better, as far as price goes maybe start this year 10.00 see how it works out, you can always raise it next year, RJ

I prefer the painted one also but I'm not sure about black. I think that if was possible, I'd try to find some iridescent paint in the natural colors of a dragonfly. A "blue/black" type of thing. I definitely don't like the natural one as well. It seems to lose the definition of the dragons.

$20

Sounds like a great idea. I would be interested. As for price, I have no clue.

Love the idea. I would be interested for sure. I wouldn't know where to start on pricing something like that. Maybe also. you could offer upgrades in the future with different ornament patterns for variety.

Painted but not as dark,

I voted it in the poll, but wanted to say I like the unpainted one. Both are good, but I prefer the natural wood look over just painting the dragonflies.

I don't think this is going to help much....but I'd try a deep red or a dark brown.

I definitely like the painted one better. Tom

I like the painted ones

I have a 2010 EX also. like Ray I am curious to see a picture of what you have.

14 the hard way! They were going to be bird houses and wanted the best side on front. But to do that I,d have to make the perch and nest holes by eye.so that means taking them out of there shell and find a good side.well my friend says to just keep it simple and make them ornaments! That saves a lot of time so I did!!! I could cut about 3" and my arms were dead.still more resting I guess

I made several of the Steve Good layered manger ornaments as presents. His pattern was for a 4" diameter but I found this too large and made some 3", 2-1/2" and 2" The small one was getting difficult for me to cut but made it through. I stack cut these 4 at a time from 1/8" Baltic Birch ply. The finish was Watco Danish Oil and then either shellac or lacquer.

Looks a lot nicer than the one I made. Another possible assist may be to put a light coat of anti-size gel on the threads. That seemed to help my issue.

Hubby is a talented guy. You should keep him.

Thank you

@Paul S WI, I had a Dewalt and the EX at one point and after buying the clamps for my EX, I was going to buy the same set for my Dewalt and just leave the tension lever set in the lowest position and tension with the lever. I figured I would fine tune it with the old lever similar to using the knob at the back of the EX. Since your saw doesn't have that knob in the rear, you could do as I suggested. Set it and forget it, so to speak. I think it would work great.

Thanks. If there's enough interest, I'd release a new set each year. So there would be a 2019 set for $x and a 2020 set for $x. As far as price goes, a better way of putting it: If you were to purchase something like this, what would you be willing to pay (a fair price for us both). A stab in the dark is fine with me if you don't know. I have a price in mind, but I don't want to underprice it. LOL.

Awesome and very talented art. Beautifully finished Alexey.

Is that a lesson learned from experience???

I use the word fine way too much like she asks me how's my hair, do my thighs look big in these jeans, is my makeup OK today etc all of which I reply u look fine might explain why am in the dog house so much I should move my saw in there I be quite happy lol

Hmm, I think you and my husband fortunately went to the same school. The other “lesson” he tells newly engaged young men is a few simple words to learn, “yes dear.” but then also points out that on a few rare occasion, those two words can get you in trouble, usually he says when she asks does this make me look fat? For those rare occasions like that, he says the correct reply is you always look beautiful dear. May be why we have been happily married for more than 34 years.

Welcome to the Village Louis from a very wet and chilly Victoria Australia. Marg

Welcome to The Village family from Southern Arizona. We are all glad that you decided to be a part of our world wide community. There are a lot of places for you to explore here, including tutorial on how to make your own scroll saw patterns to seeing other people's work and displaying your own. I hope that you find the time to log on here often and be sure and ask any questions you may have about scrolling or intarsia and you will quickly find that others are truly here to help one another and spread the love of scrolling in any way we can Dick heppnerguy

Welcome to the forum from TN.

Welcome to the Village from East Tennessee and the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, Look forward to your participation. Nice work. The Excalibur is a great Saw.