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My quarantine project was one of the featured projects in the winter 2020 issue of Scrollsaw Woodworking magazine! So proud and humbled! Thanks for all the support from the group.

Wanted to do a cutting of her. Asked Mahendra to kindly help me out and he came through greatly. Felt she was a needed foil in the supreme court to help balance it out. Felt it was important that she was there. Thanks Mahendra

When I take photos for my Etsy site, I use a a light box. I have several different colored back drops. I also have a very nice Canon digital camera with a tripod. Then I would have to download the photos to my iPad, then edit them. I found out that my IPhone takes just as good pictures as my expense camera. So, anymore, I just use my phone to take photos. They automatically upload from my phone to my iPad. If they need editing, I use the IOS photo editor. If I’m taking pictures of equipment, tools or jigs to show on the forum, I just use the phone, just the shop lites and post it. Please continue to show your work. I do appreciate great photography, but it’s not necessary to post here. Most here are hobbyists and don’t do this to make money. Do the best you can. We won’t judge you by the quality of your photography skills!

So I had a custom order for a message on one of my clocks I have on etsy.. For the last nearly 10 years of selling on etsy I always get the occasional request for engraving.. which is a big reason I bought my CNC router and the 40 watt C02 laser engraver / cutter.. I've been playing around with the laser quite a lot over the last few weeks making engraved ornaments etc but not really stuff to sell.. until this custom order.. Clock was cut on the Hawk BM-226 saw with a #3 Pegas MFG blade.. from 5/8" soft Maple.. The base was engraved on a "slice " of 1/8" Maple.. (ie I don't have my laser set up yet for doing thicker pieces of wood.. ) that I sliced with the bandsaw and then engraved the text and the outline profile of the base for my pattern, LOL.. Then I glued the 1/8 back to the board and cut the profile with the Hawk to finish it up.. Before I set up the laser I was using the CNC router to do this.. but wanted to try it on the laser.. The laser was much faster and easier to set up than the CNC would have been.. though probably not buy too much.. Took about 6 minutes to engrave this piece.. More time spend fooling with slicing and gluing, LOL.. A lot of guys modify the laser bed by cutting it out and making a new adjustable height bed for doing different thickness of materials.. The laser has a sweet spot for a focal point.. and the focal point changes when you change material thickness.. so that it one of the modifications I'll be doing ... cutting up my new laser bed.. LOL BTW This order is going all the way to China.. LOL... and I charged $120,,, $25 of that is shipping.. took about 1.5 hours work..

Clock for friend.

H. Botas pattern called Horse (not toooo imaginative name) resized slightly to suit a standard 11X14 frame. Cut from 1/8 BB Ply and affixed to a 1/8 BB Backer painted dark brown. Cut with Pagus #0 spiral blades (more than a few used). Panel set loose in a Custom made Poplar Frame stained with Minwax Early American. A fitting color, I thought, for the subject. This project had its fair share of "You Just Can't Fix Stupid" happenings. First after applying the shelf liner as normal I used spray adheasive to affix the pattern to the panel. It then sat on the bench for a few days while I finished up some other work, Now it was time to start cutting only to find I applied the pattern to the back (wood) side, not on top of the liner material. OK, so I cut it anyway as is. The bottom side with the liner on it did not cut clean and hung on to every fuzzie. Messy to say the least. Finished the cut and now had to remove the liner and the pattern. The liner came off fairly easy but in the busy areas it was hard to see if any liittle bits remained. I use clear liner I get at Walmart. Took a lot of time to make sure it was all off. Now it was time to remove the pattern. Used Mineral Sperits as some on here have said they use and yes it released the paper pattern but it was difficult to get all the adheasive off. The wood soaked up the MS and it took a few days to dry so it could be sanded. The remnant adheisive gummed up the sand paper and had to use a razor blade to scrape off the residue befor it could be finally sanded. Then I made the Frame. Needless to say "Stupid" just kept happening. Won't bore you with that story. This, what appeared to be a rather easy project, took about 4 extra days to complete. All in all I'm fairly happy with the final results, but I have to keep "Stupid" from taking it toll in the future.

Thought this was appropriate for Halloween 2020. It's made from some 1X pine I got from the inside of a cable spool so it's a bit convex and works nicely for this kind of thing.

This is a backlit Voodoo Queen that I made a few years ago.

Here's a backlit ghoul that I made last year.

This is my big cutting of the year it took me the bigest part of the week with about 250 piolet holes I finely got a frome made so as I promised here it is A H. Botas pattern

Congratulations @barb.j.enders. Her lantern project was shown in the latest issue of ScrollSaw Woodworking & Crafts! You must be very proud!

Strange bird. Like a little penguin but can fly. For my younger daughter. Pattern by Florian Manke.

Would there be a way of hooking up 2 lasers to the same computer via usb's. Then have 2 separate sessions of the software open at the same time? Jim

Cell phone cameras have come a real long way over the years.. I too have a expensive Canon camera.. But my etsy photos are taken with a cheap Sony Cyber-Shot digital camera that is at least 15 years old, LOL. and yes.. with tripod and my homemade cardboard box lightbox I made... My cell phone actually does better than the Sony.. but I use my computer to do listings and I've never mastered the art of getting the photos off my iphone to my computer.. One day I'm going to get a IPad... Lot of people run their etsy shops solely from their cell phone... I'm not a master of using a cell phone for much of anything.. LOL

I just got my late yesterday - everyone here beat me to the punch!

I'm sorry but I will take photos where and when I want to, if you don't like it, don't look. Marg

The car in this barn is pretty old but newer than 1919. I did get the plate out of a similar barn where my grandfather kept his 1936 Chrysler.

Been focusing most of my shop time now making toys and will continue for the next few months. Following is what I’ve done earlier.

I have tried spirals a couple of times over the last few years, never could get the hang of them. I decided to try again. I used a FD brand, can't remember the size. Now I know what everyone is talking about when talking about the fuzzies! I didn't have many, a little sanding knocked most of them off of the backside. I have also been wanting to do a Tiger or Leopard or some kind of big cat with spots/stripes. But I try to stay clear of patterns with an obscene amount of holes to drill! This one only had about 90 interior holes to drill,, so wasn't too bad. I feel that I did ok with the spiral but I also feel that I didn't have to be perfect while cutting this pattern. I take pride in being dead on the line with my regular blades. I imagine cuts with more straight lines would be more difficult with spirals. I don't know if I will attempt anything like that. The top part is 1/2" BB and the backer is 1/8" BB cut with an Olson #2 reverse blade. Remember, go easy on the reviews this is my first spiral cut! LOL

Terry is turning 80 in early October (and I'm only 1.5 years behind him). Terry and his wife Peggy are both in good health and taking full advantage of life. I searched for quite a while for something to make for Terry and finally hit upon a Sue Mey pattern. I reduced the pattern to 75% size (which made for some very intricate cutting) and made a few changes. I cut both the foreground and background out of 3mm thick Baltic Birch plywood. He is a photo taken when the cutting saw about half completed: Here, the detailed cutting has been completed, the background has been stained green, then attached to the foreground with double sided tape, and I am cutting the perimeter of both: And here is the completed "card": The whole project took about six and a half hours of work. All the cutting was done using #1 Flying Dutchman Ultra Reverse Tooth blades. I mailed the card to Terry this afternoon.

Now is background ready and framed.

Well said Kevin. It is most definitely a learning curve, especially if you are not comfortable with computers. To me it is just another tool that to enhance my scroll work.

Excellent post. Although I am strickly an amateur when it comes to photography I take all my pics with my little Canon digital camera and natural light and crop out what isn't needed. I try to never have anything in the background unless it's for a reference point. Since I do mostly Intarsia now, I try and let the various woods, color, and grain be the focal point. Ben

Framed! Used some scrap wood found at Lowes...I believe they're spacers that were used between layers on a pallet of fence slats, and they're all sorts of nasty green tinted when I pull them out of the scrap bin, but they're free, they have some great grain when sanded (and lose most of the greenishness), take stain really well, and usually have a lot of character in the way of knots and dings and occasional rounded edges with bark still visible. PERFECT for rustic, rugged frames. There's not really any consistency with thickness/width, so I try to grab a bunch at once and make frames out of pieces that are as close as possible in all dimensions, but sometimes I have to get aggressive in sanding to make edges match up a bit. I'll cut the bevel on my table saw, then measure and cut the 45-degree angles to length on my miter, flip all the pieces face-down (bevel-up) and glue/nail them together so that at least the front side is pretty even and any thickness differences can be sanded down. Wasn't able to get the back-side perfect on this one, but the differences are on the back, not the front. And I think it still gives it character.

Here’s something I’ve been working on. IMG_2523.MOV

Thanks Les, It was a lot of fun to make because I got to use more of my shop tools than most my project require.. Bandsaw, planner scroll saw, laser, bar clamps, drill press, and my dremel plunge outer drill press deal. .. can't remember the last time I used the clamps.. been a while since I used the bandsaw too.. in fact I bought new blades for it back in May and never have got around to putting one on yet.. back then I was doing quite a lot of resawing.. bought new blades and not even turned it on since, LOL

Well that is good to hear.. Will you be able to use both lasers at the same time or is it not worth the effort to hook them both up? I mean I realize the one is a bit slow but running it is making more pieces.. Probably would need to have two computers though.. so might not be doable.. Good luck with it and let us know how you like it if you get one.. I'd like to see a video of one running.. probably is one on YouTube already, guess I'll go look..

I saw it last night while reading magazine. Saw your name and where you're from, but didn't connect it with this forum. Nice work and congrats!

I’ll join the others with a wow and awesome work. Always love seeing what you are doing and wishing I had just a bit of your skill.

Congratulations Monti. I got my copy yesterday and saw it. I need to get to copy shop and get a copy made, too big for my home machine and I think I may reduce it a tad before giving it a try. Several things in front of it right now that I need to finish though so could be a while. For those who don’t subscribe, check your local Lowe’s or Home Depot magazine area. That was where I usually got mine before I subscribed. If you still can’t find in your area, but would like to get a copy you can always buy direct from the magazine. This is the 2020 Winter issue found here: https://www.foxchapelpublishing.com/scroll-saw-woodworking-crafts-issue-81-winter-2020.html

I can't imagine these things will remain popular among my customer base for long, so I'm hesitant to invest a lot into something for an item that I sell for $7.50 or $10 each... The cutting of the triangles, drilling and sanding take very little time per piece, it's the laser engraving that drags on. I trained my wife on it as she can go back and forth to the garage every 15-20 minutes and set up another one.

Congratulations !!!

Thanks. Hey if the pond is the Atlantic, I am on the same side of it as you are. If the pond is the Great Lakes then we are on different sides. Thanks for the conversion. Knowing that some USA citizens still prefer the antiquated British Imperial system, I should have given those numbers too.

The specs on the one in the link you posted shows maximum speed is 3000mm a minute.. if my math is correct that equates to 50mm a sec. and that's IF the machine is powerful enough to get the image quality you're looking for.. I don't know the specs of the one you have but being more powerful isn't going to mean it's faster..

Congratulations even though I don't subscribe!

fantastic job

Very impressive. Well done Marg

Looks great!!!

Nice! Ya just had to one up me on the Tiger , didn't ya! LOL

Congrats!!!!!!!!!

Send her over...I need to take a few pictures...LOL

This is what I did not want anyone to think when I offered these suggestions. As I said, MOST will not have a digital camera, tripod or photo light sourse. However, with a few simple considerations many can do some things to make a posted photo much better.

Very nice work.

Congratulations! Unfortunately for me, I do not subscribe to that mag and have never seen the single issues for sale in any retail outlets around here. God Bless! Spirithorse

Modified geometry is pretty much all I use -- Les sent me some Pike blades I haven't had a chance to try out yet but soon probably -- the #1 mg seems to be my go to blade lately for everything through 3/4

I will have to take a look at the pattern to see if I can add light or modifie it to add llights.I less christmas trees sighted . I was useing regular hard wired lights . they sold for $25 last year I used battery operated tiny llights barttery powered and got $35 I only made 25 or 30 per year and always sell out. IKE

Nice work good clean lines well done, I haven't recieved my copy yet I alwayys enjoy my christmas edditiion. IKE

Congratulations!!! I can see why they chose it, it’s wonderful.

Congratulations Monti! I haven’t received my copy yet, but certainly one I will be looking forward too!

I have shown this before but not in this topic area. I started on it during shut down. Made for my youngest son. Black walnut and white maple.