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Needed to take a break from doing framed, flat panel portrait work and make something different. I have had this Side and End wall bird battern for a very long time and have revisited it often. It did include the base pattern, but there were no patterns/details for the top or bottom. I had to design them on the fly. The box is nom 12” wide by 8” deep and 4” high. I really did not realize how large the box was until I began to assemble it. Since the box was quite large I decided it needed a divided drop-in tray. The box outer walls, base, top and bottom is solid red oak. The red painted wall backers, inside box bottom, inside base top and the inside box tray supports were made from 1/8” BB ply (cut from my cut-off scrap pile). The tray was made from 1/4" Red Oak solid core ply and has a depth of 1 1/4 inches. Because I did not realize the size of the box, I was forced to purchase a 6 foot length of Red Oak 1” by 12” (3/4” by 11 1/2“) to make the top and bottom. Big $$$$$. The available 2 foot long boards at Lowes were not quite long enough as I need 26 inches. So I now have a nice 3’-10” length left for another future project. I planed the bottom down to 1/2”. For the top I rabbeted the bottom perimeter 1/4"deep so the top has a lid keeper that projects into the box. I sanded a small round on each corner and I used a small ogee router bit to put a decorative edge all around the top and bottom. Everything was finished with many coats of clear gloss Lacquer after which I lined the tray and the lower box with red felt. A very sticky job as I was using contact cement. I'm contemplating installing some small hinges as the top is heavy and will be cumbersome to remove and replace during use. I’m attaching a few pics as it is hard to show all the detail in one. Feel free to critique my work. . Edit 7/3/21: It was requested I post pics with the hinges installed. I was able to mortice the hinges into the box and lid to get the lid to land flat on the box. The lid does not need a hold open device because of the lids overhang.

I think the most important aspect of cutting with a 2/0 blade is tension. The blade needs to be tight, tight, tight. Most blades will not break at the proper tension. When you pluck the blade, it should have a high “ plink” or “ping” sound. The higher, the better. For me, the only 2/0 blades that track on the line properly are Olson reverse and skip tooth blades. All other 2/0 blades including Flying Dutchman an Pegas just don’t track well.

on the topic of splitting/following lines, i dont split lines. i pick an edge of the line and follow it.

Frank, you did a fantastic job on this box. The red works perfectly and I really like the feet. It gives it a classic furniture look. Time to kick it up a notch with some Bubinga or Padauk. I believe you would get your money back on the cost of the wood and it would sell fast.

I find the regular 2/0 blades very floaty on 1/4" wood. Cant control them as well as I like. Works great on 1/8" though. I have been using a #1 for the 1/4 stuff and its working pretty well. My usual go to blades are 2/0 jewelers blades from pike. They are very fine but stiffer so can handle the 1/4" stock better. On the down side, they have no reverse teeth and make a mess on the back of the piece that needs sanding.

Very cool. Love the size. I have a Carter but he is #11 and would love it. Thanks for posting

I'm not really sure of what you are having problems with but I will say this....I've tried a lot of different blades and different sizes of the same blades. I have more or less homed in on the Pegas #5 mgt and use it for everything. I don't do puzzles but if I did, I'd probably have to use a smaller blade. I try to cut to the line as much as possible. I also try to keep the pattern lines as thin as possible so all I have to do is follow the line and not worry about splitting it. I don't use the highest speed either. I, depending on the pattern, use the slowest speed up to about mid-range on both of my EX saws. I just acquired a Hegner so I am still getting to know it.

My solution to this problem is to use bigger blade the real fine blades tend to raise my frustration level

I have had this pattern for a long time and I believe I got it from the Scroll saw magazine, quite awhile back. I just ran across is as I was looking for a different one and I showed it to my wife and she said she would like one of them. So here it is. I do not remember who the pattern maker is. I am quite disappointed in how it came out, as I found myself having to take it apart but still could not seem to get it right. From the far side of the room, it looks ok though. I only posted it because I don't want anyone to think I am sitting on my duff, watching TV Dick heppnerguy

I would like to extend my thanks to Lawson 56, Grampa and TD Painter for creating great patterns for of the VW van from the attached photo. Of the 3 pattern creators, I chose TD Painter, he had the detail I was looking for on this project. I still hold down a full time job so with work, this project took my a week to complete with doing a little at nights. I already had the frame made from my last setup on making a number of frames for future projects, just had to apply the finish. There were approximately 90 cuts overall and the pattern was enlarged slightly to approx 10" high by 14" long. I used baltic birch ply at 1/8" thick and stack cut 4 pieces. I also cut the 2 mats for this project and even included a dust cover on the back of the frame along with appropriate hanging hardware. The frame is made with Philippine Mahogany with an inlay if Purple Heart. The interior dimensions of the frame is approx. 16" high by 20" long. Thanks for looking and I look forward to any comments.

It's really not much to look at but here are a couple of pics of it upside down. The first two just show how I constructed it. Like I said, not pretty. But the 3rd pic shows how it looks in place on the vac. It is aimed toward the rear of the saw and what noise does still emit, goes away from me. It's really very quiet. And I don't think there is enough restriction to harm the vac. I just added a pic showing looking down from above but before I added the muffler. You can see how it shoots toward the rear where the little cyclone is mounted.

Hi TD did me a revised pattern as my girl friend said the dog had frogs legs LOl. This version is much better thx TD painter

Yes it is Woodsmith pattern, but in my computer file of patterns I had not labled it so I did not know where I had gotten it from. And I had not donloaded the construction details, so other than the scroll patterns I had nothing else to go on. The Woodmith build was a lot more complecated than what I did. Your better half could have this one for the right price...I would ship .

A really nice job Frank. Now my better half wants to know when I'll make one for her?? Thanks I have that pattern. Just haven't gotten around to making it yet. That's a Woodsmith pattern. https://www.woodsmithplans.com/plan/scroll-sawn-jewelry-box/

LOts of good avice above, but lets talk a little differently. I really can not speak directly to skip tooth blades as I don't use them. I very rarely use blades larger than #1, I use very samall Pegas MGT R and Pegas sprials to do more tha 99% of the cutting I do. If you are using a 2/0 blade to do very intricate fretwork and having difficulty tracking the line, I suspect you are probably pushing too hard and have the saw speed is up too high. Proper tension is important, but yolu must let the blade do the cutting. I do not like to spin the work piece to turn a corner when Im using a small blade so I tend to use what I call the double cut method. Fully enter the corner, back out and cut a new cut over to the corner on the oppisite line leaving a small cut out that the piece can be rotated around the stopped blade to continue on the new path. Rotating a work piece around the blade while cutting always leaves a rounded corner/intersection, rather than a very sharp point, especially when the corner is supposed to be very sharp. I'd rather double cut than bugger up a corner or sharp point rying to rotate the piece while cutting. Oh, just one other thing, you must look at the blade and line you are cutting and not look where you do not want go...if you do the blade will goi there...trust me, I know. Now lets talk a little about tracking along the line. When I'm able to, in Inkscape, I make the line width just about visible in RED at .005 inches and try to use a very light Grey fill. Since I use a very thin line, I do not attemp to split the line, but rather keep the blade tracking as true as possible tight along the waste side of the line. If I lose some control, I attempt to do so on the waste side so I can shave back to the line or even sand it smooth with my dremel burrs later if necessary. Also, as you are well aware, in many intricate patterns adjacent cut lines may be very close together. Using a thin line allow me to move the blade to the other side of the line to provide a little bit more space between parellel cuts. Since the cut line is so thin this variation on which side of the line I cut is not even visible when all said an done. I do not find the wood thickness to be of concern when using small blades. However, the thicker the wood the slower the piece must be pushed. Again the blade must do the cutting and it can't be rushed. Unless I'm cutting something like block font or long straight or smooth curved lines I have personally gone to using spiral blades for cutting fretwork. No rotating the work piece and much better line tracking once you master using spirals, That being said I stll use the same method of tracking the blade along the cut line as I described above. For most fretwork I do, the pattern cuts are very forgiving if there is minor deviations in tracking the cut line. HTH

The pattern you show in the first picture could be cut perfectly fine with most any size blade. I have found that tension needs to be high enough to prevent bowing and wandering of the blade but not so high it results in excessive breakage. Like others have said try a larger blade. I personally only use the very small blades on projects that have very fine detail that require them. The advantages of larger blades is there is more material to dissipate heat and prevent stretch which are both the biggest enemies. JMHO '

that sure is a beautiful box

You got to work with what you have. My lady chose the color of the backers and the red felt went perfectly with it. If I had just used a contrasting wood backer, a Royal Blue would be an excelent choice, but I wasn't about to go out an buy different felt when I had the red already. Thanks for taking the time to offer a thoughtful suggestion.

Perfect and beautiful. Great work Frank. Marg

Looks great and I think the hinges are a good idea. My personal preference would have been to use a dark royal blue felt.

Beautifully done, Frank! Thanks for sharing and God Bless! Spirithorse

I like the way that came out too. Nice work.

Beautiful work!

@octoolguy thanks for reminding me. I am on slow maybe 25% saw speed.

Les Yep, I'll be 82 next birthday. I also have a roll around chair. My problem is my shop is still in the basement. Once I get down there I'm fine most of the time. There are a few power tools i have to stand for, table saw is one of them. That's getting very tough to do now. I feel the same way about the stair lift. We still have 2 vehicles so I can't make a shop in my garage right now and probably wont. I'm going to sell my pickup truck this year since i no longer drive. That would free up 1/2 of the garage. I really don't have the energy to build a shop in my garage. Those days are over. Like you, I'll just continue to plug along and do what I can...until I can't. Ben

I've seen this cut a couple of times and decided I needed a bad guy for the cowboy section of my shop walls. I made a couple of changes since I cut it on a smaller piece of red oak, about 5 1/2 X 7 1/2. I preferred it without a tongue also so I removed that. Not that any changes were needed. Charles is the man. Just personal preference. Well, bye!

I have done several different images on the legs. I used 3/4" lumber. Emma Stool1.pdf Emma Stool2.pdf Emma Stool3.pdf

Oh what a fabulous piece. Are you by any chance a professional framer? Because you do an exception job. Every thing about this is perfect. Marg

A on pattern making —A on cutting —A on frame making. Very impressive!!!

You certainly did a beautiful job of this. Great cutting and the matting/framing looks very professional. A+