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In a prevous post, about two months back, I mentioned I had been accepted to join a local Fine Art Artist Cooperative where I could disply and offer my work for sale. Of course there is a fee to rent the space, but there is no commision taken from any sales other than any credit card sale charges. The Coop takes care of taking sales tax so every thing is simple. Each month the first Saturday of the month is Art Walk night where a lot of locals, as well as tourest, visit the various Art venues in the area, indulge in a little wine and snacks, and maybe buy some Art. Tonight was the third Art Walk Saturday since I joined the Gallery and it is was very well attended. And tonight, I sold two more pieces for a total of five pieces in just a few days more than two months. With these sales, I have covered my first four months rent plus and anything sold hereafter will be on the profit side. More importantly to me is the comments and praise I get from those who take the time to look at my work. Those who actually stop and look at my disply spend a good deal of time scrutenizing the pieces and are amazed at the cratmanship and artistry. Certainly not everyone buys, but compared to the time they spend looking at the fine paintings and other art, they tend to linger at my display for quite a while. When I'm there to answer questions, the positive feedback I get is just awsume. One of the pieces I sold tonight brings with it the potential for some commisioned pieces for this couples home that they have up north. Ask me if I feel good. I'm sure you can guess what my answer wouild be!

Optical illusion segmentation - 30 pieces, 1/6 inch, chamfer, 3 types of stain, glossy varnish Video of making segmentation Optical illusion pattern

Hi a little cow converted by TD from a picture my girlfriends mum had on her wall. Turned out pretty good.

Great news Frank. It's fantastic that all your work and artistry is appreciated!

Excellent. Excellent and great. I'm glad that you are getting good reviews and feedback from general public. With your work, you may have started a trend of scrollsawers to started add color.

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.

We were married on July 2nd in 1966. Steve Good has an anniversary pattern for most years and I made one last year. This morning, I relpaced last years plaque with an updated one. The plaque is located on one of our kitchen widow-sills The foreground is made of 6mm thick Figured Maple and the background of 18mm thick Baltic Birch plywood treated with Light Green Saman stain.

Thats fantastic. Nice to get some validation that a good number of people really like your work!!

Actually, if you count the time that we dated before getting married, it is 62 years with that one special person.

A Puppy Coin Bank finished for a great grandchild. The pattern is by Paul Meisel and found in one of the issues of SWWC. If you want to know which one, message me. The body is 3/4" Pine and the ears are 1/2" Walnut. Finished with one coat spray Shellac and two coats Minmax spray Lacquer Clear satin. Comments welcome.

Amazing! Great job.

Most of what I have posted in Bragging Rights, unless specifically noted that I cut it for someone special like "Alucard" that i did for my Grandson, all of my pieces are either on disply or are shown in a portfolio of glossy 8x10 prints on the table in my area. Right now I have about 18 framed pieces hanging as well as a few boxes. I just added the Seahorse lamp I made a few weeks ago. I rotate pieces so the disply does not become stagnent. For my framed pieces I base my prices on complexity and what I deem to be a high desirable piece. The posted prices vary from one to two dollars per square inch of panel size. The curator of the gallery keeps telling me my prices should be higher. However, I 'm happy with this price range and makes my work a little beit more affordable for many of those who frequent the Gallery.

New Ray, That is why I was pretty surprised to see that two companies are now offering Ex type saws. If I wanted a Makita , Ryobi or Wen, no problems I think the population and the lack of interest in these types of crafts are a big reason. Plenty of these, with a myriad of brands

That's great Frank. I'd love to see some pics of what you are selling. And what you are getting for them just to give me an idea of what others might do. I'd like to make for sale but have no idea what to start with.

Freestanding Seahorse Puzzle made several years ago.

Living in a beach community, many of our customers want beachy items. They don't really go for things with the area name in them but they do go for Sea oriented items. Some of our best customer are little ones and often know what they want and what they don't want is what their parents want them to want LOL. Here are some of our little ones most popular items (unfinished so they can color them) And one of our colored samples the kids love The adults go for other items however

Do you have access to Hegner saws? There would be no doubt as to their quality and parts are always available.

Frank, big congrats on the longevity of the marriage. Oh yeah, the plaque is pretty awesome too.

The hinges are a great finishing touch on a great looking piece. Now that I see it, can't imagine it without the hinges.

Thx Frank, it looks great with the hinges, I have had the plans for over a year but never got to it, life gets in the way. Will try to make for my wife her birthday coming up, RJ

55 Years with that one special person. 55 years of memories. CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU BOTH.

Very nice and very well done Frank. My lady and I will celebrate our 55th anniversary in 2 months. This inspires me to do one for her.

I also have my saw in a spare bedroom. Very nice not having to go up and down stairs. Last night I finished a new dust sucker thing-ee for the saw, so the little vacuum I use will grab both the top and bottom dust. That keeps the wife happy.

If you live in a humid area, buy an air conditioner. Do not buy one of those coolers that blow air through trickling water on a filter. It will raise the humidity, rust your tools, and make things worse than they are now. You want to remove humidity from the air, not add to it. Those work well in the desert South West, but not in the South East, US, even though they try to sell them here. An AC unit will remove the humidity and then cool the air. It is not as effective at cooling until it gets the humidity of the air lower, so don't try to use it with a window or door open and letting in more humidity. Keep the area closed up and the humidity low in there and you will get the best cooling possible from the AC unit. If a window AC unit and it just can't seem to keep up on those brutally hot days, a garden hose spraying a very fine mist on the outside coils of the window AC unit using very little water will help the AC unit remove the heat and it will work better to cool the inside. Only do this if you aren't paying high rates for your water though. Us with our own well water supply will benefit most from this. The plants and grass below the AC unit will appreciate the drink too. Charley

so where is here? not far from Houston Texas

we live ina mobil home have a small 8 X 10 shed as my shop large fan no air or heat I useallly scroll about 10 month per year but with the heat we rare having now ia don't do much, at 82 i can't take that 90 degree heat, so I am on the computer looking for patterns and playing solitaire. IKE

Outdoor activities are year-round here, golf, lawn work, etc. Winters, when we have them last a week or so. But the summers are as brutal as the winters are short. I have a window mounted AC in the shop for the hot season. I am 78 and hire out most of the lawn work. And I am lazy and am behind on the parts I failed to hire out. With your words as inspiration, maybe I will get around to some of that soon.

I scroll in my dining room. One big advantage of being single.

At 82 I'm not only done but can't. I can't walk across the lawn as any slight variation causes me to loose my balance. I have to use a walker. We hire a lawn service to cut, fertilize and do weed control. My wife goes ballistic if the yard is not pristine. Fortunately we have two daughters and sons in law who do a lot for us. We will never move to a retirement place. We are not willing to give up our home. Neither would our girls allow it. Would be different were they living a long ways off. We may be old but we are blessed!

HI I don't use my bellows, I have a air brush compressor hooked up to my saw and it works great for keeping dust away while sawing. I then mounted a shop vac floor brush upside down under my saw front and my dust collector kicks on when I step on the pedal. Bill

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.

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.

Get rid of the bellows. Why do you want the thing blowing sawdust in your face. Can't understand why Hegner would mount their blower pointed at you. Just rig up dust collection and remove the dust and don't eat it. You were working on dust collection so modify it for the Hegner.

No mate. This is the 1st time I have found any medium quality saws available in Oz for about 20 years, with the exception of the "Carbatec branded ones, which I think their quality is pretty dubious. Many years ago there were a few Dewalts available, but only for a very short time. I got my Dewalt from the US, when our dollar was a little better than yours. (Shows how long ago that was ) My EX21 was sent direct from Taiwan by the Canadian company in response to the lack of service from the Aussie dist. The only saws that are widely available are the generic Chinese under wearing coats of many colours.