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It’s time for me to make Christmas ornaments. Here is one. Pattern from Scroll Saw Woodworking abs Crafts magazine. Wood is 1/4” flame box elder.

My version of band saw box but made with a scroll saw.

I made my grandson a chess board and now he wants me to make him the chess men. He wants the chess men to be made of padauk and hard maple. I made the king yesterday out of padauk and it was a bear to cut. To cut this I used the # 5 Pegas (MGT) Blades. It took me over 2 hours and about 8 blades. The king is 3 3/4" tall and 1 1/4" at the base. Here is a picture of the king I cut. I will have to do this over because there is a bad mistake on the other side.

First real cut since chemo. This is my 6th time cutting this one. One for my new pastor and one for a friend

@FrankEV I am working on a pattern that has some long straight lines and I decided to try scoring them first using a ruler and a Xacto knife before cutting. It seemed to really help maintain a straight cut. You might give it a try, if you haven't already.

I hear that sometimes, and can remember when I too was intimidated by a pattern. But then someone told me, "One hole at a time" and it changed my entire thought process. Besides that, things being fragile can pose a different set of concerns and there are a variety of techniques to help you there too. Taping waste pieces back inside fragile areas might be an option, cutting really long cuts out in sections rather than all at one time, and I'm sure others work as well. Point here is to not be intimidated or overcome. Like ole Dan George said in a movie, "Endeavor to Persevere". But if you still would like to make something less fragile, cropping a pattern might be an option for you. See what I did here, but don't tell the designer I messed with his pattern......

This great H. Botas pattern was slightly sized to fit a 13” W x 12” H panel. The cut panel is 5/32” thk. Solid Core ply affixed to a same size 1/4” thk BB ply backer. Both panels were hand painted with Artist Acrylic paints. The cut panel was cut using Pegas #0 Spiral blades. The assembled panel was finished with multiple coats of Delf Clear Gloss Lacquer. The Frame is a simple 1 3/4”wide Poplar, stained with Minwax Early American and protected with multiple coats of Minwax Clear Gloss Wipe-on Poly. Comments and critiques are always welcome.

Thanks for all the time you spent on this. I do the technique using Inkscape you are discussing all the time for folks. Some can't see unless a pattern is in red or with red outlines and a gray fill and they ask me to change things up for them. Always happy to help when I have time, but f you have a computer, it is actually fun to do it yourself. It really seemed hard until I figured out the "one potato, two" you described here. And that is really all it is, a step by step process, but man oh man was I intimidated when I first tried to learn this. I wish I had you around to explain this to me then.

Well before we know it Halloween will be here, So I thought I would get a Little head start. I,m headin out to the Flea Markey this morn, I have a few Halloween Goodies ready. The Casket's and Scene are by Steve Goode. Ghost is mine I made from a drawing, don't know the artist, wish I did. Remember 9.11

I tape the large fallouts back in place for stability. Also I keep them in place when sanding the back for fuzzies. My favorite Jim Blume pattern is "The Elder".

Yes, Padauk is hard. When compound cutting, I use Pegas #6 or #7 Skip blades. The MGT blades have reverse teeth which can clog the kerf. the #5R MGT blades have 11.3 tpi and the #6 Skip blade has 12.0 tpi. You are not far from Dayton, so you might stop by the store and check out the Pegas Scroll Saw. One thing about the Padauk is the dust. It gets all over everything. Also I noticed it darkens with age.

It's been a long time since I did any scrolling. I was pretty happy with how it turned out, even tho I made a bad mistake. Frank, Padauk is a very hard wood, but it's is pretty and that what we wanted.

Busy, many hole, delicate and intricate patterns is of no concern to me. Usualy mistakes can be hidden and/or fixed in one way or another. It is those patterns with long straight cut lines or patterns with lots of block fonts that I shy away from. I totally agree, a many hole pattern is no differen than a small number of hole pattern. Just cut one hole at a time. I tend to leave the largest cut out areas for last, but that is just me.

I'm a big proponent of your "taping cutouts back in place" and partial cuts to maintain strength. I enjoy the challenge of the intricate pattern. It makes you think ahead as to the direction of the cut like cutting the weakest areas first.

I personally like the challenge, but with the cropping it looks pretty much the same. I might try this one, but don't tell the pattern designer

Some good things to keep in mind. I really enjoy cutting those "delicate" patterns. I find that installing a zero clearance under it help tremendously. And I promise not to tell the designer you "messed" with his pattern.

I know this was brought up by Jim Blume a week or so back but I thought I'd show a example of one I did today. This design is meant for laser / CNC cutting and I did cut this with the laser tonight. The original design was at a size of approximately 11 x 8.5.. I resized it to be smaller for a ornament instead. The gift box it's in is 5 1/4 x 3 1/2 just to get an idea of how much I changed the design in size from its original state. I do this kind of stuff quite often just to make things that maybe others are not making.. Many folks would look around ( if they wanted this design ) for a ornament when searching the pattern makers websites and never find a ornament like this.. because it wasn't designed as a ornament, LOL I've done just the opposite too.. I've taken ornaments and enlarged the diameter and then made it into a wall clock or other larger wall hanging.

Kevin, very nice, and it was cut with your laser correct, how did you go about making the design smaller, thx RJ

Many small printing shops are now going digital, and no longer use their nice large light tables. If you have the room for a 4' square or larger, you might find a great deal on one if you ask around. Charley

I cut this from 1/2 thick Aspen and attached it to a 1/2 thick back board that is painted black. This is the Aspens natural color, it only has a clear protective coat on it. The entire project is about 10" high and 8" wide,

Thanks all "for not telling the designer" I messed with his pattern. As a few folks mentioned, those loooong cuts can sometimes be more of a challenge than many many small cuts. The zero insert works well too, especially with fragile cuts. Dennis Knappen likes my Elder pattern, and I have to say that it is also one of my favorites, and has been cut many times for folks here in Wisconsin's native American community. Thanks all for your comments, and especially working together to help out others who may happen upon this thread.

Awesome job!!!

Now that is just Down Right Awesome!!! Love the 2 blends.

I personally like the cropping one better.

What a beautiful blend of painting and scrollsawing. It is almost to the point that you can not tell it is scrollsawn. The backboard has different shades of tan that really break up the scrollsawn look. The brushed hair breaks up the sharp black painted section. Wow. the more I look at this the better it looks. Did you consider an Oval frame? A verticle oval might look a bit better. Me. Mark Eason

That is a beautiful piece, Jim.

That looks super Frank. The colors make it pop.

With thick hardwood I always wrap with box tape. I seems to help. I also experiment with blades. If my go-to blade, FD-UR #5, doesn't work I try the MGT or my best luck comes with the FD polar blades. As Denny says you do not want the reverse teeth. Padauk is 1725 on the hardness scale and purple heart is 2090 which I have cut bird houses with polar blades. (slowly)

Halloween is not my favorite time of year, but those are well done.

Ray, you might look at Pegas Skip Reverse blades. The #5R MGT is .0142" thick and 11.3 tpi. The #9 Skip Reverse is .0173" thick and 11.8 tpi. Thicker blade and more tpi.

Uing the "laughing" like button was not meant to be down putting...I just found your story to be funny! I know nothing about Padauk, so I can't be any help there other than to say Walnut or Mahogany might be acceptable contrasting alternatives, as we all know that they cut nicely. Still chuckleing about "2 hours and 8 blades" later only to have a "bad mistale"!!!!!!!!! Sorry.

When working with free stencil patterns or other images that can be found on-line, the image is not always made up of sharp clear deliniated line work. When I convert these types of images, I basically follow Brenda's procedure to convert a B&W pattern to a R/G pattern. However, the quality of the 'Trace Bitmap' fuction does not always duplicate the image acccutately if original line density varies or if there is any background clutter. The folloing is just for some FYI: In the 'Trace Bitmap' pop up box there are a number of setting that can be adjusted. There are 5 scan types. I've only had sucess using the first two. Brightness Cutoff works the best for most but I have done a few using Edge Detection. Then there is the threshold settiings for these that can be rasised or lowered to give varying results in the duplication. These 'Threshold' settings can help reduce or even eliminate background clutter and/or improve line detail. I'm not sure what some of the other setting do... yet! After converting to R/G and setting the line thickness, I will usually resize the pattern to suit the size of board I want to cut. I fit a pattern to a board, not the board to the pattern. I mainly do this using the "X', 'Y', 'W' & 'H' values in the top tool bar. This allows me to center the pattern and leave the appropriate balanced amount of "white space" around the pattern. I most often find it is necesssary to edit the actual duplicated pattern using the 'Edit by nodes' comand to move/delete linework and the 'Draw Besier' command button to add/draw linework back in as needed. As, mentioned, the 'Erace' function is not very easy to work with so I don't. It is easier to delete/draw back than to erace. I'm still learning how to use the many Inkscape commands. There is a lot to learn if you want to edit. As and example, even if the 'Snap' command is not turned off, it can make editing difficult. Learning some of the many commands found under 'Edit' 'Layer', and 'Object' can get you started to modifing an image into a scrollerable pattern. The 'Undo' command under 'Edit' being the most important and most often used . Inkscape is not intuitive and takes a long time to learn. Experimentation and practice is how I have learned what I have so far.

Have you thought about using a #12 blade, Pegas #12 is .5mm thick

I have done these two. The dinosaur was the from Steve Good and just added the filler strip between & cut the middle for the clear part. The fairy is also a Steve Good pattern. The plexi was cut with the pattern so it is one of the layers.

My new project - Mechanical butterfly, and two more similar projects. What do you thing aboul such style? Mechanical butterfly pattern Video of making project

I've never been able to do this on inkscape either.. and the eraser tool seems to me just smears the line you're trying to erase around.. Sometimes I get lucky with trace bitmap and other times it sucks and I can't figure out how to make it look good.. maybe it's the photo quality that is the issue.. As for erasing I found going to the gimp program and doing the cleaning up works way better than trying to use the stupid erase tool in inkscape. There must be a better way within inkscape that I just haven't learned yet as it's a powerful program..

Perfect!!! You back on the saw especially.

Very nice Kevin.

Hahaha, Oh boy here is another example of a lightbox.. I think we all need to stay away from this topic until the original poster replies back with more specifics on what they need. There have been 4,5 or 6 different opinions on what a light box is, LOL.. Then there is talk about light bulbs on this topic. I will say.. your idea of a light box sounds like it could be useful.. maybe we need to continue on with this subject.

Good luck with the recovery. I have nerve damage in both arms, so I know what you mean. I have to take my time making things and cant do as much as I would like. Just do what you can and it will come back to you.

It's delicate. I suggest to cut the big cut last and section it. It's hard to remove the last cut without breaking it

I'll second all the compliments above! Hard to pick a favorite part of this one. The wood, the cutting, the pattern, the frame are all top shelf. Cool piece of art!

Don't forget that Travis has posted several videos on Inkscape and GIMP under Resources/Village University. I am like Barb in that I learn better by seeing. I've just started playing with Inkscape and can change patterns to gray/red. Now I'm wanting to take the next step and try some basic pictures. Thanks Brenda for the tutorial. It's always nice to see how others reach the end results. Sometimes the steps may be a little different but the final outcome is the same.

Awesome job!!! I can hear the horses and wheels thundering down the trail.

Thanks. I think I get it. Now, if I could just understand "trace bitmap" things would be great. One of the things I've tried to do but so far have failed is to import a pic, do a trace bitmap and then tried to break it all down into pieces and parts so that they can be manipulated. Sometimes I can do it, sometimes not. "Group", " ungroup", "break apart" you name it. Still a mystery to me.

I have created a new 'Topic' in 'General Scroll Sawing' for the instructions, as I feel we've take to much room already from what was after all @Jim Blume post. My apologies Jim, it was not intentional, things just ran away in a different direction.

Late to the party, but I put all my patterns through Inkscape and resize to fit my wood. Turn everything Grey with a red outline that is the width of my blade and bingo. !!

My latest work, inspired by a deepening relationship with our Savior.

That makes even more beautiful and special!

Yes. I make all my own patterns.