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Pattern by H. Botas

I made a sign for the owner of a great local restaurant for his birthday. If nothing else our hobby allows you to make one of a kind gifts.

These are all Russ Beard Patterns except for Jesus Christ which is Botas Helder pattern, new scrolling and and just got cutting, learning all the time. Sorry my apologies the Shark I was given permission by Deane, can’t remember his full name my apologies.

I used a basswood round for this and learned that basswood is really difficult to stain and finish. It cuts easy though.

An easy Steve Good pattern cut out on 3/4" pine. 18 1/4" long. It's simple, but I like it and hope someone else will too.

I made this for my seven year old grandson who just got a dog. Sue Mey pattern

Let's do some basic math. I use roughly 3 sheets of balitc birch plywood a year. I would say that 1/3 to 1/2 of my baltic birch plywood is used for ornaments. I get at least 144 ornaments from a 5 x 5 sheet but often times over 200. So, using 144, at $20 a sheet , my old price, each ornament cost me 14 cents in material. I sell my cheapest ornaments for $5 each. So even if the price doubles or triples I can live with it.

Thanks for the feedback, you are right Frank-I did not realize how much space was at the bottom, I should have checked before I cut. I thought about drilling a hole and putting a clock there-I have enough room.

I really like using boiled linseed oil on basswood. I like the amber hue it gives and it's easy to use.

Couple more Steve Good patterns that appealed to me. 3/4" select pine and #5 Pegas MGR blades. It was interesting cutting 3/4" pine; cutting with the grain and thru knots cut slower and then across the grain went faster. Oh, and something else I did with the sun pattern was to drill holes just past points of the sun's rays - it eliminated to make a loop with the saw blade and come back around. I enlarged the patterns a bit - the sun is 8 1/2" and the owl is just under 9". For the owl, I used a leftover piece of flat white PVC. One of these days I need to move on to the next step and finish what I've cut. Or talk my wife into doing it.

Very well done! Thanks for sharing and God Bless! Spirithorse

That is sure to get you good service! Nice piece.

Nice color choices!

Nice job on pretty wood. Finish looks great from here!

Nice job! Simple is fantastic!

Neat sign. Signs that are appreciated are fun to make.

Nice and cheery! Love the colors you chose.

I like too!

I know you do not have a Hawk scroll saw but they make a stand designed for wheelchairs and people who sit. Here is a link. Maybe you can design something along these lines. Scroll_Saw_Accessories (hawkwoodworkingtools.com)

very nice

very nice job

Thanks every one! kmmcrafts, lives in the same village as we do, perhaps he could check the saws out, id gladly pay him. Spike knows a lot about a lot of different things but the scroll saw is not one of them. I dont think he had ever even heard of a scroll saw before he came here. lol me i just want a scroll saw that will work!! lol at least now we have some options so hopefuly i'll have a useable scroll saw sometime before summer ends! lol just waiting for kmmcrafts to get back to me and see what he wants to do. I dont want to inconvience him

Most people find that the scroll saw table cutting height is best for them when their forearms and hands are close to level when they are seated and placing their hands on the saw table as if to move the work piece around. Some prefer that the saw is tilted a bit toward them, others prefer it level. A 3 leg table makes this easy by adjusting the rear leg length to tilt the saw forward. Others, with eye problems, common to old age like me, need to be closer to the cutting point in order to easily see the cut, and so may want slightly higher seating, slightly lower saw, or a slightly longer rear saw table leg. Only experimenting with these positions will determine what is best and most comfortable for you. There is no one setting of these that will make everyone happy. Keep trying the adjustments to find the combination that works best for you. This is supposed to be fun, not unbearable pain. For lighting, I found that two LED lights, one on each side of the upper blade arm and positioned to be slightly forward (toward you) but pointed at the cutting point, eliminates almost all shadows and upper arm flicker to let you easily see the blade cutting point and not a blade shadow. These lights need to be bright and white, like about 56-6300 K color temperature. Mine are attached to a 2 piece DIY aluminum bracket that wraps around the upper arm of my DeWalt saw, with a thicker, stiffer flat piece of aluminum connected to the wrapped piece with an 8-32 X 1/2" bolt to attach the wrapped piece to the flat piece. the flat piece needs to extend out from under the upper saw arm about 2" from each side of the arm to leave ample space for attaching the gooseneck of the light. I'm now on my 4th version of these lights. Although LEDs last nearly forever, the power supply circuits don't. Blinking LEDs and dim LEDs don't make cutting on a scroll saw easy at all. I use a metal shop stool with a metal back and attached cushion. It came from a factory surplus sale. I have 4 of them that I purchased for $5 each. I'm using my original DeWalt scroll saw stand tilted slightly forward. This is working well for this 80 year old 5' 8" big belly guy, but I do use a 2.25 X magnifier headband on top of my reading glasses to see the really small work like the reindeer posted here. He is just under 1" tall and resting on my left hand ring and middle finger. Notice the partly plugged hole just under his antlers. I drill this before cutting him out because the flat surface works better for drilling. The hole is cleaned out when inserting a gold or silver 13 mm ring to which the ear pieces get attached. A pair of these reindeer get made into ear rings, to be given to special women, like my sister, cousins, doctor, wives of close friends, certain waitresses at my favorite restaurants, etc. at Christmas. The two larger sizes get given to any woman who helps me in some way during the Christmas Season, like the sales clerk who took the time to help me, etc. I have never, and won't ever sell them. Every Christmas Season I make four sizes of these and give them away. I've been doing it for 18 years. The two next larger sizes become pins or necklaces. The largest, at about 3 1/2 inches tall is just for sitting on a shelf or for use as a Christmas Tree Ornament with a ribbon tied around his neck to hang him. Each of the size shown in the photo take me about 15 minutes to cut, about 50 minutes to make a pair of ear rings complete from small block of hard maple to placing in the gift box. I do batches of about 20 of this size at a time, take a break, usually including a meal, and then make a batch of a larger size. Twenty of this size is about all my eyes can handle at a time. I have made smaller, but the good to bad results ratio just isn't worth the time for the few good results. Almost every one this size is a keeper. Those of you who have been on this forum for a while have seen these before, and I have shown many photos and provided long explanations of how to make them. A search of my posts should find all this easily. I do make many other things, usually cut in 3D like these (I'm hooked on 3D). I have a nearly complete pro level cabinet shop including two scroll saws, but all crammed into a 1 car garage size outbuilding, so it's a true one user shop (almost no room for others). Charley

Marg, I don’t use a template. I overlay the picture with clear shelf liner and draw a grid on it to keep the rows and columns relatively straight. The locks are cut freehand. Easier to see on the back side.

Nicely done... FWIW: I've been using basswood for several years for our children's line of puzzles. We selected it specifically because it doesn't stain well and does not "shine" when finished nor does it have many if any knots unlike pine which we always had to work around and had way more waste than was practical. It does however, hold colors very well. Colors such as Water colors and food dyes are really well absorbed in Basswood.

Sounds like the clamps are sprung if double blade will work. Have Spike swap the clamps from your old saw if they were working properly. Takes about 1/2 hour total, including pulling table to get to the bottom clamp and reinstalling. Maybe a bit longer.

I agree with Frank that I see nothing wrong with your finish. In fact I thought it looks pretty exceptional. I have used pre-stain by Minwax and it did seem to bring out the grain of the wood a little better. I don't really thing the grain in basswood is very pronounced anyway. Regardless, you did a great job. I love the live edge.

I looked at the pic for about 10 minutes before I saw the image. Not your fault...my eyes played tricks on my brain. Like one of those puzzle B&W images where you need to find the hidden image. Oh well. I guess that happens when you get to be my age..achient! Very nice cutting, now that I know what I'm looking at! You might want to consider useing a sanding sealer and a wood pre-stain conditioner before finishing. I use a lot of Poplar and I find it necessary to use the pre-stain conditioner in order to get a decent finish. Although in the photo your finish looks very nice. I have only one very minor comment. Would have liked to see the image exteded down below the buffalo's feet in some way. Maybe some squigly horizontal lines or a little indication of some field grass. The blank open area pulls my eye away from the cutting and this may have been the reason I did not see the image in the first place.

I cut this out of red cedar and poplar. I used the cedar because the knot was the perfect size for the stone! Because of the grain direction, the crosses are fragile.

Zdravím vás. Jen tak pro radost jsem vyřezala.

You did a great job on all of them. I hope they sell well for you. Marg

Hi CharlerlyL, Thanks for the feed back I realize now that the stand and saw combination is to high, I cut much better when the saw table was exactly 28” from floor level, so I’m going to lower that next week should take me a few hours. Because believe it or not my Marlet (your Wen) is all we can get in South Africa. As I mentioned in my original post there is no vibration what so ever on my saw due to the way the stand was made. I designed a stainless steel pin less adaptor for the saw and it works like a dream. I sit on a adjustable office chair and use a magnifying lamp fitted with high power LED’s. I have a fully equipped wood working workshop, my work shop area is 403 sq feet, so I’m not pushed for space. For us in SA to import a Seyco or Pegasus with courier fees and our heavy import duties would cost us around $2850.00 this becomes too expensive to consider.