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Made these two piece ornaments yesterday.. Back piece is the cancer ribbon and then the word for the front piece.. Made from 1/8 BB ply. Haven't glued the two pieces together yet because I'm still experimenting.. The first batch turned out kinda big and wouldn't fit into the gift boxes that I use when selling ornaments... so back to the drawing board ( inkscape LOL ) to change them up a little. Anyway, in the one photo below I show two of the same ornament.. the one back part ( ribbon ) was dipped in a Cherry colored Danish oil as I already had that on hand.. I'm not much of a finisher as in doing stains and paints.. I have always used natural colors and change up wood species to achieve contrast.. I also cringe at painting and covering up the woods natural beauty of the wood grain etc.. Plus I've never wanted to start painting and end up with a million different bottles / colors of paint etc.. That all being said I feel like this project needs a pink ribbon, LOL or maybe I need to just buy some 1/8" cherry plywood.. I feel like cherry ply would be a decent match for this as a natural color contrast.. Not to fond of how the cherry Danish Oil took to the ply.. Maybe I'll try dipping it into the oil a second time to help darken it.. I think IF I end up painting, I'll likely go with a paint marker / pen rather than a can of paint and a brush.. Anyone here use paint pens? just wonder how well they really work. Not a fan of brush marks.. too much hassle with spray paints in my dusty shop.. even though I will end up top coating them anyway so maybe that's the way to go about it anyway. Anyway, suggestions / feedback?

I finally finished this. I found it in a scroll saw book but don’t remember which one. I used worm eaten walnut so there’s a few places hat ended up with a small hole. I used 321 for the finish. I guess it’s another one for the garage wall. There’s no place left in the house. It measures 17x6. Thanks for looking.

Busy week and what time I got on the saw was spent just cutting line,curves and corners trying to improve my skills. I must admit I got very frustrated with myself, don't tell anyone but I was cutting a corner and made a mistake and just pushed the whole peice of wood through the blade and threw the bits on the floor Anyway I sat down for a few hours this morning and cut a Steve Good pattern. I must admit I did struggle with the small details, but my cutting was smoother, not happy with it but I see improvement. I also knocked up a quick Halloween lantern my wife had asked me to do.

Hi everyone, just a quick shoutout to Don in Brookline for adding this name on Steve Goods pattern. I was able to get out in the shop finally for a little bit. I added a backer to this one to make the letters stand out more. Just need to put a picture in it once the baby is born. Not due until November. Thanks again Don. Really appreciate it.

You are doing exactly the right thing. Work on something that has a purpose. Practice patterns are BORING! Those two projects are great and if they come out ok, great. If not, toss them or date them and put them away for a year. But from what I see, you are well on your way and probably being too tough on yourself. Just keep pushing yourself onto harder and harder things. So far, all good. Also I might add, as in projects like the witch one, always work from the center outward. Get the little stuff cut before you cut out the outer shell. That way it keeps rigidity as long as possible.

Looks like both came out fantastic. I really like the first one. Keep at it and you'll get more comfortable, then start something a little more challenging. Cheers!

I would recommend Unicorn Spit. These flamingos were air brushed with a very watered down mix of the red & white. I have also brushed it on - no brush marks. I tend to really water it down for a more washed look. If you used it straight out of the bottle it is more opaque.

I've used ordinary RIT fabric dyes to add subtle color to BB ply ornaments. Just like stain the BB ply may absorb the dye a little unevenly, but letting the piece soak a little tends to even it out. Probably will see some variance from one piece to another, but can get the color pretty even on an individual piece. I've never tried it on anything very large though. It might be worth a try for your ornaments. From what I've read, dyes made for wood might be a better option and provide deeper, more vivid color, but the RIT dyes are cheap and readily available, so getting a couple colors to do some testing is pretty easy and convenient.

My Hawk runs at 1750 spm.. I don't usually run it full speed.. probably closer to 1500 spm.. My Excalibur runs 1550 or maybe it's 1500 anyway I run that one full speed. My old DW788 run 1700.. I run it most times full speed. The Hawk does pick up a slight vibration at full speed and I've never really "tuned" it for running full speed.. other saws that had picked up vibration at full speed I typically play around with the stand to make it have the vibration free at the speed I like.. You can adjust that "sweet spot" by fooling with the saws stand usually.. I say i run my saws full speed but in reality it's around 1500 spm for those saws that run faster than the 1500 I run it close to that unless it's really smooth at full speed. The point I'm trying to get across is just because the saw is running full speed doesn't mean you "have to cut faster" YOU control the feed rate of the material.. On straight cuts you can go as fast as you like within reason for the blade to keep up.. when you get to those tight corners and turns the saw speed needs to be faster ( for me anyway ) as those tight turns are hard to do slow enough for the blade to not heat up.. so running the saw faster the blade is able to "cut" the corner without burning the corner or heating the blade. Too many people ( I think dang near everyone ) that scroll saw run the saw slow because they cannot keep up with the cut and loose control.. when in reality your just feeding the blade because you're "used to pushing" it through.. relax and let the blade do it's work.. Running the saw faster makes blades actually last longer for me.. This may not work for you.. maybe you need practice in relaxing rather than shoving the material into the blade too hard. This is a point I've mention many of times on here and only one other person ( Jim ) says the same thing.. he like to run the saw fast too and says this same thing.. It has always kind of irritated me because I'm a "production scroller" ( business ) folks think I'm running a race of some sort.. not that at all.. It's just what FD Mike taught me to do and it works if you try it.. It does take some practice.. Kinda like when front wheel drive cars came out.. on slick roads you go into a bit of a slide you hit the gas peddle and the front wheels will pull you in the direction you have them in.. rear wheel drive is the opposite let off the gas peddle.. Seems weird to hit the gas instead.. same with the saw.. sharp corner = more speed.. you feel like you should slow down but nope.. speed the saw up and let the blade do the work.. guide the piece through not shove it through.. EDIT: Pay attention to the blade.. on a long straight cut stop feeding the material from time to time.. If you're flexing the blade you're pushing too hard and either need more blade speed or relax.. eventually playing with blade speed and feed rates over time you'll learn what works better for you.. I think most every scroll sawer feeds the blade too fast based on the comments on these post like this.. Like I say.. YOU are in control of how fast you cut.. not the saw.. though the saw does limit you based on speed.

Was turning the corner in the corner with out overheating the blade and breaking it. I laugh now at how simple it was and never even think be about it any more. Travis years and years ago said to keep moving forward in the corners. Get in an out to keep from over heating the blade.

A Steve Good pattern (which has been popular at the Farmer's Market). My wife thought Black might sell as well, so this is the result. Happy with the outcome, but it took almost a whole can of spray paint to get a complete and even coverage. It looks like Santa might be getting me an airbrush for Christmas.

Went to a crafts fair yesterday just as a spectator / shopper. There was a couple of booths that had scroll work. I didn't strike up any conversations with anyone and just walked around letting the wife shop and I observed, LOL. There was one vendor there that had all intarsia ( hope I spelled that right lol ). I never even looked at any of the prices of anything there.. Not to be degrading to the particular vendor but most of this type of work I've seen showed what I'd consider pieces of art high end quality.. This not so much.. I didn't walk into the booth either just the pieces out by the walkway wasn't super impressive to me.. but maybe better works was inside the booth.. Anyway to get to my on topic, there was lots of laser engraved / cut things.. nice presentable items / mostly was signs / plaques that had saying on them with good quality finishes etc.. lasered leather shops.. I felt there was quite a lot of that stuff that if it wasn't lasered it was circuit ( stickers ) onto wood and or metal.. I kinda feel these folks was not there because they loved doing the work but rather there to copy sayings and make signs for a profit. Nothing wrong with that but I just don't see a lot of original art type things.. several vendors selling the same sayings on different types of materials or different shaped signs but the same old sayings. Having lasers and CNC's myself and rarely use them for business or for making things by themselves but rather combining these machines with the scroll sawn works I do.. I have said it many times that these machines are not pumping out production work like most think they are and I stand by that statement. I also say that it's not just throwing a blank on the machines and pushing a button as most that don't know them seem to label them as. Myself.. I was actually most impressed with the lesser quality scroll sawn intarsia pieces than these very nice CNC / Laser works.. While it does take skills to run these machines actually a lot of skill and most of it I'm still learning to try to do even after owning them for 4-5 years now. I think the intarsia had good quality cuts but lacked in the shaping / finishing of the pieces that I seen.. I've seen CNC work that is the same way.. good quality engravings but poor finishing. I can see why many of those doing craft events with their puzzles can do well, I don't see portrait works doing great but not bad either.. so long as you have a theme that catches the right buyer.. problem with portraits is booth space and hanging the right one with limited space.. you can't display a hundred portraits as easy as you can display 100 puzzles.. One person there had laser cut Christmas ornaments and has them on a octagon shaped turning display.. nice ornaments but they was all dark colored, may have been plywood stained with walnut. the display was in a shaded area and IMO was hard to see. The turntable thing probably allows them to put a lot of different ones in a smaller space but also only displays half of them without spinning it around. Many of the booths had a mix of things.. ie one booth I walked by had a few portraits, word art wall hangings, and a few bowls / baskets.. very nice work but the stuff was mixed in with probably his wife's towels and things.. The whole mixed bag of things was not a very impressive look to me, again I go back to the intarsia person, everything in the booth was intarsia.. I liked that... I think the whole mixed bag of stuff just doesn't have a good professional flow to it, Not that that's a bad thing as a seller.. having a mix of stuff maybe guarantees that "something will sell" .. All that said, I think if I was to do a show I'd want to stick to one thing, either ornaments, clocks, or puzzles.. Ornaments being cheap and quick to make and stock up on might be the thing to make and sell during a holiday selling event.. but then what does one sell throughout the year at these events. I sell ornaments online all year long but not sure they'd do well in August at a live event. At the end of the day, that intarsia seller was the best booth and most impressive one there that wasn't the run of the mill same old stuff you always see.. I hope they did well and I realize they may have just started this venture and maybe they don't have fancy sanders and shapers etc.. and if that is the case I hope they made a lot of money so they can go buy the needed tools to improve their work to make better quality pieces.. we all start somewhere with nothing.. I did anyway.. I started with a free broken Delta scroll saw.. now I have several saws, CNC's, Lasers etc.. Makes me wonder though, with all the CNC, Lasers, Circuit machine works.. will scroll saw things make a better sales.. after all it is more unique and not really a mass produced thing that the markets aren't going to be flooded with. What I see more and more wanted in the selling online is that there is a wide open market for custom / personalized items.. People want that special ornament engraved with a name or year on it.. Most sellers don't want to fool with that as it takes a lot of extra time to do that.. That is where my laser and cnc help me get more business.. not actually making the product.. but improving what I've already made by being able to add personalization

I purchased a packet of Road Runner SVG files on-line, although I was only looking for this one image to pair with my “Wile E Coyote Help” piece. The SVG’s have many layers and after considerable trial and error attempts, I was able to segregate all the color layers leaving only the Black outline that I was able to convert into a scrollable red/gray pattern by adding a bunch of bridges. I sized the pattern to fit nicely on a 5/32” x 11” x 14” solid core Maple Ply panel. The cut panel was affixed to an 1/4” x 11” x 14” BB Ply backer that had been painted with Krylon rattle can spray Gloss Black. After relatively easy cutting with Pegas #1 MGT R blades, the remaining interior areas was painted with Artist Acrylic Paints. I painted each visible bridge Black, so it has the appearance of the outlines being continuous. And, like usual, the assembled panel was protected by multiple coats of Deft Clear Gloss Lacquer. The Frame is 1 3/4” wide pine painted Glidden Gloss Black. I think I will need to give the frame another coat of paint as the Pine wood grain is too visible in the photo. Comments and Critiques are always welcome.

LOL Love it Frank!! Awesome job!!

This turned out to be a really fun project. The pattern is from Jim Blume and initially I was a little afraid of it because it looked to be bitmapped. (Sorry, Jim, for doubting your pattern! I should have known better.) Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised on how it turned out. I will add that the photos do not give them justice. These were stack cut using 1/4-inch Oak and Maple ply, both finished with natural stain. The backer is 1/4-inch Pine painted black. They have 6 coats of clear with light sanding with 600 grit between coats. The frames are both framing material stock cut to fit the 13 X 19 backer board. I did re-stain the frames using Weathered Oak on the Oak piece and Expresso on the Maple. A tip to anyone wishing to cut this pattern, there are several areas that will be very delicate. The piece would flex just from handling. Also, be very patient when sanding.

Bob and of course a “Happy Little Tree.” I used an image I found on Pinterest. I added the tree and changed the font. I connected the face to his hand but it took away from it so I let his face be a floater. I’m convinced watching him paint would lower your blood pressure.

I Loved watching that Man! He was Awesome! Love your plaque. Awesome job!!

Down Right Awesome job!!! It will look even better with the pic in it.

Paint the ribbon, stain the rest. By the the way. Awesome job!!

I'd never heard of this I had to Google it..... Thanks Unicorn spit is now on my weekend shopping list

After seeing your post, the idea hit me to keep a log for this project. Hours cutting, wood cost and such. Might be an interesting set of information..

What a nice piece! Great job.

Thanks Larry and Norm!

i built the dome clock a few years ago. i think there was only 1 or 2 pieses i couldnt stack cut- mainly because those ones didnt have duplicate pieces. stack cutting is the way to go. it not only speeds up the process but also helps with consistency of the cuts of the parts.

Thanks, Just sucked me into watching instead of doing what I had planned. Kinda like watching his show

I use diluted craft paints to stain wood which needs colors

Great work. Marg

Fabulous work once again Frank. Love it. Marg

I'm not going to take either side. What I will say is that first of all, my saws, none of them, run as smoothly at full speed. The vibration factor enters in and that in itself disturbs me and I don't feel as much in control. I usually find that sweet spot where my saw is running as fast as possible without going into what I call the "shake zone". I try to let the blade do the work and follow along at my comfortable pace. I'm not in this hobby for speed. I'm in it for relaxation and enjoyment. I do not enjoy trying to "keep up" with the saws speed. I've learned how to make the sharp corners by relaxing the forward pressure and transferring that pressure to the back side of the blade while at the same time turning the work piece. Another thing I've learned is that "muscle memory" goes away very quickly. If I am not cutting on a semi-daily basis, I lose some of the memory and so I always warm up with a practice piece just to get everything working again.

I'm thinking out loud here so please don't take any thing said personally it's just the way my brain works I may be over thinking this but wouldn't a blade running at 750spm remove the same proportionate amount of chips as a blade running at 1500spm being as it's making 2 strokes to the others one? I'm inclined to think whatever speed the blades running the amount of of pressure applied to the wood your cutting would dictate the speed of cut. If the wood does not touch the blade no cutting occurs and the blade stays cool. The more pressure applied to the blade the faster the cut and the more heat is generated untill it reaches it maximum rate of cut when as stated it cannot clear chips fast enough. Just my logic and it may be wrong but it makes sense to me as with all things it's down to personal preference and whatever works for you.

You are one of the folks of many on here that I really respect your advice and comments but I would disagree with this one. If your blades turn blue it's because of a. you're pushing to hard through the piece b. blade tension too loose allowing blade to flex enough to touch the sides of the wood c. you're pushing the wood off to one side or the other You should be able to saw at a slow speed and make a kerf.. back up slightly and turn your saw up to full speed and hold the board in the same spot so it doesn't tough the wood sides.. that blade could set there and run all day without burning the wood.. run that test and see if that's true.. you don't need to run it all day as that'd be boring but you get the idea.. only takes a few seconds to burn the blade or wood when it's at full speed.. Can't think of his last name but Mike ( that used to own the Mikesworkshop Flying Dutchman scroll saw blades sales site that supplied blades to many of us up until he passed ) is the one that told / taught me this.. Of coarse.. the saw being very well tuned will also make a difference.. If you have the blade in the top clamp off to the left side and the one in the bottom clamp off the the right side that blade gonna touch the wood as it moves.. Why tuning a saw is very important, that blade needs to be going straight up / down.. I also would disagree with the theory of the saw wearing out faster.. It's nothing like a car where a car has a combustion engine.. therefore the engine isn't always running 100% clean.. a combustion doesn't fully fire and burn off every bit of the fuel and the oil gets contaminated either through that or contaminates through the air intake system.. all this happens whether you run 600rpm or 6000rpm.. at the higher rpm it of coarse sucks in more air and fires more fuel in the given time hour / miles etc. A better analogy might be a wheel bearing.. that wheel bearing gonna go however many miles it's going to go whether it's going 10mph or 100mph.. doesn't matter to the bearing. Now there are other factors with a wheel bearing if you want to get tech about it like thrust from cornering etc.. but assuming its just going straight like the scroll saw blade should be fed straight.. At the end of the day.. if one is more efficiently cutting with the saw at full speed rather than half speed the important thing is what works easier and more efficient for the person sitting / standing at the saw.. whether it's slow speed or fast speed you have to do you.. That being said Mike worked with me through emails and helped me find that I was running the saw too slow.. You can burn by running too fast or too slow.. you just have to relax and let the blade do the work.. Full speed may not work for everyone.. as does the slowest speed. When you get experience with relaxing and letting the blade do the work and controlling the speed by how fast you feed the wood to the blade that saw can run at full speed without burning the wood.. With the tight corners that everyone seems to struggle with in the beginning.. the issue is if the saw is running slow and you turn the corner too fast you're heating the blade.. a very common issue with the struggle as to me it's pretty hard to turn those corners at the very slow speed.. with the faster speed the blade actually cuts the corner better as it's running faster.. either case if you're good at doing the corners slow then don't speed up the saw.. but if you're struggling then try playing with saw speed.. Mike told me most folks don't run the saw fast enough so he was the one to have me speed up the saw for those dreaded corners.. It worked for me.. may not for others as everyone is different..

“God Created Men and Sam Colt Made Them Equal!” ....... Oh, wait..... That kind of colt. Nicely done!

With experience, you will find that running at full speed causes your saw to wear out faster, and your blades to overheat and break faster. If your blades are turning blue, you are running the saw too fast, overheating the blade and making it dull and break faster. Tiny blade teeth can only remove the amount of wood that fits in their gullets. They have to clear this wood before they can cut any more wood. Scroll sawing is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the journey, cutting as accurately and cleanly as you can. Treat project completion as a surprise and not something that is a race to get there. There is always another project more interesting than the past, so enjoy the journey, and then the next journey. Take care of your saw and it will last through many journeys. Beat the stuffing out of it and you will be complaining about what a lousy saw it was in a year or two, when it should have lasted 10 or more years. If you drive your car at it's maximum speed, it won't last long either. Charley

It is my first Thanksgiving pattern, I made it for my customers from US and Canada (as I know these countries celebrate it). In Ukraine we also have Thanksgiving Day, it has the same name, but it is not related to American holiday. In this day we thanked God for the harvest, prosperity in the family and good health. Thanksgiving pattern

I can totally relate to this, being a beginner I've struggled with it but didn't want to be "nibbling froever I sat down for a while with a couple of 12x12 scrap plywood pieces cutting lots of little squares untill it clicked. KKMCrafts thanks you have just improved my scrolling . Here I am trying to find the sweet spot for my Hawk and I just turn it up to full speed and concerntrate on My feed rate! and a lot of my problems corrected themselves. More topics like this one for us newbies ....lol

My daughter taught me how many years ago.. The worked for a guy that sold the little plywood flags and thing the craft people bought to decorate. Can't say why she worked two jobs for a while, might seem political. But she cut those little things and other things for about 4 hours every evening. He got real fast at it and was good. When I started scrolling she taught me how to do corners like that. I'm still not as fast at it as she was.

I think that inside and outside sharp corners are probably one of the most common struggles most every scroller has. I have found a couple things that helped me was blade choice and speed of the saw. For years I used to saw up to the line for a inside corner and then back up slightly and shave another bit of wood off then turn.. I was using FD-UR blades at that time.. but with the blade design you have reverse teeth throughout the length of the blade so sharp corners are tough to do with them ( for me anyway ) A SR blade worked better.. but someone ( Mike who sold the blades ) told me to play around with saw speed, he thought I might need more saw speed.. I used to run the saw back in those days around half the speed on the dial.. I cranked it up to 3/4 and the corners was easier so I tried full speed and that worked for me.. I rarely turn a saw speed down these days.. what I had learned from that is that I was pushing the wood though too hard.. I like cutting a bit faster than many "maybe" because honestly I don't cut any faster but rather I just let the blade do the cutting.. Lot of people think saw speed is related to how fast you "have to cut" and it's not.. I get a cleaner cut on the edges, back side of the project etc.. by having saw speed fast and then just feeding the wood through it as fast as I'm comfortable to cut.. If you turn your saw speed up and it's cutting too fast it's not the saw.. it's "YOU" feeding it too fast.. you don't have to "shove" the piece through to keep up with the saw blade.. In turn you're letting the blade cut and clean itself out thus it's not running hot and burning the wood.. blades also last much longer when you're not "pushing" them through.. You can run the saw full speed in the middle of a kerf and not burn the wood.. If you have the wood getting burned it's not the saw speed or blade.. it's you pushing too fast for the blade to clean out the cut sawdust OR you're pushing off to one side or the other etc.. that blade can run all day in the kerf full speed so long as there is a slight gap around it.. once you push too hard or have it rubbing the side you get burns..

You wouldn't believe how many times I tried to take those photos. Had to chuck the cat out and shut the door to the room eventually. She also loves to do my typing for me

Thanks for that insight Kevin (and of course Travis)

Boy need you in my back pocket everytime I do something!!!

Very nice Kris! Beautiful scene, nicely composed and executed. The old Chevrolet in the yard gives it a sense of age and nostalgia. The wood grain gives dimension to the sky. The deer are very well done but hard for me to appreciate. They are overpopulated in my neighborhood and they eat every bit of landscaping we put out. Half of my neighbors love them and put out food for them while the other half, including me, plot on how to get rid of them. Bottom line is that I appreciate the work but must decline to request the pattern.

I decided a day or two ago to try one of the color pictures. So I did this one.. I really enjoyed doing it. Kind of like making a puzzle. Cut everything out, paint the pieces and put it back together. The hardest part was waiting for the paint to dry...It was a lot of fun. Did not take long. Another reason I wanted to do it,, I went to the woodstore the other day, looking for wood to make a step stool... Decided to check out the price of BB. Last sheet of 1/8" cost me $18. Today it is $62! So I am making thing that I can use all the odd size pieces I have.. Any way, my first "scrap build". Lot of fun.

I really liked that video. It is an impressive bit of work. It should never see a knife. The design and tooling setup with all of the calculations is whole different level of calculations. To do that same project as a hand cut beveled inlay is not a project I would want to tackle.

That stuff was popular around here for a couple years, lately I've been seeing this inlay stuff, mainly cutting boards but also coasters.. I've got to admit though, this is really neat.. Not really something I'd have in my kitchen decor even coming from a car enthusiast.. but it is a cool piece of art even if it was done on a cnc.. The process of setting up all those router bits and doing two different setups, I'm almost positive a good scroll sawer could cut this out and finish it faster than this whole cnc process took..

If you can create quality hand made unique wood products there will always be a market for them especially if you can reach the right market.

Looking forward to it Chris. I should take lessons from you on planning. I never plan. I just jump headlong into a project and I'm sure that's why I end up doing a lot of it more than once. Sorta the way I've lived my life too. I guess I'm too old to learn new tricks.

I'm standing by to see progress pics. Not a project I'd want to be undertaking but I'm anxious to see yours.

Just shows how clever you were and probably still are.

Just had to post this. I sat down today with the plans to generate a parts list for all the little stuff, like motor screws,pegs and such. I searched everywhere but no accessories kit for this anywhere. So as I sat down with the plans a little voice went off in my head to check the back of the file cabinet where I keep my plans. Apparently when I purchased the plans I was smart enough to get the accessories kit too. There it was in the back of the file still sealed firm the post office when it was delivered. Surprised the crap outa me, didn't think I was that smart (lol). So if ever there was a sign, this is it. Its Ferris Wheel time...... Chris

I'd stack cut all I could.. the wheel, the fence and the uprights,, Probable most the pieces of the seats also. This quite an undertaking. Keep us posted.