Leaderboard

My demo stint at our county fair yielded a number of custom orders for military plaques. One was with a twist. It was a Navy plaque and he wanted it mounted in a shadow box with a picture of the ship he was on in the background. This was the result ...

A few weeks ago I noticed that I wasn't getting any air out of my blower on my EX 16. I proceeded to open the plate on the bottom that holds the bellows in place. A piece of rubber fell out and it looked to have a whole. Oh my! I was long out of warranty and what to do. I had good luck working with Denny at Artcrafter and he contacted Pegas and was able to get me a bellows. It came today and I will install it this weekend. You are my go to guy! Thank you Denny,

Ran a piece of reclaimed wood I had through the planer down to 5/16 (I have about 100 liner feet of this @ 9" wide and a 1/8 of an inch varish combined on either side lol) Its about 60 years old and with stain and varnish on it, it looked like oak, but after planing and cutting it on the scroll saw I think it maybe hard maple. Cleaned up it's a lot lighter and boy is it hard, killing my blades. It was a real PITA trying to cut it, blade wanted to follow the grain. Tryed both FDUR and MGT blades and neither lasted very long .. anyway here's the result as I said it was difficult to stay on the line ....won't be using it for scrolling again

Did this portrait from my grandson's 5 year picture. He and I are tight.

More time to practice, this was out of my skills level but I wanted to give it a try. If I'm annoying you all with my frequent posts of my butchery , let me know I'll slow it down

It has been quite a while since I got to do any kind of woodworking. The last thing that I can recall doing was a cradle for my Sons first born. He will be seven in December. After Dad passed and I moved Mom up next to us all that I have had time for was construction type work. Wife took of to see her friend in Florida last week and I stayed home to take care of the Dogs. Being that I am now semi retired I decided to take some time and uncover my Scroll Saw and move enough around in the garage that I would not kill myself while trying to move around. Not actually bragging (we should have a forum entitled stuff that I not ashamed of). I started out with some simple ornaments in Poplar wood ( I think all those patterns were from the Village Charity Book) to see if: 1 The saw still worked. 2 I could still follow a line. After that I decided to try my hand at compound cutting. Always wanted to but had never had the time. Those are made from Eastern Cedar. Steve Goods patterns. Below are the results. All are straight off the saw and blown off with the air hose, no sanding or finish hopefully that will come later and not be another 7 years. Thoughts good or bad welcome.

Seyco has them also. But not positive they are the same. Seyco's listed are for Excalibur.

I did this project with my airbrush. The pieces are all beveled inlay and spray painted individually before assembly. The finish and uniformity was far superior to what I could do with a brush. I used Acrylics, some where already thinned for air brush use. But I did buy this stuff Vallejo Airbrush Thinner 200ml Paint a couple of drops mixed into the paint will really help with the flow. This stuff is also great for cleaning the gun. Iwata-Medea Airbrush Cleaner (16 Oz.) And yes the clean up is a pain.

very nice job

I must admit my wife is golden and I too enjoy making stuff for her, even if some requests are unreasonable and just plain crazy!. Since losing my leg I've slowed down on bigger projects and when they come along she suggests I pay someone to do them, sometimes I do sometimes I don't lol Ive always wanted a full sheet router but have never been able to justify the cost to myself even when I had a business.

That is only about half of what I have. If I counted right, I have ten airbrushes and maybe 30 paint bottles. Craft acrylics can work quite well if adequately thinned. I have also sprayed house paint successfully. The red, green, and yellow car bodies in the photo are craft paint, the cheapest I could get at Walmart. The blue, pink, and lavender colors are house paint. Oops, paint from Home Depot. One of the advantages of using an airbrush is the ability to get custom colors. Paint stores and places like Home Depot will mix custom colors.

Acrylics are very easy to clean up. I use cheap window cleaner from the dollar store for this. When thinning with water, I always use distilled water. There is no telling what is in tap water that might react with the paint, especially if I use bottles and want to save the paint that is left over.

Too late ... Ever since we have been together I've had to make stuff for her and friends and family, she once volunteered me to make a life size santas sled for a boy scout parade float ! . The upside to this is she never complains about me buying tools, I even get them as presents ! Last Christmas I got a helixical cutter head for my planer ...

Just fair warning, never ever.. and I mean never ever take your wife to the wood suppliers that carry exotic wood.. just don't do it. When I first picked up scroll sawing there was a real popular wedding / anniversary themed item that my wife loved.. I had to make one for almost everyone we know, LOL.. which I enjoyed making from nice cutting wood. Well one day she was at work so I ( like a dummy ) went and bought some Purple Heart ( our wedding colors was purple for all the brides maids dresses and table decor etc. so I thought it'd be cool to make a purple anniversary gift ) little did I know about wood or wood density at that time.. also didn't have a planer yet so whatever thickness I bought was what I used. At that time most all the exotics was 7/8 or 1-1/4 inch thick. Took a little while to make as the cutting was a bit slower but not horrible.. She loved it and couldn't believe there was actually purple wood.. I said you should see the zebra wood and leopard wood... ooppps So when her good friend was getting married I got elected to make one but the wife wanted to go and check out the exotics that I mentioned so she picked zebra wood.. only piece they had was 1-1/4" thick.. LOL I thought the purple heart was bad enough.. The next person she said we need to make from the Brazilian Cherry ( Bubbinga ? ) luckily it was 7/8" but that stuff was the worst of the worst and I bought a good sized piece of it to make other things with.. but I never did touch it to a scroll saw blade again, nor will I.. about 10 years later after getting a planer etc.. I decided to make a cutting board with it.. Still have that board and the knife blade doesn't even mark the stripes of that wood but does on the hard maple that I put in the glued up board. So anyway.. don't say you weren't warned.

Thanks Kevin I am going to check into the wood at Hom e Depot.

Well timed post .... My wallets $80 lighter but I've got 45 1/4x12x12 a grade squares of BB heading my way. If my math serves me correctly there's 32sqft to a sheet so that's about just under a sheet and a half or just over a sheet and a third lol I'll have to check full sheet prices around here but localy we only have lowes and menards but we do have some wood yards north of here in the Chicago burbs.

My wife requested it, she's a repeat customer now!! Ordering some BB tonight as that maple is nuts to cut ....love the grain in it though. I hope yours went smoother than mine !

This is the stuff I'm talking about.. I think the price went up on it also since I bought it. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Columbia-Forest-Products-5-32-in-x-1-ft-x-1-ft-7-in-PureBond-Birch-Plywood-Project-Panel-10-Pack-5534/315126783 I just order it online as it's free shipping.. not sure if this is available for in store or not.. we don't have a Home depot near me so I order most things as they ship free and I can't drive to the local Lowes or Menards for the prices so I just order and stay home, LOL

I can see clearly now........

As for the pricing issue. I would base prices on the replacement price. It's what your going to spend to get new stock. We have done our best to keep our prices down but ultimately the increased cost of replacement materials made it impossible. Everyone seems to understand that all prices have gone up considerably .

Made of Birds Eye Maple and Peruvian Walnut. Bottom is removeable so ashes can be put in. Robert was a B-52 mechanic in Viet Nam.

So here is the last cut in the theme that I have done, to me it sums it up beautifully. The pattern is from Botas Helder and for the theme I have renamed it “ Give Praise to the Risen Christ”. I chose to stain the outside of the cut to draw attention to the hands, because I feel it sums it up beautifully.

I have not posted for a while, but am still alive and cutting. Here are few of my latest. First two are Jim Blume patters and the Lord's Prayer is from Sue Mey on more of my reclaimed maple. Jeff

This one is a full 8 inches high and 14 inches wide. 3/4 Red Oak planed down to about 5/8" thick. Cut with #3 and #5 Pegas MGT bladed.

Yeah Munzieb, that piece of rubber sure could block, the air supply to your dust remover. Good fix, and I agree that, Denny is our go to guy. Len

Don't you mean 4 x 8 Paul? Never seen anything 8 x 8.

Kevin, what is between the surface layers on those project panels? How thick is the veneer?

Yep I'll have to take the truck up north to see what's available. I just bought these 12"x 12" from Amazon to get me started, they should be here Sunday. 45 should last me a while and I'll sort through the shed see what boards I have for something different. The local big box stores in town didn't have anything good, just cheap stuff with voids and beat up.

I have used the Columbia Forest Products Project Panels from HD and like them. You can get them with other woods for the surface, right now they list them with Maple and/or Walnut surfaces. They do not stock them in-store, at least not at my local HD, but they are available for pick-up in store or ship to home.

A lot of my pricing on ornaments has a base starting point to make a profit and then as supply and demand come into play I raise prices for a higher demand.. I started out selling them at $10 some years ago and the demand was hard to keep up with so I started raising prices.. I make profit from $10.. but run out of inventory.. I've worked my way up the ladder to around $15 - 19 + shipping cost.. I really don't need to raise prices for the material when I'm getting way more than the base price of the product at hand.. so I won't be doing so unless sales are high demand or I may leave prices as they are but run sales to make customers believe they're getting a deal.. That's how pricing should work.. IMO.. don't charge your minimum

Since the embargo on Russian goods a lot of the BB that is actually being sold today is Finnish Birch. Finnish Birch was always a bit higher as it was made with a waterproof adhesive. Of course, the higher price is also a factor of supply and demand. Back in 2020 I stumbled on a deal of 10 sheets of 1/8" BB for understand $13.00 a sheet so I am good for the next 5-6 years. Hoping by then things will improve. As far as raising my prices I look at it a bit differently than most. Worst case I get 100 ornaments from a 5x5 sheet which I sell for $5.00 a piece so for now my margins are good enough to stay at the current price. I have found $5.00 per is a good price point in my area for simple ornaments. Yes, I do sell some more complex ornaments which I sell for up to $10.00. TBT since I do make smaller ornaments as well, I think my average ornaments per sheet really closer to 125.

I price my item using the replacement cost of the materials used. Many other things go into the price calculation.

I like this exercise ! Beautiful !

Another attempt at segmented picture. Not a success because I lost a couple pieces. Two of the very thin line pieces were so thin they crumbled when I handled them and for some reason the black paint did not cure beyond tacky. I suppose I could fill the missing lines with white card stock. Anyway this was a practice. I enjoyed doing it. Never has any problem with rust-oleum paint before, but it is still tacky and I painted it two days ago. I love these pictures, I have this one and a trumpet player.

I like that style ! I use in photography, from time to time, this way of doing things.

i've been in some dark places, and they're always there lurking in the background ready to pounce and drag you back. scrolling and making stuff, even if it's just sawdust is more than an escape. gives your mind focus. my lass chunters about me giving most of the pieces i make away, thing is, i get a lot of pleasure from creating something and a really big boost from gifting it. so hang in there, take baby steps and keep going forward, you're not on your own.

voting for painted as well, even if it's the just background or specific bits, lifts the pieces to another dimension. i also apply a thin seal coat before painting and use acrylic paint. I mainly get the acrylics from LIDL ( european discounter store for those over the pond), they're cheap and less translucent than proper artists paints

I enjoy making stuff for her if she wants it.. it's more about the types of wood she chooses to have me use, LOL And yes it does help in getting new tools etc.. that's sort of how I ended up with the CNC router and laser.. she seen it on TV or youtube and had heard me talk about wanting to "try it someday" then talked me into buying them.. of coarse she didn't have to talk too hard to get me to buy them. She now is telling me I need the bigger laser machine, I told her I didn't think she knew how much those are so she asked how much.. I said well to get one to do large stuff would be $6000 - 8000 she said so get one, LOL.. I'm not going to though.. at least not until I see some selling value to be able to make and sell enough product to pay for itself in a couple years.. and with the economy slowing up and prices of plywood etc.. I'm not biting that one just yet.

That is totally awesome. No one but us will know some pieces are missing and only because you told us.

I cut that same pattern out of 1/4 bb.

thought you might like a story that happened to me. Out Lions club has a small park open to the public. Every few years we paint the tables, pavillion. and shed. They had been doing it with brushes and it took a work crew 2 days to paint everything. So I bought the $19 paint spray gun at HF and brought my HF air compressor. We mixed the latex paint with water as the instructions said and went to town. I couldn't believe how far it sprayed or how fast I got coverage. I have most of the tables painted before noon. A buddy wanted to try painting and he painted the pavilion supports and ends in short order. His 18 yr old daughter wanted to try it, so he handed the spray gun to her. As he did so, I noticed the bottom of the screw on paint can was no longer dished in but dished out. Within a second or two the can cracked and spewed paint all over the girl. Medium blue latex. She looked like one of the Blue Men musical group. We shut the compressor down and one of the members, who works on and paints old cars said, how high did you set the pressure? Then he said, "I see by the puzzled looks that you did not reduce the pressure." The daughter was hosed off immediately and we got about 85% of it off her. Then she was driven home, in the back of Dad's truck where she got in the shower. The mother wasn't too happy over the blue residue in her egg shell white shower stall.

Easiest way to antique it would be to leave it out there another 10 years.

Ochooch Hardwood has 12”x24”x1/8” for $3.35, pretty good price and I am 100% satisfied with all my purchases from them.

At my calculations a 400+/- increase in price for something in the hobby line is a bit much to swallow... I know I will not be buying BB any more. Do not know what I will scroll on but on a fixed income,, probably nothing.. I will be scrolling my imagination, I know you will not be able to figure it out.. To prove it,, here is my latest project:

An air brush has always crossed my mind of something I might like to have.. as you say I just never bit the bullet.. not that they're pricey unless you're getting very high end stuff to work in the auto industry. Having spray equipment can be nice, I've often thought about buying a small spray gun or air brush for my crafts.. My issue with spray guns is that most my stuff is finished not in a production type manor.. If I get a order today for a clock or? I make it asap and many times I'm just finishing the one item.. for me the clean-up for a spray gun would be more wasteful than just using a spray can.. most things I make don't even get a top coat.. because of time constraints from customers.. Got a order yesterday and the customer needs it for a birthday on the 7th.. it'll be approximately 3 days just in the mail.. and to make the grain "pop" I dip in danish oil so it needs a few days after that before I can top coat IF I even top coat.. many times, actually most times I do not top coat. If I was running production run of several items to top coat then yes a spray gun would be and has been used.. But it's not feasible most of the time for me and my set up.. That could change with me adding more laser cut stuff.. since the laser cut items smell like a campfire I spray a top coat on most all of that stuff to block the smell. Mostly use water base poly on it.. since it dries super fast.. or lacquer but the smell of lacquer I do not like at all, LOL

To answer your pricing question, if you have no plans to replace your wood, sell at the old price. Otherwise, raise your prices to reflect replacement cost. You never see gas stations selling gas at yesterday's price. Always based on replacement cost.

Excellent pieces. Also excellent lettering skills. Marg

Pretty cool. Marg

Love it!

I only use that jig on my disc belt sander. It has a small table. The knob is set far enough back to miss the table. I loosen it so the slider will slide, put the jig on the table, and set the slide to slide the project up to the sander, then reach under and tighten the knob. The knob bolt screws up against the slider and holds it in place. I do not flip the jig over, the first picture is the jug set in place the last picture is just to show what the bottom of the jig looks like.