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So my brother said he wanted a black walnut cowboy hat. How can I say no? He lives 1300 miles away in Texas. I sent him the curve tool to wrap around his head. He emailed me the scanned tool result. I took that scan into inkscan and started the project. He requested a blank top. This took me about 19 hrs. It is slightly darker than my other black walnut hat. Also a bit bigger. Everyone has a different head size. Here is a couple of pics showing before / after finishing step. Armour Arm Seal was used. Me. Mark Eason

Making ornaments for family and sales and stopped to take a few photos. Compound cuts are from Sue Mey, nativities are Steve Good patterns and the cookies are from cutters I don't use any longer. I used regular cookie sprinkles that were applied to wet paint and then affixed with semi-gloss lacquer. Comments, criticism and cajoling encouraged.

Simplicity and beautifully imperfect wood.

Roger Miller was such a funny, talented guy. I love so many of his songs. Today, being World Kindness Day, one of Roger's lyrics seems appropriate. "I wish I had your happiness, and you had a Do-Wacka-Do.

Recently I saw question at Facebook "What does everyone do with the left over wood from your projects?" I think segmentation is great variant to use it. I already have 7 such patterns and projects, I decided to make one more. Top left is a new one. What do you with left over wood? All patterns at https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlexFoxUA

Again I think there needs to be a category called things that I am not ashamed of. That would be more appropriate for my stuff. Steve Goods ornaments. 19 Cedar initial Ornaments Cedar wood a combination of #7 Olsen PGT and #7 Pegas MG blades dipped in Minwax natural stain and finished with 3 coats of Krylon tipple thick glaze. Not sure I like this product. First time using it. Still Have 5 more to go for my herd. Dog, Humming bird and 3d ornaments raw Poplar off the saw. Wife wants to try her hand at painting them.flat ornaments were cut with Olsen #2 crown tooth blades. Mini Trees are a combo of Cedar and Poplar cut with #7 Pegas blades. Not sure how to finish them yet. And last but not least the reason that I will never get to retire completely. The 3 dogs that the ornaments were cut for. We refer to them as our pack.

My wife and I have been vendors at local and regional craft shows for maybe 8 years now. For health and pet care reasons though we have over time reduced from 6 yearly shows to 2. Since retiring, my crafty wife has always made custom costume jewelry, ornamented household goods and accessories and shirts. I have made and sold turned wood items and woodcraft household accessories, as well as custom heavy duty gun belts and gun holsters cut and crafted from half hides using my saddle sewing machine named, "Bertha Jo". Last weekend was the second and last of our yearly shows and I was pleased to see a pretty fair amount of offered hand crafted wood items. I got to talk to two serious scroll sawyers and learned that their offerings are almost always well-received and that good sales numbers are their norm rather than the exception. It pleases me to hear that customers seem to appreciate the quality of their work, and in most cases are willing to pay for the crafter's time and effort. I'd have taken photos of their tables but I always am concerned that the photographed vendor thinks I'm involved in "industrial espionage" and cataloging their product line to attempt infringement. So I just commit their beautiful works to memory. Anyway, despite the economy, established shows like the two we vend at seem to be attended by serious buyers who don't mind parting with their dollars in exchange for creative, well-made items. Just wanted to share here my experienced observations. Don

I've previously posted about mounting a dremel drill press holder above my work bench upside down. I've been using mine for about 3 years now without any problems for all my flat work progects. I've been able to do panels as large as 24 x36. Actual depth is just about 11 inches. (Limited only by where the upside down mounting surface is off the wall.) Another Limitation is only the depth of material to be drilled because of the dremel high speed. When drilling 3/4 material with a longer small bit the bit tends to burn and not plung perectly straight throug the wood. However for 1/8 and 1/4 panels it is more than accurate enough using the very small bits for 2/0 blades. The dremel drill press is not a heavy duty piece, but has been working well for me. However, my original small dremal tool I was using did burn up. I replaced it with a little more pricy model which has been going strong for quite a while now. Here is a copy of the previous post I made: This is my solution! The Dremel drill press as is, because of it is only 3" from the bit to the post, is imparactical to use for drilling blade holes in almost any fretwork larger than 6" wide. However, I had the idea in my head I could do something to make it work and Home Depot near me had the Dremel Drill Press/Tool Station in stock for $45. I took a chance (knowing I could return it if I could not make it work) and bought it this morning. After I got it home and did some investigating how I could make it work the light bulb lit up in my brain and this was the result. There is a shelf above my workbench that was just the correct height to allow me to mount the base upside down. I slid the Drill press body on the post opposite of what is normal. The press can be rotated around the post allowing it to be swung out of the way if necessary. I use a piece of 1/4" ply as a drill backer and set the stop so the bit will not punch into the workbench top. Very easy to locate the bit ove the point where the hole is needed. From the bit to the wall is about 11" so as positioned it can accomodate panels up to about 22" wide. I have two Dremel Rotary Tools so this one will be a dedicated drill for drilling blade holes, although the tool holder body can be rotated up to 90 degrees and used for other operations. I don't think I will be braking as many drill bits with this setup. I located it near the rear corner of the workbench so it should not interfere tooooooo much with other workbench usage. As the say, where there is a will there is a way. And when space is at a premium, you have to think outside the box and make evey square inch count.

I did some compound cut ornaments over the last few weekends. This was my first attempt at this type cutting. 2 things that I learned really quick are #1 the wood has to be square and #2 the pattern has to be folded accurately. Just a tip for anyone doing these patterns. If you have a scale rule it is the greatest tool going for folding the patterns. Line up the center line atop the triangle and it makes a perfectly straight crisp fold. Just thought I would throw this out.

Other tips on folding patterns.I If you are folding longer patterns ( Wands ), a HF 18" sheet metal brake works very well. Stumpy Nubs has a recent video about a shop made jig to make it even easier to use ( this will be a winter project ). I tried a pair of sheet metal locking pliers ( wide jaws ) but the edges are mismatched, another winter project. When using a ruler, a "bone folder" will allow you to crease the paper without cutting the paper fibers.

Good tip and your first two comments are right on point.

Hey Everyone! In this scroll saw project video I make this Amazingly Beautiful Horses In Fall Leaves Project, It came out amazing and is cut from mostly 1/4 inch material with a small piece of 3/4 inch material to tie it all in. The pattern comes from the old Creative Woodworks & Crafts Magazine. Hope you all like the video! #ArtisanPirate

Hi Jim: Well, that's one way to get your daily fiber intake but if it's all the same to you, I'll stick to my Cheerios. Well done, btw Fab4

Another option to consider: The Seyco scrollers drill: https://www.seyco.com/scrollers-drill/ And it does have an adjustable angle.

I say "Do it !!" Though I've never had a ceiling mounted drill press, but I have taken a bench mount version, turned the base around backwards, and let the drill press itself hang off the front of the bench. This was to done be able to drill the center holes in lamp columns before I bought a floor standing drill press. Several stackable boxes placed on the floor, provided the support for the work, with box re-stacking when the max depth of the spindle and bit was reached. The drill press table was still useable for short work in this arrangement. I now have a floor standing drill press and two bench mounted. The one mounted backwards is long gone. I recently mounted a photography tripod on the ceiling though. It was done to digitize large posters. I placed them on the floor with tape markings on the floor for corner positioning, so I could put all of them in the same position. Then pointed the camera straight down and zoomed the lens to fill the frame with the poster, and used a wireless trigger to take each shot to minimize vibration. Please take photos of your ceiling mounted drill press. They will be interesting. Thinking Outside The Box is sometimes necessary. I think you've got a winner there. Charley

I used walnut colored Danish oil on the dog, natural Danish oil on the person.

I have completed 36 stand up puzzles to add to the cache. These are 4 new designs that I have cut from 30mm Radiata Pine, using Olson #7 Mach for outside cuts and a Olson PG #5 for inside cuts Two coats of gloss lacquer over acrylic paint. Boats 170 x 150mm. Cat 215 x 130mm, Utes 230 x 100mm, 3 little pigs 220 x 170mm

Firstly thanks to Denny at Artcrafters for his excellent service. The package was packed very well and the chucks were packaged in a plastic box with an insert in it, every part had a place. Installation was a breeze and took about 15 mins including removing the table and refitting it. Everything fitted well and there were no surprises. I gave the saw a quick run to make sure everything was square. The first thing I noticed was it was quieter, the old chucks used to rattle a bit and cutting seemed a little more positive, also the clamp screws seem to not need tightening so much. I've not really used it enough to say if they are going to make a big difference but I'll revisit the thread at a later date.

I have them on my EX and my Seyco, love them.

I have one of these. Bought it when I built the Cradle for my son. Worked ok for what I needed but don't thimk it would be acurate enough for precision work.

terrific job

Saturday the wife wanted to go to her favorite store which is just a couple blocks from my lumber store.. so I dropped her off as usual and went to the lumber store. I asked about the BB ply price on 5 x 5 x 1/8 and it was $35 a sheet or 10-20 sheets for 31.. I didn't get the price for beyond the 20 sheets.. but I do usually buy 10 - 15 at a time. A couple years ago it was $12 for the 10 sheets.. Last time I bought it ( last spring I think it was ) it was around $30 for the 10 sheets. I'm going to need to get some again pretty soon but hopeful the price will go down some by then.

I've got one. Used it to drill angled holes in the edge of two bys for short lengths of EMT for a lumber rack. I used the Wixey angle gauge to get my angles.

The air used to suck up the dust is not used to cool the motor. The motor has a separate fan for cooling.

The Seyco kit comes with a Dust Deputy on it.. I'm not sure the system is up to "production style task" that I put it through for the last two years.. This is what I had and what burned up.. https://www.seyco.com/dv-10a-cyclonic-action-scroll-saw-dust-collector/ Dust does escape the Dust Deputy and lines the bag which doubles as the filter... I did throw a lot of work at that thing and would have to clean it out at least once a week..

Putting a Dust Deputy, or similar in the line between the saw and vac will eliminate almost all of the sawdust from the air going through the vacuum and the air filter in the vac won't plug up, so full cooling air through the motor all the time, and not gradually reducing as the filter plugs. Keeping a large amount of air flowing through the motor will keep it cooler and less likely to burn up. Checking the brush wear often is a needed chore too. Charley

I did not want to Highjack the thread on compound cutting clamps. I cut lots of them especially at our clubs woodworking shows and give them to the kids. Occasionally I will show off the capabilities of the scroll saws for cutting small stuff. The smallest reindeer in this image is a bit less than 1/2" and the smallest and most delicate compound cut for me so far. I used a Pegas #2 28TPI blade no reverse teeth. The trees are turned and carved. I did not sand any of them.

Excellent cutting, RJ

They are the same, I have a Seyco vac that I bought new from Ray 2 years ago.. that's the one that fried.. and it says MetroVac right on it.. I also bought a MetroVac from eBay New Open Box and it's exactly like the Seyco one with one exception.. the back of the one from eBay just has a end cap on it and the end cap on the Seyco is about 6" long and lined with some kind of black colored foam.. I assume for sound deadening as it is quieter that the ebay model.. same model but shorter and louder. My Seyco would get loud too.. take the bag out of it and go outside and use compressed air to blow the fine caked up sawdust out of it..put back in and quiet again for a while.. Also a good idea to take that back portion off and blow the dust out of the foam now and then.. while it comes with a dust deputy and has the bag / filter.. dust still escapes all that and gets caked up around the motor and that foam muffler thing.. I suspect this to be what fried mine..

If your just doing 90 deg angles, there are various less expensive drill guides. Like for drill tapping guides. But if you need precision angles for bowls then hanging if from rafters might not be good. Now the ebay link is interesting, what if we could mount the rods on the scroll saw arm and use the scrollsaw table for setting drill angles. Of course the mounting has to be temporary and easy to do. Me. Mark Eason

My latest wood-art piece. 11 x 14 inches.

Some ornaments for the black Friday craft show:

Yea, I was thinking about ripping down thicker stock to save money too. And I am looking into the aircraft ply. I used to fly R/C Sailplanes and aircraft ply was a big part of my building so I am familiar with it's properties, so I may very well end up going that route. Anyhow, plenty to consider before pulling the trigger on materials.

Yes, I could do it. However, There are tiny bits that need to be removed carefully. I use tweezers or forceps for this. Therefore, I would use a simpler reindeer if I used your method. The antlers on my reindeer are pretty complex.

I like your idea of putting them back together and taping them for gifts. However, I need to make reindeer from a different pattern for that.

Ha, I just cut 9 3d patterns of the same thing and was amazed 9 times!! But I go around pretty amazed most the time.

I had some fun with this. They are fun to cut! All cut from 3/4” poplar.

A good friend of mine is a die hard fan. Each October, he starts planning the parade and the party for the next Stanley Cup finals. By January, he is down to when the Liefs make the playoffs. We joke all the time about when the Leafs are going to win another Championship. I made this with a white board for the year. If they ever do, he can whip out the year and the pen is there. I just hope the pen has not dried out by then.