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I have only done one real colorful project. A little birdhouse using an Alex Fox pattern:

Here is a springtime gnome, that I cut it is a Steve Good pattern.

A few years back, my grandson wanted a toy cow. I found a piece of clip art that he liked, glued it to some MDF, and cut it out. I figure he would break the horns off right away but they are still attached.

What the world needs more of.

Working on a new kind of project. Building a Pug planter for my sweet neighbor. Still have some coloring to do and putting it all together. The colored pieces below are not attached yet. I might still change the coloring on the face a bit and still looking for the perfect color to stain the body pieces. I'm having fun. Making a Bulldog next for one of my oldest friends.

So many to choose from!! Here are a few. The puzzle tree is "spring/summer" one side and fall on the other side.

Much work went into this collection of Bad Bob's Custom Motors cars. Several coats of white primer sanding between coats until smooth and the wood grain did not show through. Then multiple coats of flat acrylic paint were sanded between each coat until the white primer was covered. It took a lot of coats for the yellow one. I topped them off with clear gloss acrylic. The was a yellow sedan, but my grandson wanted to give it to a friend for a birthday gift before I decided to take the photo.

Another dinosaur puzzle. The back is hardboard, and the tray is finished with amber shellac.

T-Rex tray puzzle. This is my first attempt at a tray puzzle. I decided to make it a tray puzzle after cutting the dinosaur. I wanted to glue the gap closed, but it was too tight when I dry-clamped it to test. The back is a piece of hardboard cut, oversized, glued on, then sanded flush with a belt sander. The tray is finished with shellac.

Dinosaur tray puzzle. I cut the back off of a 3/4 inch piece of wood, cut out the dinosaur and painted it, and glued the wood back on. The tray is finished with amber shellac.

Today's offering is another Steve Good pattern. Cut on 12x12in BB and a #1 FD polar blade. Normally I'll use a spiral on these sort of patterns but I'm trying to practice my control,hand placement and accuracy with a straight blade. Ive been at this scroll sawing about 4 months now if you take out a forced vacation due to a injury, and I've only just realized how important hand position and pivoting is! I've spent all this time trying to feed my wood round corners and recently discovered how much easier it is to use one hand as a pivot and one to drive... Duh At this rate I'm going to have to spend a month finishing a lot of this stuff ive been cutting. Any how fresh off the saw pattern on and off. Thanks for looking! Comments welcome

It is a lot easier to do if your saw is one with an upper arm you can raise. Also when I had my old Craftsman SS I would drill all the holes and then using a small countersink bit I would dimple all the holes on the backside.

Kind of depends on how big the project is. Big projects are harder to do.. most stuff I do I can tilt the board up to see the holes and then guide the blade to the hole and lower the board down. I rarely have to bend down to see with this method.. as I said, big projects are harder to do and sometimes does require bending down to see.

On the top ( pattern side ) I dot each opening in red (either a extra fine sharpie or a .035 dot printed ) so I can tell at a glance that the hole has been drilled. Once drilled I use either a hand held "bead reamer" or a Dremel mounted bead reamer to de-burr and slightly counter sink the hole. A light mounted above and to the left of the saw, so that the light bounces off the table and onto the back of the piece. I tilt the piece to the right and thread the blade. Occasionally when the hole has rough edges inside the hole ( stacked cutting ) I will thread a 2/0 spiral blades and "saw" back and forth to clear the inside of hole of splinters.

Just remembered a few more I did that have color:

I was going to put my 2 cents worth in until i ran across your post! When i used to do a lot of portrait cutting with many, many holes, I would use a Sharpe marker to dot the holes! For the work I do now that requires lots of openings, I use an awl to open the holes and the blade just slides in almost with out looking for the hole! Erv

terrific job

What got me started in scrolling was a guy who I watched out at the Orange County Fair who was doing marquetry using a home made foot powered scroll saw. I took one of his classes and bought a tool package from him. In that package was a Dremel countersink mounted in a hand held pin vice. That's what I use. I use a Dremel plunge router with needle drill bits. I have a number drill set that goes from #1 to #80. Most blades will tell you what number drill bit to use. Denny Knappen sells the most popular sizes in 10 packs. When I get all done drilling out the holes, I flip the board over and countersink the holes and then just touch them with a marker to highlight them.

I might as well weigh in with my two sense. I have a Hegner and a Pegas. On my Hegner I can only bottom feed. My Pegas I can bottom or top feed. For me it is much easier to top feed.

They say to use as big a bit as you can.. I'm certain I read that somewhere, LOL.. however if you're like me I typically need that small bit on every project at least once.. and lazy as I am I use the smallest bit recommended for a #5 blade I think it's a #58 bit? I know what bit tube I grab but not sure what the number is now, LOL.. anyway I'm too lazy to swap bits so I just use the small bit for all the holes.. But anyway, yes.. larger holes if possible does help a lot.

I say do it however is most convenient to you, I started sawing years ago and didn't have the option to top feed. I did learn to top feed when I had my DeWalt but to much muscle memory lends me back to bottom feeding.. just what I know better. As others have said, the blade teeth point down and tend to catch on the wood, if you're not careful you'll bend / break your blade.. with practice you'll figure it out.. how much practice? might be after ruining 2-3 blades or 2 - 3000 blades, LOL.. for me it was closer to the ladder of the two.

Couple of gnomes I just finished gluing up. The wood is Hickory. Used a #5 FD ultra reverse blade.

My wife would encourage it, let her know I still have some life in me. Told her the other day I never thought I would be married to a 76 year old woman, I think it was time to get a girlfriend,,, she said "good luck with that"!

Thanks, that will work. I want always support our pattern makes, so that's why I asked. Thanks again.

Little rough in a couple of places but I think is cutable.

Very cute project. I'm sure your neighbor will love it.

This was a challenge for me. I have never made an intarsia pattern on my own before. My neighbor came to me with a photo of the military airplane he spent his 25 Canadian Air force carrier in. This aircraft was used to search the ocean waters for enemy subs. I found it very challenging for me because he kept changing what I was doing and he kept wanting it to be more of a model than an intarsia item. I was really wanting to making it just the way he wanted it but every change, along the way, put more doubt in my success to make it happen and added a lot of extra time to the process. This project is 28 inches long and approximately 14 inches high. I used a woodburner to make the stripe on the body of the plane black. Dick heppnerguy

Better the vehicles then the house. Still a difficult loss. Being without one's vehicles has got to be very hard. Those trees were guided away from the house, Thank you God. So sad when one gets hit by nature this way, but so thankful, most of all, that everyone is OK. Dick heppnerguy

Today's post is a pattern that I have had for quite some time and I fell in love with it when I first saw it. This cute little project's pattern was made by Sam Custodio and had me hooked from the get go. It seems that I forget about it way too often and a couple of days ago I spotted it and had nothing pressing in my 'to do list' so I printed the pattern and took it to my shop. I only had about a half dozen small cuts left to have it all cut out, so I jumped on it this morning and finished it. I decided a quick and easy frame would be better than the over lapping backer board that I often do, so I found a piece of scrap wood that I thought might do the trick and made a glue on frame and used a piece of black poster board and threw on a coat of spray finish and it is ready to hang on my shop wall. I cut it from 1/4 lnch BB Ply and used a #3 Pegas MGT blade. Dick heppnerguy

Being a fairly new scroller I think it's something we all struggle with when we start. I've had times where it's took me longer to thread the blade than cut the hole

Sometimes I have to duck my head under too. But I do like Kevin does and tilt the project up a tish to feed it under. I also pinch the top of the blade so about an 1/8" or so is above my thumb. I find it easier to find the pilot hole. A lot of it is done by feel. Kinda like sewing or embroidery, you have a rough idea of where you need to be and you eventually find your home.

Pattern by Larry Hamm. I think its in the pattern library here. I have not seen his name here for as long as I can remember (not that that means anything) Anyone have any info on Larry? Still a member here?

Me and my best friend milled the tree this board came from back in 1998

I believe that is Snell Roundhand.

I got curious and did some digging. This is a short list of materials that will spontaneously combust. Note that I was wrong about the compost burning. Hay Straw Sawdust Coal Oil Grease Rags soaked in oil Towels soaked in oil Paint overspray Material from a paint spray booth Compost Mulch Manure Leaf piles Spontaneously combustible chemicals, such as: Phosphorus Magnesium Aluminum powder Sodium hydride Titanium powder Potassium Lithium Ethylene oxide Isopropyl ether Peroxides (such as diethyl ether peroxide and acetone peroxide) Some metal hydrides (such as lithium aluminum hydride and sodium borohydride) Some organic compounds (such as cotton, linen, wool, and some oils)

You can do good repurposing lumber, but be careful to be certain that there is no metal left behind in the wood. Get a good metal detector and scan the wood carefully. Be careful of using old pallets, since some for overseas shipping are treated for bug infestations. Chemical spills from leaking cargo can get into the pallets too. Just be careful of your sources. I too repurpose wood, but I'm careful to avoid any that might be treated, have significant metal, or possible nasty chemical spills in them. Avoid offers of old bowling lane sections. You won't believe how many nails are in them. There will be nothing useable after the nails are gone. One of my best sources for short pieces of hardwoods are the drops from the ends of boards used by the furniture and kitchen cabinet industry. They frequently discard the last foot or two of boards to avoid cracks and damage. For small, possibly narrower pieces than the donor piece, you can sometimes do very well picking these up and re-sawing to smaller sizes. Make friends at the local cabinet and furniture shops and don't make a mess of their scrap bins. Leave everything tidy and better than you found it, and you will be welcomed back next time. They have to pay to get rid of this, so you are actually doing them a favor by taking it. No after hours visits either. Do them a favor in return by making their bins nice and tidy when you leave. Charley

I love it! Now all I have to do is find someone who has a pug. They keep getting stolen here in the People's Republic.

Nice sign.. can you tell me what font you used on it. I really like it Dick heppnerguy

Barb they looks very good love it, did you run out of red paint on that chest or is it my eyes. Roly

Hey Everyone! In this scroll saw project video, we make this beautiful "He Is Risen" Piece to celebrate the True Meaning of the Easter Holiday. The pattern is from an amazing Christian Pattern book by Fox Chapel Publishing. Happy Easter To All! #ArtisanPirate

I made a hiking stick holder for my Lord Of The Rings bedroom.

STOP. You are torturing me with all your well made cute gnomes, as I have yet to cut one. I am afraid if I do, I will be hooked on them and I have so many patterns that I wish to cut already.. Dick heppnerguy

Now there is a project I would never even dreamed about making. Great idea. Dick heppnerguy

I bought the Kleenex pattern from Sue Mey. I thought it might be fun to have a decorative box for her Kleenex and I let her choose the pattern for it. It was a bit challenging on the lid as I cut the little fairies hand and feet. They are very small and delicate. I choose a 2/0 Pegas to make that delicate cut and it came out perfect. I cut it from 1/4 inch Juniper and gave it one coat of spray finish. I thought it was not worthy of more coats, as it is just a fun piece anyway. Next on up is a cross pattern I started to cut about a year ago and got a little upset as the sawdust would not blow off my project as I cut and I could not see the lines very well, so I set it aside. I saw it laying on one of my storages in my garage and thought I would go ahead and finish cutting it, not remembering why I had given up on it before. As I started cutting it, it became quite apparent as to why I decided not to cut finish it. Cedar seems to have that problem for me a lot. No other wood does that to me. I decided to try a smaller blade and see if that might help solve my problem. It did help a little but it did not change things a lot. I also used a #2/0R Pegus blade and decided to finish anyway. So here is the results of my effort. The wood is red cedar 1/8th inch. I will try to stay away from it from now on as much as possible though. Dick heppnerguy

GOOGOOGLYGOO!!! That is just AWESOME!!!!

fantastic job

it was a struggle with all the changes but he has it at home now so me shop is waiting for me to start my next project Dick heppnerguy

WOW! Dick that is awesome! I bet he is a happy camper!

You did an outstanding job, Dick.