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I have been in my shop off and on for the past month and have been sending them off in the mail before I took the time to photograph them. But I still have some ready and in the closet for Christmas gifts so I will start trying to list them a little more often but will not try to overdue my items but rather spread them out. This item I am making as an extra gift for one of my grandchildren who live about a mile away from Billings Montana and have a small 38 acre farm where they are raising cows and training horses for other folks there. They have a lot of wild creatures there and so I thought this might be a fun sign for their front porch. They have Elk, dear, turkeys, deer and a lot of other animals that are crossing their fields daily. I thought this little sign would be one they would enjoy having. Dick heppnerguy

A short while ago I received a Steve Good email containing his Butterfly Box (bflybox2023 - good.pdf). Needing another tabletop item in my collection, I thought that this project looked like a nice project that would fill the bill. My solid wood resource is limited, and I was only able to find enough ¼” and ¾” Hard Maple and some ¼” Red Oak to build the box out of. I did enlarge his pattern to 6 ½” x 8”. I feel this made the box size a little more useful. I did stack cut the two ¾” pieces that make up the vertical walls of the box. I did the cutting using Pegas #5 MGT R blade. I should have glued the two boards together before cutting, as he suggested, rather than after. This would have eliminated glue squeeze-out and reduced the amount of sanding needed. I should have also stacked the ¼” thick stopper (his Layer 3) when cutting the inside of the walls, which would have produced a much more precise fit. Stack cutting the two ¾” layers of the Hard Maple was a very slow cut. I did not burn the wood, but the walls did not remain their natural white and became streaky dark. I was able to remove the glue squeeze-out by sanding, but sanding did not eliminate the dark discoloration. I also stack cut the top and bottom Oak Layers. I used the previously cut wall to act as a template to guide the blade while cutting. This was a little tricky, but worked out well so there was minimal sanding required to have all edges flush with the walls. I did darken the Red Oak with Minwax Aged Oak for a better contrast between the walls and the top and Bottom. The ¼” thick Hard Maple Butterfly applique for the top was a very easy cut using Pegas #3 MGT R blades. During the final sanding of the Butterfly, I profiled all the top edges to give it a slightly rounded-over look and feel as the top will be handled during use. And yes, I did have to make the project different by using Artist Acrylic Air Brush Paints to add color to the Butterfly. The assembled Box and Cover was finished with multiple coats of Deft Clear Gloss Lacquer.

I just finished cutting this monstrous Haunted House for Halloween. Hundreds of cuts. Pattern by me. This is backlit for "spooky" effect. I cut this mostly with Pegas #3 spiral blades.

This is an Alex Fox pattern my daughter bought me for Father’s Day. After finishing it, guess who wanted it for her apartment, hahaha!

Well I looked at this pattern a while before deciding to get started. And I am Very Happy with the way it looks. Had some Hold the breath happenings, but All in All I Really did Enjoy cutting this pattern. I am not real sure, but think Jim Blume designed it. Anyway all comments are very welcome...............Danny :+}

I’ve accumulated a fair amount of small pieces of wood which I prefer to make use of rather than waste. Making more of these small cars helps while at the same time increasing my inventory. Walnut and maple.

Started out with Flying Dutchman #5 PGT but the mouse needed Olson 2R crown tooth. Was like chopping through a old log... I modified Steve's design because 3/4 stuck out too far from the molding so it was off to the bench belt sander to sand off a quarter inch. Would have been less dusty if I had a half inch board... Still learning!

This is a custom order that took far to long to complete. I had several technical issues that I had to resolve. 2 layers 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood, not sure the blades probably FD Polar, pattern based on a Steve Good design and customized by myself. The end stripes are snug but can be removed to attach/detach from a wall.

Jimmy, young and old. Left us a treasure chest of great music!

Like all of us, I have a couple of boxes of cast-off wood, eg. waste wood, from previous projects. I decided to do a simple 12-piece animal puzzle, using nothing but cast-off pieces. I am hoping this will be a gift for a young man who used to live with us when he left an abusive home life. 10+ years later, he is now married and successfully in a well-paying career. His wife is pregnant again (lost 2 previous pregnancies), and I am praying for this child to go full-term. Thus the gift will be waiting. As you can see each piece was done individually, thus it was imperative that I nailed the lines dead center on the cut. Mainly used FD Ultra Reverse #5, for the 300 Janka pieces I used a Pegas Modified Geometry #5, and then used a spiral blade for the accent cuts such as the ears and mouths. I decided I wanted to go all-natural color, no paint or stains, thus using 12 different species of wood... Janka from 400 to nearly 3000... Can you list what wood I used? I completed the rough cut stage and will next profile the edges, and final fitting. From there I am going to build a frame and backer. Below is the loose fit after cutting. Edit to add: The Octopus is not showing its true color, a hint... it is one of the higher Janka's. Also, wound up redoing the fish, using Black Limba so it stands out more from the lighter browns. Perfect fit.

Just finished cutting this one. Wanted to try it for a while now. Saw that someone on here did it (looked amazing) so I gave it a go. It was very time consuming, but that is fretwork for you, right. I used Alaskan Birch, size 0 spiral blade on my Delta saw. My struggle now is how to sand it properly and how to finish it. I really like the Danish oil finish and will probably do that but hunting for advice and ideas here. Thanks for looking.

I'd be interested in knowing what the numbers on your replacement potentiometer might be. I'm sure that a person could purchase one from an electronics store for far less that what Hegner gets. As long as the ohm ratings is the same or close and it's made for the correct voltage, I'm sure it would work. For some reason, they seem to think that everything on their saws is made of 24 karat gold.

Nice looking piece, Frank.

Very beautifully done! And thanks for the tips.

Glad this got brought to the front again. I saved the first post to a text document for future. I am not an electronics expert but I would dry this repair before I laid out the money to for a new controller. And @OCtoolguy, I remember your input from way back when about the soft start on the Hegner. Just curious, where you using a foot peddle at the time or were you using the on/off switch on the saw? I would be curious it the foot pedal could have had something to do with it.

Wow, really worth the patience to work on such a masterpiece

@Trka2002; I'd actually forgotten about this work!! Yes, my saw is running better now, so I would say that the replacement parts helped. I do recall there was something a bit different with the potentiometer I got, I think it actually has an 'off' position that the old did not. I've not had any problems with it though. You'll need a soldering iron, some solder, and a bit of soldering skills to do this. If this is outside your comfort zone, you may want to find someone who can solder.

Speaking of that 13" saw with the 3" pin end blades; I made one of these with that saw, really had to learn how to cheat to get the fine cuts: drill a series of holes to make a slot pull the pin out of the top of the blade thread the blade through the slot reattach the pin (or use a safety pin)

Jimmy, I started scrolling in '85. My first saw was a Sears 13" "hobby saw" that used 3" pin end blades and there were only 3 types of blades. Since I have CDO (Compulsive Disorder, Obsessive) (it's sorta like OCD but the letters are in alphabetical order as they should be) I did nothing for the first three week but cut practice cuts, boring, yes, but the training was very helpful. My first cuts were not nearly the quality yours are, kudos. Here is a closeup of a fancy fretwork welcome sign. As you can see, the cuts are not perfect, but if you look at the piece as a whole it's difficult to see any errors. Most peoples eyes see the whole item and they don't see the individual frets. In fact, IMHO, most people can't actually see the details, their eyes just can't do it. Here's the whole thing:

To all Your work is beautiful well done. Barbara

WOW. You are crazier than I thought. Awesome job. Marg

You did a great job, well done. Marg

Very very cool.

Sister #2 gets the golf thingie posted earlier.

From a Steve Good Pattern. A couple of Lucet's. 1/2" Elm, FD #1 polar for the inside cuts, FD #3 polar for the outside, one coat BLO. Quarter for scale. Just something quick for the market.

that is something that would make a great Facebook question to see how many people might happen to know what these are, as I too had no idea Dick heppnerguy

Looks like you are going to be making someone very happy with this one of a kind item. Nicely done Dick heppnerguy

You are doing a great job making your Christmas projects and when everyone else is fighting the shopping crowds and trying to figure what to buy that special person, you will be sitting home, relaxed and enjoying the season. Dick heppnerguy

Love all your patterns and the fret work cutting them. Another great pattern Dick heppnerguy

Beautiful job, excellent cutting, RJ

Welcome to the scroll saw village! I don't have much for recommendations from what's already been said.. other than to say in some cases what saw is best can vary based on what type of scroll sawing you're going to be doing most.. IF doing very large fretwork projects from thin material I'd go with a Hawk.. for a top of the line type saw.. IF doing smaller to medium sized fretwork I'd go with a Hegner or Pegas.. The Jet brand is very similar to the Excalibur type saws too and made very well.. I find them to be better priced than the Pegas or other models.. however I do not like the table design on the 22" saw but I do really like the 18" Jet.. they sometimes run a sale on these and it's hard to beat the price even if you wanted to add the Pegas blade chuck.. still way cheaper than the Pegas if you can catch the sale.. many times throughout the year that saw is offered at just a little over $700 and some places offer free shipping where most others do not. Also Bearwood offers a refurb Pegas that's not priced too bad but has more of a as-is type warranty too.. I guess they supply some sort of warranty but not much of one. Good luck with whatever you choose and give us a update when you do get something.

That is awesome Kris.

that's amazing

Good job! Michael Jr. will be happy.

Very well done! That will be appreciated.

awesome job

nice job

Very nice, Witchita. The removable stipes are a neat idea.

My latest project was mini model A cars. They are so cute and fun to make that I made a second batch of 18. These are for my upcoming shows. I’m currently working on a fleet of Kenworths which will soon be completed.

Thanks. I learned something today.

Another great job on pattern and cutting. My son got to take the controls on one of those WWII Bombers at a private antic airplane show he got invited to and was allow to take us parent with him. They offered to take him for a ride in it, probably a s B-17. He went, once in the air the co-pilot got out of his seat and offered it to my son. Once he sat down, the pilot said to him "you have the controls". My son said it was one of the biggest thrills in his flying career.

Time to time I meet gnome projects and patterns, I dont know why they are popular, but I decided to make one too. There are many different gnome patterns I saw, but I think such 3D is the first one. Project could be assembled without gluing, with dowels. Project consist of 46 pieces and 2 dowels, recommended size: 3 x 6 x 5,5 inches. Pattern - https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlexFoxUA

Bernd, I'm wondering where you got the pattern for the B-24. The airplane I flew in the 60's was not a glamorus aircraft, in fact quite ugly. It was a C-124, cargo aircraft. but we could carry items no other airplane at the time could carry. I have been looking for a pattern but have had no luck. Perhaps where you got this pattern may have one for the C-124. Thanks, Jerry

Last year I made 2 versions of this recognition award. I posted 1 version already. The 2nd was delivered a few months later. I did not want to post the "jwk" version before giving it to the guy. This was based on company symbols. The original company logo was a light bulb with the filiament showing "iW" signifing iwatt. 2 companies bought us, the 2nd company started with a big R. So the wood award shows that these 2 guys came from iWatt and still work at the big R company. The 1st pic varied the filiament to the workers initials "jwk". The 3rd pic show a zoom in of the silicon wafer that I cut down. to 44mm. Wood is purple heart and yellow heart.

Thank you!!!!

Here's the link to the video that Travis did . . I found it very helpful.

There are no flaws in our work - it is all just design choices.

I've been mostly working with 1/4 Baltic birch plywood. I use good lighting and use a magnifer. Drilling entry holes, not using any blades past 3 or 4 and moving at a snail's pace. I understand it takes time but that's why my question was geared to the long time scrollers with many years of practice to answer if their current work, close up has flaws. I don't see close up shots of intricate work posted often.

Heceta head lighthouse intarsia.