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I have been so busy at work @ NATO SACT HQ, finishing up one project and starting another one, plus I have been working on my permanent dust collection system in my workshop the last two weekends. Did a very easy project this AM. I really love walnut and how it finishes with raw linseed oil. The chocolaty color is yummy! This is a flag holder and it is for one of the cleaning ladies at NATO SACT HQ. I see her at 5:30 AM when I go from the 5th to the 3rd floor to get ice and filtered water. Somehow when we were talking she mentioned needing a flag stand for her flags. This actually holds three (3) flags. So it will have the NATO Flag, the US (or any other country) Flag, and the HQ SACT Flag. I like this design so much, I might crank out another one for my desk!!! Perhaps making it a hair bigger 30-50%.

Two years ago I made small layered geometric ornaments and got many positive feedbacks, people used them as Christmas tree decoration. So this year I made same style snowflakes, I think they will look nice at Christmas tree. Snowflake patterns

Stopped by Hobby lobby today and picked up some of their inexpensive wood plaques to use for patterns to duplicate with a flush trim bit on my router. So much easier for frames than trying to cut those shapes any other way

Then there is my shop where I often just give things away!

Nothing fancy here, but I have all my ducks in a row. I don't know how many little animal cutouts I have made over the years. Over a thousand, for sure. I learned how to use my first scroll saw to make animal cutouts. Kids love them, and so do some adults. All but two of these are cut from oak using #5 Pegas MGT blades. Two are salvaged mystery wood.

Kenworth tractor trucks made of poplar that had been aged over 20 years. Pattern is from toy making plans.com if anyone is interested. A lot of parts and very enjoyable making.

My grandson just started as a realtor and wanted something for a personalized gift to give to his first clients. I had Kieth Fenton make the pattern for me. 3/4" Red Oak, about 15+ wide and about 7" high. Pegas MGT #5 from Denny at Artcrafters worked well.

Don, instead of water based stain try alcohol dyes. They are used by the turners. https://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/Video/161 I have been air brushing some projects with them.

Sure it will work, looks good. I would use the piece i cut it out of as a gluing template so all the pieces line up right and stay put while the glue dries. Maybe also a bit of color for contrast but thats just me. What i do with my stuff is put all the pieces back into the outer frame and glue it all together.

Hi Wichman: Love it, it's different from what we see all the time. Just gives another perspective on what can be done. Thanks for showing us Fab4

The arrowhead plaque was still wet with BLO when I took the first picture. Here is a side by side with the "actual" piece on the right and the drop outs forming another wolf on the left, I am trying for a twofer (sixfer? I stack cut 3, 1/4" plaques). Cleaning this type of project is super easy, canned air. Need I say more. (and I do understand your personal preferences).

Being new to woodworking, especially with less than three weeks experience with scroll sawing my projects look okay if you don't examine too closely. I liked using my band saw to make things but even though it cut smooth it lacked the ability to make tight curves. Using the scroll saw makes the tight turns but my straight lines aren't straight and my curves are choppy. I end up spending a lot of time sanding things to fix the flaws. I'm sure over time (if I live that long) I will improve. Was in Hobby lobby last week and saw some small intricate cut items priced at less than two bucks that would have taken me forever to make. Not to mention a home laser is darn near perfect. To the seasoned scrollers: Do your projects pass the close up look test or am I expecting too much?

Very beautiful work Jim. My son is a realtor. Great idea.

Thank you. Our cleaning people are people just like you and me. They are just as important as any NATO officer or civilian in the job they do at HQ. We all treat them with respect as a team member. Behind the scenes, they keep the place clean and sterile. The restrooms are super clean and actually smell nice in comparison to other military bases I have been on. Not too difficult to treat everyone with respect. We need more of it.

Dollar tree's is 1.25.

Thanks John. The trucks you made must have been amazing for the amount of detail you put in to them. Love to see photos of some of them if you have any.

Jimmy, Also check Dollar Tree, they have these as well. I got a bunch and they work good. If you can't find them in the store you can but them on line at their site. www.dollartree.com.

Great thiking outside the box, Jimmy, that find will save you a great deal of time. Rick

Thanks Marie. I purchased it from a carpenter several years ago who was leaving the province and I still have a fair amount left

Well, this is the latest off the saw and paint table. It will be heading to the bin. Not happy with it at all. There are a couple of pieces that will only fit from one direction. Yes, I pushed using a dull blade. And yes, I know I should have changed it earlier. This is also the first time that the Unicorn Spit has made the kerf narrower. I used a #5 Precision Skip on the poplar that I recently bought. I think the biggest issue is that the wood isn't a dry as it should have been. I guess it will be off to the store to buy some other wood.

Barb I just order some popular from KPJ hardwoods and it is great. It is 9 1/4 by 3/4 is 5.25 LF. My local supplier is 6.45 LF. You have to pay for shipping but I was ordering some BB so it wasn't too bad. I had a stacking frog puzzle that I dyed with water base stain and the pieces would not go back together. I wait about 3 week and it is all good. I use the popular and dyed it with water based stain and it was good dry in about a day. I would show the piece but I copied a laser product. PS: I like the juke box and the colours.

I almost did not see this months projects but I wanted to get on it anyway, even though I am barely making the deadline. I posted this one in bragging post but I enjoyed doing it so I thought I would go ahead and re-post it here. It has been a while since I had made any intarsia so here again is my beaver I did this month Dick heppnerguy

Like others have said it looks great to me.. I'm personally not a fan of layered projects where the pieces stick out from the backer.. ( I don't know the correct term ). mainly because it's just a source for dust to collect onto and makes it more difficult to clean.. same way with "unframed" portraits or framed without glass to help keep dust out of the actual piece.. IF I were to do something similar to this I would rather see it as a "inlay" much like Dave Monk does with his beautiful works of art.. easy to wipe dust off and polish a flat surface.. in fact this could be a sales pitch to those selling their inlay stuff.. or make both styles and explain to a customer the differences and advantages of the higher priced inlay work, LOL This is not to criticize the beautiful work you've done here.. it's just a opinion of mine because I hate cleaning / dusting and it gets horribly tedious with pieces similar to this or fretwork.. so I'm looking at it as a overall beautiful work I just wouldn't want to be the person that would be cleaning this..

I think it needs a darker background. For contrast. Nice cutting.

With judicially careful placement and glue application. Sure hope it works. That's some mighty fine cutting. Gonna be a beauty.

Thank You to Everyone.... :+} Kind of decided to take and basically I want to just Offer one to a Buying Customer. Like my Thanks. And from this post I will sent a few out and Price Accordingly. I like the thot of labeling as Antiques. This should get the Conversation started. People are Always Curious. Thanks to All..........Danny :+}

Advertise them as antiques.. not false advertising if it was that long ago, LOL.. Trying to sell things sometimes is odd with pricing... list it cheap and nobody sees any value in their purchase.. make it pricey and sometimes people buy it up.. of coarse that works both ways too.. It's really about getting it seen by the right person.. Like Ray said.. maybe your timing was off.. give it another go.. If that fails you could always donate them to a charity or goodwill or something..

Maybe it was just your timing was off. Give it another try. If you are doing craft shows, it's just another item on your table. I'd like to see pics of what you are talking about. It might give me other ideas.

Do you have a picture of that hooked up to your saw. I don't quite understand how you did it.

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:

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!

Wow, that's perfect enough for me... I guess being 70 and just learning I'm trying to accomplish too much, too fast.. While I'm still kicking

I agree with what all have said here and yes we are the worst critics of our own works. You will get better with each project you do. Using a good saw is also key. That is why the professional saws cost so much. I have been cutting for over 50 years and started on a 2 speed Dremel 16" saw I believe it was with pin end blades. That made many of my projects on the less intricate side because of the starter holes needed to thread that clunker through. I have come a long way and have to say have become very good at it. You learn little tricks as you go. The biggest key a beginner needs to learn is use the right blade and let the saw do the cutting. Do not force the work or else the blade will slant on you and start burning your wood. I only cut hardwoods. On occassion I will cut some BB but hate it. Dulls blades to fast. I used that stuff for my money puzzles I shown in another thread and went through about 5 blades per dollar bill. Here is a project I designed myself and being I was in the electrical union I was able to sell a few of these. You asked to see work up close. I think you can zoom in my cuts. Perfect, not by any means but not bad either. As someone said that is what makes it hand made and not laser cut.

Never tried a spiral blade before. I just cut some pine to make this people/animal thingy and the wood was a bear to cut through and it was the first time I tried a #7 10TPI 7R and it got the job done chopping through pine but it ended up still being smooth. Three weeks into this hobby and I guess I'm too critical of what I do.

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

@jimmyG, if that's your work, you're certainly not a beginner. That's some excellent cutting.

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.

I've only been scrolling about 6 months but I've learned a few things. First, this site is a treasure trove of good information. On here, I learned different blades from different manufacturers have different cutting characteristics. Some folks can cut a straight line with even a spiral blade. Not me. I mostly use a #5 or # 7 flat blades. I haven't even tried to cut intricate patterns that might require much smaller ones. As to cutting straight lines, I cut really slow, use a head mounted 2.5 power magnifier and plenty of light. Lately, most of my material is 3/4 poplar. I find that thinner material requires more attention and a steadier feed rate. Don't try to compare your scrolling to the CNC work you see in places like Hobby Lobby. That's an excersize in frustration. Patience, practice and, more practice is what it takes. Especially if you're a novice like me. And, remember, sanding is an integral part of the process.