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LOML decided the little crosses were too plain, so she blinged them up.

Okay first off yes these was done on the laser. I posted here because aside from the text around the ornament being engraved these could easily be done with a scroll saw. The designer is on Etsy shop name “ Homestyle Customs “ and they have a lot of pattern files that easily could translate to scrolled work. When you download the designs they come in a few different formats one of which is PDF for easily made to print and cut on a scroll saw. With the laser the box joints are precise enough that the box needs no glue, just snaps together. I used a different than normal plywood so the fist few I made the laser was too much power and it cut through too deep on the engraved text and some of the top laminate came off on the a’s, b’s r’s etc so near the end of the batch I finally figured out the power level to work best. Lol I cut them from Maple and the backers from walnut. Oh I should mention that the patterns come with the ring of icons around the outer edge of the ornaments or without them. I have the icons shown here but without the icons the center portion is much larger and probably a much easier way to do on a scroll saw. I’m going to make the ones without next. Almost think without the icons might look better without all the small icons taking away from the center of the main image.

A few months ago a French Officer I work with at NATO SACT HQ* asked if I could make a US Flag for him out of wood. I thought I could come up with something better, and told him so, but I said it would be a while. Well, I am slowly working on it getting done and the first piece was cut out this morning. I using 1/4" and 1/2" Basswood for this piece as I will be painting it. I am using a couple of patterns from Steve Good combining Lady Liberty from another of his patterns. Of course, since the French gave us Liberty as a gift, adding her to this piece is a bit more meaningful in my mind. So here is where I am at today, and will post updates as this piece progresses. *North American Treaty Organization Supreme Allied Command Transformation Head Quarters in Norfolk VA.

Well You Alls here is another craft to Brighten up your Day. Hehe Brighten. Hehe Just color. I like it. Cut this one out of BB1/4". Was a Lot of Fun. My Original Idea was to paint each Leaf a Different Color....BUT.... my Better Half convinced me that hey they are leafs. Be better Green. So.................All comments will be Nice. Danny :+}

Right now, I am finishing up an enclosure for my laser. They do make some smoke. I will be using an inline duct fan to exhaust outside.

This was something I started earlier in the year before I stopped for the summer. Unfortunately I can't credit the designer as my old computer died and I don't have the files anymore. There's lots of delamination happening and I kind of struggled with this a lot since starting and have to blame the poor quality batch of BB I bought, there's not a lot left and I'll be looking for a new supplier to buy another batch from soon that said it is what it is. There wasn't a lot left to cut so I decided to finish it off. I don't know if it's worth trying to sand it and clean it up a bit but Ill throw it on the finishing pile.

Hey Charlie, I did listen to that song, I think the kid is right with the rainbow colors and what he sees (as an artist) Thanks Fab4

I thought there was some kind of paper that you can put on them that will avoid those brown marks from burning. That was how I explained many times at shows to people when they accused me of using a laser on my work. look for the brown burn marks and the inside of the cuts. Hope you have many sales on them.

I guess but I learned long ago to live by the adage if it is not broke do not fix it. Do not go looking for trouble. I know for as long as I have left to scroll on these saws they will never need for me to touch that wedge. I set the tension when I first got it and never touched it again. Just do not see the need to If your blades are breaking I bet it is something more than that wedge causing the problem. My saw the wedges are basically same size as arm. No overhang and maybe a little less. The biggest thing other than changing the front tensioner and getting new blade holders and new thumb screws I changed that silly plastic clamp holder under the bottom arm to spring steel and has work like a charm If i could figure that out why could they not see that being a weak link. Anyway Happy Scrolling. Again in my eyes the best saws on the market hands down. They are worth the money if you want an industrial saw. If a weekend warrior than any other saw is good for you.

Kevin that is beautiful! I wish there was a scrollsaw version of it but I really don't see how and keep them of the size they should be...But a wonderful job.. Would not be the same without the text. Darn. This belongs in bragging rights. It takes talent to do this even on a lazer.

A Very Good Question Paul.... Was around 2 years back when I was Taught this persons Method. He was like a Teacher for Various subjects. Inlay was one. Did mention a time or two that he was Canadian. So the Inlay is just Saving a Cut-out, filling the lil hole in with a compound, sanding good and Painting. I Enjoy this a lot. Danny :+}

I believe this can be put under the Bragging Rights forum very easily. Many beautiful pieces have passed through this site over the years and many of you either sell your items or give them away to family and friends and charities. So the question is what over the years has been your best seller or piece that gets asked for or you just decide to make and hand out. ?? Or both? What seller and what hand out? I will start and must preface this by saying I have been selling and making things for friends and family for over 40 years now and have made over 500 different items. Would have to pull out the records to know exact numbers and even that would not tell the whole story because I use to make things for Steebar many moons ago when the original owner was still alive and they were a good company to deal with. He would put them in his catalog. Many times John Nelson made the patterns that I would do prototype of and work out tweaks. But these watches have to be #1 for sales. and the heart has also a lot of sales but is also one that I gave out very often because it fits homes well. So lets see yours too.

So my first two big projects, Other than names, Need to learn how to get better curve edges,

From this to these! Getting things ready for a craft sale at the beginning of November.

This piece is for a Corvette club. 1/4-inch Baltic Birch stained natural with a Birch backer painted red. Four coats of Polyacrylic with light sanding between coats. The frame was pre-fabricated cut to size and splined for strength. I double stacked this piece and the other has a backer stained Ebony.

Ray this is a newer version of what I have.. you could run it in the house so long as you're somewhat close to a window or even a dryer vent that you could plug the exhaust tube up to.. Many times this company will have these refurb models cheaper than this one is.. I got mine at the beginning of the trend of lasers and the popularity for these K-40's for the sweet price of about $300 that i gave for mine they are a very powerful and a decent starter machine especially for someone that like's to tinker.. and learn.. https://omtechlaser.com/collections/pre-owned-machines/products/40w-co2-laser-engraver-cutter-us5-032r-us Or like Larry said he's doing.. build an enclosure.

I saw this Eagle Welcome Plaque by S. Good in one of his emails a while back and thought it would be a nice piece to make and add to my Eagle Collection. I modified his pattern slightly to make it as large as possible and still be able to fit on a the 12” wide precut panels I use. This resulted is the 1/4” thick Solid Core Red Oak ply cut panel being a nominal 14” x 11” mounted to a 1/2” thick painted premium ply backer being a nominal 15” x 12”. I rounded the perimeter top edge of the backer with a 1/4" round-over bit in tmy Router table. I also did away with his “WELCOME” third layer and cut the letters directly into the now single top layer. I use Pegas #3 MGT R to cut pattern and the perimeter of the backer. I would prefer using a spiral blade, but for this type of cutting, and as everyone knows, the regular blade produces a much nicer looking clean-cut edge. Just had to be a lot more careful keeping the blade from walking off track and to be extra careful making my sharp inside and outside corners. The backer was primed and then painted rattle can Brick Red. I then masked off the plaque to allow me to paint the area under the word “WELCOME”, white. After assembly I gave the entire plaque multiple coats of Clear Gloss Lacquer. Comments and critiques always welcome.

I'm not sure how small they will go but I use a #60 my Wen chuck with room to spare.

Anxious to see the finish product!

Kevin, very nice, I haven't jumped into the laser pool yet, some day I hope is my plan, RJ

Now I REALLY LIKE THIS. Is Eye Catching and I just Love the Colors with the wood look. And as your usual very, very well cut and Displayed. Danny :+}

One of the great features of my jet drill press the chuck closes all the way. I drill holes with a #70 bit lots of times.

I would think Basswood would burn more. It is such soft wood. But I don't have a laser don't understand any thing about them. Maybe the harder to cut the more it burns.

nice job

This is just a quick THANK YOU to you Don for helping me with my question about installing a font in inkscape. As its turns out, my MAC got indigestion as I was attempting to do the install, the darn thing is only 4 years old and prior to doing the latest APPLE upgrade, it worked great. The computer has been in the digital hospital since Tuesday and we have made 3 trips to the Danbury Mall since, an hour each way, and guess who isn't the happiest MAC user right now. We are headed there again today(Saturday), because the diagnosis is not good and I have to decide if I want to purchase another APPLE product, unfortunately, Ann Marie and I both use MACs and we have everything in the house tied in together.....we'll see.

I used the Maple and Walnut 5/32 project panels by Columbia Forest products from Home Depot. The Basswood sheets is a good choice, never thought of that before.

Kevin, Thanks for the information. My Ortur LM3 is a 10 watt laser but should be able to cut ornaments. I hope to have it running very soon. Yes, I have found that BB is more difficult to cut. I bought some bass wood sheets on Amazon and much easier to cut.

Hey Dick: I think in this case, if you were to try the poor man's inlay method, you could experiment without turning the pieces into designer firewood Very easy process as Danny described it in his post.. Just a suggestion Fab4

The wreath is very nicely done. As you probably know by now I am trying to learn to colorize some of my scrolled items and I probably would have tried to add a couple of shades of green to the leave that I hoped would project the idea that light was shinning on them because if an item is seen in real life and is one solid color and a little shadow or additional light is upon it, it will appear to be a lighter or darker in the areas of the light shinning on them or darker where the shadow falls on the item in view. A good chance, do to my lack of talent in painting, I would most likely mess the entire project up but I guarantee I would continue to try and get it right the next time I attempted to bring out the natural colors. The other thing I would have attempted to color a little differently than you did was I would have added a different color to the outline of the bells so they would have stood out from the outline of the leaves in an attempt to make the bells sort of stand out from the leaves more. Guess what? I bet I would probably end up not liking my results and then i would try to do it a little different the next time and hope to some day down the line finally understand how to achieve how to do it correctly to my personal liking. Maybe i will never get there, but I will probably keep trying anyway. Fortunately for you, you followed your wife's direction and did not have to go what I am going through with trying to change what is normally the right way to do it. I like your project a lot, I probably would be unhappy trying to do it the way I really want it to come out Dick heppnerguy

Jerry, that is too funny. I am also 83 and I am quite the joker myself but your remarks of fun went right over my head and I thought you were serious. I am constantly making remarks to total strangers and I don't even know where the thought came from myself as I really didn't even think before I made the crack. An example....one time I was walking by a post office mail box in our community where the entire block of mailboxes are placed in one central location, and a woman whom I had never seen before pulled up to the boxes in her car and got out of the drivers seat with a cute little puppy in her arms. as I was passing by her, I said,"That sure is a cute companion you have with you." The woman replied, "Why thank you." then without having even thought ahead of time how I was going to react or if I even would say anything IF she replied to my comment, I said without hesitation, "I was talking to the dog." So you see, we probably are a lot a like. Thanks for the chuckles Dick heppnerguy

You can just put painters tape on them and most of the stained area is eliminated.. other than the edges where the cuts are. For the most part I don't use tape and just use 400grit paper on my R/O sander and sand it off.. as it's a lot of work to pick that tape back off.. can't soak it with mineral spirits because that washes out the dark engrave part too.. so you're stuck picking it off. The box I never even sanded as it was my first time making something like that and like a dummy I put it together fresh off the laser.. it's such a tight fit I didn't think I could get it back apart without destroying it so I just left it as it was.. This set is going to be a gift to a family member since they spoke up saying they'd take it like it is with the bad burnt up lettering on some of the ornaments. Only time I do use that tape is if I'm working with white laminated MDF board from Lowes.. that stuff cuts very nicely on the laser.. and it's a lot cheaper too. Not sure if I'll put any up for sale, I mainly just planned to make as some gifts for family and a few friends.. If I get a couple extra sets maybe I'll put a couple on to see how they do. Thanks anyway though.

My 27 year old RBI 226vs is starting to show some wear. Been having trouble keeping tension on blade so I started checking things over and noticed the wedge on tensioning rod was rounded over on the point that sits in the arm. Its supposed to be a sharp point. Ordered a new wedge from Bushton on Sat and got in the mail yesterday. Put it on today And didn't have any trouble with keeping tension. I thought that was fast service and they even enclosed a note wishing Happy Halloween.

Yeah the plastic piece is sure a dumb idea on those older saws.. The new one has spring steel blade holder keeper things on it. At least they improved that part on these new saws.. and I've been reading a lot about how much better customer service has been so that's good too. My very first Hawk I bought needed the front tension cam and lever replacement.. on all three of my saws.. that is the only worn part that had to be replaced I've ever had so far.. They are very well built and made for production type work.. sure happy I made that move instead of replacing / rebuilding DeWalts every year..

Humm,,, I think your coloring is "outstanding". Just a note this reminded me of a bit of trivia Today 10/13 Is the Navy Birthday, and also National "No Bra Day". Do you think that is a coincidence? Okay, sorry I will go to my room now.

Not sure what I think about this? Colors are what I have, so..... Water color may have been better but I only had acrylic. Still have a backer to make, it's just black card behind there right now. With all the delamination I figured it couldn't be any worse

I'm using K-40 Whisperer, but the files made from most of the design files on etsy are making them geared towards lightburn or whatever glowforge uses.. I have to edit every single design to work with my software.. real simple though as I only need to change the colors for cut or engrave lines.. I believe in lightburn you can select what colors you want to do what within the software.. K-40 Whisperer has specific colors for cutting or engraving and I cannot change it within the software thus making me change the colors of the drawing for my software.. hope that makes sense to you.. I really need to get a motherboard for my laser so it can run lightburn, that'd make things a lot less complicated. There is a lot more you can do within lightburn and is the better software out there for lasers so if you're using it or trying to learn to use it.. you're better off, I know there is a lot of learning with it but once you have it figured out it's much easier in the end.. K-40 Whisperer is a very basic real simple to use but in that it's also very limited.. that's why it's so simple to use, LOL.. I have two K-40 lasers now as I found a great buy on a back-up machine.. I'm thinking about getting the motherboard to be able to convert it to lightburn.. then get it all set up so I can then do the same on the laser I'm currently using. Ideally I want to go to a bigger platform.. the one I'm using now only has a workable area of about 8 - 12 inch so projects are limited to small items.. Ideally I'd like to get a 16 x 24 or so.. I'd like to be able to do photo engravings then cut into a jigsaw puzzle.. I think they would be a pretty big hit.. having a wood burned image jigsaw puzzle makes the puzzles that much harder to do.. I should also note since you just recently started playing around with lasers.. I posed in the "laser group section" here in the scrollsaw village site about my findings of different grades of plywood and how they affect the efficiency of the laser.. basically it's saying that the BBply that we use for scroll sawing takes a lot more laser power to engrave and cut than other types of plywood.. Just the same as scroll sawing it.. BBply is harder to cut than some of the MDF core plys.. IF you're engraving and cutting a lot of BBply it's wearing out your laser faster as the more power or more passes you have to make the more you running the machine..

Thank you Marg, that is so sweet of you to say. I loved cutting it and my wife liked having it on her wall. Can't get much better than that. Dick heppnerguy

Maybe we consider a few hours in different terms. . I am enjoying the fret work with lots of holes to cut because the end results is so rewarding to me. Dick heppnerguy

Nice looking wreath, I don't know about the other two men that responded before me, The leaves can be any darn color you want no matter what she says,,, oops got to go, my she is looking over my shoulder... I may be gone for a little while..

Well I made a decision so we can put this post to bed. First, however, let me say THANK YOU to all who replied with info and made recommendations. I liked the price of the WEN 4208T but did not like the need to change belt/pully combinations to change speed. I did a lot of research and would have purchased the WEN 4214T as a lot of you have done, but the size and weight was a concern. A drill press will need to be mounted on a movable base so it can be tucked in the corner of my small shop but be able to be pulled out when needed to use with larger material. I decided to buy the WEN 4212T which is a little smaller in size and about 30 lbs lighter but does have variable speed control and laser. It does not thave a work light but I can add a mag-light if needed. I ordered a Keyless chuck at the same time. It should arrive Monday. Thanks again to all.

I gave intarsia a try. It's not perfect but I had fun.

You may want to try painting with water color. That will hide a lot of the delamination. I've done that on some of my pieces. I've stopped buying Birch from box stores. Their Birch isn't Baltic Birch and has voids as well as a thin veneer which causes it to delaminate. I purchased some Baltic Birch from Ocooch Hardwood and haven't had a problem with a single piece. By the way, you piece looks good to me.

Made this for my Son-in-law who is a big fan of sports and this team. I figure he can hang it in his Game room... It is segmented in 1/2" mahogany.

Very Different that all my others, but at first sight I knew I had to give it a try. I do like the outcome. Adding the words can after cutting the Stack of Three and finishing the one with Red. Any Comments is Always Good...............Tks Danny :+}

Finicky little things, but sell okay. 17 keys done. The 18th one met with unfortunate sanding mishap . Oak, from a friends scrap pile. Painted with craft acrylic paint. I didn't put a top coat on.

Here you go. It's a modest shop as it shares the garage with my Mustang. My space is about 20' x 5'. Although I can still work while the 'Stang is in the garage, I prefer the car out so I have a bit more space to think My table saw I tuck away and roll outside to use since it generates a lot of sawdust. I keep my rattle cans and sandpaper on the lower shelves of that rolling cart too. I also have a larger belt/disc sander on the shelf, along with my laser so you do not see those. I have rolling metal shelves on the other side of the garage, I store wood and "waste" wood, and also by the garage door I have my air compressor with my hose on a retractable reel, with about 50' of hose. I just installed the piping for the dust collection system, I added a cyclone bucket to it. I am still figuring out how I want to do the right side of the sanding bench where the smaller belt/disc sander is. Right now I just use the expandable hose when I want to use it plugging it in where my grinder/ flex drum sander plugs in. I am using blast gates to control everything. My vacuum system goes on anytime I turn on a piece of equipment. Most controlled by a dead man's foot pedal. My scroll saw is the only tool that does not turn the vac on as it does not draw enough current to trigger my controller. The electric is the next thing I will neaten up after I finish the dust collection. I am also going to get another workbench with built-in vice and dogs, and I am waiting for my new Wen 4214 drill press to come in tomorrow. I wanted something with cranks and a laser.

I'd like to see more pics of your shop. Different angles. It looks to be very organized.

Backlit Haunted House