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Hummingbird hovering over Flower. Pattern designer - @FrankEV. Thank you. Woods used -Purpleheart, orange osage, aromatic cedar, Canarywood, lacewood, poplar, maple, wenge. Mounted on live edge Elm. Walrus oil finish. Aprox 9"x7. There is a before finish and after finish. I love putting the finish on to see the colours pop!

One of Steve good downloads its some segment work and I won't be doing anything this small again my fingers don't like it I used plastic eyes and nose as I have a lot from the layered animals I make i I found some upholstery nails and they looked ok so I made them the buttons its not finished yet still need to sand base and cover sides to smooth a bit and then spray some lacquer Here's where I'm at It's rare I use paint but I took a paint pen and made the tie red it's sapele and hard maple used a 2/0 blade for it and cut the sides with a 5 ine Pegas one flying dutchman

I adapted a winter scene photo of a Chickadee to create a 10” x 10” Intarsia pattern. This pattern requires very accurate cutting to get a good fit-up. Wood used: Aspen, Basswood, Costa Rica Mahogany, Mahogony, and Wenge. Dye was applied to Aspen for the Light Grey areas. I used a 5/8” thick Premium Pine Project panel from Lowes for the free form plaque type backer. The backer perimeter edge was cut at a 4-degree bevel and then a router was used to round-over the top edge using a 1/8” round-over bit. The completed assembly was protected with multiple coats of a Clear Gloss Acrylic Finish. Comments and critiques welcome. I will post the pattern in Pattern Exchange.

Avast, Jim Hawkens! Be that Ben Gunn carrying Captain Flint's treasure Chest! (Treasure Island, 1950 the best!) Our Groomer has a 4year old grandson that is crazy about pirates. She had boarded our dog while we were away for Christmas and I was bored, so I made another treasure chest. The box is poplar and I used my I-Box tool to make the box joints. I ripped 3/4" wide, quarter inch thick strips for the top and glued and pinned nailed in place. Brass, hamered nails are sold a Lowes for a few dollars for a box of 25. My wife found the hardware on the web and did the fabulous paintings of the Scull and Cross bones and the parrot on the front and ship inside the top. The groomer will be back in about 2 weeks and will be surprised.

The quality of Harbor Freight tools is a curious thing. When you get into the tool/maker/mechanic/repair spaces, there is a lot of get this, not that. One of the more common things I've seen and heard is the less moving parts the more likely it is to last; get nothing electrical. HF serves a purpose, some view it as one and done, others as cheap tools (to keep after) for a job, and others look at them as a source for work tools. Their tool boxes are on par or better than anything I've seen at Menards or Lowes. The air hammer I have from them is a beast and the same unit as a Mac Tools. Curiously, I just recently watched a how to video put up by TRQ auto parts. Their shop guy was using an Icon torque wrench. A shop with enough financial backing for Snap On chose the Icon wrench! That says something. HF is moving up in quality, it cannot be denied. You can still get a grinder that is good for 2 uses; but they stock one that is every bit as good as a Dewalt. I think if we sit back and watch, in the next 10 years HF will become something like Craftsman was. Incidently, I have zero affiliation with HF; I just scrape by and fix as much myself as possible and don't want to buy Snap On every time I need a tool for 1 or 2 jobs. Be smart with your money and buy what you feel is right and don't ding someone for what buying what fit their needs if it isn't up to your needs.

I bought a refurbished 12-inch Hitachi sliding compound miter saw for a project many years ago. If it ever needs to be replaced, I would buy the Hercules. I found it interesting that I have 80-90% of the Harbor Freight items recommended in the video in my shop.

Here are my 2 Love letter patterns. First one with rose has some fragile areas, so I made simplier variant and cut it. What variant do you like more? Love Letter pattern Video of making project

Love it. Great wood choices. Great choice for the mounting slab. Yes it is all about applying the finish that make it all come together!

Coming along nicely, Al. You will get to where you get comfortable with segmentation, inlay, and relief cutting. I didn't try it for several years. Now I look for reasons to do it.

It was another page from a source I wanted to post that showed the good and bad tools of HF again one person's opinion. In it he said the Bauer line is far under classed to the Hercules line and does not even come close to Dewalt line. If that be the case not sure what HF is doing if they sell the Hercules line even in battery tools. Also pointed out the number of brands under the HF name but all made in China. Again I am not dissing HF but when comparing tools from a hobby home use to a commercial line like Dewalt there is going to be a tough fight. Dewalt is a proven line in both home use and commercial line. You do not see HF tools on job sites at least not the ones I was on. Now can HF tools stand up and last a long time sure without question. Especially if used sparingly. That is all I am saying. As some have pointed out their age plays a factor when buying new toys. Understandable.

Oh, man! Faces like that make it all worth while. I bet that young lad shows that off to everyone!

I am getting some poplar logs cut in to 1 inch boards so I am looking at a jet drum sander to take them down to half inch and smooth them off any advise on this good bad about a jet drum sander

I have started milling green wood (Beech/Cherry so far) and am using up my old leftover latex paint to seal the ends. It works. Sometimes I have to apply a second coat to get a good thick seal, but it definitely does the job. I've also read heated wax can be used, if you have a lot of that lying around.

great job

Treasure chest delivered. Lots of happy faces!

It seems from what I have gathered there are two ways to approach following pattern lines. It really has more to do with the pattern than the cutting itself. Thick line patterns vs. very thin line patterns. Those who use thick line patterns, they need to split the line to be accurate. Those, like myself, that like very thin line patterns can approach the cutting a little differently. For thin flat fretwork type panel cutting and using (me) spiral blades, the line is more of a suggestion as where to cut. Again using very small blades, a slight deviations from the line to either side does not usually effect the image unless very long,very straight cut lines are needed. Such deviations seen under 5x magnification are not apparent froma normal viewing distance. For Intarsia, however, I find there is a need for much more accurate cutting to obtain a good fit-up. I use the approach of cutting up-to/next-to the line. I cut just to the outside of the individual pieces so if any fit-up sanding is required, there is material to work with. You can always remove material, but you can not add material that has been cut away. Remember, there is always the loss of material between individual pieces due to blade thickness. Again, this is why I prefer, for cutting 3/4" thick material for Intarsia, to use using the smallest regular blades possible...I like Pagus #3 MGT-R for most wood species but they dull and break easily on very hard wood, like Purpleheart. Let me state this is MY way of cutting. It works for me. But, it certainly not the only way to be accurate and successful at cutting any kind of patterns using a Scroll Saw.

They don't have to watch it if they don't like it.

Some time back I had miter saw and upgraded to a had a HF ADMIRAL 12 in. Dual-Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw and like it. But really didn't need the double bevel feature. Then I thought I would upgrade and get a Dewalt 12" double bevel miter saw with the stand, and loved it. But still didn't need the double bevel nor the stand. Well a couple years back, and many tool purchases later I looked at my small shop and was I running out of room. So I sold the DeWalt miter saw, my lathe and purchased a 10" Metabo single bevel saw a good scroll saw, and banked the money difference. The Metabo was accurate out and box but I still don't need the bevel feature. I don't miss the lathe and it's just less tools my kids had to sell when I pass. They have more "stuff" than I ever had. So that is my story and I'm sticking with it. LOL

Which page? This one, or another page you wanted to link to? I've been having problems on FB with my local news, FB page loading, the page just sits there like it's trying to load. The rest of FB works just fine, so the problem may be a overload for a server somewhere.

I joined this village and you were starting to add color a few months later. What an inspiration, to see you get better just as I started learning. Now your showing huge steps of progress in a different facet of scrollsawing. So a perfect time to ask a the precision question. Shortly after I started, I was trying intarsia humming birds, and I asked how to split the lines of patterns. I think many answers from the village was, we saw up to the lines but not split them.That was a relief to me. But I saw some youtube videos that described try to split the lines. So I was a bit confused. Another reason about precision. THANK You for taking the TIME to share your experience with many words and ART and PATTERNS. If someone sees your timeline of posts, galleries it could inspire them to get thru early frustrations. It did with me. I hope that they will ask questions to help get to your level of work. Of course this goes for many other experts in this village that show their work and expertise and take the time to teach us beginers. As I still have a day job, I have to choose my projects wisely. So I have not taken up Dave Monk's challenge of his beautiful western box. I need more practice.

Impressive as all heck Frank! Your work is amazing Your description of doing intarsia is dead on, and so very true.

Latest piece done. Segmentation Koi bowl. I used 3/4" Poplar for two layers and 1/2" Maple for the third layer. Black is Osmo finish. Colours are acrylic paints. Finished with triple glaze gloss. Pattern is from an old Creative Woodworks magazine. Pattern designer is Deborah Nicholson. Thank you @Denny Knappenfor providing it to me. Original pattern is 12" diameter. This is reduced to 8"diameter.

Real nice

Wasn’t sure where to put this, so….. One of the things with the Bauer 22” saw is the arm pin being so far back. Some I’ve heard use a 2x4 to support it. I like to make gadgets, so here’s my crude set up. Have a ‘cleaner’ one in the works, but this is what I had on hand to play with to get the idea a visual. IMG_6515.mov

Allen, another excellent job, you are making this old timer look bad, LOL, RJ

I'm sorry I guess my small mind thought some folks might like to see a video of the side by side comparison of the DeWalt and this HF saw.. I apologize to anyone that wasted their time watching this. I seem to forget there are many more smarter people out there than me that already knew about these saws and why they are priced so differently yet very similar.

Very nice job.

That sure is mighty fine, Barb. You sure got that one done quickly.

awesome job

There isn't a magic formula.

The photo I used had dead leaves, so I assumed it was a winter scene. My leaves are not green as they would be if not winter. I did not even think about the indication of snow on the branch. I just followed the photo when making the pattern. I enjoyed doing the flat fretwork, especially with adding color, but my stockpile of finished pieces was getting too large and insperation for new pieces was getting more difficult to find. Intarsia seemed interesting and challenging. I still get to work with color, if not with paint. Pieces are generally smaller and I don't have to make frames. AND, as I was warnned, without a doubt Intarsia is addictive! In your final question, I guess you are asking about comparing precision between Fretwork sawing and Intarsia sawing. Loaded question! Read on if you have the time. Art panel Fretwork sawing is tedious and care must be taken not to cut into adjacent cut-outs, but following the lines super accurately is not as imperative to the final image. Of course, drilling and treading the blade in the many hole panels I did is a SPITA. I enjoyed useing spiral blades to cut the very thin plywood panels. The results of the cutting is apparent immediately and quite satisfying to the senses. Adding color was my way of kicking the resuts up a knotch. Intarsia, on the other hand, is less about the sawing and more about interpretation of the wood and art being created. That being said, accurate sawing is imperative to get a good fit-up of the pieces. Cutting the same line twice exactly the same is the key to good Intarsia. No quick cutting using spiral blades. However, the sawing is actually the lesser part of the effort when doing Intarsia. The sanding to get good fit and finish, shaping (or sculpturing if you will) to make the art come out of the wood, the wood choices to obtain the art colors, the assembly/glue up, and even the application of the finish must all come together before the art can be viewed and the senses satisfied. You only get a hint along the way of what the final piece will look like before the final finish is applied. I also like to create the patterns for the projects I do. For my flat fretwork I was making more and more of my own patterns. For Intarsia, there are many very good patterns available by some very talented Artisans, but I really do not care to do OP's patterns. I spend many hours at the PC to make my own Intarfsia patterns which I share freely. This is also what makes Intarsia challenging for me.

The clear top gift boxes are a great way to display ornaments at the shows if you build a stand to make the boxes sort of stand up at a angle to show them better.. When I did in person sales almost everyone commented on how nice the packaged ornament is to give as a gift.. I'd have to get me old computer out to get the photos off it of how they're displayed in the clear top gift boxes.. When I switch to the boxes sales went up.. I no longer use the clear top ones since I'm shipping them the cardboard boxes give a little more protection and I'm not needing to display them at a booth anymore. Edit: I remember I have a photo on my FB page from back in 2016 where I was packaging some orders for the day that is showing the ornament displayed in those clear top boxes.. You can see that a business card fits in nicely.. having these set up on a rack at a show in the box is how I displayed them and I used address return labels to hold the clear top on in some cases.. The return label with printed just like a mini business card. When displayed at a show I would use colored paper to place behind the ornament on top of the cotton to make the contrast better and make them more Christmas looking with red and green paper behind them.

If you seal the ends of the boards, you can minimize checking while the boards dry. There are special products for the purpose, but plain old latex paint will work.

Definitely start with 1” cut. Sticker and let dry. This CAN take months. After it’s dry you will have to cut off any checks (cracks). Then you can start to plane and sand.

IF he's starting with green lumber then 1" is probably about right.. You'd be amazed at how much lumber shrinks when it dries out.. a 1" green lumber will likely be around 3/4 once dried.. also how it's dried makes a difference Kiln dried or stickered and air dried.... then depending on the type of sawmill ( circle saw or bandsaw) and the runout of the blade on said mill etc.. by the time you get it milled down so the board is smooth you may end up with 1/2 - 5/8 finished lumber.. Of course this depends on how green and what species of lumber you're working with.. in this case poplar does shrink quite a lot..

Why not just have the board cut at 1/2" instead of 1 inch to start with? I would resaw on a bandsaw first then run the boards thru my planer. A lot less waste and faster.

Even though I don't have one, a planner is the way to go.

Buy a planer. The DeWalt 735 is probably the best small planer ever made.

A drum sander is only going to remove a few thousands of an inch at a time. If you are looking to remove 1/2 inch, or 500 thousandths, you will be pushing a board through that sander for a long time. There will also be a phenomenal amount of dust generated. A planer is what you need for this task.

Lots of construction going on around us these days (yay, progress...?), so its harder to hear the owls and coyotes at night, but we still have plenty of little critters, and the hummingbirds remember where my wife keeps the feeders. Oh, and let us not forget the Texas springtime thunderstorms....

Say what you want Kevin. There is no side by side rating there. Put it through its paces then it is a side by side. I am not defending Dewalt or dissing HF but price wise HF will ALWAYS have the lower prices. He unboxed the saw and it looks like the Dewalt. How many times have we said over and over again here about scrollsaws looking alike. A little difference here and there. He said his Dewalt saw was still kicking. let him come back in 10 years and tell us. That is all I am saying. You must have stock in HF I am guessing. Go on the internet and you can see hundreds of comparisons of tools within all brand names but remember one person's view that is all it is just like this video. One person's view.

I do not see the purpose of these type threads. Of course anything HF sells is going to be cheaper than brand names. Many times you pay for the brand name but many times you pay for better quality. Especially any of the bench top tools. If a person uses a tool once in a blue moon it should last them a life time. If a person uses the tool for their livelyhood they will want a better quality tool. That Dewalt saw he compared to will outlast him. I thought Hercules was HF old brand name, why not name it a Bauer saw? Heck you can find a used tool of brand name cheaper than that saw. What does that prove? You notice he used my exact words in that video, "If the tool has a motor I am not buying from HF" they are trying hard to change that stigma. Disposables, I buy all the time. They are one and done items. If it breaks not out much money.