Not Usually Made This Time Of Year

[CharleyL]

I have a friend coming to visit soon that I won't likely see again for several years. She doesn't have any of these that I've been making over the past 18 years, so I decided to make her a full set. One of the mid size gets a pin attached for wearing on a sweater, etc. Th other mid size becomes a necklace, the two smallest become ear rings, and the largest is just for display or hanging on the Christmas Tree.

I have made a smaller size than these, but the ratio of good to bad isn't good enough to justify the effort. Nearly every one of these can be made in quantity without failure. The ear ring size, at just under 1" tall can be made again and again and the only failures are if a blade breaks or if there is a flaw in the wood. The smallest, which I no longer make, are 1/2" tall. You can see by the included dime how small these are. I made and finished all of these, including clear lacquer spray and jewelry assembly in 2 1/4 hours yesterday. I have promised a few sets of ear rings to others, so will likely make and assemble them this afternoon. Then on to some larger projects.

Charley

[Herb Stoops]

Those are sooo..... cool, Charley.
Herb

[Cherryville Chuck]

Very nicely done Charley. I watched Alex Snodgrass do those freehand with a 16" bandsaw at a woodworking show where he was showing how to set the saw up. His were larger and not as refined looking but he was doing at least one a minute I think and I remember marveling at the fact he still had all his fingers.

[CharleyL]

Thank you both,

I've watched Alex, and even made some large reindeer on my band saw, but then decided to try making them smaller on my scroll saw. Alex doesn't use a pattern, preferring the one in his head to use. I can now cut either size without a pattern too, but they don't turn out as identical as I prefer that way. Using a #1 skip tooth reverse scroll saw blade seems to work best for me in the scroll saw, and results in no sanding required, except maybe to remove the rough edges, usually on their legs and antlers, if any should exist. I found that disposable finger nail files, sometimes trimmed for narrower widths, works well for this. I also keep a 6" length of 1/8" dowel rod, sharpened at each end in a pencil sharpener, and kept either in my shirt pocket or stuck in an elastic band on the upper arm of my scroll saw. I use this sharpened dowel rod to poke the waste pieces out from between the reindeer's legs and antlers, but also use it on the tiny splintered edges of the smaller sized reindeer, to bend these splinters back and forth until they break off. It also helps to hold pieces of the pattern down if it should get loose while cutting.

I don't just make reindeer, but the demand for them seems to have me making more of them than anything else. I don't know why, but the women seem to love them, especially when made into jewelry.

Today, I'm making boxes again, more boxes very much like I usually make from Baltic Birch. I still have some Baltic Birch left, and if prices don't get better, this may be the last of the Baltic Birch boxes. These will be for me, and for use in my photo studio. I want to make some more "Apple Boxes", just photography spacers to lift things up to 15", but these will be 1/2 size. The same heights of 8", 4", 2" and 1", but 12 X 10", instead of the full size 12 X 20". For photography, the large standard size sets that I made are working great, but sometimes small things like plants and other photo props need to be adjusted in 1" heights up to 15" too. I'll be making two sets, if I have enough Baltic Birch for them. Te same design is planned, box jointed corners, 6 mm sides and 12 mm tops and bottoms, with 12 mm partitions to transfer the added weight from top to bottom.

Charley

[Cherryville Chuck]

Thank you both,

I found that disposable finger nail files, sometimes trimmed for narrower widths, works well for this. I also keep a 6" length of 1/8" dowel rod, sharpened at each end in a pencil sharpener, and kept either in my shirt pocket or stuck in an elastic band on the upper arm of my scroll saw.
Charley

I glue sandpaper to strips of leftover counter top laminate for similar jobs. I prefer to glue them with fish glue because it can be wetted and the worn out paper peels off and new paper can go on without having to cut more pieces of laminate.

[CharleyL]

Using smaller, finer toothed, scroll saw blades produces smoother cuts that minimize sanding. It takes a bit longer, but sanding time is significantly reduced. I don't sand my reindeer at all, but do lightly sand the corners to remove the fuzzies. Which would you rather do, cut or sand ? I far prefer cutting, even if it's slower. For my reindeer I've been using Flying Dutchman #2 Skip tooth Reverse blades no matter the reindeer size (but my largest are only about 3" tall).

Charley

[Bushwhacker]

Using smaller, finer toothed, scroll saw blades produces smoother cuts that minimize sanding. It takes a bit longer, but sanding time is significantly reduced. I don't sand my reindeer at all, but do lightly sand the corners to remove the fuzzies. Which would you rather do, cut or sand ? I far prefer cutting, even if it's slower. For my reindeer I've been using Flying Dutchman #2 Skip tooth Reverse blades no matter the reindeer size (but my largest are only about 3" tall).

Charley

What is the thickness of your reindeer? My chess pieces are 1.5 inches.
I thought that if I use the spiral blades and cut very slowly, I might be able to save a lot of carving and sanding.

Bushwhacker

[CharleyL]

"What is the thickness of your reindeer? My chess pieces are 1.5 inches.

I thought that if I use the spiral blades and cut very slowly, I might be able to save a lot of carving and sanding."

------------------------

Most often my reindeer are cut from 3/4" stock, white poplar or clear pine for the larger ones, and hard maple for the little ones. Pine is usually too soft with too hard of grain lines causing blade deflection. Cutting reindeer from them leaves the grain lines showing so they look like zebras, so I look for pine that has almost no grain lines in it. Poplar cuts well and doesn't have significant grain lines, but I don't like the purples, grays, and greens in my reindeer, so I get very choosey about what pieces I'll use. The smallest reindeer require harder wood because they break so easily. This way, at least they have a chance of survival if made from hard maple.

After a lot of experimenting, I have settled on using Flying Dutchman #2 skip tooth reverse blades. They don't cut fast, but the cut is smooth and requires only light sanding to remove the fuzzies on the edges and no sanding at all on the surfaces. Spiral blades would likely be a disaster. I would rather cut slower and not have to sand all the surfaces. It actually saves time. So, which do you enjoy more, cutting or sanding? When I do sand, I use disposable fingernail files, sometimes trimmed narrower for getting into tight spaces.

If you are going to make larger reindeer or other compound cut projects you may do better using a different blade, but seriously consider finding a skip tooth reverse style blade, but I would never resort to spiral blades. The only
times that I ever use spiral is when clearing out tiny spaces in my fretwork that are too small to get cut pieces from.

Charley

[Bushwhacker]

"What is the thickness of your reindeer? My chess pieces are 1.5 inches.

I thought that if I use the spiral blades and cut very slowly, I might be able to save a lot of carving and sanding."

------------------------

Most often my reindeer are cut from 3/4" stock, white poplar or clear pine for the larger ones, and hard maple for the little ones. Pine is usually too soft with too hard of grain lines causing blade deflection. Cutting reindeer from them leaves the grain lines showing so they look like zebras, so I look for pine that has almost no grain lines in it. Poplar cuts well and doesn't have significant grain lines, but I don't like the purples, grays, and greens in my reindeer, so I get very choosey about what pieces I'll use. The smallest reindeer require harder wood because they break so easily. This way, at least they have a chance of survival if made from hard maple.

After a lot of experimenting, I have settled on using Flying Dutchman #2 skip tooth reverse blades. They don't cut fast, but the cut is smooth and requires only light sanding to remove the fuzzies on the edges and no sanding at all on the surfaces. Spiral blades would likely be a disaster. I would rather cut slower and not have to sand all the surfaces. It actually saves time. So, which do you enjoy more, cutting or sanding? When I do sand, I use disposable fingernail files, sometimes trimmed narrower for getting into tight spaces.

If you are going to make larger reindeer or other compound cut projects you may do better using a different blade, but seriously consider finding a skip tooth reverse style blade, but I would never resort to spiral blades. The only
times that I ever use spiral is when clearing out tiny spaces in my fretwork that are too small to get cut pieces from.

Charley

Why would spiral blades be a disaster.? I have never used one but was considering them. I will try the skip tooth reverse blades. I will probably have to order them since our local Home depot and Lowes do not stock many choices of blades.

Bushwhacker

[CharleyL]

The Wooden Teddy Bear is now the main source of Flying Dutchman blades. They sell a lot of patterns and other scrolling supplies too. https://woodenteddybear.com/ Sign up for their catalog while there too. You will get a new catalog about 2X per year with some interesting stuff to look at and buy.

I never had good luck buying scroll saw materials and blades locally, not even within driving distance. The better stuff needs to be bought at a woodworking show or online. Lowes and Home Depot carry the crappiest blades available.
Olsen Saw used to be almost next door to my uncle's home. The house is still there, but my uncle is long gone from there. I made friends with the Forman and got a free tour many years ago. I still don't like their blades.

Spiral blade teeth are too big for much of what I make, and it's difficult to steer them accurately, especially if trying to cut straight or nearly straight lines. The biggest use that I have for them is when cleaning out small cavities not much bigger than the needed pilot hole in a project. I'll switch to one, clean out all of the small cavities, then switch back to my blades of choice for the project. With experience, you will figure out what works best for the project and gradually narrow your blade stock down to maybe a dozen different sizes and styles. I keep my blades in tall prescription bottles, and I have made a blade box to hold about 30 of these bottles. Each contains one or version of size blade with the clipped label from the package inside with the blades, so I can re-order more of the correct ones. I usually buy several gross of blades at a time, because the bottles are big enough to hold 2-3 gross at a time. I also have a smaller box that I built for all of my scroll saw related tools. These sit on a plastic soda crate just right of my scroll saw so I can reach what I need quickly.

I also built about a dozen tote bins that I designed to stack. Each is used for the blocks of wood and everything related to that design pattern. These are stacked a little farther to my right when I'm cutting, and in a stack that's about the height of the saw table, with the project bin that I'm cutting from located on the top of the stack. Each has a label on the end, so I can find the one that I want easily. All of these boxes and bins were made from Baltic Birch and I box jointed the corners of all of them for strength. When I was teaching and demonstrating at shows, these showed professionalism, and got a lot of attention in addition as well, from people watching my teachings or demonstrations.

Charley

[Bushwhacker]

The Wooden Teddy Bear is now the main source of Flying Dutchman blades. They sell a lot of patterns and other scrolling supplies too. https://woodenteddybear.com/ Sign up for their catalog while there too. You will get a new catalog about 2X per year with some interesting stuff to look at and buy.

I never had good luck buying scroll saw materials and blades locally, not even within driving distance. The better stuff needs to be bought at a woodworking show or online. Lowes and Home Depot carry the crappiest blades available.
Olsen Saw used to be almost next door to my uncle's home. The house is still there, but my uncle is long gone from there. I made friends with the Forman and got a free tour many years ago. I still don't like their blades.

Spiral blade teeth are too big for much of what I make, and it's difficult to steer them accurately, especially if trying to cut straight or nearly straight lines. The biggest use that I have for them is when cleaning out small cavities not much bigger than the needed pilot hole in a project. I'll switch to one, clean out all of the small cavities, then switch back to my blades of choice for the project. With experience, you will figure out what works best for the project and gradually narrow your blade stock down to maybe a dozen different sizes and styles. I keep my blades in tall prescription bottles, and I have made a blade box to hold about 30 of these bottles. Each contains one or version of size blade with the clipped label from the package inside with the blades, so I can re-order more of the correct ones. I usually buy several gross of blades at a time, because the bottles are big enough to hold 2-3 gross at a time. I also have a smaller box that I built for all of my scroll saw related tools. These sit on a plastic soda crate just right of my scroll saw so I can reach what I need quickly.

I also built about a dozen tote bins that I designed to stack. Each is used for the blocks of wood and everything related to that design pattern. These are stacked a little farther to my right when I'm cutting, and in a stack that's about the height of the saw table, with the project bin that I'm cutting from located on the top of the stack. Each has a label on the end, so I can find the one that I want easily. All of these boxes and bins were made from Baltic Birch and I box jointed the corners of all of them for strength. When I was teaching and demonstrating at shows, these showed professionalism, and got a lot of attention in addition as well, from people watching my teachings or demonstrations.

Charley

Very nice Charley, I love that dragon. looks like a ton of work.

David (Bushwhacker)

[Bushwhacker]

The Wooden Teddy Bear is now the main source of Flying Dutchman blades. They sell a lot of patterns and other scrolling supplies too. https://woodenteddybear.com/ Sign up for their catalog while there too. You will get a new catalog about 2X per year with some interesting stuff to look at and buy.

I never had good luck buying scroll saw materials and blades locally, not even within driving distance. The better stuff needs to be bought at a woodworking show or online. Lowes and Home Depot carry the crappiest blades available.
Olsen Saw used to be almost next door to my uncle's home. The house is still there, but my uncle is long gone from there. I made friends with the Forman and got a free tour many years ago. I still don't like their blades.

Spiral blade teeth are too big for much of what I make, and it's difficult to steer them accurately, especially if trying to cut straight or nearly straight lines. The biggest use that I have for them is when cleaning out small cavities not much bigger than the needed pilot hole in a project. I'll switch to one, clean out all of the small cavities, then switch back to my blades of choice for the project. With experience, you will figure out what works best for the project and gradually narrow your blade stock down to maybe a dozen different sizes and styles. I keep my blades in tall prescription bottles, and I have made a blade box to hold about 30 of these bottles. Each contains one or version of size blade with the clipped label from the package inside with the blades, so I can re-order more of the correct ones. I usually buy several gross of blades at a time, because the bottles are big enough to hold 2-3 gross at a time. I also have a smaller box that I built for all of my scroll saw related tools. These sit on a plastic soda crate just right of my scroll saw so I can reach what I need quickly.

I also built about a dozen tote bins that I designed to stack. Each is used for the blocks of wood and everything related to that design pattern. These are stacked a little farther to my right when I'm cutting, and in a stack that's about the height of the saw table, with the project bin that I'm cutting from located on the top of the stack. Each has a label on the end, so I can find the one that I want easily. All of these boxes and bins were made from Baltic Birch and I box jointed the corners of all of them for strength. When I was teaching and demonstrating at shows, these showed professionalism, and got a lot of attention in addition as well, from people watching my teachings or demonstrations.

Charley

Very nice Charley, I love that dragon. looks like a ton of work.

David (Bushwhacker)

I went ahead and ordered a pack of Spiral blades. then when I attempted to install one in my Scroll saw, I came to realize that my Skil 3335 will not take smooth shaft blades. So back to the drawing board. I think I will try those skipped toothed blades for my 1.5 inch material. Again, I will have to order them since the local stores don't stock them. WHY NOT? Are there that few scroll saw users in our area.?
Bushwhacker

[CharleyL]

For serious small work cutting you are going to need a better saw. Most everything in scroll saw technology has moved on to "pinless" blades, allowing much smaller starter holes and smaller blades. Ditching the spring return system once common to scroll saws in favor of a second operating arm so the blade is both pulled up as well as down prevents a lot of blade breakage and allows using really tiny blades. The #2 skip tooth reverse pin less blades that I use in my saws are 0.010" thick and only about 0.035" front to back. This is what is necessary for the kind of scrolling that I do.

I learned scrolling on saws from the 1940's and 50's with the pin end blades and spring returns. I have no idea why I put up with it (probably because it was all that was available). Scroll saw technology took a giant leap forward in the early 1990's when they made these changes to the machines and blades. It became FUN to cut with the new design scroll saws and blades. I own a DeWalt 788 type 1 and a Delta Q3 saw now. The Delta uses a C frame design where the pin less blade is captured by the two ends of the C. The blade rocks back and forth front to back, making this saw a bit more aggressive than the DeWalt, which only moves the blade slightly forward and back a small amount when it cuts, because of it's small arm vertical movement. I can, and do, cut even the smallest reindeer on both saws, but the DeWalt makes doing it a bit easier. The blade grips are easier to use on the DeWalt too.

Charley

[CharleyL]

The Dragon took about 50 hours of cutting. It is about 1/2" thick and was made from two pieces of pallet wood (Red Oak). I lined up the grain pattern in them before gluing and then cut them to length. The seam is horizontal, about midway up the clock face and nearly completely invisible. Every line is a saw cut. He became a "Quest" before I finished cutting him out. His pattern was in an early 1990's issue of Scroll Saw Woodworking and Crafts. I named him THE KEEPER OF TIME, but had first named him Timekeeper. It just "fit better".

The base is a scrap of mahogany that was nearby. I scrolled him in the early 1990's using a relatively new at the time Delta Q3 scroll saw, using several different blade sizes, depending on the parts that I was cutting. The recess for the clock was cut early, before most of the scrolling, because I didn't have the right size Forstner bit. I made a template and attached it with double sided tape. Then used a small router, 1/4" bit and a guide bushing to ride in the template. After succeeding to cut the recess without incident, I proceeded with the scroll sawing, until completion, working 3-5 hours at a time until finished, over the course of about 3 weeks. My biggest scroll saw project.

The cross was cut from a piece of mahogany. When the cutting was complete, I used a 1/16" diameter air powered converted "Dentist Drill" to carve and shape the leaves. Then some Antique Rub N Buff for the leaves, followed by Tung Oil on the whole piece. I have ended up making 16 of these, but this is the original first one. My extended family, plus a "special preacher friend" each received the rest of them. With his, I also covered the cross itself with Gold Rub N Buff, which made it look almost like gold metal, because the Gold Rub N Buff filled the grain.

Since getting the Incra I-Box jig I have made a lot of box jointed boxes. Most of the time they have 1/4" pins and spaces and are made from Baltic Birch plywood, but also do 1/8" and 3/8" pins depending on if the project is larger or smaller than those pictured. I built quite a few boxes for woodworking tools that had so many pieces that I feared loosing them if I didn't build something to contain them. Before the I-Box jig, I had a pile of DIY box joint jigs. After switching to the I-Box, all of my old DIY box joint jigs went to the burn pile. Most of the time I use a Freud SBOX8 blade set, but for 1/8" pins I use a Freud ripping blade that has 1/8" flat top teeth. I also have used my Freud Dial-A-Width DADO blade set when making box joints bigger than 3/8". The defects don't show as easily in larger box joints, so this works OK, but I wish they made a bigger version of the SBOX8 blade set.

I volunteered for several years in the Exhibits Shop of the local Science Museum, Discovery Place in Charlotte, NC. I did almost everything from initial concept to completion of many new science exhibits, sometimes working there with them and sometimes working at home in my shop. Most times they just wanted me to design and build the electrical portions of the exhibit, but sometimes I ended up doing everything, except for the graphics. They had a whole department to do that.

Charley

[CharleyL]

Anyone seriously interested in "Scroll Sawing" should also subscribe to www.scrollsawvillage.com. We are scroll sawyers from around the World, with lots of tips, suggestions, and patterns related to scroll sawing. I have been a member there for many years, use my same ID there "CharleyL" too.

Charley

[OutoftheWoodwork]

I'm in that group, have been there for - wow- gotta be close to, or about a decade now. You've got some people with some serious talent in there!