I made my first reindeer in almost two years on Wednesday

[CharleyL]

I'm finally getting back into my woodshop and making something again. Health issues had just about completely put an end to my woodworking two years ago. I lost almost total use of my right leg, and none of the doctors could figure out what was wrong with me. Then last January a mild, but large bruise formed on and around my right knee, and the pain started going away. By about April I was able to put weight on it, but then it took me until about June to walk on it without cane or crutches. The bruise gradually went away along with the pain. I still have some balance problems, but I'm walking again. Just not nearly as well as before all this.

I started going back out to the shop in the Fall, but at first I just stayed an hour or so, looking around, and then went back to the house. My son was doing the required maintenance for me when something absolutely needed to be done, but his idea of putting tools and supplies back when finished using them is in a pile just inside the shop door. I still have a significant pile to put away, but I was eager to see if I could make reindeer again. This one is the first in almost 2 years. I made 7 total Wednesday afternoon of the two larger sizes that I make. This is Mrs. Rudolf, slightly smaller than Rudy, the largest, who is almost 4" tall. She is about 3 1/4" tall. The next size down from the Mrs. is Trudy the teen daughter and then the smallest is ear ring size at about 7/8" tall and I call him Rudy Jr. I named the sizes years ago as a way of keeping track of the quantities and sizes that I was making. I've actually made smaller, at about 1/2" tall, but the average success rate of about 4 good in 10 made me quit.

I've been making reindeer every year since 2004, except for these last 2 years. Well, with these, this year now isn't a total bust, so only one year, last year, without making any. Every Christmas Season I've just been making and then giving them away to any woman who helps me in some way during the Christmas Season. Every sales clerk, waitress, nurse, etc. gets one if they want it. For some strange reason, the women and teen girls seem to love these things. Most men are insulted if offered one, but I do give them away to woodworkers who want them.

As I wish the women a "Very Merry Christmas" at the completion of my business with them, I hold my hand out palm down with a reindeer in it, then drop it in their hand when they reach out. Their excitement makes it worth doing. I've been hugged and even kissed on the cheek, but the smile Is all I'm after, and the chance to improve the "Christmas Spirit" in them. I lost exact count, but it's somewhere around 15,000 total reindeer that I've made since starting this. Reindeer are not the only thing that I make, but it usually keeps me busy from September on, when I'm in the shop and not working on a larger or more pressing project.

I took this photo immediately after cutting her out. No eyes or red nose yet, Not even de-fuzzed yet. The eyes and nose are put on with black and red marking pens after de-fuzzing. Then a coat of clear lacquer. These were completed yesterday, before we went shopping, and one has already been given away. I've been avoiding it as much as possible this year, but Suzanne wants to go to the big mall, and traffic is very likely to be a mess around there. She doesn't handle driving in heavy traffic well any more. I don't either, but she thinks I do better than her, but we are very likely to make this venture to the Concord Mills Mall today, so I doubt I'll be making any more reindeer before Christmas this year. Hopefully, I'll be able to get started early and make a bunch of them before the Christmas Season next year.

For those interested, that's the clamp that I used to hold the pieces of the reindeer blank together while I'm cutting it, and most 3D patterns, that the reindeer is sitting next to. It's about 6" long and made from 12 mm Baltic Birch plywood about 1" wide, two 6" long pieces of #8-32 stainless steel all thread, four hex nuts, two #8-32 wing nuts, six #8 flat washers. Only the all thread needs to be stainless. I use the stainless steel all thread because the mild steel version are too soft and stretch easily with many repeated uses. I don't have that trouble with the stainless all thread.

Charley

Attachments
First 2021 Reindeer IMG_20211221_161725.jpg

[Stick486]

nice write up Charley thanks..
well done deer too..

[Bushwhacker]

Very nice Charley. Welcome back.

Bushwhacker (David)

[Jon]

Pleased to see your back, all the best for the holidays and future years.

PS nice reindeer as well.

[Herb Stoops]

WOW how nice that is, good job, Charley, and a Merry Christmas,ho,ho,ho, to you too.

Merry Christmas to all of you wood workers and members of the forum.Have a great New year too, I hope we get out of this funk soon.
Herb

[Cherryville Chuck]

Nice work Charlie. Can you show how you use the clamp?

[CharleyL]

Here are a few photos of the process -

Before doing any 3D pattern cutting on your scroll saw, you need to assure that the blade is absolutely square to the table in both the side to side as well as front to back direction. Set the blade speed low and look straight at the blade. If the blade appears to move slightly side to side as it moves, you will need to make adjustments until it truly moves only straight up and down, On a DeWalt 788 or saws with a similar blade grip, the set screw opposite the blade clamp screw can be adjusted in or out on both the upper and lower blade clamps to get the blade running perfectly up and down.

A perfectly cut square block of wood can be placed against the blade side and an adjustment made to the table so that the wood touches the blade top to bottom. The front to back blade squareness can be checked by putting the block of wood against the rear of the blade. It should also touch fully top tp bottom. As no saws that I know of have an adjustment for this, you may need to figure out how to modify the saw to achieve this. To check your adjustments, cut into the block of wood a short distance and look at the cut line. Is it parallel with the sides of the block of wood? Now move the block to behind the blade and check to see if the blade fits easily into this same cut.
You will need your saw perfectly adjusted in all of these directions to be able to get good results cutting 3D patterns like these reindeer.

I use a #1 R skip tooth Flying Dutchman blade. It cuts slower, but the cut is very clean, requiring no sanding of the surfaces after cutting, so the end result is faster with little to no sanding required, even though it takes more time to cut the pattern. and only a little edge de-fuzzing is needed after the reindeer has been cut out. I do my best to cut against the waste side of the pattern lines, leaving the line itself along the very edge of the good side of the pattern. This becomes even more important as you make smaller reindeer or other smaller 3D projects, as any variance from this will usually result in a badly cut reindeer or complete scrap.
To be able to see the blade and pattern lines clearly and without any shadows, I have two goosneck LED bright white lights attached to the upper arm of my scroll saw. They are positioned slightly forward of the blade, high enough not to be in the way of my hand movements while cutting, and angled down at about 45 deg. and back to point directly at the blade where it enters the work piece. The result on my saw is shadow free blade and pattern lines, making it much easier to cut the patterns accurately. Long smooth cuts with no stops and restarts are necessary for good results. Stopping because you got off the line and restarting from there, or going back to re-cut a short segment does not produce good results. If you cannot tune your saw as noted above, and you can't follow pattern lines accurately, 3D patterns are not for you. Get a better saw and practice more before even trying 3D cutting.
This reindeer pattern is available on the www.woodgears.ca website. You will need Phototshop or another image processing software to size it and to put many copies of it on the same page to save paper and printing. I group them together so long cut lines on a paper shear and then cut the strips to separate each from the strips. Be careful not to cut the face/side fold line. The reindeer pattern front and side views must be kept attached to each other and just folded to 90 deg along the fold line between them. This keeps the images aligned vertically to each other. They are attached to a suitably sized block of wood with glue. Since all of the paper pattern comes off with the scrap pieces, it doesn't matter much what glue is used, but I prefer common stationery store rubber cement. I apply the glue to the face side and left edge of the block of wood and the fold line of the pattern against the corner of the block of wood, keeping the reindeer's feet aligned with the bottom end of the wood block. I press the pattern on fully to minimize the amount of glue between the pattern and the wood. You want a thorough bond, but no excess glue under the pattern. Wipe off any squeeze-out. Then set the wood and pattern aside for several hours for the glue to dry.

The clamp needed for these reindeer needs to be about 3-4 times as long as the reindeer is tall. I've had best results using 3/4" Baltic Birch Plywood scraps cut to a little more in width than the Width of the block of wood work piece. I cut two identical pieces, and temporarily attach their face sides together with double sided tape. This lets me drill the holes in both pieces at the same time, so the all thread #8-32 stainless rods about 6" long will fit easily through them. I then drill slightly over-size holes through the ends of both pieces at the same time using a drill press. After the holes are drilled, the #8 all thread is then inserted in each hole of one of the pieces with a #8 flat washer and hex nut on each side of the wood and the nuts are tightened with only a few threads showing on one side. Both of the all thread are assembled and installed the same way with the long ends on the same side of the piece of wood. The second piece of wood is then slid onto the long ends of the all thread, and #8 washers and wing nuts are installed. This should complete your clamp construction. It should look much like in the attached photos.

I install the reindeer pattern block in the clamp, beginning with the face side of the reindeer up and making certain that both the block and clamp are flat against the saw table as the wing nuts are tightened evenly. I tighten enough to assure that the block of wood will not move in the clamp (about as tight as I can get them without seriously hurting my fingers). The blade then needs to be threaded through the clamp just above the reindeer's antlers, and connected in the other blade clamp. I'll let you decide if bottom or top feeding the blade. I always press down a bit on the upper blade clamp as I tighten the blade clamp, with the tension lever off. This lets me then set the blade tension closer to identical each time by eliminating any slop in the saw's mechanism.

Making the cuts -

After each antler to foot full length cut is made, the wing nuts of the clamp must be tightened again to assure that the block of wood remains together and with all cut pieces held tightly together and in alignment with each other. As each cut top to bottom is made, wood is being removed by the saw blade. Not much, but enough to make the clamp loose if it isn't retightened. If a piece gets loose, put it back, adding a piece or two of blue tape if necessary to keep it in place.

I cut the face view in a clockwise direction, making certain that the cut pieces don't move within the clamp. When the face view is completely cut, I loosen the clamp and rotate the block of wood so the side view pattern of the reindeer is facing up, and making certain that all of the loose pieces are again all being held in position by the clamp as it's being tightened.

I then continue cutting the reindeer, this time the side view, in a clockwise direction, beginning at the tallest antler.
I suppose the cutting direction isn't necessary, but it's how I do it. When all cuts have been made, always check to see that you haven't missed any, as putting them all back in the clamp to finish is very difficult to get right.

After cutting, you have a complete reindeer, in sort-of a shell, like an unhatched chicken. Remove all of the shell pieces carefully and you will find your reindeer in the middle. There are other pieces that resemble the side of a reindeer, but only the center piece is the real reindeer. The rest go in the scrap/kindling pile.

Charley

Edit: Sorry the photos did not post in correct sequence, and I don't know how to fix it, but I think you will see that the last should be first, etc.

[Herb Stoops]

Thanks Charley for the explanations and pictures. I have always admired the scrollers 3D items. We had an Expert and his wife at one of the WW meetings years ago that did a mailbox on a post with a bird on top, and it just blew me away when he "unwrapped" it and showed it at the end.
Your write-up and pictures were an excellent present for all us woodworkers., Thanks.
Happy New Year, Charley.
HErb

[CharleyL]

Herb, I think you have seen the mailbox with no bird and a cactus with a bird, as I have the plans for both, but only made one cactus with bird and never photographed it. Attached is a photo of one of the the mailboxes that I made.
Both patterns let you cut them out from one block of wood just like the reindeer. I modified the plan for this one because the original had the flag sticking straight out of the top center of the mailbox, where you said that the bird was. Maybe he combined the bird from the cactus with the mailbox to make the original flag into a bird. My modification to the plan creates the flag as a separate piece that then gets glued on in the correct place on the side of the mailbox. Both are cut out at the same time from just one block of wood, but my way cutting it out results in the two piece, mailbox and flag design. It's the only 3-D pattern that I make that requires assembly and glue after being cut out. It's impossible to cut this pattern with the flag attached as in my photos. That is likely why the original designer placed the flag sticking out of the top center of the mailbox. This is an advanced pattern and not at all easy for someone new to 3-D scroll sawing. All of these patterns can be found in the book that I posted. Diana Thompson has several really good pattern books for 3-D scrolling, and I think I have now found them all.

The background behind the mailbox is in the last photo posted (actually 2nd below). I made a dozen of these totes so I could stage parts for many different scroll saw 3-D pattern blanks and keep them separate for transport. Back when I was teaching and demonstrating scroll sawing at trade shows I needed a way to store and carry many different prepared blanks with the patterns already glued on. Cardboard boxes just weren't making the trips well, so I designed and built these totes. They stack well because I designed the feet so they lock into the tote below them. At shows and classes, these totes drew as much attention as my scroll sawing. I still have these adjacent to my scroll saw, so I can put the one in use on top of the stack and work from it.

Charley

[Cherryville Chuck]

Nice work Charley. I see how you use the clamp now. You have to load the pictures in reverse order, last one first, first one last. They'll show in exactly the order you see them listed when you finish loading them.

[Nickp]

Very nice, Charley...good to hear you're doing better...

[CharleyL]

I've been "falling apart" since about 2000. Now, almost 22 years later I have been through 7 heart surgeries and as of 2 years ago I have a pacemaker. I now have metal knees, the result of a fire fighting accident in 1978 that they refused to give me until 2008 and 2009 even though both knees had no cartilage at all left in them. They finally agreed when I started asking for a wheelchair (should have done it sooner). I have also survived cancer two times now.

Two years ago in August 2019, my right leg began developing pain whenever I tried to use it. It kept getting worse and by October I was about ready to have someone shoot me, because it hurt that bad and the doctors weren't giving me anything for the pain. In November they gave me two back to back doses of Prednisone pill regimen, which didn't do anything at all for me, but they did start giving me Lortabs (hydrocodone) that did help with the pain some. They also gave me a nerve pill (gabapentin), which didn't do anything, so they doubled the dose. Within 2 days of starting the double dose I could no longer maintain my balance, so they took me off of it. I have had these balance problems ever since then, but I am very gradually improving in the balance issue. The Lortab didn't kill the pain in my leg, but did dull it enough that I could get to sleep. I slept sitting upright in a living room chair, because laying down on the bed brought on more pain than I could bare. I slept out there for about 6 months during the worst of this.

Then the bruise formed that I had spoke about, beginning in early Jan 2021, and the pain began to decrease. I think I have explained the rest of my recovery pretty well before, so won't repeat it here.

A fall last July, while in the hospital for my wife's surgery, put my right hand in a splint for 8 weeks and 6 sutures in my right eyebrow. There is nerve damage in my hand that sometimes feels like needles are sticking into it, and I can no longer close my hand into a tight fist, but it is improving, very slowly. The doctors don't seem interested in helping me with this very much either, but they are very willing to take my insurance and my money.

I hate getting old and the maintenance costs are getting ridiculous, but I'm not ready to accept the alternative, yet. Getting old is definitely not for sissies though.

Charley

[Herb Stoops]

Hang in there ,Charley, after reading your ordeal, makes my aches and pains minuscule.
HErb

[CharleyL]

Yea, Herb. My last 22 years have been rough. When I think back through this I can't believe myself how I've somehow managed to keep going. I consider myself to be sort-of a time bomb, and I can't see the burning fuse to see how much time is left, so I keep plodding along and staying as busy at my hobbies as possible to keep my depression away. I guess I'm enjoying my life enough to keep pushing forward, but doing it is getting harder and harder. I read somewhere that the goal is to end up sliding sideways into the grave with the body fully used up, and yelling "man what a ride". That suits me just fine, but I don't think I'm fully used up, at least not yet.

The last time that I needed to fly I warned Airport Security that I had a lot of metal and plastic in me. He shrugged and waived me on through the scanner. As I exited, he yelled out "man, you twinkle like a Christmas Tree", but he didn't keep me from boarding.

My dad died at 48 of a heart attack, the second for him. He had is first at 45, and back then the treatment was "go home and rest for 6 weeks. If you have pain, take these Nitro-Glycerin pills". I would be dead at 58 if they hadn't figured out how to re-plumb and spread open small areas of my heart arteries to make me last longer. Nitro-Glycerin dilates your blood vessels, so your heart arteries can flow more blood, but it dilates all of them and not just the heart arteries. The result is lower blood pressure, which is usually good, but it also gives you migraine headaches for a while after taking it. I'll take the headaches any day over the heart pain. I carry a bottle of Nitro pills with me now. It's just a tiny bottle about 1/2" diameter and 1 1/4" long, so it's easy to carry in a pocket. For me, the heart attacks begin as tightness in the throat below the collar bone and burning like I just took a swallow of Texas Pete hot sauce straight out of the bottle. As it gets worse it begins to feel like a fat lady is sitting on my chest, and the ache and burning begin to radiate up through my neck to the chin line and out into both arms. My wife just had severe indigestion and chest pressure when she had her heart attack, so it's a bit different for different people. If it happens to you, get to help as soon as possible, but do it with as little exertion as possible. I took an Alka-Seltzer when it happened the first time because it would sooth an acid reflux if that was the reason for the pain, but it also contains Aspirin and they recommend taking aspirin when you think you are having heart problems. I sat still in a chair for about 15 minutes and I wasn't getting better. I was getting gradually worse, so then had my wife drive me to the ER with instructions that "if I get worse, go faster, and don't stop for anything until I'm in the ER."

I hope everyone on this forum reads this, because it may save their lives. I'm only 4 miles from my home to the hospital and one of the best heart groups in the Southeast, so both I and my wife were taken care of quickly. Had it happened to me the next night I would have been in New Hope, Kentucky, and over 100 miles from any medical help. I had tickets and reservations to service a printing press there and would have surely died there.

Charley

[Cherryville Chuck]

My dad died at 42 from his 3rd heart attack. First at 38. Same treatment regimen you described. At 72, despite one metal knee and needing the other and both shoulders replaced too I feel like I've won the lottery when I think how long I've outlived him. And oddly enough, despite heart issues running in the family, mine is pretty good according to my doctor. I went to see an old friend a few years ago who was dying of cancer. He was in his early 90s. At one point he said "you know Chuck, it's a pretty good engine that runs for 90 years without a major breakdown". I thought that was a pretty good way of looking at life.