Hello New Chair, Bye Bye Old Saw

Over the weekend I got a new chair for my saw, an "executive" leather office chair. $80 at BJ's which was more than I had planned on paying but it is a really comfortable, nice chair, adjustable in every way, and it looks great with the black saw. So much better than the kitchen chair and the bar stool I had been using before. And it spins, which makes it easier to get in and out.

On the other front, I finally sold my saw on Craigslist, after 12 days. Only got $60 for it but it wasn't in the greatest shape and now it isn't taking up space in the spare room.

Also finished both of Kent's puzzles.

 This puzzle only has the name cutouts other than the regular puzzle pieces.

 This puzzle has the name cut out and also shapes: a fish (in the water), a baseball bat and baseball, an arrowhead, and a bottle.

They went pretty quickly, I am really getting the hang of it. The new chair made it easy, I didn't have to stretch my back nearly as much as usual.

Puzzle Lessons

Finished this puzzle for Faye today!  I think it turned out great, especially since I was able to fix a couple of mistakes. Two tiny pieces of the photo had flaked off two of the pieces, and I had no idea where they were. Without them, the puzzle didn't look good, and I was really bummed out about it. But today I had the idea of sweeping up the sawdust around my saw and sifting through it, which I did for about 20 minutes before I found the first and smaller of the two.  Right away, I glued it back into place and you can hardly even tell it was ever separated.  But the larger piece was still missing.

I searched through the garbage and sifted and resifted the sawdust, and still, nothing. After about an hour of this, I gave up, and decided to try printing that bit of the photo and gluing it on, even though I knew it would be difficult to match it. I managed to patch the piece but it really didn't look great; it looked better than before, but definitely not as good as I would like. Then I decided to give puzzles a rest and went to the tool bench to get a knife to cut open some bags of mulch for my flowerbeds. And there it was. A little speck of white on the floor by the toolbench, the exact shape and size of the piece I had been hunting for. Right away, I glued it back on. The glue of the makeshift patch hadn't even dried yet so it was easy enough to scrape off.

The lesson I learned from all that is to make sure the saw is free of sawdust before I start a new puzzle so I can easily find any bits that are missing. I had the dust and bits of two weeks of projects to sort through today and it was not fun.

I also tried to start on Mom's puzzle, and learned another lesson. I had sprayed a layer of glaze on the photo a couple of weeks ago, but ran out of the glaze and was unable to do the preferred three coats. When I got back from Virginia, I sprayed another coat on. Today, I learned that when there is that big of a gap between coats, the top coat won't cure.  Every time I touched the photo it left deep fingerprints that would not rub off. I knew that by the time I had it cut there would be so many fingerprints the picture would be hard to see, so I threw it away and ordered a new print. Picked it up at Walgreen's a couple of hours later and tomorrow I will start all over again. This time I will do it properly, and hopefully it will be done in time to mail by Friday.

Puzzle problems

I have 4 puzzles on my plate right now; two of them are for Kent, one of my fellow volunteers, one for Faye, the archaeologist I volunteer for, and the 4th is for my mom for mother's day. Today I decided to start on Kent's but I ran into some problems.

It turns out that with cheaper photo paper, when you spray the finish that I use (deco-art triple thick glaze), it causes the ink to detach from the paper and pool in puddles. It basically ruins the pics. I sprayed a light layer of glaze on his photos and then realized that this was that bad paper I had read about online, and stopped immediately. The pictures weren't too blurry, and I thought that once the cuts were made the blurriness wouldn't even be noticeable.  Unfortunately, Kent had requested I do some special-shaped pieces and when I taped the templates for those pieces onto the photos, after I cut the pieces out when I removed the tape it also removed the top layer of the photo from the puzzle pieces. Twenty pieces cut on the first pic and I realized this wasn't going to work at all. I needed the pictures printed on better paper. So that project is shelved for the moment.

I also had to spray another layer of glaze on the photo for my mom's puzzle, so now that is sitting overnight before I can work on it. It is my biggest priority because I want to be able to ship it to Idaho in time for Mother's Day, but since I couldn't cut it today, I decided to move on to Faye's.

The photo is of two deer, one of which is piebald (white and brown). That deer was named Pie, and used to live at Cape Henlopen State Park, where the lab that I volunteer at is located. 

The print of the photo is 11x14" which is the biggest I have cut so far. I made a lot of progress on it today, about halfway done, sanding the back of each piece and putting the puzzle together as I cut it. I estimate that it will have about 310 pieces when it is finished, most of medium size (didn't want to cut them a regular small size due to the size of the piece as a whole).

Yesterday I listed my old scroll saw on Craigslist, hoping it sells quickly.

The last few weeks I have been plagued with arm problems but I have been a lot of stretches and it seems to be getting better.

T-Rex

Yesterday I started on a project I had been planning on doing for a long time. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would; only a few hours, and today I finished it:

A tyrannosaurus rex skeleton! I got the pattern from a book that includes other patterns for dinosaur skeletons as well. It was very basic cutting, really easy, and it was fun. The finished skeleton stands 2 feet tall.

Happy Easter!

Since Easter isn't a big deal for me, especially since nobody gives me an easter basket anymore, I spent much of my morning and afternoon in the garage.

First thing I did was try out my drum sander attachment on the drill press on my first bowl. It worked great! I really did a lot of good sanding on the inside of the bowl and it is looking excellent although a bit rustic. Once I get the inside of the bowl smooth enough I will glue the bottom onto the bowl and then sand the outside on my belt sander.

 I decided to try lowering my scroll saw so I could use a chair and give my right arm and neck some relief. It did help to have my work closer to my face, but I'm not sure I like it. I think the best solution will be to get a chair that is more adjustable rather than the old dining room chair I am using now.

 Started on my big elk mural I planned out last week. Glued the patterns to wood and started cutting them. I really like cutting the animals and trees and mountains; keeps it interesting.

Finished some oak celtic pendants I started months ago, I am going to glue magnets on the back of them. Also sanded some of the kids puzzles I finished yesterday. I am going to stain them bright colors.

 We might be going up to New Jersey on Thursday, and any trip to New Jersey means we will be driving right past the Woodcraft store in New Castle. Even though I really don't need to be spending money on fancy wood right now, I am already thinking about what I might get.

A busy week

Today I put the finishing touches on gifts for my nieces. Over the last couple of weeks I put together a sign and a set of bookends for them to share, as they both have birthdays this month. Yesterday I put a final coat of glow in the dark paint on the fairies and today I lacquered them and put a ribbon the sign to hang it with.

I also finished some easter eggs that I have been making the last few days. I sanded them and glued magnets on the backs. Here they are on my fridge:

I am going to give two of them to my neighbors that are having Tom and I over for Easter dinner tomorrow. 

Lately I have been feeling a weird pain and some swelling in my left shoulder, left arm, and left side of my neck. I think my barstool is too high for my saw. I can either lower it or lower my saw and get a chair, which I think I will do, rather than permanently modify the stool.

 Today I bought some MDF and had Tom cut it down to manageable pieces to experiment with. Not sure what I am going to do with it yet. Also had some copies made of the patterns that come in the scroll saw magazine. They are on large sheets of paper and double-sided so it is hard to copy them at home. It cost just under $4 to get one sheet copied; I had 8 copies done today so that was over $30, ouch, but still worth it. Saved me a lot of time and effort trying to figure out how to cut the pages down and copy them without distortion and then tape them back together. Still have lots of magazines to copy the insets of, but I will save that for later.

Butterflies and Birds

I've been working on segmented butterflies for awhile. I made my own patterns from 19th century sketches I found on Flickr Commons. Unfortunately real butterflies, and their sketches, are not symmetrical, which is fine, but doesn't work so well for wall hangings. I had to redo all my patterns to make them symmetrical, but in the meantime I had a bunch of butterflies that I had already cut, so I decided to use them to experiment.

Yesterday, I tried decoupaging. I think it turned out pretty good, although there is certainly room for improvement. I have never decoupaged before so I learned a lot and tried a few different techniques before I settled on the look I wanted. Next time I cut butterflies I will decide which segments will be decoupaged before I sand. Those segments won't be beveled like the others; I think that will make it easier.

 Today, I worked on my sandpiper project I started some time ago. I took a drawing I found on Flickr Commons, old enough to be public domain, and I traced it onto a sheet of paper to make a segmentation pattern. Then I decided to make the backing layer bigger than the bird so that it would look like the bird was on the beach. After I had that drawn out it occurred to me to make a cut-out to represent water. And then I decided to put another backer on that would be blue for the sky and the water. Over time I cut and sanded it; today I stained the bird and glued sand on the beach.

I like how it turned out but I think I could have done a better job on the sand. Next time! Because Easter is coming up, I also cut this:

I also cut a shark puzzle and a square four piece puzzle that is supposed to be tricky to put together but I forgot to read the directions. I was supposed to bevel the inside edges just a little and I didn't, so instead I made a puzzle a baby could put together. Another lesson learned!

First Projects, and a Tale of Three Saws

Last year I started scroll sawing. I was bored and needed something new to do, not just in general, but with my life overall, it turned out. I was in a car with my husband; it was dark and I was staring out the window and suddenly I asked, "Do you think i'ts possible to make a clock entirely out of wood?" Tom said I should look it up on my phone, so I did, and by the time we got home I had determined that it was possible but you needed something called a scroll saw. I ended up buying a Dremel motosaw. It was the cheapest scroll type saw I could find at $79 on Amazon. The first thing I cut on it was my signature, drawn on a piece of poplar. And I was hooked. I was also terrible at it. This car that I cut out for Tom is still hanging in our garage but it makes me cringe every time I see it, it is so bad.

First car cut-out

I experimented with 3-dimensional objects like vases:

With a fake orchid, in my bathroom

I practiced a lot, so much that I burned out the motor of the Dremel. This was a blessing in disguise. The Dremel had a lot of limitations; it wasn't really a scroll saw and it only used pin-end blades, which meant I couldn't cut anything with fine details because I needed to be able to drill holes large enough to fit the pins. I did some research online but I wanted to keep it cheap so I ended up buying the newest Porter Cable scroll saw at Lowes.

At first, I was really happy with this saw; it cost $199 and it had a lot of features that the Dremel lacked. The table tilted so I could make bevel cuts. I could use pin or pinless blades. It was a lot quieter and had a lot more power, as well as a deeper throat so I could make bigger projects. Over the next few months, I made a lot of things with it, and got better and better at scrolling.

Butterfly coasters, wood burned and colored with pencils

Wood-burned skeleton

Skeleton hanging on porch

Sammy's blue castl

I learned how to burn wood and decorated the butterfly coasters and skeletons that way. The blue castle I made for my husband's granddaughter, Sammy. I started planning Christmas gifts. I wanted to make another castle for my niece Makenzie, and a fairy night light for my niece Rachel, as well as a sign for my nephew Max. I was well into all three projects when my saw decided to quit in the first week of December. I took it to a repair shop an hour away and they replaced a set screw that was missing altogether and a week later I was back in business.

Z's pink castle

Rachel's nightlight

Rachel's night light lit up

Rachel's night light in the dark

Max's sign: Max on a mission to rock

Napkin holder for Mom and Dad

Luke's mobile

I also made a napkin holder for my parents and a dinosaur mobile for Sammy's baby brother Luke. Christmas came and everyone liked their presents. I got to work on making things just for fun.

a 3-d head

pendants filled with polymer clay

poplar segmented butterflies

Butterfly

Gold painted silhouettes

Soap dish, vase, Eiffel Tower

Cut-out silhouettes

A scrolled bowl

Elk, a scene from a Berry Basket collection book

Desert scene from a pattern book by Patrick Spielman

Another Berry Basket pattern, herons in a marsh

A segmented castle from a book by Frank Droege

Duck from pattern book by Lora Irish

Sign for Mark's garage, from a pattern by "Grampa"at Scroll Saw Village

Meanwhile the saw had already been back to the repair shop because it was squeaking and knocking. Turned out a screw was loose, that was all, but the way the saw was constructed it was difficult for me to repair on my own. I learned that replacement parts, when needed, would be hard to get. I tried to keep it in good shape but it was not built to last, and it was certainly not built to withstand the punishment I was putting it through. I was also becoming aware of its own limitations compared to more expensive saws. I started thinking about getting a better one... In the beginning of March, my saw started acting up again. I tightened every screw I could access and I lubed everything I could possibly lube, and it kept on knocking and squeaking. I knew that scroll sawing was something I wanted to keep doing. My friends thought I should start selling my stuff at craft shows. I had just finished these coasters for some friends:

They were such a hit that I started thinking, maybe I really could make money off this. So I took the plunge, for $899 from Seyco.

Tom trying out my saw

It was way better than the Porter Cable in every way. Another friend requested two sets of coasters and I got to work.