Scroll Saw Blog

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ve noticed a lot of smaller items, such as earrings, barrettes, and pins. The advantage of cutting these things is that you really don’t need much wood.  For these type of projects I usually resaw 1/8″ wood and stack it 6, sometimes 8 high. Six works easiest, 8 gives you an extra pair, especially in softer woods like mahogany. I was about to toss out a well-used blank, but noticed an unused corner.  One of the small butterfly patterns will just fit in that corner, so some spray adhesive, tape and a #53 drill bit later, I’m ready to cut out 3 more pairs of butterfly wings.

From a 4″ x 15″ piece of 4/4 walnut (less than a 1/2 bdft) I was able to cut out the following:

• 3 sets of large butterfly wings for magnets
• 9 sets of small butterfly wings for earrings/pendants/barrettes
• 3 sets of steam engine earrings
• 3 sets of unicorn earrings
• 3 sets of dragon earrings

…and I really didn’t plan this blank out, as I was experiencing with new patterns as they popped out.

So for about $2 worth of wood (these were walnut shorts, about $4/bdft), I am able to get $225 worth of product.  Of course, I have to sell it all . More realistically, I should net about $45-$90–Still not too bad for a small chunk of wood!

What this really means is the using more expensive, exotic woods for these type of small projects is very doable.  Your major expense is not material, but the time you put in–both on the saw and assembly/finishing.  It’s just hard resawing a piece of bacote that runs $13/bdft!

Walnut Blank with Holes

I was visiting one of the shops that sell our products, Rita Caz in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  A suggestion they had was to do fish, specifically angelfish.  So I drew up the pattern below.  Instead of cramming all of “ANGELFISH” in a short fish, I just put “ANGEL”.  I almost put in “ANGLE”, but caught it at the last minute!

I haven’t actually cut out the pattern, so if you’d like to take a crack, feel free at your own risk . I’m a little concerned about the bottom area of the “G” being a little weak.  I may take out that little wedge-like angle to give more wood there and hence more strength.  As always, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to ask.

Here is a picture of the pattern.  The link to the actual .pdf file is below.

Angel Fish

Here is a pdf file of the actual pattern

Angel fish Animal Puzzle Pattern (24K pdf file)

If you come to this post at a later date, you may want to check the “Tuliptree Crafts Patterns” link on the side; I may have an updated version of the pattern.

We made the first cut on the new “General” EX-21: Some primitive star beads for earrings. I used a #3 Pegas blade and a stack of 8 pieces of 1/8″ mahogany.

Primitive Star Beads Cut on a Scrollsaw

If you count beads, you’ll notice there’s only 7; the eighth one broke.  Turns out the blade wasn’t quite vertical and I ended up with a star without the strength to stay together.  The hole in the guide used to set 90 degrees isn’t quite accurate, same as on the first EX-21.  I believe you can adjust the guide, but it’s not really worth it to me–I just use a 1-2-3 block or a machinist’s square, as it only takes a few seconds to square the blade.

Bat "Chiroptera" puzzle

This is the second cut on the saw.  This was a custom puzzle for someone who wanted a bat, but wanted the latin order for bat, Chiroptera. I decided to use a good piece of curly sassafras.  The large amount of solid wood in this puzzle really shows off the curl.  In this picture the puzzle hasn’t been oiled yet and you can still see the curl.  After oiling the curl is really dazzling, especially in person.  It’s going to be hard to ship this one off!

While cutting this puzzle I had problems with the blade being square.  After using a 1-2-3 block to square the blade (for the first time) I had no problems cutting the puzzle. I also used a #3 Pegas here.

To keep most of the info in one place, I’ll place my observations in the EX-21 review on this page here.

The new EX-21 did arrive today, a little earlier than UPS said.  Glad I didn’t go anywhere! Here are some pictures of the assembly:

EX-21 Stand

Here is the stand that is designed for the EX-21.  It came in a separate package that didn’t need a signature.  I got it put together Friday.  The nuts require a 12mm wrench to assemble.  Kenai Dawn On The Mountain (our 9-month old Maine Coon Kitten) is doing the inspection here.

EX-21 Carton

This is the carton the EX-21 came in.  A little roughed up, but not abnormally so.  It is well padded, as you can see in the next picture:

Inside the EX-21 Carton

In addition to the outside box, there are two layers of corrugated cardboard and the styrofoam.  I didn’t see any damage on the outside of the saw.

EX-21 on packing plywood

The EX-21 is bolted to a piece of plywood. The manuals/bolts/power cord are also taped to this board. I took the saw, board and all, and placed it on the stand. A 12mm wrench unbolts the saw from the plywood.  I then moved the saw to the other stand (for the orignal EX-21; currently empty), removed the plywood, and place the saw back on its stand.

EX-21 Shipping Damage

The only damage I noted was to the table.  Scroll saws are normally shipped with a blade attached; this keeps the arms from flopping and possibly getting damaged.  Unfortunately the blade wan’t attached to the lower clamp.  The blade popped up above the table and scratched the table a bit.  This shouldn’t affect the saw’s ability, but is a little disappointing.  I know tables get scratched up in normal use, I just wish it was me doing the scratching!

Bolts for EX-21 Mounting

Here are the bolts used to mount the saw to the shipping plywood.  They also work well to mount the saw to the stand. 12mm once again–pretty much standard throughout the assembly, saw and stand.

EX-21 Mounted on Stand

Here is the EX-21 finally mounted on the stand. There’s a knob that attaches to the back, and the OSHA foot still needs to be  removed.  When removing the foot take off the mounting hardware as well. First time I turned on the saw it made a horrible vibrating sound.  Turns out it was the loose hardware vibrating.  It doesn’t serve any other use I can tell, so off it comes.  Much quieter now!

EX-21 Table

Here is a look at the table.  The foot is gone, the knob in back (not visisble in this picture) is attached, and we’ve done a test cut.

I’ve done some “official” cutting; I’ll discuss that in a future post.

At least that’s what UPS says.  I wasn’t around to take delivery friday, so didn’t get it.  Really that didn’t make any difference, as I had to do the Dayton Railfest this weekend and wouldn’t have had time to set it up.

Anyway, sometime between 1400 and 1700 today the saw is supposed to arrive!

I was looking over the results from the Dayton Railfest, and was noting the number of bookmarks sold.  In most cases, they were in groups of 5 or 10 (where I have price breaks). It’s getting closer to Christmas time, and the bookmarks tend to do well as inexpensive gifts and “momma-canna-have-somethins”. Scrollsawing the bookmarks really isn’t hard, and go decently quick. Putting together blanks is a pain, but not too bad. However, cutting those 90+ blanks from a sheet of 1/32″ plywood is a big, boring, pain.  Using the paper cutter helped out tremendously.  Before that I used scissors which was hard on the hand after a while.  Don’t even think of using a tablesaw–you’ll get a bunch of splnters when you crosscut the plywood.  Not to mention a lost of waste due to the kerf size.

Problems with the paper cutter:

• It tends to move the plywood while cutting just a little.  You have to remember to flip the plywood after each cut, no big deal.
• Cutting everything to the same size requires some type of stop.  Right now I use a spring clamp to hold a piece of wood at the proper spot.
• It’s still too slow–flip and move plywood, hold against stop, clamp with onboard paper clamp, cut, fish out parts from under paper clamp.

What I’m considering is adding a table beyond the edge of the paper cutter, where the waste paper would normally fall. I’d drill holes in the legs under the paper cutter and bolt the extension.  Then I’d add a pair of stops to this extension.  Since I’ll be using wood, attaching the stops to the extension should be easier than clamping a board to the table. Two stops are needed, one for the length of the bookmark (cutting the initial strips), the other for the width (final cut). Since the cut-off piece would not be under the clamp, it should be easier to remove. Also it should be easier and quicker to push the sheet of plywood under the blade.

Hopefully I can also get rid of the movement-while-cutting. This movement happens because I really don’t have much plywood against the “fence” of the cutter–less than 3″ and less than 1-1/2″.  Making the measurement on the other side of the blade means I get up to the full length of the “fence” to hold the plywood against.  More force, less chance of movement.

We’ll see how this goes.  It’s one more thing in the queue of things-to-do !

Fun, but not well attended. We did a little better than break-even, so it wasn’t a loss, and I was able to ride the trains.  Biggest problem for us was the material: we didn’t have much train “stuff” (we knew this going into the show). Biggest problem for everybody was not enough people coming through. We did a bit better today than yesterday, but still not extremely well.

Animal puzzles were a little over a third, the same with bookmarks.  Didn’t well any magnets. We did sell a pair of train earrings (the mahogany ones shown in a previous post) and 3 of the train ornaments.

We packed up tonight for the Dayton Rail Festival tomorrow, and was able to get a few pictures of the recent E-Track installation.  The first picture here is looking in the back of the trailer:

E-Track in Cargo Trailer

On the left the lower track runs the length of the trailer; the upper runs half the length (10′). I’ve also got a 5′ section both hight and low on the right. I plan on running both tracks the full length, minus the front door. The upper track is just below 4′ (were the trim runs across the 4×8 plywood), while the lower one is roughly 18″ from the floor.

Tables stowed on E-Track

Here is a picture of some gear stowed on the right hand tracks.  There’s four 6′ tables there stowed with an E-Track ratcheting cable.  Misc stuff is stowed with pairs of E-Track rings and bungy cords.  The ratcheting cable works much easier, but runs about $18.

Rolling Tables stowed with E-Track

Here are the four rolling tables stowed with a pair of ratcheting cables on the lower track.  Three are parallel to the trailer; the fourth is cross-ways.  One strap around one set of legs, the other on the far set of legs.  There’s actually a third around the front two tables closest to the wall; this one isn’t needed.

The E-Track is screwed to the metal frame of the trailer with 1″ #12 self-drilling screws.  I also screwed every other hole into the plywood with 3/4″ #14 hex/washer head screws.

Since we’re doing a Rail Festival this weekend, I thought I might try some train earrings.  The demographic is all wrong; figure most of the folks there will be male.  Jenny thinks there might be some “bored wives” who might be interested.  Anyway, I drew a simple 4-4-0 “American” type engine and cut out some earrings from some 1/8″ walnut.  I wasn’t sure where to put the mounting hole, so I tried 3 different locations.  I settled for the one behind the bell for the next set, made from mahogany. These still need oiling; they will darken up and look better then.

We’ll see if there’s any interest this weekend.

Steam Engine earrings

At least that’s what the UPS site says.  We should get it shortly; the trick is to catch the UPS man at delivery–we have to sign for it! Of course I really can’t use it until Monday, when the Dayton Rail Festival is over.  I should have a good idea on the new saw by midweek