Hearts & Keychains

Here are some pictures of some recent items I cut out. The pattern for the hearts with the initials was done by Arpop (http://fssp-arpop.blogspot.com/).

And the keychain patterns were created with a program by Steve Good at the Scrollsaw Workshop (http://scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/).

Andrew's 20th

There are times when someone’s birthday comes along and you can not think of a single thing to get them. It makes matters worst when the person won’t be of any help. So I put the search aside.

I found a web site that shows you a large number of words written in Chinese. Included are a large range of names. The site can be found at http://www.chinese-symbols.com/

After going to this site I got an idea! (Note the energy saving light bulb above my head) So I came up with the pattern for this name sign.
So I want to wish my oldest son, Andrew, a Happy 20th Birthday!

Cat Lady

I am sure most of know one or know of one. The cat lady. Well my family is blessed by being friends with our neighborhood cat lady. She is a good friend who happens to love cats. So I made her this candle box, pattern by Steve Good.

While on the subject of cats, one of ours had kittens recently. While my wife would like to take over the title of Cat Lady... we had to get rid of the babies. Lucky for us (and them) there is a place near by called The Cat House on the Kings. This place is incredible! It is a no-cage, no-kill cat sanctuary and adoption center. According to their web site they are currently caring for 700+ cats, kittens and do not forget the dogs too. Please take a moment and check out their site at http://www.cathouseonthekings.com/ also take a look at this video titled Cat House on the Kings

After writing this post, I decided to make the kitten sign for the folks at The Cat House on the Kings.

Elephants

As I have noted in the past, my wife loves elephants. With that said, I was surfing the internet one day and came across a picture of an elephant. It was drawn in a way that you could print in and the color it in. As I was looking at it my first thought was, I could cut that out on the scroll saw. So I printed it then I ran it through a copier at 75% & 50% reduction.

The hardest part of cutting this was the fact that I used ¾” oak and a #5 blade. But it was a gift for my wife and worth it.

What is it?

A friend and I were talking about various scroll saw patterns and such. The conversation led me to this idea. The original thought was to make this as a candle holder. The main problem I ran into is it does not put out much light. When my sister saw it she thought it would make a good planter.

One thing I did that can not be seen from the photos is I used a wood burner to write the meaning of each word. These are on the inside.

If I was to make this again as a candle holder I would want to cut the words larger. If I were to make this as a planter I would make the whole thing larger. I think it would be nice for a small bamboo plant.

Any other ideas?

Woodworking Weekend (part 2)

After coming home from my first San Joaquin Fine Woodworkers Association meeting I was talking with my youngest son (Josh) who had gone to the meeting with me. Josh had never really been interested in my woodworking. Now he was talking about it. In case you don’t know, I primarily work with a scroll saw. And now that I have two, I asked Josh if he would like to give it a try. And to my shock, he said yes. After picking my jaw up off the ground I had to think of a good starter pattern. Then I remembered a post on Steve Good’s site about this pattern http://www.stevedgood.com/feather.pdf so I showed it to Josh and he said he liked it.

After printing a couple of copies it was out to “my office” also known as the patio/workshop. I set up my old Ryobi saw and showed him all the different part and what they did. We glued the patterns to the wood and got started. We stopped a few hours later (9:00 PM) do to the noise we were making and the respect for our neighbors. The next afternoon we were back at it. After finishing the cuts on that one, Josh wanted to try this pattern http://www.stevedgood.com/supergeek.pdf
Please note: being the nice dad I try to be, I let him make some of his cuts on the DeWalt. And to my shock he preferred the Ryobi (kids…what can you do).

So I think I might have a partner in my little shop now. I can’t tell you how proud and excited I am at the possibility of spending time with one of my sons in the shop! I have been very blessed with wonderful children! I have added some pictures of Josh working and his first piece (still needs to be sanded and stained).

For more patterns by Steve Good, please go by his website http://www.scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com/ and make a donation if you can, as Steve asks nothing for the use of his patterns. To see the complete catalog of patterns go to
http://www.stevedgood.com/web/catalog.html

Woodworking Weekend (part 1)

This past weekend was my first meeting as a member of San Joaquin Fine Woodworkers Association. The meeting was the officer elections and the annual project contest. All I can say is Wow! The items were great! I can tell there is a lot of talent is this group and I look forward to learning as much as I can! One of the nice things about this association is they encourage education. Besides the meetings, they are holding classes almost once a month. What made the meeting even more special was that my 12 year old son tagged along and seemed to enjoy himself.

So I suggest to anyone who lives in central California to look into this association. Watch their website as I am sure there will be pictures from this last meeting coming soon. You can also look at pictures from past meetings at http://sjfwa.com/

And there was an added benefit to this meeting I will tell you about in part 2.

Photo Album

If you take a look at the bottom of the page you will notice that we have removed the map and replaced it with a photo album. These are various pictures from past post. There is also a link to the photo album in the links on the left.

Enjoy!

March 09 - Projects

Here are some of my recent projects I have done on the scroll saw.

Fae - I saw a piece of clip art of a green fairy. After blowing it up and printing it, I cut this from a piece of poplar and got some green wood stain. She measures about 10 1/2" tall.

Cross - I am sorry to say that I can not recall where I got this pattern. So whoever drew this, I give you the credit. Another piece from poplar that is 9 7/8" long and 6 3/4" wide.

Letter Opener - Well after the first one I made broke, my wife asked me to make her another one. She found the outline of the elephant that I put together with letter opener pattern by Steve Good. This time I thought I would use oak and maybe it would last longer.

Scroll Saw Update

When I first decided to purchase the DeWalt I had the choice of ordering it online or buying locally. The main difference was price. In the end I went with buying locally. When the saw died, I took it back to the store, who happens to be an authorized DeWalt dealer and service center. As I mentioned in my last post, I was told 2 to 3 days to 2 weeks. Well the fine folks at Ideal Saw Works http://www.idealsaw.com/ had my saw ready to pick up in less than one business day!

I do want to point out that this does not change my view of the DeWalt saw, I still think it is great!

So Thank You to Ideal Saw Works for your great service. Now back to making saw dust!