Ed Bray
Established Member
To start this tale is to explain why I bought a Delta 40-540 Scroll Saw well over 10 years ago. I had read somewhere that a Scroll Saw could be used to complete Coping Cuts for Skirting and Chair Rail, as I was doing some work in my in-laws house and being a bit of a tool Magpie I bought one to do this work. Well to cut a long story short I didn't realise how big the learning curve would be and after many broken blades and wasted time, I did it the old fashioned way and used a hand coping saw. The Scroll Saw was relegated to the garage where it sat for many a long year unused and definitely unloved.
A short while ago whilst making a wooden rifle for my youngest grandson, I brought the saw out from its resting place and used it to cut out the trigger in the wood, it took longer to clean the surface rust off the table and insert the blade than it did to make the cat, but surprisingly I took my time and it didn't turn out too badly.
Fast forward to last week when I bought a number of Scroll Saw books from SteveBUK on this forum and when my Grandson saw the rabbit on the cover of the first book I received earlier this week he was insistent he wanted one. After reading about how to print and stick the pattern on to the wood I finally started it at 5pm this evening.
I made a few mistakes first and most troublesome was I used 32mm Iroko and this took an awful lot of cutting, slow and with the largest blades I had available (more and non-rusty ones will be on order tomorrow), I broke about half a dozen blades but after watching a couple of you-tube videos I slowed down and although the cutting seemed to take forever it was finally done at about 11:30 this evening.
Now I know it is not anywhere near the competency of the members on this forum, but I have to say, for a first attempt I am quite pleased. Yes, I have missed the odd line, and it will all need to be sanded down (and Danish Oiled) but I think that after sanding the pattern paper off and cleaning up the sharper edges it will look quite good and I am sure my 3 year old next week Grandson will be very happy with it. The parts are a very good fit though and it does not just fall together (I suspect due to the thickness of the wood) so he will not find it very easy at first.
I will be re-sawing some Iroko down to give me 3x 10mm boards to use for future puzzles as I feel that this will aid my progression with Scroll Saw Techniques.
A short while ago whilst making a wooden rifle for my youngest grandson, I brought the saw out from its resting place and used it to cut out the trigger in the wood, it took longer to clean the surface rust off the table and insert the blade than it did to make the cat, but surprisingly I took my time and it didn't turn out too badly.
Fast forward to last week when I bought a number of Scroll Saw books from SteveBUK on this forum and when my Grandson saw the rabbit on the cover of the first book I received earlier this week he was insistent he wanted one. After reading about how to print and stick the pattern on to the wood I finally started it at 5pm this evening.
I made a few mistakes first and most troublesome was I used 32mm Iroko and this took an awful lot of cutting, slow and with the largest blades I had available (more and non-rusty ones will be on order tomorrow), I broke about half a dozen blades but after watching a couple of you-tube videos I slowed down and although the cutting seemed to take forever it was finally done at about 11:30 this evening.
Now I know it is not anywhere near the competency of the members on this forum, but I have to say, for a first attempt I am quite pleased. Yes, I have missed the odd line, and it will all need to be sanded down (and Danish Oiled) but I think that after sanding the pattern paper off and cleaning up the sharper edges it will look quite good and I am sure my 3 year old next week Grandson will be very happy with it. The parts are a very good fit though and it does not just fall together (I suspect due to the thickness of the wood) so he will not find it very easy at first.
I will be re-sawing some Iroko down to give me 3x 10mm boards to use for future puzzles as I feel that this will aid my progression with Scroll Saw Techniques.
