Charley
Established Member
Gill, if you have already/or just about to give up, I have a TS2000 table saw going spare for a good price :wink:waterhead37":he1kxnrh said:
Signals From The Bunker
- Thread starter Gill
- Start date
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Great advice about setting up the tablesaw, guys. I think I'll have a go at building an extension table as you've suggested (and check the machine for square - it's a long time since I did that )
Woodwork will have to take a bit of a back seat for the foreseeable because His Lordship has had his redundancy confirmed. I'd like to say how much we appreciate the support that everyone on this forum has given us, much of which has been expressed privately. Thank you one and all.
He didn't like factory work much, anyway. Still, it bought in a good wage. At 53 years of age and after 25 years working at Longbridge he's going to find it difficult to adapt to another job. Nevertheless, we're trying to see the situation as an opportunity for him to find employment that he finds fulfilling. I've been discussing options with him and been surprised by how flexible he's prepared to be. So I think some good will come out of this interlude eventually.
Gill
)Woodwork will have to take a bit of a back seat for the foreseeable because His Lordship has had his redundancy confirmed
. I'd like to say how much we appreciate the support that everyone on this forum has given us, much of which has been expressed privately. Thank you one and all.He didn't like factory work much, anyway. Still, it bought in a good wage. At 53 years of age and after 25 years working at Longbridge he's going to find it difficult to adapt to another job. Nevertheless, we're trying to see the situation as an opportunity for him to find employment that he finds fulfilling. I've been discussing options with him and been surprised by how flexible he's prepared to be. So I think some good will come out of this interlude eventually.
Gill
SammyQ
Established Member
My best wishes and regards to you both for both the near and extended future. Being of approximately the same vintage as "His Lordship" I can - in a limited fashion - empathise. My family has a saying "When one door shuts, another opens". I think your honesty and cheerful positivity on this thread have been remarkable.
Sam
Sam
dedee
Established Member
Gill,
Hope his lordship finds a way out of the situation soon. After 23 years in the same company I had more than just a subtle hint that my time will be up at the completion of the project I am currently involved with. At the moment I am quite looking foward to going - but that may change when the actual letter arrives - probably in July.
I hope the redundancy packages offered will give him time to find a job that he wants to do rather than has to do.
Andy
Hope his lordship finds a way out of the situation soon. After 23 years in the same company I had more than just a subtle hint that my time will be up at the completion of the project I am currently involved with. At the moment I am quite looking foward to going - but that may change when the actual letter arrives - probably in July.
I hope the redundancy packages offered will give him time to find a job that he wants to do rather than has to do.
Andy
Gosh, Chris, I've just realised that I've overlooked the question you asked about my ballerina . I'm sorry!
Designing the marquetry pattern wasn't too difficult. I scanned a photograph into the computer, processed it through CorelDraw to convert it to monochrome, then reduced the colours to simple black or white. Next, I used my own judgment to manually tidy up the areas that didn't look right. Finally, I detected the edges using an OCR trace. This effectively gave me a line drawing which I printed out and traced onto the veneer using old fashioned carbon paper.
The pattern is a few months old and I wouldn't use the same software if I was creating a pattern today - JASC Paint Shop Pro is much more intuitive. Oh, and before I start cutting the veneer I use a pencil to shade the areas on the paper design that won't be cut, where possible. That helps me me when I inevitably start to wonder which side of the line I should be cutting :roll: !
Whilst I'm waiting for a tuit to arrive so that I can build an extension to my tablesaw, I'm going to have a go at building a sled to replace my mitre guage. I actually made one a few years ago but it's a bit bulky for every day use and the fence is at the front (!) since it was a copy of a panel cutting jig I once saw Norm Abrams use :norm: . At least I know the saw is set up properly, having checked it in accordance with a tablesaw guide book that I was very kindly sent. So the chances are that the error lies with the mitre gauge and a sled should help overcome this.
Gill
. I'm sorry!Designing the marquetry pattern wasn't too difficult. I scanned a photograph into the computer, processed it through CorelDraw to convert it to monochrome, then reduced the colours to simple black or white. Next, I used my own judgment to manually tidy up the areas that didn't look right. Finally, I detected the edges using an OCR trace. This effectively gave me a line drawing which I printed out and traced onto the veneer using old fashioned carbon paper.
The pattern is a few months old and I wouldn't use the same software if I was creating a pattern today - JASC Paint Shop Pro is much more intuitive. Oh, and before I start cutting the veneer I use a pencil to shade the areas on the paper design that won't be cut, where possible. That helps me me when I inevitably start to wonder which side of the line I should be cutting :roll:
!Whilst I'm waiting for a tuit to arrive so that I can build an extension to my tablesaw, I'm going to have a go at building a sled to replace my mitre guage. I actually made one a few years ago but it's a bit bulky for every day use and the fence is at the front (!) since it was a copy of a panel cutting jig I once saw Norm Abrams use :norm: . At least I know the saw is set up properly, having checked it in accordance with a tablesaw guide book that I was very kindly sent. So the chances are that the error lies with the mitre gauge and a sled should help overcome this.
Gill
Chris Knight
Established Member
Gill,
Thanks for the summary. I have just started using Photoshop edge detection for making drawings for carvings..
Re the sled, mine has a fence in the front and the back. Just mind your hands as you push the sled - the natural place to put the pushing hand is right in line with the blade!
Thanks for the summary. I have just started using Photoshop edge detection for making drawings for carvings..
Re the sled, mine has a fence in the front and the back. Just mind your hands as you push the sled - the natural place to put the pushing hand is right in line with the blade!
Over the weekend I cut three mahogany boards to size, planed them to about 7mm thick, and jointed them together. I then debated if I should sandwich the jointed board between two sacrificial ply sheets and decided that the wood was probably thick enough to survive without wasting this ply.
Well... it wasn't ...
Since this is the place to write about 'past mistakes', I thought I'd make a note of it here. I've worked predominantly in man-made material up until now, such as ply and MDF. I'm going to have to learn some new techniques when it comes to scrolling wood.
Amongst other things I noticed was that slowing down the stroke speed didn't necessarily mean that I could make finer cuts. Sometimes, it's better to actually increase the stroke speed when working with thinner material.
I also found that a conventional blade left a rather rough underside. Since I was working on fine detail which I didn't think would survive a later sanding, I decided to switch to an alternating reverse tooth blade. Big mistake! The reverse tooth had such a tendency to lift the wood that cutting became almost a secondary task to holding the dratted wood flat on the table. And of course, working with finely cut material meant this put such stress on the wood that it splintered.
At least I know more about scrolling this afternoon than I did this morning :roll: .
Gill
Well... it wasn't
...Since this is the place to write about 'past mistakes', I thought I'd make a note of it here. I've worked predominantly in man-made material up until now, such as ply and MDF. I'm going to have to learn some new techniques when it comes to scrolling wood.
Amongst other things I noticed was that slowing down the stroke speed didn't necessarily mean that I could make finer cuts. Sometimes, it's better to actually increase the stroke speed when working with thinner material.
I also found that a conventional blade left a rather rough underside. Since I was working on fine detail which I didn't think would survive a later sanding, I decided to switch to an alternating reverse tooth blade. Big mistake! The reverse tooth had such a tendency to lift the wood that cutting became almost a secondary task to holding the dratted wood flat on the table. And of course, working with finely cut material meant this put such stress on the wood that it splintered.
At least I know more about scrolling this afternoon than I did this morning :roll:
.Gill
Alf
Established Member
=D>
S'interesting; never really gave much thought to how different scroll sawing in wood would be to MDF - bit like being a newbie again in some respects I suppose.
Cheers, Alf
S'interesting; never really gave much thought to how different scroll sawing in wood would be to MDF - bit like being a newbie again in some respects I suppose.
Cheers, Alf
dedee
Established Member
Gill,
is the wee dog the results of your trials with the 7mm mahogany?
He looks real nice to me.
Andy
is the wee dog the results of your trials with the 7mm mahogany?
He looks real nice to me.
Andy
Hi Andy
He certainly is. Unfortunately, the original idea had been to produce a large portrait of Admiral Nelson . Then the timber disintegrated and I was left with small remnants. Some kind folks over at <cough> http://groups.msn.com/FreeScrollsawPatterns </cough> had just given me some patterns for long haired chihuahuas so I decided to make the most of a bad situation. I'm a chihuahua nut and I've been trying to get a pattern for years.
The piercing work on the chihuahua played havoc with the blades! If I have one criticism of the Hegner, it's the blade holding system. I don't seem to be able to make more than 5 or six piercing cuts before the blade breaks through bending at the top clamp.
Gill
He certainly is. Unfortunately, the original idea had been to produce a large portrait of Admiral Nelson
. Then the timber disintegrated and I was left with small remnants. Some kind folks over at <cough> http://groups.msn.com/FreeScrollsawPatterns </cough> had just given me some patterns for long haired chihuahuas so I decided to make the most of a bad situation. I'm a chihuahua nut and I've been trying to get a pattern for years.The piercing work on the chihuahua played havoc with the blades! If I have one criticism of the Hegner, it's the blade holding system. I don't seem to be able to make more than 5 or six piercing cuts before the blade breaks through bending at the top clamp.
Gill
dedee
Established Member
Gill,
I've always striggled with blades breaking but interestingly I do not think ever at the top clamp.
There seems to be so many variables that can cause a blade to break, tension, feed rate, top & bottom arm alignment etc. On my last pieces (the xmas candle holders) I screwed the top screw right down onto the bit that holds the blade and wacked the tension up until my thumb hurt. It seemed to do the trick at the time but I am not sure it was what the book reccomends.
Andy
I've always striggled with blades breaking but interestingly I do not think ever at the top clamp.
There seems to be so many variables that can cause a blade to break, tension, feed rate, top & bottom arm alignment etc. On my last pieces (the xmas candle holders) I screwed the top screw right down onto the bit that holds the blade and wacked the tension up until my thumb hurt. It seemed to do the trick at the time but I am not sure it was what the book reccomends.
Andy
Hi Andy
Securing the clamp on the rocker arm in the way that you describe is certainly what Roger at Hegner does. Mind, he also has a high blade attrition rate. It just seems so peculiar to me that the clamp is designed to swing freely in the rocker yet it works best when clamped in place.
I'm not so sure about wacking the tension up until the thumb hurts, though. Obviously, you need some tension - but my idea of woodwork is that it should be as pain free as possible!
Gill
Securing the clamp on the rocker arm in the way that you describe is certainly what Roger at Hegner does. Mind, he also has a high blade attrition rate. It just seems so peculiar to me that the clamp is designed to swing freely in the rocker yet it works best when clamped in place.
I'm not so sure about wacking the tension up until the thumb hurts, though. Obviously, you need some tension - but my idea of woodwork is that it should be as pain free as possible!
Gill
It's not perfect but it's good enough for me. I learned a lot about scrolling and finishing (and trusting B&Q wood dyes :roll: :evil:!) from my first attempt at a scrolled portrait. This picture of Admiral Nelson measures approximately 17cm x 21 cm. I'm indebted to 'Noel' from the MSN Free Scrollsaw Patterns group who produced the basic pattern for me.
Gill
Gill
dedee
Established Member
Gill, that is excellant. Well done. I know how to cut the outline but how do do cut the darker wood to fit? Do you do it at the same time with the darker wood underneath?
Andy
Andy
Hi Andy
Thanks. I've used gloss enamel black paint on the backer board which gives it the illusion of being on the same level as the oak . The photograph was taken face on to the portrait so the cut edges don't show. Sneaky, huh ? Actually, it doesn't matter what angle you use to view the portrait, your eye is drawn to the edge reflections in the gloss backer rather than the oak edge.
Gill
Thanks. I've used gloss enamel black paint on the backer board which gives it the illusion of being on the same level as the oak
. The photograph was taken face on to the portrait so the cut edges don't show. Sneaky, huh ? Actually, it doesn't matter what angle you use to view the portrait, your eye is drawn to the edge reflections in the gloss backer rather than the oak edge.Gill
dedee
Established Member
Gill,
very sneaky and very clever.
Andy
very sneaky and very clever.
Andy
Alf
Established Member
Gosh that's clever. I like that, Gill. =D> Proper job. Gonna Splice the Mainbrace to celebrate? ccasion5:
Cheers, Alf
ccasion5: Cheers, Alf
DaveL
Established Member
Gill,
Very nice, the black works well. I don't think my hand is steady enough or my eyes sharp enough for doing that level of detail.
Very nice, the black works well. I don't think my hand is steady enough or my eyes sharp enough for doing that level of detail.
