butterfly

If you have just recently taken up woodworking then it is recommended that you start off with smaller simpler projects. But first, you should get yourself some plans. For woodworking, plans are very important. You should choose to either go for pre-designed woodworking plans. You can also find free plans but they may not be complete and when you are just starting out you need all of the help you can get I recommend that you get plans that have full size patterns. Whichever you choose they will assist you in perfecting the skills which you have learned.

If you choose to use free plans rather than buying woodworking plans, then you must consider a few things in advance. Here are the things that you should consider:

1. Search for plans which not only provide you with drawings which show every construction stage of an item, but will also provide you pictures of what the item should look like upon the completion of the project. This will help you to know where exactly you should be at every stage. This is why I like to buy plans because the person is making a living selling plans he wants you to be happy so he puts a lot more into his plans. As the saying goes there is no such thing as a free lunch.

2. Do not pick plans where the instructions given read something like a mystery novel. Make sure that you get full size patterns not just measurement because you will not have enough information, these types of woodworking plans will only make the entire step by step method of constructing something easy become so much more tricky. Also you do not want plans which read just like the worst book you have ever read.

3. Avoid choosing incomplete plans. For your woodworking projects, you need to have plans which provide you with the relevant tools list that you will require throughout your entire project. You should also avoid plans which do not specify what materials you need for your woodworking project. You should get plans that you like. Because you might want to start selling your work in these hard times every little bit helps. This is why I stress full size plans. You can trace these full size patterns on to 1/8 inch plywood cut them out and then make as many as you want to and will always have your pattern to use any time you want. You should be able to construct your item without having to stop woodworking simply because you found some particular items are missing. Plans for woodworking projects are by far the best tool to get started on anything you want accomplished. It is so much easier when you have instructions right in front of you so you are not trying to figure it out on your own.

So I hope that this helps with your woodworking because it is so much fun and can be very profitable if you so choose to sell your work. We here at Uncle Mel’s woodshop have been doing just that for the last 40 years. So get yourself a pine board and a good plan and start making saw dust. Thank you for letting me talk about woodworking I hope this has been of help to you. Uncle Mel

So you like scroll sawing or you would like to start scroll sawing. Lets talk about It. Some people think that the scroll saw is fairly new. But it might be a surprise to you that it has been around for hundreds of years. They were called fret saws and they were foot powered. Old world craftsman used these foot powered fret saws to do the beautiful scroll sawing that can still be seen in the old world churches and government buildings. But thats not the whole story. The original scroll sawing was done with the coping saw. that is the u shaped wonder that we used as kids. It was so great because we could cut curves and that opened a whole new woodworking world to us just as it did all those many hundreds of years ago. Some where in the 1500 hundreds a German guy developed fine narrow blades. People started building machines that these blades could be mounted in tush started the scroll saw as we know it today. These machines were peddle, treadle, hand cranked and so on.

On the market today there are two types  the first one we will talk about is the C-arm it has only one pivot point. This makes the blade move in a slight arc as it moves up and down. This causes it to under cut the edges. This is not to bad in thin material but not so good in thicker material. It takes grater skill to get good scroll sawing from this type machine so I would not recommend this type to a beginner.

The other one is called a parallel arm saw. It has two parallel arms with a pivot point in the middle of each arm. They travel in tandem with each other. The two arms are hooked together by a connecting bar at the back of the arms. This lets the blade move up and down in a near perfect vertical cut. I like this type  because we do a lot of scroll sawing in thick stuff. The size is determined by the throat size from the back of the  arm to the blade. So if the distance is 16 inches from blade to back of arm you have a16 inch meachine simple right. You should know that when you go to buy one you don’t need one of those $1500.00 beauties I have used all of them in my 60 years of scroll sawing and guess what the blade goes up down the same on a $200.00 Delta that I run every day for the last 15 years. Don’t get me wrong the expensive saws are great but they don’t make you an expert scroll sawing guy only you can do that practice, practice, practice and you will be a great at it.

Well that is my my article on scroll sawing and how to pick the one that is right for you try as many as you can. Pick one thats right for you. Here at uncle mel’s wood shop we build wooden coin banks and we are scroll sawing every day we have expensive meachines and a good cheap one so it comes down to what you like and can afford. In my next article we will talk about how to start scroll sawing and about how to keep your things working well. Thank you for reading happy scrolling Uncle Mel

UNCLE MELS WOODSHOP

 About Me

I was born and raised on a ranch in beautiful northern Idaho I started woodworking when I was very young and have never quit.  I moved to Alaska and was there for 30 years I have built everything from boats to houses and ever thing in between.  I now live on the beautiful Oregon coast I now run my woodworking business here I build wooden coin banks. I have built these banks for over 30 years my business name is

Uncle Mel

Uncle Mel’s Wood shop.   I will be bloging about woodworking because it has been so good to me that I’d like to pay it forward and help people that are starting out woodworking.  But I also love to talk to old timers like me about ever thing that has to do with woodworking.  Thanks for looking my blog over Uncle Mel

Beautiful woodwork with your scroll saw

So now that you are getting better with your scroll saw skills. It’s time for you to start making beautiful woodwork with your saw. To turn out beautiful work you need to have great patterns. So many times the first thing people think about is getting on line and looking at free patterns. While there are some free patterns that you can get grate woodwork from be careful.

 Because if these are not full sized patterns and they only give you measurements that’s fine if you are making a square something. But doing beautiful woodwork on your scroll saw isn’t for squares. So as I have said in past blogs about free plans there is no such thing as a free lunch. First off most free plan sites do not show the best stuff they have. You have to buy that. So if you are not getting a free lunch you might as well go out and pay for prime rib.

 So for beautiful woodwork get the best full size plan you can. The guy selling you good plans and patterns is doing so to make money and he wants you to come back for more, it is called capitalism. But more than that, these patterns have been created by the guy selling them, he’s proud of them and has used them to do beautiful woodwork that he produces and sells. So what he is selling you is his knowledge and experience. If you are like me you need all the knowledge and experience you can get.

 To get beautiful work it is so important to get started right. All right we now have a full size pattern what we do first is look around the shop and see if you have some old 1/8 inch paneling if not go down to your budget lumber yard and buy the cheapest peace you can get. Glue your paper patterns onto the paneling then cut them out with your scroll saw. You now have a pattern that you can use over and over. You may think that you will only make one from your paper pattern but someone will see your beautiful project and want one and in these hard times thats cash money for doing something you love doing you might as well get paid for it.

 Some tricks for you to turn out beautiful woodwork. After you trace your pattern and start sawing always try to saw out your pencil lines because these lines are very hard to sand out and as they say time is money. To have beautiful woodwork you need to sand your project right. Start with 80 grit sand paper then go to 100 grit and finish with 220 grit this will make your work shine. Finish with a clear oil finish or paint and your work will make you proud. Thank you for reading my blog and I will be talking to you soon together we will do some beautiful woodwork. Uncle Mel