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Fine Hand-Crafted Wooden Puzzles
Click image for a larger view. 
This pattern book has earrings. Each earring has a letter of the alphabet. These need to be cut from 1/8" thick material. Wood, Plexiglas, aluminum would all work well.
You can either buy the links and hooks or make your own from jewelry wire. I made the ones in the picture but they could look better with practice.
I used a #3 scroll reverse blade to cut these but I think you could use a #5 for most of the cuts.
My wife wanted a china cabinet. She was a little disappointed.
This scroll saw pattern holds paper plates that are 10 1/4" in diameter.
If you would like to leave a voice mail comment, question or tip please dial 1-859-587-9612. (Standard long distance rates apply). Most people have plans with night and weekends free. The audio will be recorded and may be replayed on the blog unless you specify otherwise. You have 3 minutes to record the message.
There are many of you that have lots to share. There are many of you with questions. I'll try to put the two together in short audio clips.
Also if you would like to promote an event or website that other scrollers would be interested in that is fine also.
I will decide which audio is played on the blog so I can not guarantee your comment gets played.
FilePick is a program that a reader introduced me to a few weeks back. It solves a problem that many of us have. We tend to accumulate dozens if not hundreds of patterns on our computer and it is difficult to find what we are looking for later. FilePick allows you to associate any picture in the pattern as a thumbnail to open the pattern.
The video review will show the basics of the program operation. It is very simple to use and seems to do a good job for it's intended purpose.
This cross will be a little more of a challenge than it looks to new scrollers. There are a couple of small cut outs in the portrait. Use a #3 blade for the face detail and be careful of lifting the pattern. If you are comfortable with spiral blades you might have better luck with a small spiral for the face. This pattern will give you some practice with tight cuts and straight line cutting.
You will also cut a backer board. To get a better fit you might want to stack cut the outside of the cross and backer board. Then remove the backer board and set it aside while you cut the detail.
My feeble attempt to to drag money out of the pockets of the masses was foiled by a faulty link. In the last post I had a "Buy Now" link to purchase the Jigsaw Puzzle Template Book. The link will not work. If you wish to purchase the book you will need to visit my blog and use the "Buy Now" button under the video tutorial.
If you visit my site you will see that the one item I sell is the "Jigsaw Puzzle Template Book". I have always tried to keep 99 percent of everything on my site free to download so I hope you will forgive me if I pitch this product. The book contains templates for 5x5 25 piece, 4x6 24 piece, 5x7 35 piece, 8x10 80 piece, 4x6 96 piece, 5x7 140 piece, 8x10 320 piece.
The response to the book has been overwhelmingly positive. In two years I have refunded the purchase price 1 time and was happy to do so. Just let me know within 3 days that you are not 100% satisfied and I will refund the entire purchase price. No questions asked and you can keep the book. I trust you guys so I have no problem with this offer.
There is a video tutorial on the first page of the blog that shows the step by step detail of how to make these one of a kind family heirlooms from your own pictures. It really is simple and family and friends will love the gift. Here is the direct link to the video.
To give you a chance to see if these puzzles are something you would enjoy I am giving the 4 x 6 24 piece template to you for free. Once you make one of these puzzles and see how much enjoyment your friends get from them then come back to the website and purchase the complete template book for just $7. You can also purchase securely with your credit card right now by clicking this link BUY NOW. You do not need a Paypal account to purchase with your credit card.
If you do not feel comfortable purchasing online just email me and we will make arrangements for you to purchase by snail mail.
Thanks for reading my shameless advertisement. I promise the money paid will be used to help revive the world economy. In other words I will spend it on frivolous items that I don't need like new tools with fancy attachments and neat blinking lights. It's important that we all do our part. :)
There are about 670 well known named cheeses. Cheese is one of those foods that can be served with just about any meal. The next time you have an informal dinner party you can serve your favorite cheese on this whimsical cheese cutting board. This pattern is about as easy to cut as you can get. If you are a beginner this is the pattern for you.
Make sure you give all the edges a good sanding. You want the board to feel as good as it looks.
Food safe finishes are a topic on just about every woodworking forum on the net at one time or another. Truth be known most modern finishes are food safe once completely cured. The most common finish for cutting boards and wooden utensils seems to be mineral oil. It is 100% food safe and will not turn rancid with time. You can reapply the oil occasionally to rejuvenate the wood.
Hope everyone had a happy fathers day. Mine was fantastic. I received a beautiful card and gift form my daughter. We had a nice relaxing day and a great steak dinner. Can't beat that.
On July 4th, 1776 America adopted the Declaration of Independence. Two hundred and thirty three years later she is still free and independent from foreign domination. Next month we will again celebrate that independence. To me personally that means being proud and humble of our strength and aware of our weakness. Our strength has grown on the backs of the brave men and women that came before us. As we celebrate the holiday weekend with our fireworks and picnics let's remember the struggle required to gain our freedom. Let's not allow our weaknesses to destroy the country so many have died and sacrificed for.
"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker." (Helen Keller)
Eliteness is despised and forgotten. Humility makes history.
Have a great holiday and be safe.
I received an email tonight telling me about a web site that sells retrofits for scroll saws as well as other products. I wanted to share this link because I am often asked where to find plain end blade retrofits and quick change retrofits for saws.
I do not have first hand experience with this site but the recommendation came from a reader that was pleased with his experience.
They sell dust blower retrofits and EZ tension retrofits for several different brands of saws.
If you have a need for any of these products take a look at this site and let me know how it goes. When I get a chance I'll purchase one of the products and do a review of my experience.
Pozsgai's Designs
If you have been with me here at the Scrollsaw Workshop a while you know that one of my favorite pattern designers is Sue Mey. Sue is an artist turned pattern designer. She brings a creative style to her patterns that most designers can only wish for.
The Story Crosses above are incredible designs that can be cut by scrollers at any level. They are 18" tall and make a beautiful presentation. If you want to make a gift that will be cherished as a family heirloom check these patterns out.
Sue has 27 different Story Crosses on her site. The great news is that she is currently offering a special deal on sets of six patterns. She has three sets of six for $39.75 per set. You can also mix and match your own special sets. Just drop her an email and she will set you up.
Folks I know this looks like an advertisement but I am not making a dime for this I just believe in Sue's talent. These crosses are beautiful and you will love making and sharing these projects.
Check out the site here.
Let's talk about subscribing to the Scrollsaw Workshop. A few thousand of you subscribe to this blog. It's free and it allows you to receive each post in your email. Most of you that do subscribe use the email option and that usually works fine. There are a few of you however that have problems with the emails. Sometimes the videos won't play. The email goes to the spam folder and occasional lockups. There is another option that solves these problems and adds additional features that you might want to consider. You might even like to use both options and that works great also.
The following video will explain how to setup Google reader. It is very easy to setup and use and in many ways it is a better experience than the email.
This is a very easy to cut little hummingbird mini basket. You will need some 1/4" wood for the top and bottom and 1/2" wood for the basket. Make sure you pick nice contrasting woods.
This pattern will give you some practice cutting round circles. Take your time get a pivot finger and cut at a constant rate. With a little practice you can cut almost perfect circles. The one I cut in the picture above is sloppy. Try to do better than I did because the eye really picks out imperfections in circles.
Know a fisherman? Then you know someone who will like this pattern. Unless of course they consider it's in bad taste, childish, inappropriate, sophomoric or just plain stupid. Hmmm! I think those are all the reasons I think it's funny.
What young boy would not want this pirate shelf hanging in their bedroom. The shelf is big enough to hold a small Pirates of the Caribbean collectible. It's about 10" long.
Over the last couple weeks I have received a few emails letting me know that some of you are having trouble opening the newsletter. The problem seems to be limited to only a few subscribers. I don't have a handle on exactly what is happening but I'm working to find the problem. It appears that Google is formatting the email incorrectly before the post goes out. A few blogger are reporting the same problem to Google but they have not responded yet. If anyone has any knowledge of what is going on I would appreciate the input.
This pattern book has the first six breeds. I will finish more this week and post them as they are complete. The Dog Breed pattern book I posted the other day received a great response. Hundreds of downloads the first couple of days. There were also many emails asking for more breeds and free standing puzzles.
I have not been able to make more breeds at this time but it is easy to make the puzzles so I thought I would get them posted for you to cut now.
"Time in a Bottle" was a number one hit by Jim Croce in 1973. It was also one of my favorite songs of all time. I heard in on the radio today and decided to design a pattern with the theme. The pattern requires a 1 7/16" mini clock insert.
The audio below is a short clip of the song in case you don't remember Jim or his music.
I thought I would post one more pattern created using a font. This one would look nice with different colors of backing material. I used black here but it would look nice with blue or green also. Use the backing color to match the decor of the room you want to hang the portrait in.
Here is a tip for those of you who want to make your own patterns. Fonts. There are hundreds of free fonts online that are available for you to use. Many of these fonts are not letters but graphics usually called dingbat fonts. You download these fonts and install them. Then they are available in your graphics programs.
The patterns above is from a font I downloaded from the web. Okay it's cheating. There was no artistic effort on my part to create the pattern. I simply drew an 10" X 8" square and sized the font on the screen. Done, finished, ready to cut pattern. Not very satisfying as a pattern designer but not many scrollers want to be a designer they just want to cut patterns.
There are different licenses for the fonts. Some are free for personal use and some are free for personal and commercial use. Others are not free at all. Every site has different rules you should read.
The pattern above was a simple use of the font. You can also use these fonts as part of a more complicated pattern. Just use your imagination.
You will want to use caution when searching for free online fonts. There are several good font sites but others are a little shady.
Use the Scroll Saw Keychain Maker to start a small keychain business. Build yourself a nice display and make up severl keychains with common names. Sell at craft shows, on Ebay or at work. Everyone needs a keychain. Take custom orders. Heck just make them and give them away as gifts. It's all made easy with the Scroll Saw Keychain Maker.
Watch the video demonstration then download the file below and get started with the fun.
