Indian Warrior Feather.

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A few more ornaments to cut.

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Worlds Best Fusherman Scroll Saw Pattern.

It's been a long weekend. I had to put in 15 hours of overtime yesterday and today so I have not been able to spend much time on the blog. I'm off tomorrow so I'll start to get caught back up on the email and name ornament orders.

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving. We traveled back to Indiana to visit family and friends. I'm starting to think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's hard to beat a day of good food and football and sitting around all doing nothing.


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Jesus Loves You Christmas Ornament.

Here is one more Christmas ornament for you to cut this year. I also included a much smaller version that you could make into a nice piece of jewelry. The small heart will be a bit more of a challenge but will lock nice when finished. Get out you #1 blade and give it a try.

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Happy Thanksgiving from, Kellie, Patty and Steve.

Everyone be safe over the holiday. Enjoy your time with family and friends.

If you are reading this in the email newsletter you may not see the video. Please visit the blog and watch it there.

Pattern donations from Alan Daines.

I received an email from Alan the other day. He wanted to share a couple patterns he had designed with all of you. I also wanted to share what he wrote.

Hello Steve,

I would just like to thank you for your excellent video on the RJR Studios Sanding Mop. Living in the UK I thought it would be a problem buying one but Angelina at RJR gave me the name of a UK distributor and, after ordering, it was here next day and I must say my productivity and the finish have improved.

Although I owned a Hegner Scrollsaw for some 25 years it has only been since last October I have been exploring the sort of work that you do. I now buy sawn boards from a local timber merchant and process them down to blanks to mainly make up hanging ornaments, 90% of which are from your designs.

Everything I make, now from a new Hegner variable speed saw, I send to my Sister in Law in Australia who in turn sells them locally to raise funds for an orphanage in Burma.

Everything I make is donated, I get a lot of pleasure and fulfilment from making them, and to date I have made over 2000 with another 1600 plus on the order book.

My wife Barbara and I have been involved with Humanitarian Aid work for over 10 years now and this is a wonderful extension to what we do.

I received a request for “Hope” in a circle and after watching your videos tried my hand at designing one. Also I thought it would be a good idea to design a Kukaburra in a circle and with the knowledge gained from your videos made one up. It must have been reasonably good because the Australians recognised it immediately.

I have attached photos and patterns of them both and if you feel they are worthy of sharing please feel free use them.

I am looking forward to your Sand Flee video, apparently delivery over here is no more than 3 weeks so it could well be on my Christmas list…………. J

Thanks again for all your good work.


Kind regards.
Alan Daines

Thanks Alan for the patterns and the effort your wife and you put into the humanitarian aid projects. I am honored that you used a few of my patterns to help out in the way you did. I hope you don't mind me sharing your email. I see so much of the giving attitude from people that follow my blog that I just have to share it. We see so much bad on the news and there is so much good out there that never gets the attention it deserves.

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Jim Jenkins - Pill bottles make good scroll saw blade holders.

As craftsmen we are always looking for tips and suggestions to make our craft easier. I especially like to see the New Yankee spirit of never throwing anything away. Jim Jenkins, a new scroller from Ohio sent me this neat little suggestion for storing blades.

Jim noticed that the pill bottles he gets from Walgreens drug store have a two way top. They have an inner and outer thread. One way is child proof and the other is easy open.

Jim noticed that if he cut an opening in the top like the picture above he could attach two bottles together.
Notice that the locking inner threads go on the bottom half of the blade holder. All you have to do is insert the blades and screw on the top bottle to the non locking threads. Could not be simpler and if you are like most of us old farts around here you have plenty of pill bottles.


Jim cut some holes in a piece of wood to keep the bottles together. This is not a finished project. He said this was just a mock up. Jim suggested building a wooden platform that could be attached to the saw.

Jim and I discussed that not everyone will have access to the Walgreens style two way tops. It would just take a bit more effort to super glue up a clip on style top and accomplish the same thing. Thanks Jim.

Sand-Flee Update:

Well I have had a chance to spend a little time with the tool. I thought this would be an easy tool to review but I was wrong. I wanted to get a video review up by last weekend. That did not happen. What I have realized is that this is a unique tool not like anything I have used before and I have used every type of sander you can think of. I am going to do a full review but not until I feel like I know what the Sand-Flee is actually capable of. It really is a pretty neat tool and I don't want to short change it because of ignorance on my part. Stay tuned.




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There is just no excuse for this.

Why would anyone make a clock in the shape of a dog's butt. I should be ashamed of myself. It's a total waste of wood. No one will download that stupid pattern. Wait! There for a minute I was channeling my wife. She was speaking through me. That's scary. I don't care because I like it. There, I said it. I like a clock stuck in the rear end of a pooch.

Okay that's really dumb and so are the rest of the mini clock patterns in this pattern book. This book is what I call a "scrap wood user upper". Dig all those small scraps of wood out of the bin and make a few stupid gifts for that someone special on your Christmas list. You know who I mean. Your Brother in Law who likes to tell you how much money he has or your sister who your mom always like better than you. You know that special someone don't you. Admit it there is someone on your list that deserves a home made crappy gift. Well here's your chance.

I call this one "Thing". Anyone remember the Adams Family? True classic TV.



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Ten Years!

My attention span is so short that I get bored when I spend two days on a project. I can't imaging spending ten years on one. That's exactly what Charlie Kested has done from 2000 to 2010. The Johnstown, NY man started the project when he was 71 years young. Now at 81 he has finished this beautiful and large piece of art.

Charlie worked on this cutting of the Declaration of Independence one word at a time cutting it from walnut. He then used a wire system to keep his lines straight as he glued them to the Baltic Birch plywood background.

Unfortunately Charlie suffered a life threatening stroke during this time and after a long recovery he finished the work with no feeling in his left hand. The former industrial arts teacher never gave up and said he always knew he would finish the piece. The hard work paid off when the piece won a first place at the Florida state fair.

Charlie says he hopes his story will inspire others with similar issues to never give up.

"I feel really blessed. I want people to know that you can still do things, that they should't give up, they should keep going," he said.

Charlie did not give up. As a matter of fact he is still going. The next project is the Gettysburg Address. He hopes to have this one finished in time for next years stat fair. You go Charlie.

Pattern from Leldon Maxcy

This nice word art pattern was donated to the readers of the Scrollsaw Workshop by Leldon Maxcy from leldonscrollsawing.homestead.com. This will make a beautiful decoration for this Christmas season. Thanks Leldon.

After you gran this pattern be sure to visit Leldon's site and see what he has to offer.
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Sand-Flee Portable Drum Sander.

I have received my Sand-Flee 9 inch portable drum sander. I am putting it through it's paces and hope to get a video review up this weekend at the latest. I have received a bunch of email since I posted that I planed to buy the tool. Lots of good feedback and things for me to look at. Thanks.

I spoke with Stephen Raffo who is the President of R.J.R. Studios. They produce this tool as well as other products. He was kind enough to give me his contact info in case I had questions. So far customer service gets an A+. Thanks Stephen.

Stephen also told me that some of you that attended the Long Island woodworking show ratted me out about my comments about his video being a little Billy Mays over the top. We had a good laugh over that. If you have not seen the video look at the earlier post. If Stephen ever needs a second career he will do well as a TV pitchman.

Look for the review soon.

I am still accepting orders for the Personalized Name Ornaments.

I am almost complete on all the Name Ornaments patterns you all have ordered. If you would like to place an order please read the instructions below and click the "Order Now" button.

Don't forget to include your pets name, favorite school nickname, military, business name etc. These are just a few of the ornament pattern ideas that have been ordered. Just remember to use only letters. The longer the name the more complex the cutting. I would suggest keeping it under 10 letters. I can make it longer but it will get tough to cut.

Remember you have nothing to lose. You only pay for the ornaments after you have received the order and are completely satisfied. If you are not happy with the patterns just keep the pattern book and pay nothing. I trust you and I trust my patterns.

To the nearly 600 of you that have placed orders this season, thank you. I hope you enjoy cutting them as much as I have enjoyed making the patterns for you. Merry Christmas.



Make personalized Christmas Ornaments for family and friends. These make beautiful gifts and will be cherished for years. It's not too early to start your holiday cutting.

I know many of you just want to cut patterns. Making your own patterns just is not your cup of tea. Let me do the designing for you.

I am going to start taking orders for Name Ornament Patterns. For $5 I will design 5 ornaments with the names you need. The pattern book will be created and emailed to you for approval. If you are completely satisfied you will then be able to pay online or by sending a check.

The minimum order is $5 for 5 names. If you need addition names they will be created at an additional $1 per name.

The ornaments are 5" in diameter. You can easily change the size of the ornaments by changing the size percentage in the print dialog while printing.

I will complete the pattern book as quickly as possible.

It is best to keep the names under 10 letters. The more letters the more complex the pattern and it tends to get a little cluttered.

When you click the Order Now button below you will be directed to an order form in your browser. Completely fill out the form. Make sure you type your email address correctly. You will not be billed until you receive the pattern book.

Christmas Tree Ornament Scroll Saw Patterns.

This pattern book contains 28 Christmas tree ornaments. Most of them are for mans best friend. 22 different dog breeds in this set.

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Birds in a Leaf Scroll Saw Pattern.

Here is a pattern that is a bit delicate. The project is backed with either green construction paper or felt.
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Santa's Chimney.

Santa looks a little sad trying to fit into this tight chimney. This project was cut from 1/4" and 1/2" MDF but any material that accepts paint well can be used. This is another pattern with no interior cuts so it is suitable for even the very earliest beginners. There are a couple small pieces but take you time and you will do fine.

I am working my hardest to get all the Name Ornaments orders complete. Please be patient with me and I'll get them finished as soon as possible. Thanks for al the orders.

The Scrollsaw Workshop is primarily supported by donations. If you enjoy this Blog and would like to make a donation please click this link. Your support is greatly appreciated.Make A Donation

House Number Sign.

Here is a quick project you can make for a family member or friend. I designed the frame in three different sizes to fit the number of numbers you have.

A couple of days ago I posted a request for information on the Sand-flee product. I received many many e-mails from people who either had the product or a competitive version of the product. There was a lot of great information and I want to thank everybody for sending me the e-mails. I decided to go ahead and order the 9 inch Sand-flee because that's the product I get the most e-mails about and I wanted to be able to review the unit and answer questions from my own experience. Hopefully I'll have the machine in my shop by Tuesday. After I have a little bit of time to work with it I'll post a review of my experiences from using the product as a scroll saw user.

I delivered the toy box I posted the picture of yesterday and it seemed to go over real well. I had a lot of requests to post the pattern for the toy box on the blog but I won't be able to do that because of trademark issues. If anyone is interested I would be able to do a generic pattern or similar toy box. When I build a project for myself I work from pretty rough sketches so it will take a little time for me to put it together in a readable format.

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A project for a family member.

I built this toy chest this week for the child of our niece who is turning one. As you can tell his dad is grooming him to be a cubs fan. I used the scroll saw for all the ornamentation so I thought you all might like to see it.

The construction material is MDF. It makes for a heavy toy chest but it's easy to work with and paints well. One tip about painting MDF is to use a mixture of glue and water to coat the edges. MDF soaks up the paint on the edges and looks sloppy. After you coat it with the glue sizing and let it dry you can sand it to 320 grit and it smooths out nicely.
I used a piano hinge for the top. They are easy to install and because of all the screws it holds well in the MDF which does not take screws all that great in the edges. I did not have time to order a slow close catch so I settled for the lock open style. This is not the safest hing for a toy chest so I might order a slow close and replace this one.
I used pocket hole joinery to assemble the box. I have the Kreg pocket hole jig and I love the thing. I use it all the time for fast and strong joints. If you build any kind of cabinetry or boxes like this it is the perfect tool. I did not fill the pocket holes inside the box but they have inserts that you can sand flat and hide the holes.
I had a lot of trouble finding handles that I thought fit the project so I made custom handles in the shape of baseball glove and ball..
One note about building projects from MDF. My shop is a disaster after building this box. The dust from MDF is terrible. It's the one drawback that almost keeps me from using the stuff. If you use MDF wear a dust mask.

I'm going to deliver this gift to the birthday party tomorrow after noon. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. This is an example of how a scroll saw can be put to good use for "regular woodworking projects". Now that I have this finished I will get back to working on the blog for you guys. This was one of those honey do projects that had to get finished first or I would be sleeping in the dog house.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I received many emails today with information about the Sand-Flee I requested. I tried to reply to as many as I could but I did read read them all. After around 70 emails I can say that they were mostly positive. There were a few complaints to be sure but I would expect that. After all the advice about building one from scratch or from a kit. I think I will pass on that for now. I might build one later as a project but for now I am going to buy the 9" Sand-flee model. I received a couple offers to buy used machines and one offer to give me their sander. Still looking into that and I'll see how that goes.

Here is a typical response I received in one of the emails:

"I bought a Sand-Flee sander several years ago, and that's my main machine now. I seldom ever use my belt sander, orbital, or plate sanders any longer. I do a lot of scroll saw and laser cutting of wood. It is super fast and much easier to control than my other sanders. Mine is the wide belt and I use a course belt on one half and a fine belt on the other half of the drum. That way I can rough sand and finish sand very quickly. I wouldn't be without this machine in my shop! I use it more than any other machine after my Scrollsaw and Laser. Mine has the Stainless steel top which is great."


I am really lucky to be able to ask for advice and have so many of you help me out. Thanks to all of you. There were some great tips about the machine and hopefully I can pass some of that along after I have one in my shop for review.

By the way I can tell everyone is getting back into their shops after a long hot summer. We set a record for visits today. 5174 visits to the blog. Considering that over 7000 of you just read the email newsletter and do not actually come to the blog that's pretty good numbers. Thanks to everyone of you and remember to pass the word along to your friends. Not that it's all that important but if you read the blog from the email newsletter please occasionally visit the blog. There are several things available on the blog that you can't access from the newsletter and frankly I like to see the daily blog visits go up. It would make my year if I could get 10,000 visits in one day.

It might also convince a few vendors that we have a good thing going here and donate some nice giveaway items. HINT, HINT. If you are or know any vendors that would like to pass along merchandise for the giveaway I would be happy to give attribution. Your product in front of thousands of scorollers eyeballs in return.

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Sand-Flee Portable Drum Sander.

If you are reading this in the email newsletter you may not see the video. Please visit the blog and watch it there.

I am think about purchasing the Sand-Flee. I am always looking for ways to speed my work up and sanding is a prime candidate. Currently I use a bench top belt/disk sander, oscillating spindle sander and a sanding mop as well as hand sanding. I have seen the Sand-Flee demoed a couple times and have always been interested.The video above is a demonstration of the machine at a show in Atlanta. The guys goes a little Billy Mays over the top but it still shows the features off. I think I will order the 9" model and review it.

I would like to hear from some of you that already own the machine with your opinion. I know the machine is a bit expensive so I'm not really interested in that aspect of it. I just would like to hear how you are using the machine in your day to day shop routine.

NAME ORNAMENTS: I have about 25 Name Ornament pattern orders right now. I hope to have all those finished no later than Sunday. If you are waiting for your order hang in there and I'll have them out as soon as I can. Thanks.

Important Update

In the last post the pattern had a typo. If you downloaded the Veterans Day Pattern please check and make sure you received the corrected version. Sorry if this caused any problems.



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Novenber 11th 2010 is Veterans Day

If you are reading this in the email newsletter you may not see the video. Please visit the blog and watch it there.

November 11th is Veterans Day. It's a day when we can tell our veterans how much we appreciate the sacrifices and hardships they endured for us. There is no greater sacrifice than to give ones life for their country. That's exactly what so many vets have done to keep our country safe and free. November 11th is a day to honor the courage, spirit and fortitude of those men and women.

The last living American WWI veteran is Frank Woodruff Buckles. He recently said:

“I’ve had a long time to reflect on what it means to ‘remember well.’ Being nearly 110 years old and the last of the five million Americans who served in World War I gives me some insight on how our nation should mark this great conflict and the generation that fought and died in it,”

Let's all take a bit from this man who has lived through and seen so much. Let's all "remember well" the cost that war extracts from our veterans and their families.

In a perfect world we could live without armed conflict. The world is not perfect. Because of this we send our daughters and sons to places no one should have to endure. When they come home they deserve at the very minimum our respect and admiration.

On November 11th take the time to tell a vet just how much you appreciate them.

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Pilgrim Family Scroll Saw Pattern.

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October Book Giveaway.

If you are reading this in the email newsletter you may not see the video. Please visit the blog and watch it there.

This months book giveaway drawing will be for "The New Scroll Saw Handbook". You can find out if you were the winner by watching the giveaway video. Good luck.

Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.

Christmas decorations of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus. I cut the scene from 3/4" thick cherry and the base is 1/2" thick with a routed edge decoration.

This project will give you good practice cutting a continuous curve. With a little practice and technique you can cut very nice curves on the scroll saw. Your goal should be to not vary your cut more than the thickness of the pattern line. Better yet split the line if you can. Cutting curves is all about maintaining an even turn rate. You should use your primary hand to establish a pivot point and turn the piece with your off hand. The pivot point will change through out the cut. Once you get the turn rate correct and are tracking the line don't stop and start any more than you have to. Every time you stop you have to re-establish the angle and turn rate giving you another chance to drift off the line.

Don't rust the cut. In a pattern like this a mistake on the top curve will be very noticeable. We are very good at picking out flaws in geometric shapes. In the picture above I never let the blade not touch the line at any point and you can still pick out the flaws. It does not have to be perfect but it should be as close as you can make it.

Enjoy the challenge.

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