I meant to say shape the wood before the pattern goes on. Can't do it on all projects but the flat stuff I can save lots of extra labor. Almost like taking candy from a baby...

 The end results is still up to the person operating the tools and machines but hey I can save lots of labor before its finished... Hand carvers,,,,, eat your heart out....This is still part of one of the boxes. 

  You can see the three holes in the backer board. I left the front edge in one piece from one end of the board to the other to have something solid to glue all the pieces back together.…...This is after I get all the pieces groomed to suit meself, I will attach the front piece back to the backer board to have something steady to glue all the pieces back together....This all sounded good thinking it out but didn't put it on paper so I could remember it all the for the next project....The screw holes will disappear later, I hope!

  Just a thought if a real hand tool carver was to carve this 4x8" piece it would probably take 10 times longer than I can do it after I cut it all up first with the scroll saw... Any thoughts on that??

Here are the two pieces I did today. Not completely finished but mostly the hard work is done.

Edited August 13, 20196 yr by Smallpatch

I am in awe and humbled.  I am wondering how you transfer you pattern onto the wood. I use chalk on the back of the pattern and trace with a pencil.  

Very cool start Jess.  Is that maple that you are using?

Cal, its maple. For me its the best wood if I want to go light or dark and ash I like if I want to highlight the grain in the wood.

  Steve I would have a terrible time trying to transfer my pattern on to the wood if I traced it as wobbly as my fingers are holding a pencil.  I use clear packing tape on top of the wood then using spray adhesive spray a medium heavy coat over the tape then apply the pattern. Scotch brand I like for it does not leave a residue on the wood that has to be removed with a thinner which is a waste of time. The spray adhesive

  I seem to go back to the Elmer's brand even though I have used all of them over the years. Some are way more expensive than the others...…. and I think the Loctite showing is a permanent type. Its not a good idea to put the adhesive on today if you are planning on not cutting the wood till a few days later...The name on the can, temporary, means use it now. If you wait too long the pattern will come loose in places and that's not good...

I only make one pattern then if I need the same pattern only flipped as the two in the picture I use a program called Rapid Resizer and it will flip the pictures for me. This pattern was drawn up around 2"x 4" and I resized it to fit the area I was working on..

 I like my patterns with a very thin line for I use the real thin scroll saw blades and I get straighter and more accurate lines if I straddle the thin lines with the blade. I think a carpenters pencil was used drawing this original pattern, not good.

  Cal are you forgetting to post  pictures of your new found hobby or have you guys been on one of those 120 day trips around the world.

Jesse you amaze me doing all that in one day. Would take me several days , maybe a week. Thanks for the tips.

Gerald I do have some help. A 42 x 1" belt- disk sander, a 9" oscillating drum sander with 4" drums on down to 1/4", a 4 x 42" horizonal belt sander and a few Dremels helps take the work out of woodworking. For the type of stuff I like to build these things are real important.

This picture shows what I did yesterday after I took that last picture.

I saved a little labor on these two pieces for after I cut out the part that will be carved I used the band saw and cut down the rest of the area so there won't be as much sanding and shaping left to do. And you might know it I forgot to have Rapid resizer flip one of the patterns but they will be on each end and probably no one will notice.

  Then this morning I finished putting together my GA 88 ?? for the empty bottles were all over the shop falling in the floor...Maybe later I can get back on the box after some mowing.

Its completely out of the way and in an area that was not being used. Now I will add some shelves on that wall for more storage...

I quit early today but got a little done

I could tell I was getting tired and nervous 

Some nice work.  I see your turnstile is working!!   NICE

So far my Gatorade project has turned out better than I expected...I'm a wild experimenter and some things kinda sit idle for a long while before I can find a cure but then my wife can sit back and write down her thoughts on improving some of my projects....But she won't enter in to the discussion when I first start something new!! Too bad You Tube and Google wasn't around when I was a teenager.

Patch, some great work there.  Don't worry.  No competition from me.  

 

Also, thank you for explaining the pattern transfer.  Sounds a bit complicated, so I'll leave it alone.  I hope to remember some of it in the next 5 minutes.  

 

 

11 hours ago, Smallpatch said:

Too bad You Tube and Google wasn't around when I was a teenager.

Jesse, dirt hadn't been invented yet when we were teenagers! Cuneiform was all the rage, back then.

Steve I never felt like anyone doing the same type of woodworking was competition unless they were next door to me. Any things I might can help even for later on I what I'm here for.. even some of these real small tips that took me ages to discover I think might help  is okay with me.

 Gene we moved back to Texas when I was a freshman in high school. We didn't know at that time  and dad was told he had brain cancer a short time later....One of our good friends in Cal. told us it was probably a good thing we left out there when we did for all my class mates ended up on drugs and never amounted to anything. But with no money for mom to put food on the table for me. my sister and her so she got a job working at a dry goods store in a town of 400 population. Amazing us two kids got out of high school...My days after school I would go in to a little lean to shed where mom had stored the only thing we had that dad bought in Cal. was a Forney AC_DC electric welder and the only rods that were there were a blowing type when you struck an arc for burning holes in thin metal and no welding rods at all but for the next three years I actually made those rods kinda weld things together or so I thought... Nothing much there to weld together an certainly never made anything but was my entertainment.

   My folks had been promised a house there in Ropesville to move back to Texas and take care of grand pap and grand maw and what it was to start with was two chicken houses maybe 12x20 each and I helped put them together with dad and a few of my uncles and it turned in to a 4 room thing. They did put a sink and a commode in and I had to dig the cesspool after school each day for about six months while the waste was flowing in one end as I was extending it on the other end..and was being covered with railroad ties and sheet iron.  Back then there were no lateral lines and it started about a foot or two past the house...No kind of blower in the summer and lots of covers in the winter. Mom said we never could afford a heater in the winter. We did have a coal oil oven and cook top.... I was told later it took all my second year in high school to complete that cesspool... 
Ropes is solid caliche rock starting about six inches down...You know thinking back I was sad cause dad was gone but was kinda happy with my life...

 

 

Edited August 15, 20196 yr by Smallpatch

 

I still have to smooth the big pieces.  I think I will try to add some more to the flowers also. More learning!

 

Another tool thats important in my carving is a regular electric sander. I use them upside down sitting on a thick soft rubber drawer liner on the table saw. The two roosters were completely sanded with an old Skil 459 or a  Milwaukee # 6000 1/3rd sheet sanders. I bought the two new Milwaukee's a month or two after I got out of the army in 1960 and are still being used on my projects all the time.

  Not a clue as to how old the skil sander is...When I got the winning bid for those 7 Dewalt 788 scroll saws from the auction at Killeen, Tx that sander and 4 DA's, 2 Delta 1x42" belt disk sanders, lots of all kinds of clamps punches and chisels and lots of other things were free... I was high bidder on the scroll saws so they told me to load up all the rest of the tools and equipment that they didn't put bids on. They just assumed this other stuff was not important enough to make a list for the auction..This auction was over 200 miles away  but the bid of 420.00 really surprised me I was the highest bid... No one signed up for the wood shop classes for a few years, so they thought this stuff would go to the trash....

 The Milwaukee is flat on the top where the air gets to the motor so I set it upside down over the table saw slot with the big shop extractor on...the edges of the sanding pads can get most all the curved carved stuff only leaving a small amount for the hand sanding...Mom always told me that thing sitting on my shoulders was for thinking so don't forget it...

Edited August 15, 20196 yr by Smallpatch

On 8/14/2019 at 10:54 AM, Smallpatch said:

Its not a good idea to put the adhesive on today if you are planning on not cutting the wood till a few days later...The name on the can, temporary, means use it now. If you wait too long the pattern will come loose in places and that's not good...

 Funny you would mention that, glued it on Monday looked like this on Thursday.

 

Bob did you first put clear packing tape on the wood then spray the stickum on to the tape then apply the pattern.....If you use scotch brand medium thickness packing tape it all come off leaving the wood read for the next step..... instead of having to use some kind of paint thinner to remove the stickum….

  Anymore I apply the spray the morning I intend on doing the sawing....It terrible when the pattern comes off when only half the sawing is done....

Also the Locktite will stay stuck longer but you do need to use the clear packing tape with that brand for sure.... But it is about twice the price as Elmers which is my choice.

  

Bob I had to build a tape dispenser with a lid to keep the saw dust off.

 I sharpened a hacksaw blade in the fore ground to cut it off the roll...

36 minutes ago, Smallpatch said:

Bob I had to build a tape dispenser with a lid to keep the saw dust off.

Man that is NICE!  I need one but bigger.

 

This one only holds about 4 or 5 rolls... You might check the funeral homes for used or damaged caskets and try and get one they lay those very tall dead folks in and with the amount of tape you show there three or four caskets might hold them all.. Those big caskets might be like the largest mattress and box springs are call... California king size.

  Looks like you might could get in to the parade float building business with not having too much other supplies to buy.

 

You don't need to ask what the holes are for!

6 minutes ago, Smallpatch said:

with the amount of tape you show there three or four caskets might hold them all..

Yeah, and I promise someone will turn me in and the Men In Black will be paying me a visit.  Already got a visit once for building my kids a space shuttle in the backyard.