Topics

106

Get togethers, shows and swap meets / Square Credit Card Reader

« on: May 07, 2013, 11:33:51 pm »

I just ordered a Square reader for my upcoming June 1 show. I have an early Motorola Droid on Verizon with unlimited data. I will report on its functionality after the show.

107

Get togethers, shows and swap meets / Scrolling at the Market?

« on: May 03, 2013, 10:15:54 am »

When you go to a sale, do you set up your saw and make new or personalize items for customers?

If you personalize, do you also have a printer to make the text that you'll add, or maybe a label maker for labels to cut through? Or take orders for personalized items?

Do you bring just one of each design (for bigger items like bowls etc.) or several of each design?

108

General Scroll Saw Talk / "Scrap" Hardwood

« on: April 25, 2013, 08:03:56 pm »

I stopped at a local cabinet maker in town to ask him about the cut-off ends of boards from his operation. For $100 he sold me a full-sized pickup bed (8'x6'x2') of end cuts that were cluttering his shop space. I went through it all today and found red and white oak, birch, cherry, maple, poplar, and black walnut. Most is 3/4", some 7/8", a few 1 1/2" (he keeps those 1 1/2" ends for something), and a few thinner (1/2" or 1/4"). Widths range from 4" to 16". A lot of the boards are over 3' long. I estimated the total at about 500 board-feet. I expect this will keep me going for a few years except where something special is needed.

I checked Menards - black walnut is $15/bd-ft & cherry is $20/bd-ft. So at $0.20/bd-ft this looks pretty good to me. Now I need to find things to make from lots of different dimensional lumber. I can see cherry,walnut, maple, and oak baskets, bowls, and boxes in my future.

Are there similar shops in your town? Might be worth a look.

109

General Scroll Saw Talk / Questions for Sellers

« on: April 24, 2013, 01:54:48 pm »

I have my 1st Handmade Market coming June 1 in Lancaster Ohio. I'd appreciate getting your thoughts on a few items:
 - Do you accept credit cards? If not, what do you accept? If so, what system do you use?
 - Do you have a formula for setting the price of an item? I'm thinking something like the cost of material + consumption of equipment life + manpower hourly rate. It looks to me like manpower would dominate.
 - What do you consider a fair hourly rate for your labor (a rate that you would defend if a buyer questioned it)?
 - Do you refer to some reference to come up with a price for items (e.g. ETSE listings for similar items, etc.)
 - Do you adjust pricing based on other sellers' pricing at your market?
 - I plan to bring items to the market, but to offer more custom work like portraits and personalized cuttings to be delivered when ready. Any thoughts on that?

Any other suggestions to help have a successful market day will be appreciated.

110

Brag Forum / St. Joseph in Frame

« on: April 19, 2013, 02:58:39 pm »

This frame is cut from a 7/8" thick birch hardwood board. Image is 1/8" BB Ply, backboard is 1/8" BB Ply with Red Mahogany stain. Overall size is 6.25"x10.25".
 

111

Brag Forum / Good St. Joseph

« on: April 14, 2013, 04:09:10 pm »

Good St. Joseph is the patron saint of fathers and woodworkers.

The black backer is 6"x10". Image is cut from 1/8" BB Plywood in a stack of six. Pattern attached.

112

Brag Forum / Tai Chi Sword #3

« on: April 13, 2013, 01:01:54 pm »

This is for a shorter person. Overall length is 36", blade is 1.5" tapering to 1" at point, by 1/2" thick. Blade is maple and handle is Yucatan Rosewood. Handle from pommel to finger guard is 10". Weight = 10.5 oz.

Here's a bigger picture - the old ones are pretty small.

113

Computer questions / Bamboo Tablet

« on: April 11, 2013, 10:08:42 am »

I bought a Bamboo Create pen tablet for pattern work. The touch features seem to work maybe 20% of the time and the pen gets confused in Gimp. Trying to erase is lousy - if it does anything at all, it seems to erase based on pressure, so just swiping the eraser may partly erase from white or black to a dim grey. Some times the pen will not stay on Eraser, just switches to Pen.

Has anyone here gotten this thing to work acceptably in Gimp and Inkscape in WinXP? I tried my Win7 laptop but even their own tutorial won't load on that computer. I've been better able to work graphics with the tiny touch pad on my laptop. So far I'm ready to ship it back.

Any help out there?

114

Ask Steve a question. / Crosscutting BB Plywood

« on: April 09, 2013, 09:34:34 am »

I cut some portrait blanks from a sheet of 1/8" Baltic Birch plywood with my table saw, with lousy results. The bottom side had tear-out along the full length of the cut. The rip cut was OK.

Is there a right method for cross-cutting this delicate material? I'd hate to waste a board as a backer material. Some questions:
- Do I need to score the wood first to break the surface before the full cut?
- Do I need a zero-clearance insert?
- How high above the top surface should the blade be set?
- Does the BB need something like masking tape on the back end?
- Some special type blade (mine is a 40T 1/8" carbide tipped, but it's old)

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

115

Brag Forum / St. Joe teaching

« on: April 08, 2013, 08:44:41 pm »

Saint Joseph teaching Jesus his noble trade. Pattern attached.
This was a request cut. 8"x10" on 1/8" BB Ply. After seeing the Owl, I tried cutting this with a spiral blade. It was much easier in the blocky spaces but harder in the lines that were >1 cut wide but less than 2 cuts wide. So for patterns with lots of wider cutouts it works great. Patterns with long, thick lines are tough. I thought the spiral was more like driving a car - constant corrections, but they take effect right away. The flat blades are more like steering a boat - you can turn the tiller but the boat keeps going in the old direction for a while.

NOTE- Changed the pattern to clear an island near the bottom and to reinforce left forearm.

116

Brag Forum / ToastPliers

« on: April 05, 2013, 09:21:24 pm »

I had these on the "back burner" when Steve posted his toast tweezers. These are a little different. Cut from 3/4" red oak, 8.5" x 1.5". Note the resaw-like split to get 2 arms from one piece of wood.



Pattern is attached.

117

Brag Forum / Checkbook Box

« on: April 05, 2013, 11:19:21 am »

A nephew saw the small playing card box and thought it would make a good box for his checkbook. This is cut from a pine 2x6 with 1/8" BB top and bottom. Inside dimension is 4"x7", outside is 5"x8". Walls are 1/4" thick.

118

Brag Forum / He's Number One!

« on: April 01, 2013, 07:32:45 pm »

Pope Francis cut + pattern.

5" x 7" Cut on 1/8" Baltic Birch plywood with black card stock backing.

4/5/13 - added a second Francis pattern.

4/7/13 - add a third Francis pattern.

119

Brag Forum / Oval Basket

« on: March 30, 2013, 08:33:48 pm »

This basket is 11" x 12" x 3 3/4" high cut from a Read Oak 1x12 by 12 1/4". The rings are 1/4" wide cut at a 20 degree angle. To get the wavy parts to lay right it had to have an odd number of waves - this one has 13, with a peak at one long end and a valley at the opposite end. Then each layer is turned 180 degrees and glued.

3/31/2-13 added pattern.

120

Brag Forum / Compound Cut Banana

« on: March 30, 2013, 08:11:04 pm »

This pattern produces a passable but small banana (I limited the height to 2" so it would fit in the saw). It's cut from a scrap of 2x4 cut down to 2" x 1.5" x 5" long. I guess you could scale it up and cut on a bandsaw.

It might be a fun project to make a "bunch" for some kids to paint, or just to put in a small scroll cut bowl or basket. Attach the pattern, cut through the 1.5" dimension, tape it back together, then cut through the 2" dimension. Watch your fingers under the top blade clamp - it comes close. Then a little hand sanding to take the edges off.