SSW Issue #20 Stack of Seagulls Whats my Problem

[Thomp]

Im pretty new to scrollsaws, Although ive made my share of sawdust in the past with other tools....
Sent for the free issue of SSW magizine weeks back and Got my Issue 20 the other day, the project :

"Stack of Seagulls
by John Fleig
This challenging compound cut project is more detailed that it looks. "
This project Cought my eye, I was thinking that only just 2 cuts could produce this project how in the world could i mess that up?
Well never the less i did it...

proceedure:
Digging through the scraps i found a chunk of red oak just big enough to accomidate the pattern,
with tacky glus i bonded the pattern on the wood then covered it with packaging tape, as i progressed through the steps..

to my supprise when i was done and opened up the tape i had 2 gulls standing on each other and a pile of loose ones. instead of them standing on each others backs like the picture ?


The blade was a vermont, fine toothed spirial cutting blade .25-30 thousands i cant see good enough to count the teeth,,guess is 24 teeth per inch, (Old eyes) and i ran the dremel 1680-16" at a medium to slow speed.. i had no scorching and stayed close on the pattern lines, leaving the ink.. The blade tention was as tight as i dare turn, "I broke a few lately"...
but i was getting some blade bending backward from having to add more feed pressuer in the direction of the cut to make the blade make any progress through the thick hard red oak......

Can anybody tell me what i did wrong,
to get these loose flock of seagulls

I was really wanting to make this one,

[CanadianScroller]

Seagulls

I think the biggest problem with compound cutting is blade tension and selection.
I havent seen the aattern yet but I think I know the problem
If the blade bows at all the lines will not be true.
I have had this problem before. First thing I would do is get new blades. You ned to use at least a skip tooth to allow the sawdust to clear.
The tension should be a little more. I used to use the blades you mention and don't any more, the brand that is, Try contacting Mike ,3M. And get some FD blades.
I wouldn't use a spiral for this.
The other comment I have is the wood selection. Red oak is very hard. you may like to try one of the softer hardwoods, some maples. poplars etc.
I am currently working on some compound cut projects out of hard maple and am having similar issues. I cut the same project out of English Walnut and it was a charm.
Good luck Hope this helps

[BobD (Archive)]

That project is deceptively difficult! When Ron Posten cut it for us...it was out of mahogany and he made it look effortless. I tried it in Cherry--and ended up wiht a dozen seagulls! It's a difficult pattern, but it's a lot of fun!


Bob

[sheltiecarver]

Thomp2,
I'm thinking that there must be some fun use for a whole flock of individual seagulls, too. I have it laid out on a piece of poplar. I'll let you know how many I come out with!
Sandy

[Thomp]

BobD,
Well now that i did it wrong, i backed up and ordered the scrollsaw basics book and 5 dozen assortment of the reccomended blades,

lastnight i decided to give it one more try, i rescanned and then insured my printer didnt srink the pattern, then went about re doing the project..
i amazed myself so much i didnt believe it, so i made a second '3rd if you count failures',,

I found holding the speed to med low or 25-40% and staying a whisper off the lines helped.
SUCCESS....

sheltiecarver,
Yep there would be some use to them if they were bigger than a peanut... HA! maybw a mobile?


thanks all.

now onto the lizzard puzzle.