First piece

[Duke107]

My saw came in today. I spent about an hour going through the manual, making minor adjustments and learning the speed control. I decided to make a piece I could have done on my band saw, all outside cuts. I decided to use my new scroll saw because I gotta' start somewhere.

8 inch diameter five point star made of south Georgia hard yellow pine. Cuts were sanded on a bench top one inch band sander and rounded over with a 1/4 inch radius roundover bit in the table router. Finished with a light coat of Boos Block Oil. It's what I had available. I put a small hole in the back to hang it on a 4 penny finishing nail.

The saw does not vibrate anywhere NEAR what I expected. It's actually very stable and smooth. The air pump works good, but I had to do a little tuning on the outlet tube. The knuckle joint light is useless as brakes on a boat. I screwed a short piece of 1X4 to the side of the table and clamped a work light on it.

Tomorrow or so, I'll try an inside cut. One step at a time.

20220110_154817.jpg

[mtwoodguy]

A very good start. Thank you for sharing. Yep, light is important.

[Duke107]

Among all the little parts and pieces that came with the saw, there's a pair of adapters (?) for plain end spiral blades. I think I might play with that tomorrow and try to get a little farther through the learning curve.

Fellas, I really do appreciate the encouragement and support. I'm really enjoying this.

[Jimern]

Very good start, I agree. Light is something we all fiddle with until we can live with it, I can't how many adjustments to lighting I have made or bought.

One note, some transparent glue and saw dust mixed to about the consistency of oatmeal will fill in the hole in the center nicely.

[NC Scroller]

There is no such thing as too much light. The older we get the more it become true. Nice start. Actually pine can be tricky to cut because scroll saw blades tend to want to follow the grain. By all means try to switch over to pinless/plain end blades. You will find most of the quality blades are pinless/plain end. The three most popular blade brands are Pegas, Flying Dutchman, and Olsen. Denny aka SandyOaks on this forum is a Pegas dealer. I highly recommend you contact him for as blade sampler package.

https://www.artcraftersonline.com/

[Rolf]

Duke, nice first project! I like your attention to detail with the routing.
I am also enjoying your sense of humor "The knuckle joint light is useless as brakes on a boat."

and your sign off "Hand me my finger, would you, please?

Thanks for sharing.

[Duke107]

NC Scroller, I'll take your advice on that and thank you for it. I'll get hold of Denny and see if he can show me the path of righteousness.

[Sandy Oaks]

You are off to a good start.