Wood Alley

Intarsia patterns going to hell

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:49:00 +0000

As those that read my other blogs know, my father died on May 30th. I went down to southern Ca, where he lived and the same house I grew up in for his funeral. There are 3 other people in my family that by Dad's account were his children. Since my Mom died in 1990 there was no one left so I am sure you know the drill. House of 49 years to be cleaned out and the contents shared. Then there is the selling of the house, etc.

With that almost done I have started to TRY to think about getting back in the wood working mode. Specifically intarsia, my true love!

But

Something seems to have happened.

All the patterns from magazines, internet etc, where I look for patterns for intarsia has really changed.

With all due respect what I have seen lately have been AWFUL!.

For instance, I have been noticing that bird patterns, (something I LOVE doing) have changed. Instead of a bird, (like my Red Tailed Hawk that is on this blog)that has individual feathers to cut out and shape and glue back together, the patterns are more like scroll work. The feathers have simple cuts that do not go all the way through for a group of feathers.

I found a BEAUTIFUL horse intarsia pattern a couple days ago, but instead of the pieces defining the shoulders and the hind quarter, the pattern called for just the side of the horse to simply be cut through in 3 separate places. No defining piece.

Has the business of selling patterns now outweigh the looks of the patterns? More money is made in pattern making? Some of those I have looked at recently look like someone drew a picture of an animal or whatever and then a few lines drawn to separate the pieces.

Does anyone understand what I am trying to say? Has anyone noticed this?

Titebonds response to shelf life

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Sat, 16 May 2009 19:36:00 +0000

A man that goes by the name Don2Laughs from Lumberjocks sent this letter to Titebond in reference about wood glue and it's shelf life.

How can I determine the age of this product? There is a faint 7
digits stamped on the upper portion of the (16 oz) bottle but it must
be code of some kind. What is your reason for not posting the date
clearly on the label?
Thanks,
Don2Laughs

He sent their respose to me. I asked him if he cared if I share this with my readers and he was more than willing to let me.
So first of all, Thank you to Don2Laughs for this great info.

Allison, I recently contacted TiteBond and here is there respons … very interesting. I asked why they didn’t post the manufacture date and … read their response:
The first digit of the lot number is a number. It is the last digit of
the year of manufacture. The second digit is a letter. It indicates the
month. We use the letters A through M, excluding the letter I. The third
digit is a number. It represents the manufacturing division the product
was made for. The next four numbers represent the internal lot or batch
number. That is followed by a decimal point and two numbers which
represent the day of manufacture.
Example:
6L12455.23 – This material was manufactured on November 23rd of 2006.
OR
The first digit of the lot number is a number. It is the last digit of
the year of manufacture. The second digit is a letter. It indicates the
month. We use the letters A through M, excluding the letter I. The
remaining number and/or letter combinations are an internal lot number.
Example:
9L12455 – This material was manufacturer in November of 1999.
OR
The first digit represents A for America (made in), the second digit is
the last digit of the year of manufacture, the third and fourth digits
represent the month, the fifth and sixth digits represent the day of the
month and the last four digits represent the lot number.
Example:
A904270023 – This material was manufactured on April 24, 2009

When we place the actual date or an expiration date on the material, the
retailers have complained and enough sent them back that we no longer
could do so.
We warrant the product for one year, because we have no control over how
the Titebond III is stored. When stored well, the product has a usable
shelf life of 4 years.

Please retweet this or stumble it. I think it's good information!
Thanks, Allison of Wood Alley

Wood Glue's shelf life

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:07:00 +0000

I can't say I ever thought about this before. Wood Glue's shelf life. I am reading the 2009 issue of workbench magazine and inside on page 15 without an authors name is an article about wood glue and shelf life.

Did you know wood glue's shelf life is generally 1 to 2 years? even if it's NEVER been opened? I did not. I am also guilty of this, buying wood glue when it's on sale and buying more than I normally would. Trying to save that buck, just to find out now I have wasted that buck. Just something to think about. There has got to be other's out there besides me that never really gave a second thought to this!

So do not buy glue that you don't plan on using in the next year or two.

You really do learn something new everyday!

Sanding spindles and sleeves

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:31:00 +0000

Like I wrote in my last post I have such a small shop every little bit of area is sooo important. What you see here is an old totally trashed night table someone was throwing away. I am sure you can see I never tried to clean it up.

What I have done with it however was simply take a piece of plywood and place a bunch of dowels on it to hold up my spindle sanders sleeves. On the other side I also took a piece of plywood and drilled some holes. This is where I keep the spindle's themselves.

The little single drawer you can't see is filled with extra's of all, along with my drill bits. I have this placed right next to my floor model drill press. This comes in really handy in this small area I work in as the nightstand is small. It sits behind the drill press up against the wall where nothing else could really go. I saw a tip like this once in a magazine and just threw it together. And ya know I think I will keep it just like it is.
Sure I would like it to LOOK better, but by God it does and works exactly like I wanted and needed it too.

My (can't do without) pull out table

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:40:00 +0000

This past week over at Handi's workshop he wrote a post entitled "Woodworking tip of the week- organizing drawers." A great tip on making drawers that will be easier to use and much more helpful to us woodworkers. You can find that here.

In reading this it reminded me of a post I was going to write about something my husband made me awhile back. I do not know why I got sidetracked and did not write it at the time, but since I still have the pictures I was going to use I might as well write it now!

Let me start off that I have an extremely small and weird shaped shop, so anything that saves space for me is not only a must do it is an absolute necessity. It is 25 feet long by 6 feet wide. In it I have a couple scrollsaws out at one time, 2 belt sanders out at once, one is a 1x40 and the other is a 4x36. Along with that is a standing drill press. Add to that a band saw. So you can just imagine I am sure just how "crafty" I have to be with "my space"

In the pictures below is what I call my "intarsia" table.It is here that after cutting , sanding etc. all the little pieces, I will bring them to this table to lay out on the pattern. To fit them together.

Anyone that knows intarsia knows there can be (and often are) hundreds of little pieces that need to be put together and glued.
Again anyone that knows intarsia knows what a complete nightmare it can be to lose just one of these pieces.

My husband built me a pull out drawer for underneath my table. It is here that I can safely put all my pieces on without worrying that they will fall off, get lost etc. I do not know what I would do without this one pull out table. It is without a doubt THE most important piece of "furniture" in my shop. My pieces are always secure and always right there where I am working.
He also has made me a similiar item on my regular desk where I place my computer. Underneath the "top drawer" he has made me a pull out shelf that holds my keyboard.

The slide out section is securely holding some of the pieces to a few projects I had going on at the time

This is it when it is pushed in. Underneath that you can see a trunk. In that trunk is where I have my extra special little intarsia pieces of wood, like I got last December from a friend. They stay safe in there and don't get all thrown around or dirty etc.

You can see this is an A-frame room also. Where the ceiling connects to the wall is only 4 feet high.

Not the shop for a tall person. LOL!!!

I have a question for my readers

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:22:00 +0000

I have a question for my readers. Over at Lumberjock's I asked on one of their forums if anyone there would like to share /swap intarsia/scroll patterns. I had explained that I needed this to be done through the postal service as I only have a printer/copier. In other words I can not get anything to print out on my computer from the computer. I also said I have a ton of patterns, both kinds I would be willing to copy and send to anyone if they would like them. I offered to pay postage, but what I was really hoping was that it would be more of a give and take without counting pennies. I happen to know that it takes a lot of papers in a manilla envelope for the expense to get to just $5.00.
I only asked this a couple of days ago. I have received a couple responses, but for some reason I thought I would get more.
My question to my readers is this. Did I cross the line by asking for something, for essentially free? There are a lot of places to get patterns on the internet for free, I just can't get them due to my printer. Does money really talk in a situation such as this? I also posed the same question on twitter with only one response and that was from someone asking what intarsia patterns were?
I would never ever be intentionallly disrespectful, but did I come off that way? I would love to get some reply's on this!
Thanks
Allison of Wood Alley

Google Alerts and Wood Working

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:17:00 +0000

I was e-mailing someone not long ago and I had mentioned Google Alerts. In doing so I realized this person did not know what I was talking about so I posted the following on Lumberjock's a woodworking community I belong too. I got such a wonderful response that I just thought I would post it here. I am simply copying and pasting what I wrote there. Too lazy I suppose to re write the whole thing again. LOL!!
The outcome is the same.

I do not know if a lot of LJ’s folks use Google, but I just wanted to share something with you all in case you were not aware of it. When you have a Google account, you also can sign up for Google alerts. When I first learned/owned/used a computer less than 3 years ago, I wanted to find wood working sights, along with patterns etc. So I signed up with Google alerts and wrote the words intarsia and scrolling. I immediately was bombarded with intarsia and scrolling sites. The problem was intarsia is a form of knitting I guess, (or sewing, in that category) and scrolling has a zillion different ways the word is used, from scrolling a page etc. LOL!!! Anyhow I changed those two and added woodworking with both words. To this day I still receive my google alerts. It was through these alerts that I found Lumberjocks! So I just thought I would pass this along in case you were not aware of it. I have also used this for free woodworking patterns. Just make your alert for free woodworking patterns (or be more specific, say intarsia, or fretwork, etc) I also love to crochet and found hundreds of free crochet patterns and crochet sites by doing this.
Just be more specific than I was my first time. LOL!!! It is a pretty cool way of searching for things without searching yourself, instead of you going to look for the sites, the sites are brought to you to choose from. You also can say how many times a day/week you want to be alerted.
I hope this helps someone, and Happy Surfing!
PEACE!!!

I hope this post helps other wood workers out there that may not be on LJ's (Lumberjock's)

Tips and Tricks, Sanding pads

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:49:00 +0000

As I was getting ready today to start working, (sanding, glueing) on my Pelicans, (the previous post) I realized since it had been such a long time since I had REALLY been in my shop that my little sanding pads were really dirty. Not only from shop dirt but just good old fashioned dust and what we call in my town, Westwood red dirt. I remembered a trick I was told a couple years ago by an old guy (woodworking artist) from Laguna Beach Ca. had told me. I have done this before, more than a couple times so I will vouche for it. Wash them! Yup, right in your washing machine. Take the pads, place them in a pillow case and tie a knot in the end of the case and proceed to wash. Use cold water and of course a gentle cycle, (you don't want to tear off all the sand of the sanding pad) and don't crowd them, (something I did a little too much with this wash job. They come out clean and like new, (well almost) but I swear they keep a longer life doing this.

I take them out of the washer and place them on a clothes dryer rack (the kind that is a bunch of dowels) and place them by the wood stove. They are dry in no time at all.

A lot of you may be saying to yourselves, "well they are sooo inexpensive to begin with why bother?" I suspect a lot of my readers do not have to bother, but where I live, I have to order them from like Harbor Frieght in Reno Nevada, and because they are so inexpensive it would be very easy to pay say $5.00 for the product and another $15.00 to ship it.
So the moral to my little story is this, When you do not want to wipe the beak of your pelican that just so happens to be a white beak with a sanding pad that looks as if you used it to sand aromatic cedar on your last project, it is safe to throw them in the washing machine, AND it works!
PEACE!!!
Allison

May I introduce Pelican #2

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:40:00 +0000

Well I am close to being done with Pelican #2. I like him also. I am not done shaping him and he also has no feet. I am going to put feet on these two, I just don't want them to get antsy with me and walk away if I take too long getting them into their natural habitat. You see, I have not figured out yet what that is going to be! LOL!!!

He still has pencil marks on his face, but this is pelican #2

And this is the one from the last post

So these are the two. Now I just have to put then into some scene someway. LOL!!!

Every piece of these two are made out of hard woods

Little Pelican will take center stage

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:27:00 +0000

It has been awhile since I have posted here. I have been up in my shop messing around, but its been mainly to work on my tools, get shit together ya know?
That deal with the bandsaw really put me in my place and like getting back on a horse if you get bucked off, I perhaps should have took that advice with the bandsaw. But live and learn. Then just when I did get "back on the horse" I think my band saw now needs to be laid to rest. I think its done, dead, through, kaput, over with etc.
So I am down to all my scroll saws, sounds funny huh? all my scroll saws. I do happen to have a few. All used and old but great deals.
Using just a scrollsaw when working on tiny projects with hard wood has become a challenge in itself. I did not realize just how much I depended on that old band saw. But I just wanted to post this pic of this little pelican I have just cut with nothing but a scrollsaw. As you can see he does not even have his feet yet. LOL!!! I think he is going to be a piece of a much bigger picture. A dear friend gave me 3 huge boxes of end cuts of hard woods and I am dying to make something big, like a picture. So it looks like this one tiny pelican just may have a whole picture made around him.

As you can see he is not even glued or completely sanded yet.

But I think he's cute and a good place to start!

And to all my readers and followers, I would like to take this time to thak you for hanging in there with me, since I have flaked so much on posting on this blog!

PEACE!!!

Allison or Wood Alley

Intarsia Sailboat

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:03:00 +0000

This again is cork board flooring from ”Wicanders”: I felt like it looked like sand and that is what I was going for. I have made this little boat scene before when I very first started scrolling. This time I thought I would place it on a mirror. The sails are mystery wood a dear friend of mine gave me in the beginning of December. The bottom of the boat is dear old Dad’s Pomegranate tree. Green Poplar for the palm tree tops, and the big palm tree is that wood I wrote about here asking if anyone knew what kind of wood it was. The “water” is what I call blue pine, and my favorite of all is the little palm trees. That is wood from my fathers Apricot tree. That wood has got to be the prettiest wood I have ever laid my eyes on, but because it was/is such a small tree, I never did get a big nice chunk of that baby!
Soooo anyway, I am back in the game. A great friend provided me with some awesome, beautiful pieces of wood perfect for intarsia, and I am really hoping to make my favorite item I have ever made, next. I am still in search of a pattern for that!

Now that I posted this I see that the first two look like a dirty mirror. It is really reflecting our rock wall for our wood stove. I did not notice that till I just posted. LOL!!!
PEACE!!!

I also would like to mention, this cork flooring is really amazing to use. I wish that wood was this easy to scroll! This stuff is really nice to work with and it kind of makes me wonder just how many other unknown "products" there are out there for us scrollers to try out ya know?

Scrollsaw Village is a Village you just must visit

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:49:00 +0000

One does not have to scroll down very far on my blog here to start seeing the title and subsequent link to Scroll saw Goodies. I have been writing about this wonderful site since I first found it. Since that time (which is a bit over a year) I have come to know the blog writer by his name Travis.( Not a hard name to remember since I myself gave that name to my 2nd born son. LOL!!!)
When I first started my journey in working with wood and more so in my beginning of blogging about it, I had named my blog Willowshimmers Woodworks and it was that blog that Travis wrote about one of my projects. It was that write up on that project that got my feet wet into the world of blogging, and woodworking. I could not even begin to guess all the internet friendships I have now due to that one article. It also gave me the courage to become a little more outspoken and a little more bold in speaking with those in the woodworking community.
In a nutshell Scroll saw Goodies is a site you could and still can find out what other woodworkers were up to, (as in the article he wrote about me) or you could find links to wonderful articles about scrolling, intarsia, etc. With that were links to tons of websites to find free, yes I said free templates (patterns). He suggested books to read, videos to watch, along with tips and tricks. I could go on and on about how wonderful this site was/is for the woodworker, from a beginner just starting out to a professional. There's something for everyone.
It always has been my favorite website out there for the wood working I do, and I could never imagine how it could get any better.
Well I do not imagine well I guess!
Why?
Because Travis has branched out and started a new site (and did not leave Scroll saw Goodies behind).

He announced it on New Years Day, and I was so excited for him I just could not wait to write about it here.
But I changed my mind about writing about it that first day or two. (I am a woman after all, Is that not what we are famous for? changing our minds?) I decided to wait a few days to write this because I wanted to know more about it myself, and I wanted to be more informed on its contents.

Well for starters, I have always found, like in movies, the sequel always seems to suck compared to the first movie. Theres also those websites that started getting big, than bigger, no longer seemed concerned with their readers or their readers thoughts and after awhile when you the faithful reader all of the sudden felt like there really was nothing there in print that pertained to you the reader. It all pertained to the greater good of the writer of the site. I myself personally have seen that happen 5 times this year in blogs I used to love!

Well just trust me when I tell you this is not the case with Travis's new site which he named Scrollsaw Village. That's the exact feeling you get when you get there. He could not have come up with a better name in my opinion.
He has forums for all different aspects for the woodworking community. You can e-mail others, reply to others questions, help others with their concerns or questions, and then if that were not enough, you get to be a part of a community that all have one common interest, and that is wood working!!!

There are free patterns there, along with interests in different aspects of working with wood.

There is a lot of people to meet, a lot of things to learn (and hopefully if you will become a member there,) a lot of things YOU can share.
Please do yourself a favor and go on over to Scrollsaw Village and become a part of it.
I will look forward to seeing you there.
If you do join and its because you read this here, Do me a favor and tell Travis, Allison sent you.
You will not be dissappointed!
You really must go do a "check it out thing" yourself, there is a bunch going on over there!

PEACE!!!
Allison of
Wood Alley

An unknown reader makes my day and my year

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 03:20:00 +0000

Without going into personal detail, I do want to share with you a e-mail that I received on December 27th. It started with "Allison you do not know me but...."
This man wrote me just to tell me that he had seen my projects of scroll work and intarsia , and it made him want to give it (scrolling) a try. He proceeded to go out and get a scroll saw. Then he relates to me about how much he enjoyed this form of woodworking , and his subsequent addiction to "the saw."
He described that he had made Christmas gifts via this new found love and when his scroll saw broke down for two days it nearly drove him crazy!
Since I know the feeling of Scroll saw malfunction and how it really CAN and DOES drive you crazy, I realized that this person that wrote indeed had found the enjoyment of this art form and I have to admit that this e-mail from him made me feel (selfishly) very good. To think that little ol' me from a little mountain town could have a hand in someone else out there in this big old world finding a hobby, a pleasure, an enjoyment so much so that they took the time to write me about it is possibly the best gift I have ever received due to this blog.
I wish to thank him for telling me this, and I encourage others out there, that if you even have an inkling of interest in this kind of woodwork to give it a try, and perhaps another day, another time I could be so fortunate to be writing a similiar post in the future!
PEACE!!!
Wood Alley,
also Allison

I have a dream

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 00:27:00 +0000

I came across some good fortune when I went to Southern, Ca. a couple of weeks ago. I acquired some scrap wood from a friend, not just any old scrap wood, but some absolutely beautiful wood. What I received was various beautiful Walnut, some Cherry, along with Apple. Green Poplar and Zebra wood. With that was some Purple Heart. Yellow Heart, a wood I have never even seen before but always wanted too. I now own a few pieces of that thanks to my friend. I also have my hands on "Mystery Wood" except the difference is this is mystery wood that I WANT to find out what kind. Not like the mystery wood I found in house fires and such.
Now my dilemma!
I want to make something, intarsia, something spectacular. Some kind of scene. Perhaps a mountain scene, or an ocean scene. Some kind of picture!
Have you ever seen those wood quilts? They are just like a real quilt, but made out of wood.
They are beautiful. A person hangs them on the wall just like a picture. This is what I have in mind. Or even a mirror frame with different species of wood.
If any of my readers or some one stopping by here knows of such a pattern I would so appreciate it if I were pointed to the right direction.
Also I think because I am so in love with these different types of wood I got, that I am going to try, (Note; the word "TRY" Lol!!!) to make a tutorial out of the project because there will be some learning to do on my part, as I have never worked with some of these species of wood.
So if you know of such a pattern I sure would appreciate knowing about it.
You can reach me by posting a comment here, or writing me at
allison.woodalley@gmail.com There is a dot (period) between allison and woodalley.
Or leave a comment on one of my posts that you are writing me, so that I can make sure gmail has not put you in Spam. LOL! That would really suck!!!
Honestly, any fellow woodworkers, I really have a dream here, and any help would be appreciated!
PEACE!!!
Allison

Another Intarsia Heron

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:41:00 +0000

Along with the dinosaurs that were to be found at my girlfriend's house while down south, there was also a Heron I had made her and gave her last month for her birthday but I forgot to take a picture of it so that is why I never posted it until now. She loves this bird, (the Heron) and even had a girlfriend of hers paint her one that is hanging in the same room as this one I made her. I am a little ashamed of myself by not taking a picture of the painted one. Perhaps next time. I have made two (2) of these Heron's the other is posted here. In the two I have made, and the first just holding a special place in my heart I for sure think this is the nicer of the two. I have also said before that I can not draw a stick man correctly but this pattern , along with the other one is a little bit of bits and pieces of others patterns and pictures I have seen. Therefore I don't feel terribly guilty saying that it is NOT from someone else's pattern, but perhaps the spirit is.

This one was made with almost all hard woods, there's Walnut, Black Walnut, Maple, Red Maple, there's also some Poplar, and Cedar along Redwood, and some good old fashioned mystery wood!

I was really thrilled that this did not break via the United States Postal Service. Of course I also had enough bubble wrap around it to float Texas. LOL!!!

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/11974

Scrolled Dinosaurs

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:19:00 +0000

I have been in southern Ca. visiting since the 1st of December and I will be going home on Monday December 8th. While here I visited a more than dear friend of mine. I had made her this dinasaur picture for her grandson awhile back and was always bummed I never got a picture of it. It came from the same piece of pine that I used on another project Clash of the Titans that was rescued immediatally prior to getting chucked into the wood stove. A last minute find, and I do mean last minute I was able to salvage 4 pieces out of a round that had just been mauled and split. Running it through the planer and attempting to sand it. Never really managing the sanding part on this or "Clash of the Titans" it made no never mind, to her or to me. It just had so much of a story behind it!

The back of this is also the same stuff I used on my "Clash of the Titans" A tree that can be found around here in Orange County, Ca. who's nick name is a paper tree. This paper bark peels right off the tree and is the trippiest stuff I have ever seen. I love it, I love what it does for these sorts of projects and I really hope I get the chance while down here to get some more.

When you touch it , it falls apart in your hands like the wings of a butterfly. That is the best way I can describe it!

I found this patern in with a introductory package of patterns when I first started receiving the magazine Creative Wood works and Crafts. My favorite mag for patterns!

I Am Thankful For YOU!!!

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:36:00 +0000

I just wanted to say that this year has been remarkable in what I have learned through the wood working community, and equally wonderful are all the people I have met. Since I live in the United States of America, I'd like to express to you, those that stop by here and read my blog, leave comments , added me as a friend, etc. that I have a special thing to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving.
And that would be YOU!!!
Thank you!
Allison of Wood Alley

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Scrolled Table Saw?

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:04:00 +0000

At LJ’s awhile back I posted a gag gift I gave my son and his wife for Christmas. It can be found here.I also have it posted here on this site.It was called a “Buck Saw” It is from a designer who has his projects in Creative Wood works and Crafts magazine, and his projects and patterns are always fun and “different” than the norm that you find in these magazines. He has several others also and I would like to make them all. I had made two of the Buck saws for 2 of my sons, and I also made two of these “Table saws.” I was out walking around my town today and stopped by my sons house and I had my camera so I decided to take a picture of it and post it here. These were just fun. I was not even trying to be perfect with these projects. I just wanted to share them as I love these sorts of “fun” patterns once in awhile. And my boys seem to like them, They are already wondering what “gag” they will get this Christmas! The “saw ” handle is made from my sons own apple tree that they had to do some major pruning on awhile back. I left the piece just the way it was instead of trying to cut out the “bad” piece or plane it down and off. I was hoping this would not bug them. On the contrary they said they were glad I did it that way. Now of course I am his mother, so I suppose he would not say “hey mom you idiot! Why didn’t you plane off the bad piece” LOL!!! The table top is also from their apple tree, and the legs were already made and just cut in half from one of those coffee cup accordion style holders you see in dollar stores.

I actually have another "Buck Saw" here but it is not a gag gift!

Aromatic Cedar Christmas Ornament Tutorial

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:38:00 +0000

I found an incredible deal before last Christmas while visiting my father down in southern Ca, at the La Mirada swap meet. 1/4 inch tongue and groove aromatic cedar. I would say I got around 25 pieces of it. They are all in 3 foot lengths .

Because of their size there has not been any ideas popping up in my head on what to do with it. However today looking through old pattern books I found a bunch of Christmas ornaments and immediately thought of this wood. After all how nice would Aromatic Cedar smell on a fresh Christmas Tree. It also appears to be lite enough that a small ornament would not weigh down the tree limbs.

The upper piece I have covered with packaging tape. Then I have sprayed the paper patterns that I copied from the original patterns on my printer with spray adhesive spray and then placed them.

On the bottom of the upper pictures you can see I have put pieces of double sided carpet tape on the wood and trying to keep most of it from being underneath the paper patterns above when I place the top piece onto the bottom piece.This wood appears to not be warped and I am hoping this will hold. I use this method quite often especially on thin pieces such as these.

Now in the shop I drill out my starter holes. As you can see I have placed a couple of pieces of old pine I don't plan on using in case of tear out. Quite frankly I am unsure if tongue and groove such as this will be less sturdy due to the, well---- , tongue and groove! LOL!!!

So I drill out the starter holes for this one angel and I do think I will have to secure the two pieces together more securely as I feel slippage between the pieces. (I have only stack cut projects 2 other times besides this) so this is VERY new to me. The others were at least 1/2 inch thickness and for intarsia not scroll work!

This is the back of the angel and I am seeing some tear out.

Sooo I just had to see what this would look like had I NOT had the pine beneath it.

NOW THAT IS TEAR OUT!!!

Next post will be cutting it out and learning how I am going to secure it better. I can tell I will need to, yet I am hesitant about using any more packing tape but I just may. I also can tell now that this wood is dry, I mean SUPER dry. Maybe stack cutting may not work. I will see!

Note: Even though it appears that I am wasting quite a bit of wood in between the ornaments, trust me, I am not. Intarsia is my passion and I will eventually use all small pieces in some project!

Toilet seat covers ? Tips and Tricks

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:49:00 +0000

Ever run out of tracing paper at the WRONG time right when you are ready to trace and transfer a pattern for intarsia or scroll work? You have no place to go at this hour? No local store open to purchase some? Well I bet ya have a local gas station! Yup, you read that right. Those tissue paper seat covers work great in a pinch.
No pun intended,
(but perhaps should be) LOL!!!
An old artist down in Laguna Beach turned me on to this "tip or trick." And yes I have actually tried it. I am not condoning thievery here by any means. But as a intarsist and scroller , being taken off the task for any period of time can sometimes take longer to get back on, (for me anyway.)
So just a little "tip or trick" that perhaps will come in handy someday for you!
And please do not forget to honor all our veterans today, such a VERY important day.
PEACE!!!
Allison

Woodworker in the true sense of the word

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 03:35:00 +0000

Lumberjocks as you can see from my sidebar is and has been very important to me and instrumental in the just plain guts department. Giving me the spirit to keep posting there and of course right here. Sometimes I forget to perhaps share with you my readers just some of the truly remarkable woodworkers that are over there at Lumberjocks. Just now I read a post that you could say brought back memories of what I have personally found to be my "favorite" choice to look around. It just so happens to be in Southern Ca. 650 miles away from me, but just a hop skip and a quick freeway trip from my father's. It is called Austins Hardwoods and Hardware and I have already posted a post here. But this is not really what this post is about. It is a post about the exceptionally talented people over their at Lumberjocks. If you would I encourage you to check out http://www.kolwoodworks.com/ for a real insight into some true woodworking. And you know me, Please if you stop by tell him Allison from Lumberjocks sent ya!

Take that stain right off of your hands, A Tip and Trick

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:50:00 +0000

     I subscribe to all sorts of magazines to do with wood working, from this Old House to Woodcraft, Handyman to Creative Wood works and Crafts. If I see a tip for something I know I want to try I will snip it out, write it down or mark it. The other day though, and I do mean just a couple days ago, I was reading something and I am not sure what it was, that is why I can not give credit (but I am leaning towards Handyman magazine.
     I did not clip it, nor mark it. The reason? It was about stain, something I rearely use. The reason it caught my eye was because it contained "girl" stuff! Like dishwashing liquid that is a degreaser such as Dawn. A product I am a faithful buyer of. The other was vegatable oil, another product in my home.
     This was the "tip or trick."
     To remove stain from your hands instead of mineral spirits etc, rub your hands in vegatable oil and then wash your hands with a dishwashing soap such as Dawn. Well I could not believe it that just today I was messing around with a stain, got some on my hands, remembered what I read, and put the tip to use. It worked!!! That is all this post is about. To let you know it really works!!! I was really impressed.

A Tutorial---Alligator and Grasshopper wood puzzles

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:13:00 +0000

This tutorial has been on this site since August, however a dear girlfriend of mine asked me to place it here today. So if you have been here before you have seen this. This is a favor for a friend with the most simplistic of reasons and private. Thank You for understanding, Allison

This is the plate of my Scroll saw. What I am going to do for this project is I am going to cover it with a couple sheets of white paper and a playing card. I have a couple of reasons for this. First is I don't want any small pieces I will be cutting to fall through. Which in actuality there is not small pieces per say, rather the little ends of the "puzzle pieces" . The tabs that I do not want to break.....

So this is now taped on the scroll saw table just for this project .

Now you can see where I placed a small hole to feed my blade through.The reasoning behind the card and not just paper is, it is a waxed card and therefore a little more supportive. I will "hear"and or "feel" if I feed the wood to fast and hit the card. With these puzzles I will try to explain how important it is to have your blade square and your table level .

So I am now "leveling" my table. Besides the fact that this particular scroll saw has a tilting table and because of the wear and tear I have laid on this particular saw I have to make double sure that it is level and it is going to stay that way!

Then this is the way I square it. Believe it or not I use a real square all the time but the hubby has them all down in the basement he is working on. LOL!!

Anyway the blade for these puzzles has got to be square. Just picture making a puzzle without the table being level and square. If you are not cutting square then your puzzle pieces will not go together (as in from the top and bottom) any slight miss-cut will keep them from going together. The same with it being level, if it is not level than you also will have problems getting the pieces to go back together. Believe it or not just the a hair of difference can make a HUGE impact on whether these pieces will fit together correctly. but I am cutting these out of 1 inch green poplar because I have made both of these before a couple times and if the wood is thick enough than you don't need to hang them or place them on a mount of any sort, because they will stand on their own. I personally LOVE these patterns.They have wildlife , birds, domestic animals, and all sorts of other wood puzzle patterns, along with tons of patterns that ARE NOT puzzles.You can find them here.

Scroller LTD

Anyway

This is the beginning of my tutorial of cutting puzzles and here are the two I am making. An alligator and a grasshopper.

As you can see I have placed packing tape on top of the wood first. Then I use spray adhesive to place the puzzle patterns on TOP of the packing tape. I used a 1/16 and a 1/8 drill bit for my starter holes. It may also look as if I am wasting a big piece of wood, but I am not, because I mainly do intarsia and with intarsia there is not a whole lot that of wood that will be wasted and I do make a lot of trees and such out of green poplar.Also to be able to hold on to a bigger chunk of wood is easier to cut when it comes to making these puzzles or (anything little for that matter) I don't quite understand this wood as it does not feel like a hard wood going through my bandsaw or scroll saw but it seems to burn quicker than any wood I have worked with so far. That is why the packaging tape is a must do (in my opinion) for this type of wood.

A Tutorial Grasshopper and Alligator # 2 Tutorial

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:08:00 +0000

My next step has been taken and that is to cut out all the inside pieces with the starter holes. I have done many of these puzzles and normally I have cut them by simply cutting off a letter at a time. Besides the middle of the A's and R's and O's and P's a person does not even need to place a starter hole in the other places if you are to cut the letters out one at a time. In the letters L,L,I,G, if I were to have cut the letters OFF one at a time then these inside cuts can be done later.

There is a couple reasons I am not doing it that way on these. # 1 This is a piece of 1 inch poplar. Like I stated in the first of the series you have to be level AND squared so as the pieces will come apart properly. Doing it this way helps me keep better control of the wood. The last thing I want is to end up with one letter that needs some kind of sawing. Even my small hands are to big for that.

Now I remove the inside of the legs so that I can get to the actual pattern pieces.This way I will be able to then cut UP through the body and then over the "back" or top of the next letter and I then have a fully cut already done letter that "hopefully" fits!

And since I started this "blog" tutorial I can say happily that on my grasshopper , the R connected to the E piece and the E piece connected to the P, just fine!

WHEW!!!

I normally use a spiral saw blade to cut these puzzles out. Most people that I have spoke to that scroll do not like to use spiral blades. I learned how to use a spiral blade very early on before I read all the horror stories about them. I probably would have never tried even using one if I had read and continue to read the bad rap these blades get. I am not using a spiral blade on these puzzles for only one reason and that is because of the thickness of this wood. So this is new for me also . Thats why I said whew. I know that Betsy here at L.J.'s uses spiral blades as she recommended something to me about using one on a particular project, but I do not here about them much at all.

A Spiral blade is a blade with teeth all the way around instead of just on one side such as a band saw or jig saw blade. This makes it where you do not need to turn your wood around to do a cut . You are able to push the wood any way and it gets the job done. I love them. Just not for this project

PEACE!!!

A Tutorial Grasshopper and Alligator # 3

pinetowns1stlady@gmail.com (Allison) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:00:00 +0000

This is the way I have chosen to cut this out. First to go is the "O". Leaving me with with the long "H" which is like the back

Just a short tiny cut removes the 1st "P"

Now I only have the "H" left and the "G" and I can cut them any which way I want to.

In the next and last of this much too long series I will be bringing in "The Cheater"