Don’t Let Your Scroll Saw Village Account Get Deleted

September 20, 2012

This is an important message regarding membership at Scroll Saw Village, our sister site & community for scroll saw enthusiasts.

We are moving to a different software platform in early October (You can read the announcement here). But, before we move, we have to do a bit of housekeeping.

We have a lot of members who signed up to access our excellent free pattern library or prefer to lurk in the forums & gallery, but have never posted. We welcome these members, but it’s hard to know which members are actively using Scroll Saw Village and which accounts are from those who lost interest.

To make things easy, we’ll be removing any account that doesn’t have at least 1 post in the forum (gallery comments don’t count).

Anyone who wishes to retain their membership status needs to have at least 1 post in the forums. If you’ve never posted before, you can start a thread in the Introductions forum to say hi and introduce yourself (we’d love to meet you). You can post a reply to an existing thread or start your own. Or you can simply go to this announcement thread and say that you wish to keep your membership. Any of these options will put your post-count to at least 1 and your account won’t be deleted. (Naturally, if you’re actively posting already, this won’t be an issue.)

Please note our current anti-spam system requires moderator approval for your first post. So you may not see your post right away until it has been approved by an administrator. When a post is approved, an email is usually sent to say when your post was approved.

I’ll send another reminder the week before the move. You can also keep an eye on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/scrollsawvillage) for SSV updates.

If, after the software move, your account was deleted, you can still create a new account for free to access everything Scroll Saw Village has to offer.

Thanks for your help in making this move as smooth as possible.

—Travis ( Scroll Saw Village Admin)

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30th Anniversary Excalibur Scroll Saw

September 19, 2012

General International announced a limited edition version of their popular Excalibur Scroll Saw to mark their 30 years of making this outstanding product. Not only does it look amazing, all black and trimmed with gold, but they’re offering a few new features too! Probably their best feature is their dust collection system. Keep the scroll saw dust to a minimum with a dust collection port.  They’ve also included additional guards for safety, and room for 12 blade holders. The electronics and motor remain the same. It will be available from Woodcraft in November. Check out this article and video for a preview. This sure is a work of art. Will this be under your tree this year?

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How To Make Wooden Farm Toys

September 6, 2012

I’m a sucker for wooden toys. In my mind, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a child play with a toy you handcrafted.

Kurtis Foote, of Just Build Stuff, published a scroll saw book How To Make Wooden Farm Toys. Farm toy patterns are hard to come by, so I was pretty excited to get this book.

These designs are geared toward beginner and intermediate woodworkers. In fact, they only require a scroll saw and a drill press to build. They’re rugged enough to withstand a lot of play, but elegant enough to double as models. They’ll certainly delight any child or child-at-heart.

The book is easy to read and follow along. Each project is broken down into step-by-step instructions. Kurtis uses extensive 3-D renderings.  I especially like the exploded views. It makes it simple to see exactly how each toy is assembled. The patterns are full size, so there is no need to enlarge and tape together patterns.

I was hoping there would be a few more toy designs included. Technically, there are only three. The first project is a combine with two interchangeable heads (a rolling reel head and a corn head). I really like the interchangeable head as it expands the toy’s possibilities. The second plan is a skid loader. This clever design has a movable scoop, which is a lot of fun. The third project is a standard tractor. The fourth project is a tractor disc, which technically is an accessory for the tractor. However, the tractor disc project is complicated enough (all though, not difficult to build) to warrant its own project section.

The only thing I see lacking is a suggestion for a child-safe finish. The author instead directs the reader to do some research to find an appropriate finish in order to complete the projects in this book. As a toy-maker myself, I know how difficult it is to find advice on child-safe finish and wish it was covered in more detail. (Incidentally , check out this post for a really good finish for toys.)

So, here’s the rundown:

Pros:

  • Easy to build.
  • Elegant designs.
  • Excellent illustrations.
  • Exploded views for easy assembly.
  • Patterns are full size.

Cons:

  • Only 3 complete toy designs.
  • Missing toy finish suggestions.

I think this is a great book to add to your collection.  Especially if you’re looking for unique farm toys. Check it out!

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How To Download Patterns From Scroll Saw Village

June 11, 2012

Every once in awhile, I get an email asking how to download a pattern from Scroll Saw Village’s Pattern Library. While there are several ways to download patterns from SSV, I made a quick video on the easiest way.

Simply put, click the thumbnail of the pattern you want. This will take you to the pattern’s page. This page has a larger image of the pattern, plus some additional information below it. Click the pattern and a pop-up window will appear with the full size pattern. Simply Right-Click and choose “Save Image As…” and save the full size pattern to your computer. From there, you can open up the picture and print according to your favorite method (Here’s how I print patterns, and Here’s the way I print Oversized Patterns).

If you haven’t visited SSV for awhile, stop by and check out the Pattern Library.  As of this writing, we have over 1,400 free scroll saw patterns designed by talented members of Scroll Saw Village.  If you decide to use a pattern, be sure to thank them for sharing their talent with the rest of us.

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Moving Elements With GIMP

May 3, 2012

It’s been awhile since I put one of these tutorial videos together, so I thought I’d do a quick pattern tip video. Docupton on Scroll Saw Village shared a portrait pattern he was working on using GIMP. He did an amazing job on it and really captured his subject matter. The only comment I had [...]

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How To Price Your Scroll Saw Work

April 12, 2012

Spring time is here and people are gearing up for craft shows.  One of the most common questions that gets asked is “what should I charge?”  Here is a little article I wrote for the Scroll Saw Village newsletter back in September 2009 that may shed a little light on the matter.  Enjoy!  Pricing Your [...]

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Ornaments For Charity eBook

November 23, 2011

I’m pleased to announce that the Ornaments For Charity eBook is now available! The last couple years, designers from Scroll Saw Village donated original ornament patterns not available anywhere else. We compile these patterns into an downloadable eBook. You can download the eBook for free and check it out. If you decide to keep the eBook, we [...]

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How To Design Scroll Saw Patterns

August 18, 2011

Awhile back, I created a classroom series on how to design your own scroll saw patterns using GIMP and Inkscape. This class was freely available on Scroll Saw Village in the Village University forum. It included a video tutorial along with written instructions. Recently, I started working on a new website; How To Design Scroll [...]

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Child Safe Finish For Toys

July 28, 2011

With all the news of toxic chemicals in toys made over seas, child-safe finishes have become a hot topic.  Cynthia Lewman from Toymaker Press put together a really nice tutorial on how to make your own non-toxic, child safe finish for toys.  This finish will display the beauty of the wood, but won’t hurt the [...]

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I Take Plastic

July 21, 2011

As crafters and artists, we get to the point where we start selling our work.  Either at craft fairs, or word of mouth.  But, since most of us don’t make a living at selling our work, options like accepting credit cards is practically non-existent.  Until now.  Square is a really neat credit card processing service [...]

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