First Project

When I got my scroll saw home I was excited to do something, anything.  So I found a small scrap piece of wood laying around.  Then I went into Word and wrote my name with a script font and made it about 48 points big.  In my initial scroll saw research I had seen people attach the patterns to the wood with spray adhesive.  I didn't have any so I got a glue stick and rubbed it on the back of the paper and stuck it to the wood.  It held secure enough to cut and it peeled right off when I was done.  I imagine you wouldn't want it to dry very long though.  So here is my very first attempt at cutting something out:

As you can see I got a little skinny on the top part of the K and a little fat on the bottom part.  Turning sharp in the m didn't turn out so well either.  But it gives me a starting point.  I got the feel for the saw and got more excited about doing better.

A whole bunch of YouTube videos later I decided to see how cutting out inside pieces would go.  A found a keychain pattern, which I will give you the link to later, and cut it out and glued it to some of the 3/4 inch pine I had left.  I drilled hole for the blade to go in and gave it a shot.  This is what happened:

It is pretty sloppy but this is what I found.  The wood for the first Kim was about half as thick as the wood from the keychain.  Cutting thicker wood is harder to cut straight and is harder to follow the lines.  I will need lots of practice for thick woods.  Also cutting out the inside pieces was pretty hard, especially the small pieces.  Again, it was hard to keep a straight line.  You can also see where I didn't drill the hole all the way through on the bottom of the K.  I had already put my drill and bits away when I discovered this and I didn't want to drag them out again so I left it as is for a reminder to always check the holes.

Now I have something to refer back to as my first cutting on a scroll saw.  We'll see how things improve from here.

BTW, the pattern for the keychain can be found on Steve Good's blog, or from this link: