Heads, I win

[Minnesota scroller]

I have found that on many of the free patterns found on the net, you must do a little modifying. If not, sometimes you end up losing a piece. I swear, some of the people that design these patterns have never scroll sawed.

Mike

[Gill]

That is indeed a very common problem with free patterns. I think the people who design those patterns are genuinely trying to be helpful, but for some of them the joy is in designing a pattern, not cutting it. It's only when you come to cut a new pattern that you begin to suspect the designer was looking at a computer screen and thought, "That looks good. I'll stop now". Often they overlook such basic necessities as line thickness, and relating the screen image resolution to the printed page.

Of course, there are many very accomplished free pattern designers out there too, and I've been grateful for the opportunity to avail myself of their talents on several occasions. But it's wise to look some gift horses in the mouth; you don't want to spend hours (or days) on a cutting before finding out that the pattern is flawed.

My advice is to stick to patterns made by designers who receive the thanks of scrollers as they post pictures of the finished article.

Gill

[core-eagle]

I usually will try cutting my own pattern before posting it. That way I can see where it needs to be modified.
It's like an architect that has never picked up a hammer before. The ones that have, seem to draw better blueprints.

Tim

[Jediscroller]

You did a great job on both of those cuttings!
Many times, folks post patterns who are just learning to design their own. I'm guilty of not cutting all of mine as well, but others have cut my designs cold without any probs so they're not too bad. I've had a few that looked great on screen and then when printed suffice it to say were not quite what I wanted. One of the first thing most designers learn is about floaters, that is, the parts that will fall out when the pattern is cut. Experienced sawyers and designers can typically pick these out quite quickly. I can't say much about line thickness, unless you're working with fine-line patterns which I'm not all that crazy about (I prefer black and white) and there are very few of those available on the free sites.
The only thing that most ask is that you recognize their efforts. In other words, when you post a cutting of one of their patterns, please have the courtesy to post who made the pattern.

[ozarkhillbilly]

Mike those both look good, and I'm a bit envious! My work shop doesn't have heat or air conditioning and with the heat we're experiencing here in the mid-west ( it show's it's 101. F) on my front porch right now at 6:30pm I'm just getting no saw time what so ever! And after having just come back from Branson I'm really wanting to do some cutting on a few of the patterns I've recently purchased. I guess I can try and go to bed early and then get up real early and get some saw dust made that way

Anyway.....keep them coming!! Looking good.

[Sawduster]

Mike those are sweeeeet ! Nice work !

[pete00]

both looking good mike...think i like eagle the bestest

[Minnesota scroller]

You have my sympathy Bill. We just got thru a heck of a heat spell here too, around 100. Sounds like you are going to be stuck with it a little longer. Just remember that come Jamuary when we're siting at -15.

Actually, my scroll saw is in my basement. It's always quite comfortable down there. My table saw, band saw and drill press are in the garage, but then 95% of the time is spent scrolling anyway and the 15 minutes spent on the prep work isn't really an issue. There is no way I could spend 3 hours scrolling if I had to do it in the garage.

Take heart. Fall is just around the corner, at least it is in MN.

Mike

[Paul S WI]

Nice work Mike.

Regarding well done vs not so well done patterns. I have learned much on this forum and have scrolled patterns out of SSW never really paying attention to whether or not they were good patterns. I was always confident on the quality by the pattern designers but always had my doubts about my capability in cutting those patterns. It was only when I learned of another site, which provided free patterns, did I begin to learn about pattern quality. Recently I have been taking a PSP tutorial on pattern design. And it was here that I learned how to check the quality of a pattern by using the Fill tool in PSP. Great tutorial and PSP has become my perferred software. Now that I have learned about the tools and how they work.

Paul