Hi From Sunny Queensland, Australia

[BoomerangInfo]

Hi All,

My name's Russell. I live in Queensland, Australia and have been doing Intarsia on & off (mainly off) for many years. While I love my Intarsia, I'm looking at doing some scrollsaw work as well, as I'm hoping it'll be a bit quicker and cheaper producing some finished products than what I seem to be getting through with the Intarsia.

I have Ryobi 16" scrollsaw, but have mainly been using my bandsaw with a 3mm (1/8) blade for cutting so far, as my scrollsaw skills are very basic, I haven't had to do much scrollsaw stuff, and the 1"+ thick wood I've been using seems very hard to cut on the scrollsaw. I also make boomerangs (among my many other hobbies I never have enough time to do) out of marine ply, and do those on the bandsaw, so I'm much more comfortable with the bandsaw.

Anyway, I'll have some posting to do in other sections, as I'm looking for advice on what I see will be my biggest frustration with scrolling, and that's changing blades & doing fret work, as it takes 2-3 minutes every time on my saw, and I can't see things being enjoyable if I have to take that long for every cut.

I've also got some questions for other Aussies here on (cheap) wood supply too, as all you can get easily around here (southern downs) is pine & maybe some Tassie Oak.

Russell.

[minowevie]

Russell. is your craftsmon scrollsaw , take straigt end blades, or pin end blades? if you have one like I did at first, you have to losen the tention in the back, and take the blade out, and then put it through the hole then tighten the tention again. and dang that tears out the hand big time. I had one of these saws. and it was a bother. doing small fretwork, just wore out my hand for sure. and, the blades was to big to get through the holes to begen with. I have to say. I got a new saw. mine is a Hegner. but there is nice saws out there that work just as nice, what I would say is, I have a quick release on the blade. and can push it through a hole fast and put it in the top clamp, and tention, and keep going. don't know if this is what you mention. but that is what I see. I also wont to welcome you to the forum. and hope you stick around, and learn lots of quick tricks to make your scrolling so much easyer. your new friend Evie

[BoomerangInfo]

My saw takes pinned blades, or straight ones, but the pinned blades are rather big, so are only good when going through big holes, and not good for intricate cuts.

The pinless blade holder requires an allen key to change the blades, and it's not exactly accurate when putting a new blade in. There's a measuring guide on the top of the arm, but the clamps don't sit very well in the holes. The tension knob is at the back.

The other problem changing is, the table has a large hole in the middle, and you have to poke the blades down through the hole, and hook them on the holder below. I have made an add-on table out of ply, to go over the metal table, to cover the huge hole, or small parts cannot be cut. Therefore whenever I need to remove the blade for a pinless blade, I have to take off my ply table, pull the old blade out, undo the clamp, change blade/insert in workpiece hole, put clamp back on (not easy if workpiece is also on blade), re-attach clamps to holders, put table top back on, then ready to go again.

This is my big issue that is holding me back from jumping into things now.

Russell.

[guitarman]

Hi Russell, welcome to this great place. Question: Do the boomerangs really work? Do they really come back to you? I'd like to try one myself. Do you have a pattern you would share? Hope I'm not being too much trouble. I really wanted to know if they work or not. Thanks, David

[Dragon]

Welcome to the group Russell. I started with a saw that took both pinned and pinless and moved on to a better working tool soon. Pinned are easy to change but pinless give you more freedom to do nicer and better work.
Diane

[JohnB]

G'day Russell,
Welcome aboard mate.
I feel your frustration with the Ryobi. I to started with one of those.
I then Got a small Delta, now being made by B&D. It was a nice little machine and good value for money, it also had a great blade clamping system. I know the Delta ones were no longer available in Oz, but maybe the new B&D model is ???.
My next saw was a Dewalt, which I purchased from the States and bought a 240v - 110v converter. It is a great saw, however with the delivery charges added it cost about $700au.
I now have an Ex21, which I bought from Carrolls in QLD. It is a great saw although you don't get much change from a grand. The only other quality saw that I know of that can be sourced locally is a Hegna, and you definitely wont get any change from a Grand.

[BoomerangInfo]

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

John B,

Price is unfortunately still a limiting factor for me, so I may just have to live with what I have for now. I thought a cheap option might be just better blade holders, but it's still hard to get to the bottom of the Ryobi with pinless either way I guess. Maybe I just have to persevere with pinned for a while, or just get better at changing blades.

David,

Yes they do really work. I've been throwing for about 30 years total, but only regularly for the last 10. You can get boomerangs in all shapes & sizes, some hard to throw, some easy. 95% of the boomerangs you buy in Souvenir shops do NOT work, as they don't have proper airfoils carved on them, even if it says it's a returning boomerang. there's no guarantee it's true. I don;t know how they've got away with that false advertising for so many years...

Things have changed in the last few years though, and there are maybe about 30% of proper returning ones being sold now.

I make two models which I sell commercially, although only to recoup my hobby expenses, so I'm sorry I can't give you a plan, although do a search on boomerang plans, and you'll find dozens online. You can see the ones I make at my web site at BoomerangInfo.com or on Ebay Australia, where I sell some too.

Diane,

May I ask why the username "Dragon"? Only because I'm a dragon & fantasy fan too. I had a big collection of Dragon figurines, but unfortunately over the years, with an ASD son, and moving house twice, most of them have been broken I'd love to do some Dragon Intarsia & scrollsawing. I haven't seen much Dragon intarsia, but I note there are a few dragon scroll pattern around.

I also do Temporary Airbrushed Tattoos as a sideline too, and had the idea that I bet most of my TAT stencils would be able to be scrolled as well, although the detail on a lot of them is pretty small, but the larger ones would probably work well.

Thanks again for the welcome everyone. Hope I can contribute something back sometime.

Russell.

[f250]

As for a cheap supply of wood to scroll with, I think you have a good start by having a bandsaw. You'll just want to take your 1" thick wood and resaw it. Buying wood thin enough to scroll (other than plywood) is just nuts expensive. With the bandsaw you can make your own thickness, any thickness you want. I have friends who do not have a bandsaw and ask for help from me on a regular basis.

Welcome and why don't you show us some pictures of your intarsia? We'd love to see them.

Tom

[BoomerangInfo]

Yeah, having a bandsaw is great. The bad part is mine is a PITA to change the blade on, and resawing with my 1/8" blade I use to make my boomerangs is not very accurate. I've been considering a 2nd bandsaw to keep one specialised for the boomerangs, but it's a $$ issue again.

As for Intarsia, mine has just been the stock common JGR patterns or Gekko timbers patterns so far. Here's the latest I've done.



I think I actually have more unfinished pieces, than finished ones :P

Russell

[Marcel in Longueuil]

Image link worked ok for me.