new member needs help

[iem44]

Hi to all, Have have been given a scroll saw by my wife, to keep me from being under her feet I think. but never having used one before I am uncertain what project to start with, or which of the many kinds of wood I should select for my first attempts. could someone recommend a book for beginners like myself. Also how I do I choose the most appropriate blade from the many on sale, IE wide blade narrow blade spiral blade plus no. of teeth, etc..
May I take this opportunity to thank in advance anyone that provides me with help, and to everyone all over the world have a happy christmas and I hope a peaceful new year.

Best Wishes iem44

[Wood Dog]

Welcome to the forum iem44. There are loads of info on scrolling just on this site. I recommend you read as many topics as you want. Patrick Spielman has a good bood called The New Scroll Saw Handbook you may be interested in. I would suggest you check out your local library for it and others. Starting you own home library of purchased books is great too.
Web sites that are very helpful for beginners.......check out these.
Scrollsaw Workshop
Rick's Scrollsaw

a good place to purchase blades and lots of info about them is
Mike's Workshop English featuring: my life story, a cancer survivor, scrollsawing samples and tips, community service, list of favorite sites and Flying Dutchman fretsaw blades for sale.

Don't forget YouTube for more videos on scrolling.
Have fun.

[utbva]

welcome iem44 to this forum. There is a lot of good people here with a lot of good suggestions. When I started with the scrolling I didn't know what direction I would go. Just start with some simple projects and practice, practice, practice and eventually you will find what you like to do best and it will get addicting. There are so many different things you can do. But most of all, HAVE FUN with it.

[Ocelot]

Welcome!

For just starting out, I recommend getting some thin 1/8" or 1/4" plywood or even some scrap soft pine. You can just draw some simple shapes on the wood with a sharp pencil or better yet, a fine tip red pen and get a feel of cutting out the shapes.

If you like, you can print out some basic shapes like circles, stars, etc and attach them to the wood with some sprat adhesive. Circles and straight lines are the hardest for beginners.

I highly recommend plain end blades instead of the pin end ones. To practice, a number 5 or 7 would probably be good. Start out very slowly and try to always let the blade do the cutting without putting any side to side pressure on the blade and just enough forward pressure to cut the wood without pushing the blade back to much.

There are some beginner patterns in the starting out section of our pattern vault that you can try after getting a feel for cutting. They can be found here:
http://www.scrollsawer.com/forum/scr...ault/17310.htm

Good luck, and feel free to ask plenty of questions.

[scrollsaw4u]

Hello IEM

Welcome - this is a great site for info and patterns. For me - I have been scrolling for a "few" years now - I didn't think to look on the web for guidance. I started with easy children's puzzles (for the grandkids)...and like Bill said, practice practice. I was blessed that I have a cabnet maker close to me that was willing to sell me his scrap 1/4" plywood - that was covered with beautiful woods (oak, cherry etc). I started with that (which a number 5 polar blade works well with) and have progressed to the real woods - also purchased from my cabnet maker.

Just a note to all - cabnet makers are great resources for wood - and they are happy to sell what they would otherwise throw out, or burn. I have a couple of sources in my area that I have gotten wonderful pieces from. Only thing is, many work with thick wood - but I have again been blessed with having acess to a very large band saw to rip the wood into thinner pieces.

Back to IEM - if you contact Mike at the link wood dog gave you - Mike offers a sample pack - different blades for you to try out...really nice thing for Mike to do, but he is a scroller so goes with the territory

Hope this helps
Cheryl

[guitarman]

Welcome iem44, you've been given some good advice already and thank your wife, God bless her, for giving you the gift of a lifetime and opening up a world of enjoyment that you will love for a long time to come. I wish you the best in your new world of wonder. Merry Christmas. David

[marshall]

Welcome IEM and I going to try to get under my wife"s feet , maybe I'll get a new toy .......hope so...... Marshall