Burst Bubble

November 04, 2023

About a month ago, I picked up an old Craftsman 18" scroll saw for a whopping $15. It satisfied a couple of points: 1) cheap test of whether I would like scroll saw stuff, and 2) small and light enough to stow it out of the way in my shop when not in use. This tool is in good shape but is a beater with vibration. Fortunately, I can clamp it down to my very heavy assembly table. I have no idea how anyone could use this thing without something very substantial to clamp it to. I played around with it on some 1/4" plywood to get the feel and then put it away for a bit. I then saw a piece I liked on a Facebook group and the person shared his template. It called for cutting 1" thick stock slightly smaller than a sheet of paper. I looked around my shop and picked up a piece of cherry and began work. In hindsight, I'm not sure such a hard wood was a good choice for my first project with that thickness. The piece needed a very small blade (#5) and had some challenging turns/curves. I will tell you that the piece took much longer to cut than expected as the feed rate was not fast with a thick, hard wood. My hands had severe cramps by the end managing the vibration and tight turns. Despite tensioning the blade as far as I dared, I found it to flex at times and not be perfectly perpendicular where I was struggling with the tight curves (the manger will only slide out all the way out from the back and only partially out the front). Finally for some reason, I really didn't think about how "rough" the drawing was on the pattern. The lines were about 3 times thicker than my blade meaning I really needed to decide to either cut on the outside of the line, the inside of the line, or down the middle of the line. As my first attempt, it's pretty clear I cut all three versions of that line! I may try this one again but it will not be on such a hard wood. Pine or cedar would be easier I think. I have not sanded anything other than the face of the wood. None of the cuts have been sanded and may never be! I have now shared the outcome of a less than perfect work just so you know it happens! Please don't make fun of my star or wavy top of the tent. The first photo is in display mode with the pieces slid out slightly. The second photo is everything flat. The third photo is the template.