Messages

1

Pattern Requests. / Re: MR & MRS

« on: October 10, 2016, 11:00:37 am »

A little more detail? How big should it be overall? Do you want the text centered in a box, circle, oval, etc? Font type?

The attached is Scroll Beach Italic (so there should be no floaters), 100 point font, in a rectangular box. The .doc version can be edited in MS Word. The PDF can be printed as is. Will that work?

2

Pattern Requests. / Re: Potrait Request

« on: September 01, 2016, 07:15:29 pm »

are you trying to get all 4 into the portrait or just one or two from the crowd?

3

Brag Forum / Re: Magnolia blossom inlay

« on: August 29, 2016, 12:42:20 pm »

Is the inlay the full thickness of the lid or more like a veneer?

4

General Scroll Saw Talk / Re: Just wondering?????

« on: August 28, 2016, 06:19:45 pm »

GrayBeard - good to hear from you. I've been away a while but trying to get back in the swing.

5

General Scroll Saw Talk / Re: oops

« on: August 28, 2016, 06:18:23 pm »

There are some thicker superglues (CA glue) out there that are perfect for these type repairs. They are clear, take very little to hold, and set in about 10 seconds, so you can hold it in place easily. I use Gorilla SuperGlue (not regular Gorilla glue - that's a good glue but not for these tiny repairs). I'd wait until the rest of the piece is cut, then go back to make the repair (don;t repair then try to keep cutting unless you let it sit an hour or so).

Check the pattern to see if a floater snuck in there. Steve is a terrific pattern maker but doesn't always cut a pattern before publishing it. If you find that the part that fell out was a floater, post a note to Steve so he can correct it.

6

Brag Forum / Re: Bird House Inn

« on: August 28, 2016, 06:12:30 pm »

Very Nice work.

If you have not seen it, there's a true type font called "Scroll Beach Italic.ttf" that is a good option to the Stencil font (it makes characters that can be scrolled without parts falling out). You can install it on your Windows PC and all the Windows applications (Word, GIMP, Inkscape, etc.) should be able to use it.

We can't attach a ".ttf" file, but if you send me your email address, it might show up in your inbox...

7

General Scroll Saw Talk / Re: Inkscape for portrait patterns

« on: August 28, 2016, 05:57:45 pm »

Louis - The attached doc describes the process I use to convert a photo to a pattern - it might be of some help. I wrote this a couple of years ago for a guy getting into pattern making. It seems like a lot of steps at first, but after a few patterns it should flow pretty easily. Install GIMP and Inkscape (both free downloads). Load a photo into Gimp and edit as described. Save the GIMP output as GIF or JPG, load into Inkscape, convert to SVG to smooth it, save the SVG, then load the SVG into GIMP for bridging to any islands (some call them "floaters").

Let me know if you have questions.

8

Brag Forum / Re: Custom Beer Tap Handles

« on: August 26, 2016, 10:08:55 am »

A lot of craft brew places sell 64 ounce bottles of their brew to go. They use the tap to fill a glass bottle then screw on a cap.

This works great if you finish it in a day or two, but for me, unless someone is visiting, I might have an 8 oz glass with dinner. So in a few days, about 1/2 way through the growler it's going flat.

I recently bought a stainless version (the picture is big but it's still just 64 ounces) that has a CO2 cartridge that keeps the beer pressurized:

It was in the refrigerator while I was travelling this past week. Last night with dinner, the head was good and the carbonation was like new:

 

9

General Scroll Saw Talk / Re: Inkscape for portrait patterns

« on: August 17, 2016, 05:54:02 pm »

There a different procedures for converting a photo to a scroll pattern. The most popular seems to be using Gimp for the 1st step of highlighting the contrast areas (black and white) using filters and photocopy, then load into Inkscape to convert that to a svg (scalable vector graphic, removes the jaggies and makes nice smooth islands even as you zoom in) then back to Gimp to eliminate floaters. Inkscape has some nice text functions. For example, convert a butterfly pattern to svg, then float some text along the outer edge of the wing.

This takes practice to get any good at it. Look for people asking for patterns, then try each one. If it works out well, post back here. After a couple of dozen of those you'll see a great improvement in your skill. And the tuition is $0.00. What a deal.

10

General Scroll Saw Talk / Re: New Jet scroll saw

« on: August 17, 2016, 05:46:20 pm »

The photo of the new Jet JWS-22B looks so similar to the Excaliber that you'd have the think Jet is just labeling a saw made by General INTERNATIONAL (Excaliber). I've had no problem with the steel table on the EX21, but the cast would work as well.

11

Brag Forum / Re: Custom Beer Tap Handles

« on: August 17, 2016, 05:36:08 pm »

A growler of each - one per tap. Makes me thirsty just looking at them.

12

Introduce Yourself. / Re: Hello from OH

« on: August 14, 2016, 12:07:59 pm »

Lancaster OH says Hey.

13

Computer questions / Re: letter size HELP

« on: August 14, 2016, 11:51:25 am »

In most browsers, control+ zooms in and control- zooms out. I wonder if your keyboard is acting up and sending the control+? Try pressing the "ctrl" key and the minus sign at the same time and see if it shrinks back down.

14

Computer questions / Re: Computer Problems

« on: August 14, 2016, 11:48:33 am »

You might think about replacing the computer if it's more than 3 years old. This seems drastic, but I could kick myself for not doing that a year ago. I got a new laptop for business use and it is incredible. 10 seconds from power-on to the Windows interface. I use Norton 360 on my machines. It's a little expensive but can be installed on multiple PCs (I think it allows up to 5). The best thing is my sister-in-law got one of mine infected. I called Norton and they spent about 1 hour cleaning it up at no charge.

I also got a Chromebook last year for travel use. That is a slick machine. It doesn't do everything exactly like Windows does, but they are very inexpensive (<$200), very light (2 lbs) and the battery lasts 10 hours. The Google office apps are free, so if you don't need to interface with Microsoft Office from other people, if you mostly browse and write a few letters and some spreadsheets, the Chromebook is an excellent option. My 7 year old grand-niece is getting a Chromebook from the local school for 2nd grade - I guess it's cheaper than buying books and functions fine for their needs.

15

Ask Steve a question. / Re: Posting photos from Google Photos

« on: August 14, 2016, 11:32:04 am »

thanks folks - I thought I'd done that, but there was an issue - the raw Google Photo was not yet moved to a shared album, so when I looked at the posting on the scroll site I could see it (via my Google credentials) but no one else could. The links that I later posted were after I moved those pictures to a shared album - I guess that's why it now works.

Here's another try...