The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Sunday, Debtember 07, 2014

That which I have never done, should be easy, right?

When I saw this video on making a 3-D reindeer ornament on a scroll-saw, not only did I tell Bunny about it (she has a scroll-saw and she is very interested in making one of these) but I thought I might give it a try. The video made it look very easy, the cutting pattern is simple—what can be so hard about it? Never mind I've never done anything on a scoll-saw, it's easy, right?

Umm …

[It's carnage I tell ya! Carnage!]

Yeah.

What you should end up with is some scrap pieces of wood (check), two more-or-less-flat reindeer profiles (check…ish) and one 3-D reindeer (Houston, we've had a problem). The reindeer on the left is a flat profile, but the neck was so thin that the only thing keeping the head on is the cutting pattern glued on the other side. The one on the right is another flat profile and technically, is successful (sans one missing antler—there should be four).

The poor reindeer in the middle though—that was supposed to be the 3-D ornament and well … the legs on the left side broke off at the “knee” (oddly enough, they were thicker than the ones on the right, which amazingly, did not break off) and the entire neck section is missing (go figure—I never found it).

The scoll-saw also took a bite out of my thumb nail.

[This also shows just how small the reindeer are.]

Fortunately, that was the only “injury” I sustained.

I did identify two things I could have done differently. One, if the pattern was about 50% larger, I might have been more successful, as the original pattern is quite small. Two, I should not have removed loose pieces as I was cutting (say, the chunk from around the antlers, or the chunks from around the leg area) as that would have provided some stability—towards the end I was very afraid that the vibrations from the scroll-saw was going to rip the legs and antlers right off.

Next time, I should do better.

[With some sanding, you can't even tell it was suppose to have four antlers]

But at least I got a flat reindeer ornament for my attempt.

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