Fretsaw project gallery: 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' added

[yamatetsu]

Since the fretsaw projects I have posted so far are a raving success , I give you now a gallery of all projects I have done so far.
All of these were done with a fretsaw and a ryoba, except for the Star Wars diorama, for which I also used a jigsaw to saw out one piece of wood.

Tools used




"Gorilla"

25cm x 35,5cm, 3mm thick, mix between sawing (outline) and painting (face)





"Swedish Chef"

19,8cm x 22cm, 4mm thick





"Raven"

10,5xm x 19cm, 4mm thick





"Cat & tree"

22,6cm x 20cm, 4mm thick





"Something fishy"

22,5cm x 15,5cm, 3mm thick





"Leopard"

43cm x 27,6cm (including the frame), Leo is made of 3 layers, 2 are 4mm thick, the head is 8mm thick,
the backer board is 12mm thick, mix between sawing (Leo) and painting (dots)

[yamatetsu]

"Hulk"

20cm x 28cm, backer board 12mm, Hulk 4mm thick







"Spidey"

46,5cm x 37cm, backer board 8mm, Spidey 3mm thick
Every single part of this has been sawn out by hand, sanded, painted and glued to the backer board.
This took 3 weeks to make.





"Frankenstein's creature"

28,5cm x 35,5cm, backer board 12mm, creature 8mm thick





"Peaky blinders"

30cm x 35cm, backer layer 1 5mm, backer layer 2 4mm, character 3mm thick





"Rainy day"

29,5cm x 31cm x 6mm, characters 2 layers of 6mm each

[yamatetsu]

"Laurel & Hardy"

36,5cm x 29,5cm, backer board 8mm, Laurel & Hardy 8mm thick





"Peanuts Star Wars diorama"

51,5cm x 22,5cm x 30cm, 18 mm thick
Snoopy & Woodstock several layers, 3mm - 5mm thick







"Boba"

44,5cm x 62cm, backer board 7mm, Boba 4mm thick





"Laurel & Hardy: On fire"

40,5cm x 27cm, backer board 6mm, Laurel & Hardy 6mm thick





"Felix the cat"

Roughly 8,5cm x 13,5cm, backer board 3mm, Felix layer 6mm, Felix parts 3mm.





"Donald"

Another fun scrapwood project. Roughly 21,5cm x 7,5cm, backer board 6mm, Donald black layer 6mm, Donald 4mm.





Donald meets Felix.

[yamatetsu]

"Contemplating life"

30cm x 20.5cm, backer board 4mm, Donald black layer 3mm, Donald 6mm.





"Elephants & bears in rocking chairs"

Roughly 14cm x 15cm x 18mm







"Viking"

27cm x 36.5cm, backer board 6mm, Viking 4mm





"Owl"

26cm x 21,5 cm, backer board 4mm, owl 3mm.





"Meeting Bruce"

27,5 x 17cm, Bruce/water 2cm, surfboard 3mm, surfer 8mm.







"Lt. Frank Drebin"

41,5 x 41cm, backer board 8mm, Frank 4mm.

[yamatetsu]

"Laurel & Hardy: Shhh"

34,5 x 25,5cm, backer board 6mm, Laurel & Hardy 6mm.





"The little mole"

ca. 18 x 12cm, backer board 3mm, mole/car 3mm





"23"

33 x 49,6cm, backer board 6mm, Michael 3mm





"Coffee ?"

28,8 x 21,2cm, backer board 8mm, owl 3mm





"Batman"

60 x 85cm, backer board 6mm, Batman 4mm.





"The Inspector"

21 x 14,5cm, backer board 4mm, inspector 4mm





"Norman Bates"

30,5 x 41,5cm, backer board 4mm, Norman 4mm






"Gina"

35 x 47 cm, backer board 4mm, Gina 4mm

[yamatetsu]

"Cutie"

14,7 x 15,5cm, backer board 4mm, cutie 4mm.





"Horse"

15 x 19,5cm, backer board 6mm, horse 4mm





"Bon appetit"

21 x 21,9cm, backer board 6mm, vulture 4mm





"Hagar the Horrible'

21 x 30cm, backer board 4mm, Hagar 4mm





"Johnny Bravo"

20,5 x 24,5cm, backer board 4mm, Johnny 4mm





"Johnny Bravo"

21 x 24cm, backer board 4mm, Johnny 4mm





"Hong Kong Phooey"

21 x 24cm, backer board 4mm, Hong Kong Phooey 4mm





"Mr. Lizzardo"

23 x 28cm, backer board 4mm, Mr. Lizzardo 4mm





"Sisyphus meets Indiana Jones"

45 x 60cm, backer boards 4mm, landscape 4mm, Sisyphus & Indy 4mm





"Creature from the Black Lagoon"

40 x 67,5cm, backer board 8mm, lagoon 4mm, bottom overlay 4mm, backer board head 4mm, head 4mm

[Zebidee]

Some very fine work here.

I hope you are able to display it prominently and appropriately at home!

My favourites would probably be Snoopi-wan and Woodi-Darth (really 3D!), Spidey and "Rainy Day", and Laurel and Hardy of course, but they are all good.

Keep it up

[yamatetsu]

Some very fine work here.

I hope you are able to display it prominently and appropriately at home!

Unfortunately not. I have no space at all for that. The small ones lie around gathering dust, the bigger ones are wrapped in towels to protect them and stacked in a bag.

I was able to sell "Peaky blinders", "Rainy day" is a gift to my sister, so those will get displayed properly.

[Zebidee]

Unfortunately not. I have no space at all for that. The small ones lie around gathering dust, the bigger ones are wrapped in towels to protect them and stacked in a bag.

Oh dear

I was able to sell "Peaky blinders", "Rainy day" is a gift to my sister, so those will get displayed properly.

Cool 

[yamatetsu]

"Boba"

44,5cm x 62cm, backer board 7mm, Boba 4mm thick



My hardest project so far. Some of these lines are just 1-2 mm wide, many pieces are just millimeters apart and there are 3 pieces that are very big, meaning it was a very long continous cut.
Sawing it out was a nightmare, sanding it was a nightmare, and, you guessed it, glueing it was even more of a nightmare. Looks very cool, but I will probably never do something like this again.

[yamatetsu]

"Laurel & Hardy: On fire"

40,5cm x 27cm, backer board 6mm, Laurel & Hardy 6mm thick

[Zebidee]

Nice.

[yamatetsu]

"Felix the cat"

A fun scrapwood project. Roughly 8,5cm x 13,5cm, backer board 3mm, Felix layer 6mm, Felix parts 3mm.

[Zebidee]

Classic!

[yamatetsu]

Classic!

Indeed. According to the Wiki, Felix is 102 years old. Mind boggling.

[yamatetsu]

"Donald"

Another fun scrapwood project. Roughly 21,5cm x 7,5cm, backer board 6mm, Donald black layer 6mm, Donald 4mm.



Donald meets Felix.

[yamatetsu]

"Contemplating life"

30cm x 20.5cm, backer board 4mm, Donald black layer 3mm, Donald 6mm.

[Zebidee]

Indeed. According to the Wiki, Felix is 102 years old. Mind boggling.

Used to watch Felix, in B&W, when I was about 6/7, before grabbing my bag (of tricks!), closing up the house and walking to school (by myself).

It boggles my mind that this was considered "normal" then, compared to the helicopter parenting that is "normal" nowadays.

Nice work on Donald

[pbj]

Are you selling any of these?  Doing commissions?

[yamatetsu]

Are you selling any of these?  Doing commissions?

I'm doing this for fun. I wouldn't mind selling most of these, excluding 'Spidey' and 'Boba'. I have sold one piece (the Peaky blinders character), the rest are stored in a bag and will probably be discovered in the attic when I have passed away.

As for doing commissions, I don't know, nobody has asked me to do one yet  That would largely depend on the source material, I'm not an artist so I have to have an existing image and that has to be suitable for being converted into simple lines.

[yamatetsu]

"Elephants & bears in rocking chairs"

Roughly 14cm x 15cm x 18mm





Found these while looking for scroll saw patterns. Each one took about an hour of sawing through 18mm wood and two hours of sanding.
Fun fact: The wood they're made of is the scrapwood they're standing on, after a lot of sanding and two coats of linseed oil.

[Zebidee]

You absolutely can sell those. Maybe try Etsy?

[yamatetsu]

You absolutely can sell those. Maybe try Etsy?

Someone already does, the elephants go for a bit more than 24 euros. I can't match that. 3 hours of work (one of that sawing through 18mm thick wood by hand with a very fine blade) + cost for materials is worth more than 24 euros to me.

[Zebidee]

Where I am, the standard wage is around $1 to $1.50 per hour, so it still sounds competitive. Especially for something you can do whenever it is convenient.

At least then your hard work would get better appreciation than it does in your attic (and you would have some money in your hobby account).

[yamatetsu]

In Germany the minimum wage is 12 euros before taxes, the cost of living is relatively high, for example a loaf of bread costs ca. 4 euros at the moment, with prices still climbing. So going less than 24 euros for 3 hours of work plus the hassle of packing & shipping is not that competitive.

Edit: Selling via a platform also adds costs, Etsy takes a small percentage of the price, I think.

[Zebidee]

That is all true.

If I compare the time it takes me to assemble/build a GreenAntz unit to the price I sell them for (less materials costs), I'm selling my labour very cheaply indeed. On the other hand I learn a lot, it helps many people and I get a few dollars back into my hobby account.

So far I've been able to avoid the platforms, ebay etc., but even Paypal takes a small chunk.

[danny_galaga]

Where I am, the standard wage is around $1 to $1.50 per hour, so it still sounds competitive.

😲
Where are you? Botswana?

[Zebidee]

Thailand.

Basic daily wage of 300 baht (~US$9) is often quoted and paid here, though if they do decent work and you want them to hang around, better to pay around 400 baht (~US$12) or more.

However, all these comparisons with hourly rates in traditional labour markets are of limited usefulness, unless you are choosing between making dioramas and going to a paying job. If you are producing these things in your spare time anyway, and selling for more than the inputs costs, in a way it is money for nothing.

At the moment you are making the artworks then storing them away... which kinda means you are working for no reward whatsoever beyond the "joy" you get inherently in what you are doing. So, if you can sell some, then you are definitely better off.

I also imagine that, after producing 100 Peanut Star-Wars dioramas your marginal "joy", from producing another one, will be wearing pretty thin. It will interfere with the rest of your worklife and leisure time more, effectively increasing your labour input costs.

On the other hand, you might find ways to reduce your input costs (cheaper materials), improve your skills and/or manufacturing time (more efficient production techniques).

What this boils down to is that it would probably be fun and worthwhile to make a few for sale, when you have the time. Probably not worth setting up a factory, unless you want a career change

Another big plus from selling them is some cashflow into your hobby account, which you can use to get some better tools or to diversify what you produce, or whatever. Some people like this because then they don't have to justify hobby spending to their spouses!

Sorry for long post already. I'm an economist and we love to waffle on about this stuff.

[danny_galaga]

Ah! Thailand.You at least have great internet there, way better than Australia! I've been fascinated with economics for a while, but haven't investigated further. I always imagined you should be great at maths, but then that guy from the Freakonomics duo says he is lousy at maths and hates it. That gives me hope 😄

[Zebidee]

Though my math skills would be rated above "average" generally, I'm no maths genius, and it was a weakness when studying. I often struggled to follow the maths twists and turns in economics lectures (and economic statistics, a separate year-long essential unit for the degree). Lots of differential calculus, economists love their curves and tangents. Mostly just learned how to do the math by rote, good enough to pass exams.

Instead of relying on maths, I focussed on understanding the principles and dynamics at work. All those equations can be charted out, and once I could see how the models work, as the numbers and assumptions change, the intuitive understanding would usually follow. Then the maths is really just punching numbers into equations, and you don't need maths to understand the fundamentals and forces at work, or to understand what Alan Kohler is saying on the ABC news.

The best part about being an economist is the ability to engage with other economists and like-minded people. It gives you new "language" and shortcuts, ways of understanding things. When I was in the public service there was a popular course "Economics For Non-Economists" specifically designed to help with that.

Interesting that you raise the internet in Australia. Remember the NBN dream?

Sorry, derailing yamatetsu's thread! Will shut up now

[yamatetsu]

"Viking"

27cm x 36.5cm, backer board 6mm, Viking 4mm



Found this in a scroll saw forum, just a photo of the finished work, not a pattern. Took me about 30 hours. Very challenging to do by hand, but well worth it.

[Zebidee]

No horns on the Viking's helmet, so that's a +1 from me 

[yamatetsu]

"Owl"

26cm x 21,5 cm, backer board 4mm, owl 3mm.



Found this in a scroll saw forum, having just a white background instead of a proper pic of the moon. So I looked for an actual pic of the moon and used that. Originally, I wanted to stain the wood for the owl, stain#1 turned out to be meh, stain#2 made the wood so dark that you couldn't distinguish the owl from the background. So I had to paint it over. Turned out well, but not in the way I wanted it.

[yamatetsu]

"Meeting Bruce"

27,5 x 17cm, Bruce/water 2cm, surfboard 3mm, surfer 8mm.







"Lt. Frank Drebin"

41,5 x 41cm, backer board 8mm, Frank 4mm.

[yamatetsu]

"Laurel & Hardy: Shhh"

34,5 x 25,5cm, backer board 6mm, Laurel & Hardy 6mm.



I hate Ollie's haircut. It's a ---smurfette--- to cut out.
This one was hard to do because the original photo is bad, it took me several hours to try several programs to translate it into a sawable pattern, to no avail. In the end I had to print the actual photo and trace the outlines with a ballpoint pen.

[Zebidee]

You must be very patient!

I like Bruce - Makes me thing of the Hangman game, except here he's about to be eaten by a shark instead!

[yamatetsu]

You must be very patient!

Sometimes. Mostly, I'm too stubborn to give up.

I like Bruce - Makes me thing of the Hangman game, except here he's about to be eaten by a shark instead!

Actually, Bruce is the shark. Like the one starring in 'Jaws'.

The guy who makes the scroll saw patterns aptly calls the dude 'Stickman'. You can find a bunch of them if your look for 'stickman scroll saw pattern'.

[yamatetsu]

"The little mole"

ca. 18 x 12cm, backer board 3mm, mole/car 3mm



My mother loves the little mole, this will be a present for her.

[yamatetsu]

"23"

33 x 49,6cm, backer board 6mm, Michael 3mm



I thought this was a little project that I could finish off quickly. Wrong. This looks deceptively simple, it has some very complicated cuts and some very small ones, to boot. The face (minus the ears) is one continuous cut, very scary to do while trying not to break something. Sanding these very carefully is also not much fun.
There are some very small parts which absolutely refused to stay glued on.
But, all nagging aside, I think this came out great.

[pbj]