How I got started in Woodworking
My first published scroll-saw patterns will appear in the next issue (SUMMER 2007) of SCROLL SAW WOODWORKING AND CRAFTS MAGAZINE.
It is quite appropriate that my first “published” scroll saw patterns are the CHOPPER and HOG MOTORCYCLE. In November of 2004 I saw my first episode of “American Chopper” and became captivated with the show. Being a person always looking for creative outlets outside of my “9 to 5” world of manual labor, the show ignited a desire within me to explore long dormant creative aspects of my personality.
In previous years, I had satisfied my creative side by writing journals, playing with personal computers and collecting various memorabilia. Inspired by the television show, this new desire centered on a need to produce something solid and tangible like the beautiful detailed bikes by the Teutels.
I pondered these feelings for a few days until I remembered that I had a Craftsman scroll saw packed away (still new in the box) in my basement. Eureka! I could set up a work area and start cutting. The problem, as it always is with such things, was time.
I had to make the time to setup shop. It took a couple of weeks, but I soon had an area cleared and a homemade workbench built. Now, what to make?
My first thought, as you might guess, was to simply cut out some jigsaw puzzles. I could give them as Christmas gifts to all the kids in the family. So, I headed off to the local bookstore and searched for a book on the subject. Little did I know that as I browsed the woodworking section, fate awaited me on the top shelf. “Dinosaur Puzzles for the Scroll Saw” by Danny A. Downs with Tom Knight book, caught my attention. I pulled it down, flipped through it, and began one of the most amazing creative adventures of my life.
By this time it was late November. Christmas was just around the corner, but I figured I could get three of these Dinosaurs cut out and finished for my niece and two nephews (each puzzle consisted of 35 to 40 “bones”). The problem was that these were not the only kids in my “extended family” and the next thing I knew, I had committed to producing a total of eight puzzles! Add my partner’s suggestion of putting each puzzle into it’s own custom-made pine box and I was facing quite a challenge.
I was working a full time job so everything had to be done on evenings and weekends. As the holiday approached, my nights became later and later. By 3:00 a.m. on Christmas morning… I was sanding the edges off the last dinosaur puzzle. Whew!
After that, I began looking for projects with a fewer number of pieces…
