Layered Nativity Cut on the Scroll Saw

I decided to cut a layered nativity. The fertile mind of Steve Good published this pattern last week and I thought it would be a good addition to my craft table for my holiday shows.

Cannon Pixma Pro-100 large format printer

12" x 18" 30 lb printer paper

Scissors

An image editing program (I use Adobe Illustrator)

1/4" Baltic birch plywood in the following sizes:

12" x 6"

12" x 8"

12" x 5 1/2"

10 1/2" x 9 1/4" (2 ea)

Hardwood for the base (I used a piece of Cherry 3" x 13 1/2" x 4/4 (thick) (4/4 is a lumber term for a nominally 1" thick piece of wood).

Painters tape (I used 3" wide blue and 1" wide green)

Spray adhesive (I used 3M77 Spray Adhesive)

Clear packing tape (I used Uline 3" wide)

Drill press with a 1/16" drill bit

Scroll saw (I used a Seyco 21")

Scroll saw blades (I used Flying Dutchman #3 two-way cut for this project)

Paint (I used the following paints):

Sunshine Yellow for the star background

Navy Blue for the sky

Meadow Green for the palm trees

CA glue (I used Stick Fast with Akfix 705 activator)

Wood glue (I used Titebond III Ultimate wood glue for all of my projects)

Sander (I used a Wen oscillating belt sander with 100 grit belt)

Router (I used a Skill router table with a carbide 5/8" ogee bit)

Miter Saw (optional you could cut pieces with a hand saw or a table saw) (I used my Ryobi 10" sliding compound miter saw)

Table Saw (optional you could cut pieces with a hand saw or a table saw) (I used my Skill 10" table saw)

Laser engraver (optional) (I used a DAJA 24w engraver)

Steve Good uses Corel Draw to create his patterns and publishes them in an Adobe Acrobat file.

After I download the pattern, I open each page of the file in an Adobe Illustrator layer.

When all pattern pages are in Illustrator, I select all of them and change the line weight to .25 points. (They arrive from Steve with a line weight of 1 point.) I have found over the years that the thinner line gives me a smoother finished product as I don't wander from one side of the line to the other when cutting.

I layout the pattern to use as few pieces of paper as possible. I am currently using 12" x 18" paper in my Canon Pro-100 printer and printed this pattern on two sheets of 30 lb paper. (I use the heaver paper as it holds up better when cutting.)

Cut out each pattern layer with minimal white space around the pattern. (Extra white space just wastes spray adhesive, tape and wood.)

I cut the plywood into the sizes needed for each pattern grouping. Since I am in production mode, I cut three pieces of plywood for each pattern grouping and taped them together with painters tape.

If you are only cutting one pattern, apply painters tape to each piece of wood.

Apply spray adhesive to the back of a pattern, wait for about 2 minutes for the adhesive to tack up and apply the pattern to the wood. Rinse and repeat for each pattern grouping.

Cover the patterns with clear packing tape. (This step may be omitted if you are only cutting one nativity.) (The packing tape lubricates the blade as the pattern is cut; therefore, your scroll saw blades last longer.)

Burnish the packing tape so there are no air bubbles (air bubbles will collect saw dust and hide your cut lines).

Using a small drill bit (I used a 1/16" bit on my drill press) drill an entry hole for each piece to be cut out. If cutting multiple nativities, also drill an entry hole for cutting the outline of each pattern grouping. (If you are cutting multiple layers and enter the piece from the edge, as you near the end of your outline cut the pieces WILL shift and you may well ruin your cut.) See the red circles on the attached patterns for where I drilled my entry holes.

Cut out each pattern grouping in the following order:

1. Cut the interior cuts from smallest to largest.
2. Cut the outline of the pattern grouping.
3. Remove and fuzzys from the cutting process (I used a razor knife blade as a scraper)

Paint the layers as desired. After consulting with my color coordinator (my wife) we decided to paint the sky Navy Blue and the palm trees green, then step back and see what went next.

After the paint dried, it was decided to add another backer piece with the area for the star to be yellow and leave the other layers natural wood.

Glue up the layers using a combination of a wood glue and CA glue (the CA glue acts as a clamp to allow the wood glue to cure and only needs to be in spots). Apply activator the the piece that doesn't have glue on it, glue the pieces together and hold until the CA glue sticks. Rinse and repeat for the next layer.

When all layers have been assembled, take a break for an hour (or go on to the next step and prepare the base) and allow the wood glue to set up.

After one hour, remove any glue squeeze out.

Sand the bottom of the piece so it is smooth.

I measured the glued up piece and decided I wanted a base that was 13 1/2" x 3". Looking at my stock of available wood, I picked cherry as the base.

I cut the base to size on my miter saw and table saw.

Sanded the saw marks away on my oscillating belt sander.

Applied a Roman Ogee profile at my router table.

I then went to the office and applied my brand using my DAJA laser engraver

Glue the assembled nativity to the base. Apply the finish of your choice (I used a clear satin spray)

Note: Total time to cut and assemble this piece was 92 minutes (not counting wait times for paint, glue and finish to dry) The piece is now in the air conditioned office waiting for everything to cure before it gets crated for my next craft show.