The Dale C. Maley Family Web Site

ScrollerOnline has a neat pattern to make a scroll sawn basket......

 


I always enter new projects into Google Sketchup, even if I have a paper pattern......so I better understand the design of the project.

Supplies

I ordered the 1/4" thick maple from scrolleronline.com......

I ordered enough material to make several baskets.

I decided to use red padauk or yellow heartwood for the basket supports. I ordered this from Rockler.........

 

I will use red padauk on 1 basket, and yellow heartwood on another.

Here are the raw materials I bought to make some of these baskets......the maple from Scrolleronline and the padauk & yellow heartwood from Rockler......

 

Scroll-Sawing the Pieces

I sanded the grooves by hand to get out the burrs.

I checked the fit of each ring, and hand filed the notches if needed to get a good fit on the rings to the 4 vertical supports. 

And the complete basket rough assembled..........

 1st Coat of Polyurethane

To make sure the rings fit ok before varnishing them, I removed all the rings. I then installed the top ring and used a rubber band around the 4 vertical supports. Then I checked the fit of each ring starting from the bottom.  If the fit was too tight, I hand filed some more clearance until it fit ok.

I used clear gloss oil-based polyurethane for this project.

 Gluing up the Basket

I used yellow titebond glue on the basket. I did use Nexabond CA glue to connect the tops of the 4 vertical supports to the top piece.

I used an artist's brush to get the yellow glue down inside the basket, and onto the ledge where the shelves set.  This worked well.

 To make sure the 4 red vertical legs were aligned properly, I glued up the top ring 1st, then used a rubber band to apply the clamping force.

 I ran out of time, so I let the basket dry over-night with just the top and bottom ring in place. The next day, I glued up the rest of the rings.

 I then sanded the 4 tops of the vertical red pieces to give better adhesion to the CA glue.  I turned the basket upside down, and used some heavy books to apply the clamp force.

Completed 1st Basket

Closing Thoughts on this Project

 I did 2 rounds of 220 grit and pure gloss polyurethane on each of the parts, and hung them on the drying rack to dry.  After I had the 1st basket assembled, I noticed runs in the polyurethane, from it hanging vertically..........on the top of the top piece........which is important visually.  I sanded off the polyurethane using about 150 grit, then redid the rounds of 220 grit and polyurethane.

On future baskets, keep the top horizontal when varnishing to avoid any runs.

This is really a beautiful design and makes a great looking basket :)

Yellow Heart Basket

After finishing the red padauk basket, I then built a 2nd basket using the yellow colored yellow heart wood.  Here are 2 blanks glued up before I scroll saw the vertical uprights from the blank.......

 Here is the rough assembly before varnishing..........

 1st Coat of Varnish

Note that I laid the bottom and top piece flat, so would not have any varnish runs :)

 Final Assembly

 Finished Yellow-Heart Basket

 The yellow heart does not have the same dramatic color contrast as the red padauk, but it is still a neat looking basket :)

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