JTTHECLOCKMAN

I have over the years made a few frames. Not all were standard 45 degree 4 sided frames either. really once a good accurate jig is made they become quite easy. Good luck and look forward to what you come up with.

That is basically not true. The fence is not really a fence but a support block of some sort that keeps both halves of the plywood flat. With a sled as you show the plywood can warp ever so slightly up on one side of the cut and will throw the cut off. The support can be any height you want so that you do not cut through it. Many people make this about 4" high. As far as weight well I can not answer that. We are talking a couple ounces. The riving knife is no thicker than the thinnest blade you are using. Yes you can not use a blade guard but that should not be a problem. I have no blade guard on mine since I got the saw. I use too many different type sleds that the guard gets in the way and is not useful . Safety is amplified with the use of sleds and hold down clamps. I would suggest hold downs clamps as well. This keeps the pieces being cut from creeping up on the blade and you push through. Any slight movement gets amplified with each cut. Again the most important part of doing a frame with 45 degrees is the exact same lengths on the parallel sides. again good luck.

With that type sled I suggest you put a stiffener type fence at the front of that sled. It will keep it from cracking down the cut line. the best squares to use is a machinist's square or an architects square. They are the most accurate. You always square off the blade on the flat of the blade and not on the teeth. One factor that comes into play many times when making frames and cutting on a tablesaw is the quality of the saw and the blade. if there is runout in the arbor of the saw then this can show up in the cuts. same goes for blades. If warped it transfers to the cuts. Good luck

If you are cutting the miters on a tablesaw, there are many videos on the net that show tablesaw sleds that are real easy to make. The key is to make the sled fit to your saw. Use both miter slots to support the surface board and then build off that using the blade as your reference point. never use a fence to reference off unless the fence was built off the blade. The most important factor is to use the same length sides that are opposite if doing a 4 sided frame. Here is a photo of one of mine that I use for many things but can easily adapt to make picture frames with. I build these for all angles that I need instead of using a varying fence because I feel once set up there is no fussing when angle is changed.

As mentioned there are many factors that go into making a shop safe from dust but will tell you this is impossible. Now I must preface this as my opinion only. Each tool unless fully enclosed will spew dust in the air. Just the nature of the tools. yes there are ways to limit it but takes good quality tools and knowledge of capturing this dust. The main source of the dust mask is the closest thing to perfect you can get to protect your lungs but you need to wear it religiously. The air cleaner you show is basically the same ones we all can buy here weather a wen or another brand. What you want is a 2 stage filtering system with them which the one you show does have this. The secondary filter is the most important and need to be changed every so often. The outer filter is also a changeable filter on the unit you show and cost less. They get clogged more readily than the inner so may require more changing. But this device is a air exchanger to break it down. It will not collect dust at any one specific spot. It circulates the air and exchanges with cleaner air. But what is never addressed is that it also blows dust around and that comes out the back end. It is just another tool to collect airborne dust which is a good idea. They need to be centered in shop or if using more than one then set up to collect half the shop for each. The Festool vac you show is just that a well built best on the market shop vac that actually collects down to 1 micron of dust particles and these are excellent but it is not used as a dust collector that can pick up large bits of chips and things like this. The hose size can not handle that and you get in all the cfm calculations and all that. They are made for things like collecting fine dust at a scrollsaw where you can direct the suction. The drum dust collector you show is more for shops that deal with large chip production tools such a planner, jointers, tablesaws, bandsaws and lathes. They can be helpful in collecting sanding dust if set up correctly too. But to truely deal with sanding dust the best is to use tools that have dust ports on them and hooked to a dust extractor like the festool you shown. Many tool brands have such dust ports. Capturing dust at the source is always the most efficient way to keep a shop clean. This basically a break down as to what you are looking at. To tell what tools to buy is not something I can do. I believe you live in the UK so I have no knowledge what is available. I suggest you need to decide what it is you will be doing in the shop and build around that. If you are dealing with large chip producing machines then a larger better quality dust collector system sized properly is the way to go. The air exchangers are always a good add-on tool to clean the air. they can not hurt. If you are using lesser size tools like scrollsaw and lathes then a shop vac with good dust collecting abilities will work fine. if you are combining all this then a full shop work up would be best. But again a dust mask of good quality is the perfect way to always protect the lungs. Good luck. Again I must say this is MY opinion only. Others will jump in and help some too.

Yes still have it. The pen I have in mind to make for it is still not made because it is going to take some real thought how to accomplish what I want to do. But it is one of those continuing projects that I am sure we all have. I will get to it. here is my piano box.

Very nice project. I am sure it will be well received and treasured. All aspects look well done. A few years ago I made a piano music box to keep a pen in and it was alot of work for such a small project but I have alot of respect for your work knowing the effort needed to complete. Well done and thanks for showing.

For those that use pin nails or brad nails, of some sort that mention air compressor, as with just about all tools these days they make battery operated pin and brad nailers. Of course the cheapest way out and more useful is the compressor and air nailers. The one thing I would caution when using this method is that if using hard woods or soft woods they all have grain patterns and even with pin nails you can split the wood. Those splits could run into a section that you need to keep. When using a metal backer to flatten nail it can mushroom and cause splits also. Plus one more thing if using a metal backer that nail can now jam that gun. Best to use nails just short enough to accomplish the mission and skip the metal backer. Just some points that I have seen happen before.

That is a very good price for that planner which is one of the best on the market these days. You can also get that price on Amazon for a limited time offer too if interested. It is a $700+ planner. I could never do without my planner. But as I have been accused here of talking about my tools as the best which is far from the truth, but what I do have is basically a full workshop of woodworking tools because I find each tool weather a planner or a drum sander or a bandsaw or good tablesaw they played a huge role in my scrollsawing business through the years. What I spend on tools can be made back in some form with being able to work rough sawn lumber. I am fortunate to have had a very good lumber mill where I bought both exotic woods and domestic woods over the years for good pricing. They closed due to a fire about 10 years ago now but have other sources that took their place. Now my scrollsawing has taken me through the years with making larger projects that took all sized lumber. I suppose if you do ornaments and smaller scrolling then larger tools are just not needed. But if you are into milling your own lumber it is imperative to have good quality tools and that Dewalt planner is one of those tools. yes making large purchases like that take some careful thought because of the risks and rewards. If you can find the budget it could pay off but again if you are dealing with Baltic Birch plywoods and smaller projects then it is a tougher decision. But you can check any of the woodworking sites or any reviews on that planner and it gets high marks. Good luck. (one other note, if you ever sell the shop you will get money back on that planner.)

My method that I have been using for a long time is a combination of a few mentioned already. I always use blue painters tape under my patterns for I find it easy to peel that off than any pattern stuck to wood. If the pattern being cut is very delicate I will switch to a less adhesive tape such as purple or green but process remains the same. When stack cutting I put blue tape on top and bottom of wood that is the middle of the layer. I then use spray adhesive 3M77 on a sheet of plain white copy paper both sides and place that between the layers on top of the blue tape. I rinse and repeat for as many layers as I am cutting. Usually no more that 4 if thin 3/32" When everything is all lined up the stack does not move and I do not worry about hitting nails or pieces sliding around. After cut out I gently peel everything off. If I need to some Mineral spirits or DNA works well to get any residue or small bits of tape off. Works well for me. Just my method, not sure where I picked that tip up years ago from. I think someone here suggested the last time I mentioned this method and asked why not just spray the tape and not use the white paper. My answer to that is overspray on project and it is alot easier taking the paper off the tape. I practically falls off without much effort and yet is strong enough to keep everything aligned as cut. Good luck.

I basically have been doing this also for many years. Fortunately the FedX store has all sorts of copiers including ones that can make blueprint size copies. Those can get pricey but I would take copies and draw lines through them and then tape as one the size I need and make copies. It does save on home inks and paper and actually probably saves some money in the long run. When I first started I would scan and copy half the pattern or sometimes even in quarters and then tape together. But I found back in those years that not all copiers were good and the patterns wound up distorted and not the same ratio. With today's copiers that is not a problem that I have run into.

Kevin here is the deal. Go back and look what I said in reply to the OP. All I said they were laser cut and that I think they look cheap and my final word was I hate lasers. I think everyone here knows I hate lasers because they came up before. Then you get on here and no one else mentioned anything about hating lasers and you went into this long diatribe about how you use lasers and because one does not use one knows nothing about it and this was all directed at me. No one else mentioned the hate for lasers. It is old timers who do not want to move into the future and all that stuff. I am not stupid Kevin. I know when I am the target of a reply. Yes I used a 3D image of an angel for displaying certain religious pens I make. They are called props. Not for sale. Run away again. It does not bother me one way or other. I try to add when I can but maybe it is time to move away from this site all together. being I do not do much scrolling any more anyway. Good luck with your lasers and scrollsaw work. Ray to answer your question you yelled at me for being negative one time before so I figured you would again.

Say what you want Kevin and you are entitled to your opinion as well as I but If you call anything handmade and use a laser for any part of that project you are a fraud and that includes doing lettering or whatever. To me hate is not too strong of a word. I grew up fighting these blasted things when I first started and now they just get worse. I see things like this all the time and now 3D machines are invading the pen blank making world and it is the same thing happening. People call that handmade too and it is a fraud. It just gives us true craftspeople a hard time to compete. I am glad I am too old to be selling any more and let you and others go at it. Yes I hold a grudge. You will never understand because you do not do craft shows. You can not say they are just like a router or a lathe by no means. When you hit a button and a finished product comes out how is that like using a router or a lathe?? You using them to add lettering and things is just one step away from doing entire project. maybe you have to learn more programming skills but you are right there. AI is on your doorstep and you will not even have to be in the shop any more. But still call it hand made but just not your hands made it. Good luck. I am not telling you do not use them or any other tool but now I took offense to your reply and just stating my opinion too. When all us "oldtimers" die off and some other fandangle machine comes along and then you and your laser will be in the same boat and you will be doing the bickering. There are many example of how lazy people have gotten over the years because of innovations. Take the IPhone as an example. Today kids can not do simple math or write a sentence without the help of that phone.

I did not know that book was a link you can click on. Yes that is all laser cut . there are companies on FB that sell all kinds of items that are laser cut. They look so cheap. Just my opinion Ray so do not yell at me. I hate lasers.

Without being able to see a close up, it is hard to tell. That could be a flat piece of wood and sharpie or other pen type device could be used to do the printing. They do sell wood roof material for models these days also. They have all kinds of products for building doll houses and all look real but on smaller scales.