JTTHECLOCKMAN

I have used it on my jointer many times. I probably use my jointer more than the planer but not by much. I have an old lunch box style Delta planer and the blades have to come out to sharpen. Boy the amount of BF that went through that thing. It owes me absolutely nothing.

Ray I will add my vote for Freud blades as I told Kevin in his thread. The info you posted is all true and there is so much more tech talk to go with the many different style of blades and grades of blades. Specialty blades are necessary for those in the trades and that do fine furniture work. You can not go wrong with the Freud line. If you are are both crosscutting and ripping then a combo blade is a good economical way to go. Anything in the 40 tooth to 60 tooth is a good mid range field and good cut results. Of course you are not building fine furniture with a table top saw so no need to spend huge money on better quality blades. With this all said being you owned a cabinet saw you know the huge difference in saws between a cabinet saw and table top so accuracy is what you can tune it to. Also highly suggest thin kerf blades for that saw. They are well underpowered for cutting thick hard woods. Boy I can get started on so many things when it comes to talking tools but to keep it simple Freud is my choice.

This is what i use Kevin http://woodworker.com/diamond-hone-mate-mssu-880-889.asp I also use and have basically only use now is Trend diamond sharpening system. Here is a file that shows what and how to use. There is differences in diamond sharpeners and the way diamonds pieces are adhered to the tool and also the type diamonds used. Makes a huge difference in quality of sharpening. I now sharpen router bits, saw blades, plane blades, planer and jointer blades, all my turning tools can be touched up, chisels and so on. Here is the link http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/docs/trend_diamond_sharpening.pdf The problem with sandpaper is wood sandpaper is not good for sharpening any blades. The grains are too course even at the finest grits. You scratch the blades with micro scratches that need to be polished out if you want scary sharp results. That is why strops are used in many instances. Takes that burr off. If you are going to use sandpaper then use wet dry metal paper (the black stuff) This subject also applies to grinding wheels and the differences in wheels.

Oh Kevin you do not know how many different saw blades are on the market and the designs. Just the teeth set is a huge deal. Number of teeth. Angles of teeth. Pitch of teeth. Yes different rip blades as opposed to crosscut and that goes for all blades including handsaws. Materials being cut will determine type of blade to choose. This goes for bandsaw blades as well. Scrollsaw blades are in the same category and that is why they make so many different styles. I have tried many blades from different companies but for my money Freud has done and carry any blade I need in whatever configuration I need. The relief cuts in a blade are important too. Much experimenting has been done from each company as to what is their best design. But they will keep the noise level down and tension relieved on the metal of a blade. It is always good to buy good quality blades from a reputable company. Cheep blades can have failing weld spots and one thing you do not want is a carbide tooth flying around the shop. Never lay a blade down flat. Always place back in sleeve or hang from arbor hole. Blades can warp especially thin kerf. Treat a good saw blade well and it will perform just right for you. Keep them clean.

I just read this posts Kevin so I will add a few comments. As Far as the switch goes do yourself favor and buy the correct switch and forget about trying to fix it. Not worth the effort and could become a hazard down the road. If looking to buy new saw you have questions to ask yourself as with all tools. How much room do you have?? How large of work needs to be cut on it (10" vs 12") Do I need a slider or just compound. Always buy a compound cutter instead of a standard chop saw. Any time you start adding moving parts accuracy decreases but will still get decent cuts. The Dewalt line is about the best in that price range with Bosch a close second. Again if you go with a slider then you need more room. The Bosch takes less room and does what a slider will do. I have not used a miter saw in so long it collects dust in the corner of the shop. My go to tool is always the tablesaw. You mentioned sharing blades with your tablesaw. That is a no-no!!! A miter saw requires different blades than a table saw. Do people interchange yes they do but run the risk of injury. A miter saw uses a negative rake blade or a blade with no more than a 3 degree rake on it as opposed to a table saw blade which uses a positive rake. The reason is with a miter saw you are applying the blade to the wood as in a tablesaw you apply the wood to the blade. The wood will have a tendency to climb or jump in a miter saw if using a positive rake blade. Something like when you run a router the wrong direction of the grain when routing. The router will want to pull from your hands. Highly recommend buying a good multi-purpose blade for the mitersaw The teeth count depends on material cutting and smoothness of cut. Miter saws tend to have runout in the arbors but when are new usually does not show up. People lift the saws with the handle and do not lock them down and things get wacky. Thin kerf blades help to not tax the motor so much because it removes less material when cutting. I use thin kerf blades in my tablesaw all the time. As I said the decision of 10" vs 12" is a matter of material size being cut. If you go with a slider then you make up for the size that way or unless you want max depth then 12" slider is the way to go. Handles. Most people do not consider this when buying but comfort is something not to take lightly. "D" handle as opposed to "T" handle. I prefer "T" handle, because I feel more natural pulling down on the handle. Just a matter of feel. But use it for a long time all day long and it does matter. The best miter saw on the market in my opinion is the Festool Kapex saw. It is dead on accurate, quiet, and a precision tool. Over $1200 so not cheap. Many things to consider when buying any tool. But do not skip just because one is cheaper. Buy once and be happy. By the way those lasers are good for close but not dead on so do not use them for real accurate cuts.

Just got my order of 2" inserts in from Cherry tree and sure enough one does not work. Can not change the time on it. They are metal but have a grey plastic back. The past ones had a metal back. But right inside made in China sticker. Have to call on Monday.

Never even heard of that word. I have no problem copying and pasting anything I show on any forum. If I ask a question I will ask on different forums. Who in the world is going to say something. Go for it and have fun. No such thing as cross-posting.

I use to buy the plastic back 1-7/8 inserts with the plastic clips back in the day but now get all metal and glass. Yea these things are all China made. I do not use too many 2" before so I really only need to order small quantities. I am not in that amount of production mode so do not need big numbers any more. Have scaled way back and now scroll for fun. Too old to chase the $$$ any more. Many times I will scale a project to fit certain inserts that I have that I think look good for a particular project. Yea Kevin if you ever do order 2" from sloans I would be interested in seeing them to see why they are so much cheaper than Cherry tree. From what I am reading they look like the old style with the side clips and plastic backs. They have been long gone. Cherry tree does not allow for bulk buying pricing. They told me they averaged the savings and use that to be across the board price.

Thanks John That link shows a nice new style insert that I have to keep in mind. I have ordered many times direct from China. I ordered inserts from around the world and from many different sources to get different styles. I use to have a couple solid vendor places but they have dropped many products so I am always on the lookout for new ones. As far as supplying new batteries as spares I do not. I always put a fresh new battery in the clock when a person buys from me and I show and explain how to replace and tell them where to get new ones. I always include an instruction sheet under the base taped to the bottom for convenience.

This has been my thought lately too about the size. The ones from Cherry tree are metal with glass and are good quality because I bought from them before. I did not need too many so that is the reason I went with them. Now hopefully they did not change vendors on these like they did on some others. What I do not like is they sell their inserts of this size and smaller with batteries because that is the way the come from China, but being they sit on the shelf for long periods of time the battery goes dead. I questioned them and argued with them that they should replace and sell as a complete unit but they do not care. I buy inserts from many places and always get fresh batteries. I have had my problems with them before and I stressed this was their last chance to make good or else they have seen my last $$. Probably means nothing to them. I make many different size clocks but have lately enlarged a few patterns to accommodate the larger inserts. I do not like to make too many wall hung clocks because they do not sell well for me. I like to keep them desk type styles. With the 2" designs they are the only ones I can find that carry a few that is popular with some of my clock designs. But I am willing to go another route if these do not work out. When I asked for these designs I was trying to expand my line of occupational clocks to try to get more people to relate to them. I wrote a couple times to Steve Good to see if he would start a line and he said he liked the idea and would work them in but as far as now he has not. I have taken a few of his plaque patterns and have resized and did some manipulating to get to desk clock size.. Health and family matters have cut into my plan this year and have just recently been able to get in the shop again but hopefully I can get quite a few projects done in time. I usually make multiples of things but many projects I am keeping to one of a kind for now. If I see something go fast I will note it for next year or take orders. Looking to shake up old inventory and present some new items. Kevin question for you. Have you ordered 2" inserts from Sloans before?? I have never ordered that size from them and their price is a bit lower than Cherry tree but what turns me off is the black plastic back they have listed and the clips on the side. . To me that means a lower grade clock even though they claim it is not. The ones I use to get were all metal with stainless backs and glass lens. Now I have not gotten this set yet so as I said hopefully they did not change vendors, I have no problem with the rubber ring to hold them in. Just wondering your thought on the insert and if you have any from sloans could you post a photo of the back?? Thanks.

Kevin they came out well. I too am making a few of these being I requested them. I am right now in bundle project mode. So they are in the que. Probably by Nov first week I should have many patterns done and will show all as a Group. I scroll them then finish them and get ready for my shows in Dec. I too love clocks and always on the lookout for clock patterns. Just ordered some 2" inserts from Cherry Tree this week and boy did the prices go up. I will have to take a serious look at my selling prices this year. People just do not understand this part.

I have a ton of projects started and more in the pipeline. But when getting ready for shows I lay out the work or projects and try to do all the cutting and then do all the sanding and then do all the finishing and then do all the assembling so I like to work in stages. After that it is a crap shoot as to what I work on next. Usually some pen turning and blank making ideas. Try to keep busy. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Absolutely you can cut plastics such as records as someone mentioned. There are those that do a frost look in plastic with the same patterns. just sand the project with sandpaper. Metals also. Non Ferrous metals to be clear. Not stainless or at least I never tried. Here is a cross I have done and all the brass was cut on the scrollsaw and I used Jewelers blades. I actually cut a quarter in half ( heads one side and tails other ) using my scrollsaw and that material is who knows what along with silver.

When you say types of scrolling there in my eye is no such thing. There are different projects that can be made and you named one. But basically the scrollsaw can cut wood metal plastics like other tools such as a tablesaw, jigsaw, bandsaw and so forth. What makes a scrollsaw unique is the way it can do these things and the one thing that jumps out above all is the ability to do fret work where you thread a small thin blade in a hole anywhere on a work piece and continue to cut. It cuts the tighest curves ever. So if the project you are working on require these things then a scrollsaw is the tool or a hand fret saw. So to me the question is what type projects can be made using a scrollsaw.

Any painting I do I use spray can Rustoleum 2X which is primer and top coat in one and they work great. I too only get satin and can either top coat with a satin lacquer or semi-gloss or even gloss. Home Depot$ 3.88 a can. Just bought a bunch more the other day for a couple projects. Actually cheaper in Homer than Amazon.

Some times what I do is make notes on the master copy and make sure to never cut the original. One of these days I am going to get all my patterns organised or at least stacked in one place. Maybe!!

not really some times no rhyme or reason. I was not not pushing hard or stressing the blade at all. It has been a long time between snaps though. I will have to watch this batch of blades. The smaller blades are more suspect and let me tell you Jewelers blades are the worse because they are more brittle and do not flex.

I believe I used a cut down finishing nail of equal size . Those pins once you get them moving come out easily. I used a pair of channel lock pliers and pushed it out easily and used same pliers to put new one back in. Those pliers are adjustable so easy job.

Yea I did not even take the arm off. As I said I used a pair of pliers and basically pushed it out. Glad it worked for you.

Yes I did and in fact bought them but there is no electrician or a few others. So far between a couple I had done here, some of Steve's which I am reworking and some of hers I do have a nice grouping but always open for more interpretations.

There is no reason you could not have added your own details to it such as door edges and tire edges. I do things like that all the time. Take the basic pattern and tweak it a bit. Nice cutting.

Thank you Dick and yes you answered very well. I am thinking I will use maple. There is enough fret work to take any stress or warp out of that thin piece of wood so should be no problem. Not sure what color yet. May make a couple and vary the paint and see which sells better. Thanks again and terrific cutting.

Yes a pin punch is what you need or a steel rod that size. I actually did not hammer the roll pin out but use pliers to push the rod into pin and push the pin out. Did not want to hammering on that arm. Not good. This photo shows the section I replaced because the tension handle would pop open due to wear on the wedge portion. Was easy to do.

I happened to be working in construction on a 4 story building a couple towns over from where I live. It was a Data center that was putting on a huge addition for office space. I was working on some security for the doors so I was basically half in the building and out. There were plumbers and tin knockers on the roof working on the AC units when one of them leaned over the side of the building and yelled down about a plane hitting the Tower and that the building was on fire and being such a clear day we could see the towers in a distance. All radios started interrupting with news. I went to the roof to see and sure enough we could see and after awhile we saw the first tower fall and could not believe our eyes. One minute 2 towers and then next just one. It was surreal. Once things were figured out what was happening they shut the job down and told us all to go home. But as that happened State Troopers swarmed the lot and shut down the Data center. From what we heard the government had many files and info stored in that building . We got clearance to get off the property. But so many people kept thinking of what the next target was such as bridges and the like and were wondering if they would be driving right into something bad. It was a day that will be forever etched in my mind. That beautiful clear blue sky day and to be able to see the towers with the naked eye from the distance we were. When I worked in NY for 6 years back in the 80's I use to walk past those towers every day on the way to the building I was working on. Stayed in the Hotel that came down too. Knew a few electricians that worked in those towers. One actually help many people out when that happened. We have learned much from that day but did we learn enough. The idea of the strike was to topple those towers and knock them over. The terrorists did not expect what happened to happen. Just hope we never see anything like that again.

I understand there can be material failures but I found it so odd. I use to get all blades from Mike and never had a problem and that was thousands of blades over the years. This last batch just does not seem the same. Now I bought a few gross so will see how they all play out but I find myself changing blades way more often and when that one broke I was doing nothing special and that is why it really took me by surprise. I can see if I were stressing it and making super tight turns but no. As I said we all been there and we move on. I know I have been sawing a long time when I went through the many gross of blades I got from Mike finally. Miss that man. He was one of the good guys.