tgiro

I never had any luck with stains on baltic birch. I could rarely got a good even coat and when I did, I wasn't really happy with the result. I have dyed it, using alcohol based dyes, but that may not be what you want.

I've found that the wood tends to jump when I'm feeding to fast or I have the speed set to slow. Makes no difference which blade, except it happens more often with the larger blades. So maybe it's just a matter of slowing your feed or upping the saw speed a bit. When I'm teaching, I find that people want to start pushing the blade into the wood before the saw is running. Makes that wood slap every time, but some folks have a hard time realizing why.

This is from Ray @ SeyCO - it works great and I use it regularly when I have blade slippage in my clamps. 1. Use a piece of scrap - 3" x 2" x 3/8". Drill 7/32" holes, about an inch apart, on the center line of the board. 2. Screw the setscrew and thumb screw into the board until the ends are just flush with the other side of the board. 3. Lay a piece of 220 grit sand paper on a perfectly flat surface. Place the board on the sandpaper with the screw ends down. 4. Rub the board around on the sand paper until the screw ends are shiny and any nicks or dents are removed. Remove the screws from the board and replace them in the saw. Pay attention to the alignment. I use feeler gauges to set the setscrew 1mm proud of the left side of the blade gap, in the clamp. Do that on both upper and lower clamps. I do this as part of my semi annual maintenance drill. Even when I haven't been having slippage in the clamps. I did this on my old DW788, on the OEM clamps on my EX-21 and I do it on the Pegas clamps. Note - The thumbscrews from the DW788, The Excalibur saws, and the Pegas clamps are interchangeable. The setscrews are, also, interchageable. but the Dewalt and Excalibur setscrews are not long enough for the locking nut that Pegas uses. I do not know about the new versions of the Excalibur design - King, Axeminister, Seyco, or even the new Excaliburs. Seyco sells the setscrews and tips for the thumbscrews as sets. The thumbscrew tips fit the Dewalt and Excaliber thumbscrews, but I haven't tried them in the Pegas thumbscrews.

I'm with Bill - sand your surface down to 220 = 320 grit and then wipe it off with alcohol. Some woods might have a little oily surface and adhesive just won't stick. On some of the exotics (chicoti, cocobolo, etc) I've even resorted to acetone wipe to get the surface clean.

The Air FIltrator won't pick up dust that is laying on surfaces. It only cleans what is gloating in the air. Surface dust still needs cleaning or vacuumed. Once you've done that, you'll see a lot less dust collecting on surfaces.

Like Kevin, I give a lot of stuff to charities. They'll put it in one of their auctions or drawings. I've actually gotten a bit of commission business from it. The downside to that is when I got a local religious/political group expecting me to make them a couple of intarsia eagles for their "cause". I politely declined to make the projects until one of them made some snide threats. Then they were told to go pound sand.

I remembered seeing some threads on Sawmill Creek about this saw. Apparently, you had better take a close look at it to make sure you aren't getting the model that flexes when you use large blades. Also, the are talking used prices of $450 - $600. https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?114430-Jet-bandsaw-JWBS-18-1-5-HP-good-buy https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?195473-Jet-JWBS-18-Bandsaw-questions https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?162742-Jet-18-quot-Band-Saw-Model-JWBS-18X-3-What-does-every-one-think-of-it

Here is Carole Rothman's youtube videos on scroll saw bowls. She is queen of the walk in that media. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=carole+rothman+scroll+saw

It would be the quality control the Pegas forces on the Taiwanese company that manufactures the saw. I have talked with a number of local manufacturers who use Chinese, Korean, and Japanese made components. They have to maintain constant quality control inspection procedures with the orientals. If they don't, I'm told, quality drops very rapidly. If Pegas wants to produce a quality product then their quality control procedures will, either insure that, or become another oriental made saw.

Grizzly has it on sale with stand & light -- http://www.grizzly.com/products/DeWalt-DW788-20-Scroll-Saw-with-Stand-and-Light/H7414

Here is what I use for quick pattern glue-ups -- https://www.amazon.com/Removable-Restickable-Stick-49oz-Repositionable/dp/B001GXFB4K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1545190528&sr=8-2&keywords=repositionable+glue+stick Scotch Removable Restickable Glue Stick, .49oz I spread the glue on the back of the pattern, then stick the pattern to the wood. Pattern peels off after cutting with no problems. If you let it set on the pattern for a couple of days you may have to sand it off or use some mineral spirits. Note - this is not my main way of gluing patterns to wood. I normally use the Xyron machine with the repositionable glue paper. The glue sticks are for one-offs and quick fixes.

All ShopSmith accessory tools come designed to mount to the ShopSmith unit. Having said that, they, also, sell stands, motors, and mounts to mount the tools seperately from the ShopSmith. I think TotalShop tools were the same way. TotalShop didn't last long enough to build up much of a following. I speak as a previous owner of a Mark 5, that got upgraded a couple of times, over a period of 30 years. I have since moved away from ShopSmith, but, if you're a beginning woodworker, with minimal space to play in, they are great tools.

Here is where I get my Pegas blades -- http://www.scrollsawbladespatterns.com/ They have Olsen and Flying Dutchman, also.

In a good wood joint, the glue actually soaks into the wood grains - making for a strong joint. When you use any glue on a finished piece, the glue is sticking to the finish, not the wood. While the glue/finish joint may be tight, the question to ask is - "How strong is the finish, varnish , paint, lacquer, poly?" Any pressure on the joint may cause a break in the finish, which can cause additional problems. Stains do not coat the wood like a finish will. So CA glue can still soak into the grains and, hopefully, make a strong joint.

Those toys are really nice, John. I use MDF for my jigs and utility gadgets in the shop. I never thought of it as evil. I'm not sure about the stuff you get in Australia, but the stuff I get is heavy because of the glue/sawdust mix. But, as long as it doesn't get wet, it doesn't warp like plywood does. I made a table & chair set out of MDF, years ago, for one of the grandkids. Unfortunately, it spent the summer in the backyard through sun, wind and rain. It was spray painted with enamel, but that wasn't enough to protect it and it didn't survive the weather. Of course, plywood, without the proper paint job or finish will do the same thing. I really like those train sets you made. They are really cute and probably very popular.

I have the SuperMax 16/32 drum sander and a sander like the sand flea. One that I built from a kit I got from Stockroom Supply at a wood working show. I use them both, a lot. The beauty of the Sand Flea/Flatmaster is that the drum is coated with velcro loop. Like Rolf, I can use two grits on it at the same time. It's easy to get that smooth flat surface for my projects quickly. I use my Supermax for thickness sanding and large pieces of wood. But changing the belts on the SuperMax is much more of a chore than on the FlatMaster. I, also have a Rigid orbital sander. And I have used it for a number of years on wide flat surfaces. But, I wonder just how flat I'm sanding when I'm using the orbital. As I move thew orbital sander back and forth, I know I'm putting more pressure on one side of the sander than the other. When sanding ply wood, I have slipped and removed the veneer layer on the edges of the piece.

If you insist on using CA glue, of any density, for general wood working, I would advise against using the accelerator. CA glue dries very hard. CA glue with accelerator dries hard and very brittle. It isn't hard to break a CA glue joint where accelerator has been used. I have used the pair for temporary glue joints in many instances. Now, the only time I use the accelerator is on my pens or other turned accessory items.

Any man, whose wife has seen the Sawstop Demo, owns a Sawstop. I understand insurance companies smile when shops install Sawstops. If you're unsure of the reason, go to Youtube and do a search on Sawstop. BUT - add $700 - $1000 to the price of a table saw for the safety feature. Having said all that - When my Shopsmith died, a couple years ago. I was going to buy a Rigid 4512 saw at the HD. My wife had seen the Sawstop demo and made the decision about brand, if I wanted to sleep with her at night. My other hobby is segmented bowls. I have to be able to align the saw table to the blade within a few thousandths of an inch. I, also, have a small shop, so it was going to be the contractor saw. I downloaded the manual for the saw and found no way to align the table/blade. I gave Sawstop a call and talked with one of their techs. He said they align the tabe, at the factory, to close tolerances, and would rather not have people re-aligning the table. When I explained how I use the saw for my segment cutting, and that I have been aligning tables for some time, he emailed me a PDF on how to align the table. So, I went to Woodcraft and got the contractor saw. Out of the box - the table/blade alignment was 5 thousandths of an inch. When I aligned the table on the Shopsmith, I was lucky to get within 15 thousandths. One Delta I had re-aligned gave me 7 thousandths. Last year, I checked alignment and it was 6 thousandths. Last month I was showing a nephew the saw and it was 5 thousandths. I have worked with Sawstop techs on a couple of small issues and have had excellent service. I know a few folks who have bought the newer jobsite saw and they really like them. SSWC did a very positive review on the Jobsite saw.

Lowes current CEO is the guy who almost destroyed the JC Penny's company. I guess he's starting to work on Lowes now.

I always change black lines to red. That way the blade doesn't get lost in the line.

If you look closely, you see that it is the same saw as the Excalibur 21", with the addition of the safety switch at the rear of the device. What's puzzling, is that all the ads show the saw with the original OEM blade clamps instead of the new Pegas clamps. BTW - the EX-21 is an excellent saw. At least mine is, but I bought it before the Excalibur redistribution.

What do you call a boomerang that won't come back? v v v v v A stick.

The term "Furnace filter" leaves a lot of room for discussion. As do the terms "1 micron, 5 micron, 10 micron" that we get from the box air filtrator makers. While 1 micron is good enough and 5 micron is definitely not. When I couldn't get outer filters for my Jet AFS-400 (similar to the Wen, Powertec, and Shopfox), I made a frame to fit the outer filter space and went to Lowes and bought 3M Filtrete filters which I cut to fit. See the pic. The reason I got those filters was the research I did about filter capabilities. The 3M filters rated well in the MERV ratings as shown on the chart here - https://www.iallergy.com/pages/compare-3m-filtrete-filters The filters I use are the Micro Allergen Defense (3rd column from the left) with a MERV rating of 11. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency advises that filters with MERV ratings of 9 to 12 are almost as effective as true high-efficiency particulate absorption, or HEPA, filters when it comes to removing particles from indoor air that are hazardous to your health, which makes them ideal for homes with occupants who have COPD, allergies, asthma and other respiratory conditions. These high-quality filters trap particles as small as one micron, including Legionella and humidifier dust. The same goes for the filter bags on dust collectors. They are usually rated at 10 micron, 5 micron, or 1 micron. My dust collector sits outside, in a shed, so I don't worry to much about it. Although, the bags are rated for 1 micron. But folk who keep the dust collector in the shop should be aware that anything more than 1 micron is dangerous.

Actually, if you look closely, the Wen, the Powertec, and the Shopfox are all pretty much the same. The Wen gets good reviews though. My old Jet AF400 is the same one, and it has been running for over 6 years. I was glad to see the new ones come out, as I could get the outer filters again - albeit they're around $10 per filter. Before that I had made a frame where I could cut and use the 3M Firltration filters in it.

Thanks for all the good luck wishes - they worked. Sold four intarsia pieces and two segmented bowls, and brought home advances on two commissions. An awesome day. Hope everyone else was as lucky.