Xray

Over the months, just about everything in my garage has been coated with a fine coat of dust kicked up mostly by my scrollsaw. Especially since I use spirals alot, they tend to produce some very fine dust, it almost looks like light smoke coming off the wood. I wast thinking months ago, wouldn't it be nice if I had a vent fan mounted right above the scroll saw ? That would suck most of the freshly made dust right out of the garage before it gets a chance to settle. Put that project on the back burner for the winter, but I finally got it done today, and I foresee a much cleaner working environment with this fan. I think this thing will suck at least 50% of the dust right out the vent. Cost $70, which I thought was a bargain. Goes right through the wall, and has one of those vent flaps on the outside, which opens and closes automatically. Was a snap to install, all I used was a sawzall to cut the hole, and a drill gun to screw it in. Caulked all around the seam, and hooked up the electrical, tapped it into an existing line. Would highly recommend to anyone with similar circumstances ,,, I'm going to put in another one on the other side of the garage, where I have a brand new CNC router that will soon be kicking up some dust. Can't find these just anywhere. The major stores like home depots/lowes don't carry this type, they only have those wimpy little bathroom vents. Found this one at Ace Hardware, for those of you with those stores around.

I don't even have AC in the house, much less the workshop. I'm not a big fan of AC, obviously.

Nice work, I'm sure it was very, very well packed ! Would be a crying shame to have it arrive in splinters ,, I shouldn't even say that, but I have seen some very shoddy packing on fragile items, and have had things arrived busted up. The shipping companies can be brutal with packages, I tend to over-pack anything that has a chance to be damaged.

Yup, its all hardwood flooring. I don't have any use for the stuff offhand, or else I'd get more. Never hurts to have it sitting around though.

Was looking around home depot for something today, I rarely ever go down the hardwood aisle, but I did today ,,, And was surprised that they had 1,000's of hardwood samples free for the taking. Might be a very useful resource for those of you into the smaller projects like keychains. There was no limit on what you could take, but I didn't want to look stupid walking out with a cartload, so I grabbed a dozen or so. Not sure if all hope depots will have this, try it and see if you have a need.

I use spirals alot. Since they cut in all directions, it is harder to follow a straight line. You really can't get in "a grove" with them, like a standard blade, since they respond to pressure in any direction. With practice, it is possible to cut almost as straight as standard, but its really a hand/mind/eye coordination type of thing. I usually have both corners of a piece, with my thumbs on the bottom and fingers on the side. Thumb pressure feeds the piece, and can also be used for very small course adjustments. Fingers are for over all direction, and larger course adjustments. This allows me to apply subtle pressure in any direction needed - If I sense I'm veering off to the right, i can apply pressure with the opposite hand to get it back on course. You have to keep an eagle eye on progress, and like with standard blades, anticipate turns ans curves before they come. When starting a new direction, its best to go very slow, and let the blade cut a little notch until you are sure you are feeding it the right way to stay on line. Though not always necessary, turning a piece from time to time can help with accuracy, as I find it easier to stay on line going top to bottom than left to right. I have found that spirals don't cut well in all directions if you are cutting thick wood, say 3/4 and up. They cut much better feeding the wood away from you than they do if you pull it towards you. Haven't figured out why this is so, but it is so.

I think people have become jaded, and well,,, just plain cheap, in the dollar store age. You can get some pretty neat things for $1, all cut on a laser or CNC router, mass produced, and drop shipped from China. That has cut the bottom out of alot of hand made crafts, and people really expect you to practically give stuff away. Not that I have much experience with selling, I don't ... But thats the impression I get. I think the key is finding something unique, eye catching. Something that doesn't look like it came from a shipload of Chinese products. Exotic wood can turn a drab, ordinary item into something with a wow factor, but of course the cost can be far more than domestic. Also, when profit is a factor, it will pay to stack cut as much as possible. Theres not much more effort involved to make 4 instead of 1, that right there will drastically cut down your per hour calculations. [Just don't stack cut anything that has a bezel, unless you don't mind them coming out different sizes].

Garage. I got kids and wouldn't want to foul the house with dust, so theres little choice. But I like it that way, I rarely ever get followed out to the garage, so I can get away and do my thing in peace, whether its scroll sawing, wrenching on my muscle car or whatever else. My life would practically be ruined without my garage.

Made another batch today, these are about 20% smaller, to accommodate some smaller scrap pieces I had laying around. I did without the line above the teeth, as the drill hole would have been very hard to hide.

I like these tongues. Fun and easy to make in stacks, and easily resized to fit any use. I had some odd sized exotic squares sitting around, this was a perfect use for them. No stain needed, just a clear coat and they are good to go.

I am head over heels in love with wenge. Very hard to find in 1/8, I wish I would have got more of this while I had the chance.

Stack cut these 4 Stones tongues today out of some small exotic wood chunks, varying in thickness from 1/8 to 3/8. Bloodwood, leopard, wenge & canary. I especially like the wenge, I'm going to hang it from my trucks rear view mirror.

I'd still try to fix it up, never hurts to have a backup. I recently got a EX 16, sitting side by side with my old Hitachi.

You are right, I think Craftsman diversified their offerings a bit too much, and quality has suffered. Most, if not all, of their power tools can be thought of as the top of the line of the bargain brands - A step up from harbor freight, to be sure, but far from the quality that used to be expected from the brand. I'm a union carpenter often involved in some heavy construction projects, there is never a single Craftsman power tool on the job, out of 100's, sometimes 1,000's, of power tools.

Might be worth while to expose its innards a bit and check the electrical connections from the switch on back. Blow out some dust, clean contacts, might be able to coax it back to life. If the speed is alternating on its own, its being deprived of juice somewhere down the line, the solution may be free, simple and take but 15 minutes.

Work with what you got folks. Just consider, people used to scroll with foot powered pedal saws, probably produced some fine art with them too.

Mods here don't get a complimentary Dewalt ??

That JustinCredible ! I took one of my my preteen daughters and a couple of her friends to see this guy, I felt soooo out of place. I'm pretty much a Guns N Roses type of guy, and look it. Never saw so many little girls at one place at one time, and don't want to again. I couldn't get out of there fast enough., but had to endure an agonizing 3 hours +, I spent half the time fantasizing about throwing darts at him, calculating the exact arc & speed that would plant it right on his head. Did I like his music ? Didn't really hear much of it, between the screams and my MP3 player on full blast, I couldn't hum or name a song of his to save my life.

Yeah, you have to be careful with add-on variable speed controls. They adjust speed by manipulating current, and some motors, not set up to do that, don't take kindly to that. Even if its manually adjusted, I wouldn't rule the thing out just for that, if the price is right.

Probably best off asking in the inkscape forum

Dang. I guess the only way then would be to precisely stagger the stack so that they end up being the same size.

I tend to stack cut, a lot. Just about everything that I do I stack, up to 1.5 inches. Well I am cutting these objects, and they have a beveled edge. Test cut one at about 25 degrees, came out just right. So I'm all geeked, and set up a stack of 4 1/4 inch pieces to cut the same pattern. Top one was great, problem is, each one under got a little bit larger, and the bottom one was almost an inch bigger than the top. Pretty obvious what happened when you stop to think about it. The angled blade cuts right on the line at top, as it angles down it cuts out further and further towards the bottom. Size is pretty critical with these things ,,, I don't see any way around it. I'll just have to cut 1 at a time. This is the Excal by the way, where the head tilts instead of the table. I wonder if a table tilter would do the same thing ? I'm thinking, no it wouldn't, since the blade itself will be straight, it won't have the graduated over-reach that the angled blade does.

I'd personally steer clear of any machine that relies on pulleys for speed variation. Thats an important factor, something that you want to do on the fly, not stop your project and swap gears.

There was a stand included with my Hitachi. I assembled it but never used it, I bolted the machine to my work bench. Was hogging up valuable floor space for months, so I tossed it out on garbage day, and the garbage pickers got it within minutes.

If you just cut straight lines, glass is super simple to cut with one of those basic $3 glass cutters.