Bill WIlson

rafairchild2 said; "Rather than trying to do a sharp turn, do "nibbles" to make the sharp edges." dgman said; "Or you can do a “u” turn. Cut past the corner, make a u turn in the wast side, then line up the line and proceed. " I routinely use both of these techniques. Not just for compound cutting, but for general fretwork as well. Use the waste area to your advantage. Helps maintain better control and can give you sharper, cleaner corners.

I would start with Ray Seymour at Seyco. He was the US distributor for Excalibur for many years and knows more about them than most anyone. The only caveat would be if your saw was a Chinese manufactured saw. Around 2018 or thereabouts, Excalibur moved manufacturing of the EX-21 to China. Ray stopped selling them, instead developing and selling his own saw under the Seyco name. The saws are similar but I don't think all parts are interchangeable between the Taiwan made EX-21 2016 & earlier) and Chinesemade EX-21 (post 2018).

Came across that video last week. Very cool. Never knew early table saws worked like that and never knew that the circular saw blade was invented by a woman. Fascinating stuff.

I use pneumatic nailers, so I'm not familiar with the battery operated ones, but I presume the nails are similar. Brads should have a chiseled point. It makes a difference which way the gun is turned, relative to the grain of the wood, to help in preventing blowouts. Try turning the gun perpendicular to the direction you were using it when you experienced the blowout. Hope this helps.

I use primarily straight blades, but not because I have anything against spiral blades. It's just that most of the projects I cut lend themselves best to using straight blades. I think spiral blades are very application specific. There are certain patterns and cuts for which they work very well, better than straight blades. But they aren't a "do all" kind of blade. Scrappile mentioned Charles Dearing patterns. Those are the types of patterns for which spirals are best suited. I can't imagine ever trying to cut one of those with straight blades.

If you are putting so much side pressure on the blade as to potentially damage bearings, then it's time to change the blade.

You might be new to scrollsawing, but your work says otherwise. Very nicely done!

It's just that the top arm on the Dewalt does not stay up by itself, nor does it have any built in feature to hold it up, like some other saws. If you want the top arm to stay up, you will need something to do that. A short piece of 2x4 is the simplest method.

I just scanned it briefly. Interesting. I wonder how the data was compiled?

Regarding your question about the Dewalt. It will top or bottom feed, but it will need some sort of mechanical assistance to hold up the top arm. A block of 2x4 will work for a quick solution. The Dewalt is of the same basic design as the Excalibur, with some differences. The Dewalt is much more aggressive than the EX and doesn't have the same capability to tune it as the EX. Also, the table tilts on the Dewalt, not the arm frame, but I doubt you will be doing any bevel cuts at this point. If you are limited on time, I would suggest trying to spend as much of it as possible in practicing on the saws. Having them make a simple fretwork project is a good idea. Have the wood prepped, patterns applied and holes drilled in advance. All of that stuff can be explained verbally or perhaps type up some scroll saw basics to give your students as a hand-out. Also a blade selection chart would be helpful for them. Good luck. We'll be interested to hear how it goes.

Studies are being released more & more, showing the detrimental effects of too much device time (social media, video games, etc) and too little socialization is having on our society, especially our kids. Eventually, this premise will work its way into the cultural zeitgeist and maybe in a generation or two we will have begun to reverse the trend. Unfortunately, we'll all have to live with the damage that is being done in the interim. Then there is the Pandora's Box of AI that we are just beginning to open up. I'm not a total Luddite. I understand the benefits of technology, but so many younger folks today fail to see any downside. They're just growing up with it and not knowing anything else. Us older folks have to keep trying to point out the potential dangers and show them alternatives. Apologies for getting all serious about this, but I expect there will be a significant price to pay for all of this dependence upon technology. I may not be around to see it, but my kids and grandkids likely will.

Pinned blades are typically much larger than pinless blades, so thus much more robust. If you are used to heavy, aggressive cutting with pinned blades, pinless blades won't stand up to the same use.

As another "older" guy who isn't welded to his cell phone, I loved your story. It gives me hope that real human contact and conversation still has some legs in this culture. By the way, along those lines, I had a 3 hour breakfast this morning with several old friends. This is a regular, bi-weekly event that, up until today, I had to rush off early to get to work. Today was he first time I could sit and leisurely enjoy the company of these old friends for as long as I wanted. It was great!

Thanks for your service! The whole thing about keeping busy is that, as a retiree, you get to define what "busy" is and do things more on your own terms. That is what I'm most looking forward to. I've worked the past 30 years or so doing production planning and scheduling for a small manufacturing company. It was my job to determine lead times, define schedules and due dates for material, keep personnel utilized and help manufacturing reach goals. Those goals were always set by someone else and I didn't always have much input. I am very glad to be done with all that.

This past Thursday was my last day at work. I've worked full time since I was 18 and I've spent the last 44+ years with the same employer. There were a lot of us there of a similar age. Most of them have retired already or otherwise moved on. Some of them had as many as 50 years there. The business was family owned since 1960, but was sold to a conglomerate last year. Lots of changes coming and I knew it was time for me to ride off into the sunset. I'm looking forward to going to bed tonight, knowing I don't have to get up for work tomorrow.