Bill WIlson

While the actual cutting time might be shorter with a bandsaw, I think the resulting cut would require far more clean-up than if it were cut on a scroll saw. You can put a pretty small, fine tooth blade on a bandsaw, which may minimize the tearout, but I still think the edge will be rougher than using a scroll saw and would require sanding. If you have a bandsaw, give it a try, if not on a finished piece, then on some scrap. If you were really doing high volume, production work and needed good consistency, I would suggest roughing them out on a bandsaw, then cleaning them up with a router and a template. Probably wouldn't be faster, but might yield the best results.

The differences are in open time and water resistance. Titebond III is waterproof and made for exterior use. Titebond II is typical yellow carpenter's glue and is water resistant and Titebond I is pretty much the same thing as white Elmer's glue. Any of these glues will work fine and are plenty strong for regular woodworking applications. Their website has a good explanation of the differences. http://www.titebond.com/community/the-big-three

Simplest and quickest answer to your question is to use several, light coats of finish. Allow adequate time between coats to dry, as per the instructions on the can. Light coats will better prevent runs. The first few coats will seal the wood and several more will build a film finish. If you want shiny, use a product with a high gloss sheen. It should say right on the can, whether it's high gloss, semi-gloss or satin.

Better not even talk to me about clamps.

I have very little experience with double bevel inlay, but what I do know is that 1/2 of a degree can mean the difference between a great fit and firewood. Also use the exact same blade on the test piece as the finished piece. A different size, even a different style blade can make a difference. The tolerances are just that sensitive.

I've got 18 old bench planes, mostly pre-war Stanleys, but a couple Ohio Tool Co and Miller Falls brand. Oh and probably 6 or 8 or 10 block planes. My wife doesn't even ask anymore.

I only have 1 saw, but I have 7 routers. I can't explain it either.

Must've missed this thread earlier. Sorry to hear you are still in the hospital. Sounds like a rough time all around. I had hoped you were home and well on the way to a full recovery by now. Hang in there Dan. Like Red Green used to say; "Remember, I'm pullin' for ya! We're all in this together."

Well, when you say stuff like this... "Space isn't a huge problem..." "Money isn't going to be a huge problem either.." ....we'll try to talk you into the biggest & best. Just trying to give you your money's worth. By the way, I suggest not telling the salesman that space & money aren't a problem. Seriously, I have a buddy that is getting into woodworking at the age of 61. He's been asking me a ton of questions, but he always wants to jump right into doing and buying stuff without taking time to research. Yesterday he was at Rockler looking at a $1,200 router table. I keep trying to talk him down, but he gets excited when he sees cool new gadgets.

That can be a tough question to answer. Flying Dutchman brand alone has 4 different types of spiral blades; spiral, flat end, New spiral and spiral reverse. Each has a different range of sizes and TPI count. My suggestion would be to try the flat end spirals first. One of the things that can turn off first time spiral blade users is the difficulty in getting them secured in the clamps properly. Flat end spirals are easier to use, in that respect. If you intend to cut 1/4" Baltic birch ply, I would suggest getting the smallest size. This will give you better control, as it won't be as aggressive as a larger blade and you will be able to cut finer detail with it. However, to really determine which works best, you will need to try other types and sizes. If you want to try something other than the flat end spirals, you will need to untwist/flatten out the ends in order to get them seated firmly in the clamp. For detailed portrait type cutting, I prefer the Flying Dutchman 2/0 New Spiral. For really fine detail, I will use the 3/0, but it is very fragile and will break more easily than the others. I don't do a lot of cutting with spirals, but I do prefer Flying Dutchman over Olson.

I can't really comment on the SawStop from any personal experience. I have read a lot of reviews and comments on other WW'ing forums. I've never heard one person complain about any functional aspect of the saw. They seem to be well built and on par or above, compared to other premium cabinet saws like Delta, Powermatic and Jet, etc. And this is without factoring in the safety feature. If I had the $$ and were in the market for a premium saw, I would definitely put the SawStop at the top of my list. Good luck with the decision. We'll all be anxiously awaiting the outcome and then a review of the saw you end up with.

Factors to consider, beyond budget and the Sawstop safety feature, which are discussions unto themselves. Dust collection - The open stands on contractor saws don't lend themselves well to good dust collection. Riving knife - The riving knife is an important safety feature. It one doesn't want to go full Monty with the SawStop, then one should at least get a saw with a riving knife. left or right tilt blade - This is mostly a product of personal tastes and/or what one is already accustomed to. 120V or 220V - Larger saws with larger motors have more power, but often require, or at least work best, with 220V power. If you need to add a circuit, figure that into the overall costs. table size/fence rail length/footprint - You mention that size isn't really an issue, but if you don't necessarily need 52" rip capacity, then no point in getting the longest rails available. Also, cabinet/hybrid saws have the motor contained within the enclosure, while contractor saws have it hanging out the back. If you want to have an outfeed table, it's a little easier with a cabinet/hybrid saw.

They are a simple tool, but they take a fair amount of skill and finesse in order to get them to work well. Don't feel bad about not being able to figure it out. It doesn't necessarily come naturally. What is the main problem you are having?

I have some quartersawn Sycamore that looks a lot like that.

No worries Brad, not a hijack at all. I usually don't take any special precautions when cutting cherry. I've had it burn before, but that was because I was letting the blade get dull, trying to squeeze a few more minutes life out of it. Other woods will tolerate that, with little more than a drop in performance. Cherry however is quite sensitive to dull blades. That is what made my experience so perplexing. I used 3 different, fresh blades of 2 different brands. They all started burning immediately. I've never had that happen before. My cutting returned to normal, once I applied the tape. I even switched to a smaller blade, which at least theoretically could have compounded the problem, and had no further burning. I'm hung up on the wood itself being different, somehow. I know the color of cherry boards can vary from tree to tree and that it darkens over time, with exposure to light. I've built furniture for my oldest daughter out of cherry, harvested from my FIL's farm. They were made from different boards, harvested and milled from different trees, at different times. Both are now several years old, been in the same house for over 10 years and were finished with similar products. The one piece is extremely dark, reddish brown, while the other one is lighter, with more of an orange hue. I've always been curious about this and now wonder if somehow the difference in color may have some connection to the burning issue.

I'm beginning to wonder if the amount or concentration of natural resins in cherry can vary from one tree to another. I've used a lot of cherry. I've scrolled it and built furniture from it. I'm well aware of it's propensity for burning, but with a sharp blade and proper technique, I typically don't have much more trouble with cherry than any other hard wood. That's what made this experience so surprising to me. As I had mentioned, I had already cut one puzzle out of cherry prior to the one that burned. I had no problems cutting it, so when I grabbed the problem piece, I was shocked at how quickly and how badly it burned. These were pieces from different boards, but I couldn't if say they were from different trees or not. My cherry lumber comes from trees harvested on family property. We took down the trees, hauled them to a local sawmill and air dried the lumber ourselves. Sure the clear tape helped, but there is something else going on here. Ultimately, the lesson is that it's prudent to take precautions to prevent this in the future, but I'm still curious as to why this happened in the first place.

Personally, I think scrolled portraits look unfinished without some sort of frame, but that's just me. There are so many ways to make frames and I like to make something that fits the project.

+1 Pretty much my sentiments, exactly. I typically use FD 2/0 & 3/0 New Spirals. The 3/0 are really small and fragile, but are ideal for very fine detail. I also turn the board, selectively. It's always more natural to cut when feeding the board directly into the blade, so on critical cuts, I try to spin the board so that I'm pushing from the front, if possible. I generally try to avoid cutting while pulling the board directly towards me. I feel this is the most difficult to control and on some blade clamps, the most likely to make the blade pop out. These aren't hard & fast rules. I'll cut in any direction, if the pattern warrants it. I just try to be selective and make use of the best combination of the blade's capabilities, the pattern's requirements and my comfort level.

Sorry about the mishap with the Forstner bit. I'll just reiterate that a drill press is absolutely necessary when using Forstner bits. Another thing you need to be cognizant of is the spindle speed. Generally speaking, you want the drill press running at pretty slow speeds when using Forstner bits. There are all sorts of charts available on-line, that give proper speeds for various bits. I keep one hanging on the wall, next to my drill press. This is the one I use, but there are others. http://images.meredith.com/wood/images/pdf/speedchart.pdf

I've been scrolling for many years now, but every once in a while, I have to re-learn what should be a common sense lesson. I'm cutting animal and dinosaur puzzles for our club to donate to Toys for Tots next month. It was a good way to use a bunch of off-cuts and scraps that I've had laying around. I used cherry, sassafras, white oak, beech, sycamore & walnut. All of the pieces are at least 3/4" thick, with a few closer to 7/8". All was going well, until I got to one dinosaur puzzle in a piece of cherry. As soon as I started cutting, the wood started smoking. I was using a new #5 Olson MS blade and they had been working well, up until that point. I figured it was a lemon, so I put in another fresh one and it did the same thing. I then switched over to an #5 FD UR. Same thing. I only cut one piece out of the puzzle and it burned the whole way. I set the blank aside and went on to other patterns, in other woods, with no more problems. I brought the topic up at our scrollsaw club meeting, on Saturday. The first suggestion, was to put packing tape on the cherry. Now I consider myself a veteran scroller and I've long known about the packing tape trick and used to use it or painters tape a lot. I got away from it a while back, because I didn't enjoy picking all the little bits off of detailed fretwork. Eventually I convinced myself that the tape really wasn't worth the extra effort. However, I went back to that dinosaur pattern, put clear tape on both sides of the blank and it sawed as smooth and cleanly as anything. Now I've cut a lot of cherry over the years. It's one of my favorite woods, but I've never had a burning problem, like this. In fact, I had already cut another puzzle out of a different piece of cherry, without using tape, that came out fine. No burning. But when I saw how much easier the problem piece cut with the tape on it, I have to admit, that perhaps I need to re-think my strategy and go back to using tape, at least in certain applications.

I probably didn't word that very well. I've been scrolling for some time now, but even when I was just starting out, I think I approached projects with confidence that I could complete them and never expected that I was going to mess a piece up. Now that doesn't mean I never did. To the contrary. I've made my share of mistakes, but I use them as opportunities to learn and go on to the next project, better equipped to complete it successfully. If I do mess it up, I try to come up with a fix. Learning how to hide or fix mistakes can come in very handy. I told my grandson when I started teaching him to scroll, that no one knows exactly what the pattern looked like once you remove it. Some lines have to be followed precisely for the pattern to turn out. Others have a bit more latitude and can be open to "interpretation", if you will. Understanding the difference is important. Tossing a mistake and starting over is a last resort. As for concentration, to me that is at the core of successful scrolling. Fortunately, my shop is in the basement and I can minimize the distractions. If my head isn't in the game, I turn off the lights and go do something else. Successful scrolling requires pre-planning, patience, skill, attention to detail and practice. Brad mentioned visualization, looking over the pattern to develop a plan or sequence of actions that will lead to successful completion. That is good advice and not something that necessarily comes naturally to everyone. If you train yourself to study a pattern and plan the cuts in a logical order, taking into account where the risks are, then follow that plan, focusing on how the saw is cutting, how the blade is tracking, where my hands need to be, etc., after a while, you get immersed in the cutting and hopefully the distractions sort of fade into the background. I do apologize if my first reply came off as dismissive or arrogant. That wasn't my intention. I merely wanted to emphasize that I try not to approach a project, worried that I will mess it up. Some of this comes from experience, but some of it is attitude as well. Hope this helps some. Have fun making sawdust!

I generally drill all the entry holes before cutting. I did ruin a project once and it was in a stack of 4, so one mistake cost me 4 pieces of BB ply, but those kinds of catastrophic errors are rare, or at least I expect them to be.

It's actually Ipe. It comes from Central & South America. It's being used a lot for decking as it's extremely durable and rot resistant. It's also extremely dense and hard. Ipe measures about 3600 on the Janka scale, compared to 1450 for hard Maple.

Fun, isn't it?

I don't even live in California and I'm no good below 60 degrees. My shop is in my basement. If it was in an unheated garage or shed, I'd never set foot in it between November and April.