Bill WIlson

The thing about pressure is that most folks use too much. The old adage of letting the tool do the job applies in all these cases, even the paint brush. Use a good quality paint brush. It will hold a lot of material. Draw the brush across the board and let the material flow off onto the surface, rather than push it down and try to force the finish onto the wood. It's all about technique, just like with the scroll saw and the sander.

I have both, but rarely use the palm sander. I always seemrd to have more trouble with swirl marks left behind by the palm sander, but that may have been as much my technique and the paper I was using at the time. I've used random orbit sanders, with good quality sanding discs, for so long now, that I don't have much need to use the palm sander anymore. The ability to connect the ROS to my shop vac & Dust Deputy was a game changer, for me.

For scrolled projects, my go to finish is shellac, sprayed on with a HVLP gun. Shellac is very easy to spray and even easier to clean up. I will occasionally dip smaller pieces in an oil, but it's difficult to get finish into all the nooks & crannies of most larger fretwork. This is where shellac excels. It dries extremely fast and is best applied in light coats, so you can hit it from multiple angles without it building up like some other finishes. Also, clean up between coats isn't even really necessary. The denatured alcohol in shellac will soften hardened shellac, so I've left shellac sitting in the gun for an hour and had no problems picking it up and using it again. Sometimes I don't even clean after I'm done using it, just put it away. When I use it the next time, I just run a little DNA through it and it's ready to spray again, just like it had been put away clean. If you want to add some color into the piece, without the separate step of staining, you can mix up shellac flakes that are available in different grades, from a very deep, dark amber to almost water clear. I use mostly the clear, pre-mixed stuff from Zinnser, which imparts a nice, light amber tint to warm up most woods. Shellac is just about the ideal finish for me. I sing it's praises just about every chance I get.

I think it's a little more ergonomically friendly. Stay hunched over a scroll saw for extended periods of time and you look for small improvements that relieve some of the tension in your back, neck, shoulders and wrists. It makes a difference for some. I know I like mine better tilted.

I don't have any plans or pictures. All I use are a couple pieces of ply and several quick clamps. However, Carole Rothman is the stacked ring bowl expert, IMHO. I believe she explains her bowl clamp on her blog. If you want to learn about stacked ring bowls on the scroll saw, Carole is the person to go to. http://scrollsawbowls.blogspot.com/

Apparently from Mars.

Just my humble opinion, but I think that's too high.

Many years ago we had someone come into work and test employees' hearing. A lot of the older machinists at the time were found to have significant hearing loss. It had happened so gradually, they never really thought much about it. Somebody asked the guy who was doing the testing what the best kind of hearing protection was. His response was; "The one that you will wear." That made an impression on me and since then I've made it a point to wear ear plugs anytime I'm running any kind of machinery.

Hearing & breathing damage will sneak up on you after a while. Trouble is, that once we realize there is a problem, it's often too late to do much about it, except for trying to prevent it from getting worse. Get in the habit of taking precautions. You're ears and lungs will thank you years from now.

I like to make frames for the pictures I've cut. That way I can make them any size I need. I don't use glass, but I have occasionally matted them. As mentioned, there is no limit to the variety of styles and types of frames you can make. You can combine a few simple router bits to make all sorts of different profiles. I sometimes make frames out of 2 or 3 pieces of wood, glued together, which can really add depth to the frame and give you more edges to profile and create all sorts of different looks. I've used contrasting splines to add strength to the miter before. They also add an additional decorative element to the frame. Sometimes I just use a 23 ga pin nailer and shoot a pin or two in each corner. The pins are headless and the holes are so small that they are practically invisible. You can also add strength by attaching the picture & backer board directly to the frame with glue/nails. If I do this, I'll make the rabbet a little wider, to give me more area to bond to. There are all sorts of options. As shown above, you don't even have to worry about trying to make perfect miters, because there are lots of ways to join the corners that don't require miters.

Couple suggestions; First, for basement finishing, use waterborne products. They aren't flammable and the fumes are less of a problem. Second, you can spray shellac in cold temperatures. It takes a little longer to dry, but it doesn't interfere with curing like it does with other finishes. Humidity is more of a problem with shellac, but if the air is dry, you can apply shellac in the cold. Now that doesn't solve the comfort problem, but it does give you an option. For smaller projects, that don't require a lot of finish, I do spray finishes in my basement in the wintertime. I use large pieces of cardboard to make an enclosure that sits on my bench. In the rear, I cut an opening and attach a furnace filter with hot glue. I put a fan, with another furnace filter over it, in the shop window. Then I have a fan running behind me, gently moving the air in the direction of the window. I have a lazy Susan platform that I set in my temporary spray booth, which allows me to rotate the project and spray it all from the open end of the booth. I generally only spray shellac, which while flammable, dissipates and dries quickly, thus the overspray and fumes aren't much of a problem. I'm not saying I recommend this method, as one should have explosion proof lighting in the spray area, but I allow plenty of time for the fans to clear the air and haven't blown up my shop yet.

I generally like the FDUR blades, but for something that thick, they are likely part of the problem you are having with the stack lifting. FDUR blades have more reverse teeth than a regular reverse tooth blade, so they will tend to be a little more "grabby" on the up stroke, especially in thick material like you are cutting. You can probably get away with using them if you cut the stack thickness down, as has been suggested, or choose a different, larger blade with less reverse teeth, as has been suggested.

Finishing doesn't have to be complicated, but there are some basic elements that need to be understood in order to get the results you want. Without going into a long dissertation on finishing 101, my first suggestion is to allow plenty of time for the oil to cure before topcoating with lacquer. Lacquer and oil are quite different finishes and while they may ultimately be compatible, if you apply the lacquer topcoat before the oil is fully cured, you could be asking for trouble. You could get a cloudy film. You could have adhesion problems. The previous suggestion of using a barrier coat of shellac is a good one. That will likely prevent any problems you may have with the lacquer reacting badly with the oil. It's very important to understand the properties of the finishing products you intend to use. It's also a very good idea to test unfamiliar finishing schedules on scrap before committing them to your project. Yes, it takes time, but finishing is as important as the cutting and cutting corners will eventually lead to disappointment.

Clamps - the size, type & qty will vary, depending on the type of projects you do, but I would start out with a few one handed bar clamps and an assortment of spring clamps. You can expand from there.

If you expect to find yourself working with a variety of hardwoods, I suggest you consider getting this book; https://www.amazon.com/Real-Wood-Bible-Illustrated-Decorative/dp/1770850139

I know Valentine's Day was yesterday, but I'm still trying to figure out how to scroll a dozen roses, a box of chocolates and dinner out.

Lauan plywood was commonly used as an underlayment for flooring, especially sheet flooring. I don't know if it's as common these days. Seems like flooring manufacturers have figured out that they make more $$ if they specify their own proprietary underlayment. Anyway, Lauan is the common name for a wood called Meranti that grows in S.E. Asia. Most of the varieties are pretty soft, even though Meranti is a hardwood. Lauan ply was also commonly used as door skins for builder grade, hollow core, interior doors. It's relatively stable, but a little coarser grain than something like Baltic Birch. It is useable for scrolled projects, but I think BB ply is higher quality and typically a better choice for most woodworking/scrolling applications.

When I first started scrolling, I stood. Mainly because I didn't know any better and didn't have a decent chair to sit in, in the shop. I built a stand for my 1st scroll saw and made it a comfortable height for scrolling while standing. After awhile, I acquired a stool and tried sitting. My stand was too tall, so I put the stool on a wooden platform to raise it up. It was less than ideal. Several years later I upgraded to a Dewalt, which came with a stand. It was then that I committed fully to sitting while scrolling. I was lucky enough to snag an an adjustable, swivel stool from work that was getting tossed out. It needed some new upholstery and the back rest keeps working loose, but it is the ideal shop stool, for me. I've been sitting ever since. My stool has wheels, so I can move from the scroll saw to bench work easily and adjust the height as required. Getting a good stool is the key.

For me, it depends on the pattern. If the pattern has a lot of fine, delicate detail, I like to use the smallest blade practical. Smaller blade = thinner stack. Probably limit myself to 1/2" thickness. If the cuts are fairly simple and not too delicate, I'll use a larger blade. Larger blade = thicker stack., may go up to 3/4" thick. I've found that when I try to cut thicker stacks with a small blade, the benefits of getting an extra layer or 2 in each stack are lost in the slower cutting time.

Frankly, I accumulate plenty of scrap that I save, so most of the negative space pieces end up in the scrap bin. It's kind of like the leftover pieces when you are compound cutting. The look like they should be usable for something, but if I saved all that stuff, I wouldn't be able to find my saw.

Each of us works in different ways. I have one scroll saw, but 5 routers and am considering a 6th. I've accumulated over 2 dozen hand planes for some reason. When I bought my EX-21 a couple years ago, I considered keeping my Dewalt. Frankly if I had more room in my shop, it would have been a no brainer. But being space constrained and having a willing buyer within the extended family, made it an easy decision to sell it. Bottom line is most of us have multiples of certain tools because we can.

The way that pattern is drawn, yes. If you wanted a silhouette cutout, you would need to modify the pattern to eliminate the unconnected "floaters".

I sit to scroll and use a deadman switch. For me, an on/off switch doesn't have much advantage over just using the switch on the saw. The deadman provides absolute control. I do mostly fretwork, so I'm not running the saw for long periods of continuous operation. Fretwork is a lot of stopping and starting, so the deadman switch is ideal for me.

It depends. For the first one, do you want a solid duck shape or do you want a board with a duck shaped hole in it? You could cut it with either goal in mind. As for the second pattern, you would typically cut the white areas. Look at the large white sections in the body of the dolphin. If you cut those out, they become holes or "frets" in the larger piece of wood that is the gray area. If you cut the gray shaded area out of the larger board, then these white areas become free floating, loose pieces of wood. Normally in scrolling you would avoid this. Look at the pattern and determine what the contiguous parts of the shape are and what the "fret" parts are. The fret parts are those that aren't attached to anything else. Cut out the frets.