Jim Finn

I sell all of my work and I figure folks do not want my name on their stuff so I sign only when asked, (Two times in seven years.) I put a business card in each box I sell. I have talked to people about the woods used in the Intarsia and the boxes but very few are interested. I no longer bother unless asked.

I have a 25" Hegner a 20" Hegner and an old 15" Jet. I use the 15"Jet the most and the 25" Hegner the least. I am sure you will like this saws once you get used to the blade changing. I added a little stop to the blade clamp holder that makes aligning up the blade in the clamp easier. See Photo of this stop that is pop riveted in place.

I am pretty sure you cannot change the speed on that saw without changing out the motor at a cost of over $500. One other thing about that saw, there is no quick tension relief lever on it. You have to reach to the back of the saw and turn the knob to release tension or to apply tension to the blade. I bought a quick release for mine at a cost of $65 and I put a quick clamp on the top ($35) to make it easier to change blade position. If you have to have speed control I would pass on this saw. I run all three of my saws at full speed so it is not an issue for me.

Great job!

I paid $600 for a 1986 25" Hegner single speed two years ago. Great saw and parts still available. I would jump on that deal!

I have made and sold a lot of toys. Mostly of fir or poplar. I even gave a seminar on how I did it. I use FD #5 ( #7 work as well) and run the saw at a slow speed. About 400 strokes per minute. Slow feed rate and you will not have to sand the cut surface at all. When cutting with the grain do not push too hard the feed rate will slow down a lot cutting with the grain. Don't force it.

Good luck with number three.

I use the rattle cans of clear finish from Rust-olium. I think it is acrylic. Never have a clog and it gives a nice, very fine, spray pattern. One thing I always do in the winter is to soak the rattle can in hot water for a few minutes before using. This warms up the finish so it flows nicely.

I have a ,cheap, shop vac connected to my Jet scroll saw. I have it outside the shop under a plastic tub. I can not hear it over my scroll saw. I have it connected to my foot switch along with my scroll saw.

I sell all that I make. I started six years ago making toys. Sold hundreds of them at street fairs and festivals. I still attend these sales but no longer make and sell toys. The liability insurance for them was about $850 a year. That is a lot of toys to make just to pay for that. Toys do sell very well and some I can make four per hour and sell at $5 each. Could not sell them that fast though. I now make cedar boxes with inlaid images in the hinged lids. I also sell my few intarsia projects. I do not do fretwork at all. I have been doing this steady for over six years now and am finally getting word of mouth sales. Quite a lot actually. I am just now trying to get on line retailers to buy from me to resell. I think that trying to sell my things on line is tough to do. Works much better when the buyer can see and touch them in person so I am not sure how well this will work. My tip to someone starting at this is: Find out , though trial and error, what folks will buy and then work at mass producing them so that you can keep the price in the $20-$30 range. In my case my boxes sell well. Festivals are a great place to sell your wares and if you want to sell items much over $30 get a way to accept credit cards at the point of sale. Selling in consignment stores did not work for me.

I have one blade that I twisted and change to it when needed. It is slow, but does work.

I do not use spirals but I did try them. I do not do fretwork and find the cut on the toys I was making at the time was way too rough. I could have used my band saw and gotten a smoother cut. When I have a long piece to cut I twist my regular #5 blade ninety degrees and cut from the side of the saw.

I have built shelving that I clamp to the table tops. Four sharply angled shelves to display my boxes and a 24" tall board above to display wall hung items. I also put my four 4' tables in a "U" shape and can display over 100 items including the wall hung stuff. I put sand bags on the cross members of the tables to keep this rack from tipping over. All this in a 10' x10' space. When my wife brings her crocheted stuff we get two spaces. Photos of these shelves front and rear.

I work in my shop 4-5 hours at a time, once or twice a day. I do inlay work not fretwork so I line up about ten inlay projects and sit for about an hour or so and scroll saw them all. After that I am up and about the shop making the rest of the boxes.

I have cut the bottom 3/4" off of used blades and installed them back in the saw. New teeth then cut the wood. All my saws allow this but I am not sure other saws will adjust to the shorter blade.

The thing is you cit.an buy a CD with all the issues on

I do not ware a mask except when I am blowing the dust out of my workshop. I have a ceiling mounted air cleaner that does a good job and I sometimes set a fan next to my saw to blow the sawdust across the saw away from me.

Merry Christmas Phil ...................................From Lubbock.

Yet another reason to use a Hegner. I can make the tension as tight as I want, even to the point of snapping the blade. This is very important when cutting thicker woods, like in doing inlay and in making 1 1/4" thick stand up puzzles.

Consider images that are not just silhouettes. Interior lines can be added after the outline is cut. I tape the top and bottom wood of the cut out together and cut the interior lines on a scroll saw set with the blade at 90 degrees. Two reasons to stack cut these two pieces.... 1)The interior lines of the image are already drawn on the top wood, and 2) cutting double thickness slows the cutting speed down a bit and this gives you more control. The color photo of an intarsia I did, I used with carbon paper to put the drawing onto the wood. Then In the inlay photo you can see the interior lines I cut in the horse head inlay.

Nice looking inlay. Be careful, inlay can be addicting.

Nice job. Plenty of detail.

Cute Idea I may steal it......

Good job on that. I see you have it pretty well figured out. I USUALLY have the grain on the inlaid image running the same way as the background wood, but not always. I have never done a cutting board. I should try that.

I see a giraffe eating marshmallows in a snowstorm....