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Jim Finn

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Everything posted by Jim Finn

  1. Jim Finn
    I stack the two pieces of wood, with the one to be inlaid on the underside. Tape them together, or hot glue them, and cut both at the same time. This is called "double bevel inlay"
  2. Jim Finn
    I do LOTS of inlay! I use 3/8" wood and cut at a 2 Degrees. With 1/2" I would guess one degree. As suggested, Make trial cuts on 1/2" stock and find the required angle
  3. Jim Finn
    Mine is an Energizer 500 watt Power inverter. Max output of 4 amps. Model EN500. Input 12 volts DC 54A That is all I know about it.
  4. Jim Finn
    I have used an inverter and battery to run my scroll saw along with a fan to blow the dust away. Works fine and runs for hours. I do my sales alone and find that shoppers only watch me run the saw a short while, less than a minute, and they move on to look at, and purchase, my product. I then have to leave the saw and attend to business. I have stopped bringing my saw to sales. If I had someone to do the selling I might try it again. I was disappointed by the lack of true interest on how I make things using my saw though. I bought my inverter at a local battery store. They sized it for my needs.
  5. Jim Finn
    I have an unheated finishing shed that I try to heat with a small electric heater. After spraying a light coat I would allow to dry four hours or overnight. I recently purchased a used heat lamp, that was used for automotive painting, and have reduced my curing time to fifteen minutes per coat. I am using a rattle can of finish. I applied five coats on four items today before lunch.
  6. Jim Finn
    When I inlaid the name Derek I start the D at the bottom center of the D and the rest I started at the very end of the word and when moving to the R I just cut across to it and it is not noticed.
  7. Jim Finn
    Yes. The wood to be inlaid is placed on the bottom and pushes up to fit into the background. I use a hot glue gun to hold these two pieces of wood together as I cut. I do not like to use the terms clockwise or counterclockwise because people get confused with "turning the wood clockwise or the blade is traveling clockwise?" Also when cutting the inside of some of the letters it can get very confusing as to which way to turn so I just keep the image to the right of my blade all the time. Never fails.
  8. Jim Finn
    I do a lot of inlay and find that to avoid confusion as to which direction to cut I just always keep the image I want, to the high side of the blade. I tilt the table down on the left so I keep the image to the right of the blade with the wood to be inlaid, on the underside. This is very important when doing lettering.
  9. Jim Finn
    The different things I have tried using my scroll saws are: Making toys, compound or 3d cutting, intarsia, double bevel inlay, sign making, bowl making, and making crosses. I have yet to do any fretwork.
  10. Jim Finn
    I have two Hegners with the tension relief in the back of the saw and even on my old 1986, 25" saw I can reach it OK. I like the Heger saws because they have durable induction motors. I would not recommend a saw with induction motors for fretwork though. The stopping and starting will kill the capacitor. A universal motor can do the stop and staring required for fretwork much better. (I do not do fretwork) My saws are both bottom feeders so are not good for fretwork anyway.
  11. Jim Finn
    I have bent 1/8" Oak a few times by soaking it in water for three days, bending it into a form and allowing to dry for three days.
  12. Jim Finn
    Here is an idea for you, for an item that may sell well at a VA hospital. Little scroll work involved though. Tissue box covers with applied images.
  13. Jim Finn
    Thank you for this post. I had not looked into PS saws before. I see that they look like robust saws and are made in the USA!
  14. Jim Finn
    A friend of mine cuts thick wood to make toys and had a DeWalt. It cut the wood fine but he kept killing the motors doing this. (five of them in five years) I have Hegner saws I use to cut toys, myself. Hegner motors are induction motors and not brushed so they are more robust,. Brushed motors are better for stop and starting a lot as in doing fretwork. I like #7 0r #9 precision cut Olsen blades for this. Seem to last longer than polar #5 does.
  15. Jim Finn
    I use my band saw to cut the top off of the thousands of boxes I have made over the past ten years. 1/2" blade cuts it straight but does leave saw marks so I then sand them lightly with my stationary belt sander or my hand held orbital sander. I have a GO555 grizzly with riser.
  16. Jim Finn
    Thanks for the kind comments; This was a fifth anniversary gift from the buyer to her husband. She liked it a lot.
  17. Jim Finn
    I made this as a special order: Cedar box measures 9"x 7" x 2.25". Inlay the name in the normal way but applied the logo on top of the box using a method I used to decorate boxes before I learned to do inlay. I printed this image onto tissue paper that I had attached to regular printer paper. Printed this on my inkjet printer. When the tissue, with the image on it, is laid on the box I wipe on thinned poly and most of the tissue paper "disappears" The tissue paper covers the whole lid, edge to edge. It is a fussy procedure and works better with smaller images. Easier to get wrinkles out of smaller pieces. Three coats of wipe on poly.
  18. Jim Finn
    I have done no fretwork but I have done some cutting letters out of flat wall hung plaques. Inlay is much quicker to do. The time spent at the saw is about five- eight minutes per color. More time than that is spent sanding and glueing the inlay, and of coarse about two hours making and finishing the box. I encourage anyone, with scroll saw experience, to try inlay. I have one saw set up at the angle needed for inlay and use it only for that.
  19. Jim Finn
    I made this 8'x6"x2" cedar box for a donation item for a Local university's Christmas event for children. The theme this year is "The Grinch" . Woods used are: bubinga, poplar, bois d'arc, basswood, and cedar. Image is inlaid into the hinged lid using the "double bevel inlay " method with a scroll saw.
  20. Jim Finn
    On my Hegner, to change speeds, I just move one lever, slide the motor to loosen the belt, move the belt to a different speed, and slide the motor back and move the lever back to lock it in place. I took me longer to type this post than it does to change the speed on my belt driven Hegner.
  21. Jim Finn
    I recently took the motor to this saw to a motor shop and had the magnetic switch replaced with a regular rocker switch. Now I have the saw plugged into a foot switch and it works well that way. I bought this saw new in 2008 and have used it almost every day since. I cut 3/4" thick stock doing inlay and intarsia and spend 30-40 hours each week, in my workshop. This saw gets a lot of hard use and has given me zero problems. Seems to be very durable.
  22. Jim Finn
    This saw is made in Germany. The base needs to be bolted to the floor for smoothest operation. It is a bottom feeder. The upper arm does not lift a lot. Has a magnetic switch which makes a floor switch not usable with this saw. Uses only pin-less blades. Excellent customer service from Advanced Machinery. Repair parts available for my 1988 Hegner Multimax saw and for this saw. This saw has a 1/4" HP 3.1 amp, 1640 rpm, induction motor, no brushes. It has a cast iron table that measures 10 1/4" x 19 1/4"
  23. Jim Finn
    I know you are in a hurry, Kevin, but maybe you should shut the saw down before trying to change the blade! Less wear and tear on the saw table top. <grin>
  24. Jim Finn

    DeWalt DW788

    Jim Finn commented on Travis's scroll saw review in Scroll Saw Reviews

    My DeWalt died after 20 months. A great operating saw but not durable. My good friend had to replace the motor on his five times over five years. He finally tossed it. We both are cutting 3/4" wood or thicker and this saw cannot take that kind of use for long.
  25. Jim Finn
    An elementary school teacher from a nearby town contacted our club to ask us to give a demonstration of things to make/do with wood working tools. We spent two hours there with the 24 children ranging in ages from four to eleven. We brought ,with us, toys that were finished but needed wheels installed. Those that wanted to , painted them (cars and critters) and installed the wheels. Five guys from our club attended and we had the kids nailing into boards, (they loved that) nailing together small bird houses and installing the wheels. I also brought thirty 3-d cut horses and I taped them back together after cutting so the kids could take the pieces apart and reveal the horse inside. It is good we had five of us there. Four would also have worked but no less. There were three teachers there to help, also. With all that adult supervision the children were very well behaved. (Of course, a lot more fun than arithmetic!)
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