Sycamore67

I have read all of this thread and really got me wondering. We have not seen any pictures of how the blade was set in the clamps. Is the saw cutting badly or how is it cutting. Hegner has made the same saw for many years and is a robust saw design. Everybody knows how it works and how it is designed. If you do not like the features, buy another saw. The arm only lifts so high and this has not changed. If you want to call it Bull, that is fine. If you want to modify the saw fine. But complaining about a saw which is so rugged because you think the design should change is Bull.

I think you got a pretty good explanation. Getting the blade centered in the bottom clamp takes a bit of experience. At first with my Hegner, I struggled and it took too long to get it in the bottom clamp. Now, I do not even think about it and it is quick.

I checked my 1996 Hegner. With the arm up, the top of the blade is very slightly out than the bottom....maybe a sheet of paper or so. With the arm down, it appears completely perpendicular. This is normal for this type of arm design. How much is your blade off? Is there a problem with the way your saw is cutting? Have you called Advanced Machinery? I think that before you start "adjusting" your Hegner, you might want to talk with Advanced Machinery.

I wanted to do a Dinosaur Puzzle as a scene and with shaping of the pieces like Intarsia and this is what I came up with. None of the woods have been colored or stained. It is a scene of a T-Rex with its dinner a small Dinosaur at its feet. The background is green poplar, ash, cherry and blue pine for the sky. The small tree, top of larger tree, and both dinosaurs are green poplar. The trunk of the tree and volcanos are walnut and the lava is cedar. This shows the puzzle with the parts out. And here are the puzzle parts. The puzzle parts and background were shaped with a pneumatic drum sander and smaller parts with a Dremel and carbide cutter.

I use my Hegner for Intarsia and compound cutting and it does very well with harder thicker woods. Of course, the blade makes a lot of difference. I bought my Hegner used and a 1996 vintage. All parts are available if I ever need them. They just do not wear out like a DeWalt. Good luck with your new Hegner and hope it works out for you.

It is still killing trees in Indiana with most either dead or dying. I have lost 6 big ash trees on my property. It is not cheap to have them taken down. It does make very good firewood.

I love ash and use quite a bit in building cabinets. I also use it in making stand up puzzles like by Judy Peterson. It is very hard but with nice grain kind of like oak but whitish. It is relatively cheap and you can get wide boards. I find that it does not warp as bad as many others. In the future, it will become hard to get as it is being killed quickly by Emerald Ash Borer.

Thank you all for the kind comments. This was a trial and error project for me. I had a vision of what I wanted to make but there were a number of failures and start overs. But this is the kind of project I like to do.

Did you hear about the guy who walked into a bar with a coconut, steel rail and a scroll saw? When another drinker asked him about it, he replied " PM me" Given that the person who started this thread posts jokes and cartoons on a regular bas, this is the kind of thing I expected. I guess we were all looking too hard.

I surrender.....please explain.

The pine shaving were made with a LN 4-1/2 plane and 1.5" wide and about 10" long. I flattened them by slightly dampening them and pressing between two wood blocks. It took a bit of effort to get them to a good thickness and uniform.

Interesting about Monarchs in NZ. They islanders hopped and got there around 1870. Monarchs are able to fly long distances and must have to get to NZ A type of milkweed was also introduced at same time. The Monarchs are dependent on milkweed for food and for laying eggs. I wonder how or if they migrate anywhere.

Several weeks ago, the last of the Monarch Butterflies started their journey south to Mexico and the last one left my area. I really like them and have planted Milkweed and many other flowers to attract them. Since they are gone, I decided that I needed to make my own Monarch on a Flower for winter months. The pattern for the Monarch came from Steve Good’s website. I used the pattern to cut out two wings from 1/8” Baltic Birch Plywood and carefully sanded the wings. The wings were painted black. Now, I just needed to put the orange color in the wings. I thought about doing an orange inlay but with the number of parts and the small size knew it would be very difficult for me. I finally decided on filling the holes in the wings with epoxy dyed orange. I took me too many trials but finally ended up using a medium setting epoxy with just a touch of orange Rit Dye powder. The body for the Monarch was a small piece of walnut which I turned on the lathe. Small holes in the head and paint brush bristles were glued in for the antenna. Gluing the wings on the body was one of the most difficult parts. I marked on the body where the wings would go and drilled several shallow small diameter holes and similar holes on the edge of the wings. The holes would make the epoxy have a greater grip. I cut a V-Shape in a 2x4 block which was the angle I wanted the wings and used it to hold the body and wings while the epoxy hardened. I also drilled a small hole on the bottom of the body for the wire to hold the Monarch. The flower is made pine shavings. These shaving were about 1-1/2” wide and on the thick side. These were glued around a short dowel to make the flower. The leaves were also made of pine shavings. The base for the Flower and Monarch is Red Oak and made so that an Acrylic 5-sided box would fit over it and protect it from dust and damage.

I am using the Festool on my scroll saw and sander and do not have a problems with the bag or filter clogging or reduced performance.

Why not call Fein and ask them? I prefer getting dust at the source. With my setup, I capture the dust close to the blade top and bottom. If you blow dust around some will escape especially with fine dust. My Festool goes on and off with the saw but I do not do fret work.

I maybe one of the few but I do not have a foot switch on my saw. I mainly do Intarsia and puzzles so probably do not turn the saw on and off as much as others. There is no saw dust on my saw or me as I vacuum it up at the blade top and bottom before it goes anywhere.

The saw is 67" tall, 90" deep and 39" wide....

In this case, it is a large 2000# machine and is likely to be very expensive. Looking at the company and specs for the machine it will be many thousands of dollars. Of course I ask the price and tried to find the price on this one. In this case the comment was a joke and not serious.

If you have to ask the price, you can not afford it.

Excellent work and desigh

The picture shows a Mac Mop. Klingspor also sells the sanding mop. They both work a bit different and the Mac Mop works good on more delicate things.

Actually, Kevin, you are not correct. I used larger, PVC and then split off to two 3/4" pipes. The cross sectional are of the two 3/4" pipes is larger than the area of the opening on the vac hose. Also, the Festool and Fein type vacuums are designed to run continuously. Capturing dust at the source is always better than blowing it around to catch with a filter.

Nicely done...

In a recent magazine, Judy Peterson had some great Giraffe Puzzles and I wanted to do something with all three of the puzzles in it. I decided to make a scene with the three Giraffes looking like a family on the plains. I created this 10 x 12 scene. The Giraffes were cut from quarter sawn Sycamore. The tree is walnut and poplar. The background is poplar on the bottom, ash above it and blue pine for the sky. The three pieces of the background were all shimmed so that the bottom is higher than the middle and the top farther back in order to try to create some depth to it. The outside frame is red oak. The finish is white shellac as I did not want to alter the colors of the wood.

I am glad to see people trying to control dust. I have concerns with blowing dust with fans as some of the fine dust hangs in the air. As to using some type of hose coming off of a fan....not likely to be effective as the static pressure of the fans is very low. I believe that dust collection is best done at the source. Rofl and I have presented solutions to suck dust from above and below the table on our scroll saws. However, we are using expensive vacuums. One could use a Ridgid shop vac with HEPA filter and the cost is much less.