CharleyL

Here is the FAX answer tone on YouTube. Just play it through your computer when creating your phone answer message on your phone answering machine, then wait a couple of seconds after it ends and then add your voice answer message after it. The robots will hear the FAX tone, hang up, and remove your phone from their list. You do need to tell your friends and contacts not to hang up when they hear the tone, and to just wait to leave a message. Charley

I've just added a 5 second long FAX machine answer tone at the beginning of my voice answering message and warned my friends and relatives to ignore it and leave me a message when they call. It significantly reduced the number of robo calls and other SPAM calls that I receive. The robots remove my phone number from their list and the people who call trying to sell me something usually hang up as soon as they hear it without waiting for the voice message that follows it. I'm not saying that it's 100% effective, but it has sure reduced the number of calls that I was getting. Charley

For being new at this, you are doing great. I think I can already see your future.There will be some very nice bigger projects posted soon. We're all here pulling for you so don't hesitate to ask if you have questions about anything. Charley

Changing the line and background colors of an image - Any photo software, not just Irfanview, should let you change the color of your image in a similar manner. PhotoShop, PhotoShop Elements, Gimp, etc. will all allow changing the colors by varying the tint adjustments, in this case to "full red". Even "Paint 3D" on Windows 10 will let you do this but the "line" and "fill" commands on Paint will be what you choose to do it. Once changed and saved as a red line image, any inkjet printer or color laser printer will make as many copies as you want I use PhotoShop because I once used it professionally for photo restoration and retouching work, so it is almost a second language to me, but any of these programs will work for this. Putting multiple small images on a large page - Another thing that photo programs will do very well is to let you put or combine many images or copies of one image on a single sheet of paper. For small scroll saw work, this saves a lot of paper. To do this in a photo processing program, I open the file containing the image that I want to make multiple copies of and then also open a new blank image the size of the paper that you will be printing on. In Photoshop there are horizontal and vertical guide lines that you can position anywhere by dragging them one at a time from the horizontal and vertical ruler scales that appear at the left and top of your image. These show on the computer display, but don't print out in the final image. I drag a horizontal guide line down to about 1/2" from the top and a vertical guide over about 1/2" from the left. These will make it easy to place the upper and left edge of an image onto this new blank file so it won't be affected by the printer margins. Using the "Move tool" (in Photoshop this is a horizontal and vertical double pointed arrow). I click and hold on the small photo image and then drag it onto the large image file. Once there I can move it around anywhere that I want the same way using the "move tool". So I can position it in the upper left corner formed by the two blue guide lines. This image is kind of on a clear layer on top of the large blank image file that's called a "Layer". It's kind of an electronic version of a clear piece of plastic that you just placed an image on. You can slide this image in any direction my moving this clear piece of plastic without it actually being on the background. OK, you now have the image that's on layer 1 in place. Now move two more guidelines out from the rulers to positions where their upper left intersections will be where you want to place the second copy of the small image. Now go back to the other file with the small image on it and repeat the process, dragging a second copy of the small image over to the larger image file and position it so that it's upper left corner is in the upper left intersection of the second tow blue guidelines. This image is now on a second "layer" or clear plastic sheet that's sitting on top of the previous layer. You can move it anywhere you want to with the "move tool" and the previous small image under this "layer" won't be affected by what you do to it. You can repeat this process, moving additional small images over and adding guidelines until the whole sheet is full. If you should ever want to move one of the lower "layers" or make any other kind of changes to one of them, you will need to select the layer that image is on. (This is kind of like pulling a playing card out of the middle of a deck of cards and working on it and then putting it back into the deck). So you can go back and change any one layer without affecting any of the others, but you can look down through this whole stack and see all of the images, as if they are all sitting in their positions on the base level image file. Once you have all of the images on their layers and positioned where you want them, save the large multiple image file including all of the layers. You can then print the full sheet of small images as many times as you would like. You can even still go back and open this full page file and change any one or more of the images on it by selecting the correct "layer" and making whatever adjustment that you would like to. There is a command available called "Flatten Image". If you use this command it will remove all of the electronic sheets of plastic and put all of your small images on the base layer. This will reduce the file size of the full page file, but you need to realize that when you do this, you will no longer be able to separately move or modify only one small image on the sheet without affecting the rest of them. I never "Flatten" an image file, unless I will be sending it to a customer and I don't want them to ever be able to edit each small image in the file. Well, this description above tells you how to fill a full page with multiple copies of small images quite easily using any version of Photoshop. Other photo editing programs will also have this same capability, but may use different names for the commands. It will take a little while for you to get good at this, so don't expect perfection on the first try. Experiment with these two tips and don't hesitate to ask questions if you have trouble doing them. I'm certain that I can help if you are using one of the photo processing programs, especially on of the PhotoShop versions. Learn how to do both of these, and get yourself a scanner and an inkjet printer, any you will pay for both of them quickly since you won't be paying FeDEx, a local print or copy shop, or even wasting paper any more. Combination scanners, copiers, FAX, and inkjet printers are available at very reasonable prices now and will do all of these functions in one small machine for just a few hundred dollars, and even cheaper if you buy a used one. Charley

For something to hang on the wall, some of the mirror coated plastic sheets might be a good choice for this and would cut well easily on a scroll saw.. Then cut the Helmet from green plastic to put behind it and add a few LED lights behind the green plastic to make the helmet glow. It wouldn't shine through the metal coating but you would see the helmet around and through the holes in the emblem. A nice wood backer behind it all and a small spot light shining down on the face of it would achieve the result seen in your photo, and you wouldn't need to use stainless steel at all to make it. Charley

My eyes aren't good enough to make them that size. You have much better eyes than me. I do like making ornaments similar to this, but without the reindeer inside. Charley

Why do you want to outline it? I would print it the way that it is and attach it to the wood with a removable glue. Then I would cut it the way that it is, keeping the blade in the white and right next to the black all the way around. For the inside areas you need a small hole in each to thread the blade through, cut it out, and then move to the next hole. I fail to see your need for a line. All of the white part is waste, so it doesn't matter if it gets cut up. Maybe I don't understand your question, but it seems simple to me. I don't think you need Inkscape at all, unless it needs to be resized, and even then I wouldn't use Inkscape. Charley

Try it again with a piece of soft wood like pine or poplar and look for wood that has almost no visible grain lines. Square your blade both front to back as well as side to side. Use high blade tension. I run the tension about 4 out of the 5 max on my DeWalt. It's almost tight enough that you think it will break, but with a good saw it won't. I would go with a #1 or #2 skip tooth reverse blade. Use a good brand of new blade and your fuzzies should only require a few strokes of a fingernail sanding stick if any at all. I get no fuzzies at all for the first 3 or 4 reindeer and then the blade begins to dull. I replace it with a new blade when the reindeer begins to get a Sun tan in places. If the blade cut without burning when it was new, something has changed. At the same speed it can only be a dull blade. At the cost of $ 0.20-0.30 each I just trash them. Of course, you could slow the saw some and get another reindeer or two before the Sun tan problem re-appears, but why do this for suck a low cost blade. You want to enjoy this hobby don't you? Try a #1 or #2R Skip tooth blade and I think you will have better luck. Run the blade tight and make certain that it is square both ways to the table. Compound cutting is quite a bit different that flat work or stack cutting. It's going to take some practice, a good clamp, and patience. Don't give up now. Keep at it and you will have it figured out in no time. Charley

He looks very good, but You didn't say how tall he is. Nice smooth arcs and shape though. Be careful now that you are making them Reindeer can fly, if seen by a female wandering through your shop. These little guys seem to be in high demand by females of all ages. Only men who are woodworkers will admit that they like them. Add some black eyes and a red nose. I use marking pens. It dries almost instantly. Charley Charley

A great attempt, but I can see that you had to increase the size of their legs after shrinking the pattern down to that size because their legs will fall off if cut at the reduced pattern size. I've done a few tiny ones like that, but my eyes and fingers aren't good enough for that size any more, and I just spend too much time making small pieces of firewood. My goal was to be able to make ear rings using them, and my 3/4" tall ones are good for this purpose with almost no failures, so very little firewood. I'm now making small 5/8" tall black walnut crosses for ear rings and I have a larger 1 1/2" tall version that I will be cutting for use on a neck chain. Sorry, no pictures yet, as I'm still working on how to go about cutting them well. So far I have one good pair completed and found out that my clamping idea for cutting them was a complete failure. Now to find a better way. They are only 1/8" thick. Charley

For my larger reindeer, I use pieces of 1 X 2 which is actually 3/4 X 1 1/2 and the length is just a bit longer than the reindeer pattern is tall. The wood for my larger reindeer is either pine or poplar, but look for wood that has as very little hard grain lines as possible, since the hard grain lines can deflect the blade. I usually use a Flying Dutchman #1 or #2 skip tooth blade with the reverse teeth on the bottom. For the two smaller sizes I've found that soft woods don't work because they break too easily. I've gone to hard maple for the smallest and either hard or soft maple for the next larger. Blades go dull much quicker when cutting either the hard or soft maple and if you have been cutting well with a new blade and then all of a sudden the reindeer begins to get a Sunburn tan in places, you have a dull blade and It's time for a new one. I use high blade tension on my DeWalt saw when cutting reindeer or doing other compound cutting, usually a #4 tension setting. Absolute squareness of the blade to the table is required, both in the side to side direction and well as the front to back direction. If it isn't perfectly square you are going to make some weird looking reindeer and the scraps will be difficult to remove. This is very true with all compound cutting, and not just the reindeer. I use maple for the two smallest sizes, because anything else that I've tried is so soft that their legs or antlers fall off before completion, or very shortly afterward. For the ear ring size it is always hard maple, For ear ring reindeer I found that drilling the hole through their heads went easier if I did the drilling first and then cut them on the scroll saw. Having a flat surface makes the tiny drill bit walk around much less and you get the hole where you want it, and not where it ends up. The tiny bits are extremely flexible, and fragile. I have even resorted to using a very small machinests center crill bit to put a dimple where I want to drill the hole. I now have two bench top drill presses side by side because of this, one with the center drill and one with the small drill bit. The bit size will depend on your jewelry findings. I have bought from Hobby Lobby, but have gone to internet purchases from Fire Mountain Gems to get larger volumes at better pricing. They have been very good to me so far. I have now named the 4 sizes of reindeer that I make to help me keep track of them, their patterns, and keeping the blocks of wood for making them from getting mixed. Rudy - short for Rudolf is the largest. Then there is Judy,- his wife. - she is a little shorter than Rudy, followed by Trudy- the teenager, a little shorter than Judy, and then the little guy that becomes the ear rings is simply Junior. So far, in the last 14 years of making reindeer, as of last Thursday I have made and given away 4,327 reindeer. All get black magic marker eyes and a big red nose. When I first started making them I carried the red marker and at the point of giving one away I would ask what his name was. About 90% wanted Rudolph, so now they all get red noses and I leave the red marker in the shop. The first reindeer that I made were first cut on the scroll saw, and then rounded to look more real. Then I was applying a very light brown stain followed by 2 coats of clear spray lacquer. Then I found that people loved them with no final shaping or finishing, so Rudy and Judy go to new homes with only the magic marker eyes and nose, and no sanding or finishing, other than a few strokes of a fingernail board on the corners to remove the fuzzies. The smallest two sizes, Trudy and junior, get the fingernail file treatment and then the clear lacquer spray. I sometimes trim the fingernail files with scissors to make the end narrower, so it fits in tight places. No staining and no rounding is ever done anymore. It's a sickness, and for me there seems to be no cure. Also, after reading this post, I think this sickness that I have, may be contagious and I've given it to all of you. The "bug" that makes you want to make reindeer just like me. I just can't stop making them, and giving them all away. I now make them and give them away all year, and not just at Christmas time. I made a special tool for removing the wood from between their legs and antlers. It's just a 6" length of 1/8" beech dowel rod, sharpened at both ends with a pencil sharpener. When clearing the wood from between their antlers, I've found that it goes easiest when pushed from the rear of their head forward. Once this piece is out, the side pieces come way without catching easily. The pieces between their legs are always easy to remove, but this tool makes it easier. I also use this tool to hold down a piece of the pattern if it begins to pull loose. If it gets cut I can always return to the pencil sharpener. This tool resides in my shirt pocket, so it is very close and handy to reach for when I need it. My little scroll saw tool box usually has about a dozen of these already sharpened and ready, so I don't even need to stop when I loose or cut the tip off of one. I pre-fold the cut patterns along a straight line between their front and side views by positioning the side view on the wide side of a piece of wood, let the face view hang off the edge of the wood with the line between the two views centered along the sharp edge of the wood. Then I run my thumb down the edge of the wood, creasing the pattern along the line between the two images. I do a whole bunch this way, using the same block of wood. Then I open the bottle of rubber cement and evenly coat one edge and one side of the block of wood. Then I pick up one of the pre-folded patterns and apply it, making certain that the reindeer's feet touch the end of the block of wood. I use rubber cement because it holds well, and because there is no need to remove a paper pattern when doing compound cutting. All of the pattern falls off along with the wood scraps, much like a baby chick sheds the pieces of his shell. The reindeer is in the center, just like the baby chick. Charley

I agree. You should not expect to have any success trying to cut steel and stainless. Softer non-ferrous metals can be cut well with a scroll saw, even the mirrored plastics and coins, can be cut, if you choose the metal cutting scroll saw blades that are designed for it, but blade life will be quite short. Charley

I agree with the others, but could probably help more if I knew what saw you were using. Getting the front/back angle of your blade at 90 to the table isn't quite as easy as getting it 90 to the table in the side to side direction. A lot will depend on what saw you are using. Charley

I too envy your shop size and think your air cleaner will be a great benefit, but you need to get some insulation and some heat in that shop. I would go stir crazy if I couldn't comfortably use my shop all year long. Put a small furnace and some insulation in that shop so you can comfortably use it all year I have a window style heat pump that heats and cools my shop (but I'm in NC), and it doubles as my shop air cleaner. My dust collector is a re-purposed whole house central vacuum unit that I repaired and installed in my shop with a Dust Deputy connected ahead of it to separate out the wood chips and saw dust. It keeps the vacuum's filter from plugging up so well that I never need to clean the vacuum's filter. It works great for collecting the saw dust from the scroll saws, drill presses, sanders, etc. My planer gets used outside with a barrel and fabric cover attachment to collect the chips. My table saw and jointer cabinets collect the saw dust from them and I shovel it out every few months. I also vacuum the shop floor with the unit and have added an extra inlet port out through the shop wall so I can vacuum my cars and trucks with it. This isn't the best arrangement for a shop dust collector, but I don't have the room for a real shop dust collector. The vacuum unit and Dust Deputy had to be located in my shop's attic. Charley

Ray, As promised I found my Delta Q3 manual, but since I'm using a 3 week old computer, I don't have all of the software installed and working to be able to create a pdf file yet, nor am I very good at using Windows 10 yet (I actually hate it). So I've made you a copy of the manual and found the spare HDPE zero clearance insert, so everything is together in an envelope and ready to send. Please PM your mailing address and I'll get it out to you. As for the parts that I would want of your Q3, I'll have to think about that a little, but I would rather see you fix the saw up and use it. Then at least, you could make her something with it to prove that it isn't junk after all. My wife starts in on me when I have something that I haven't used in a while. Then, to her, it needs to go. But I have so many hobbies (toys) that it's difficult for me to keep them all in use all of the time. Each time that I take on a new venture or drag something that doesn't work home I get negative comments for a while too. You can't just bring something home and then let it sit. It has to be top priority to get it usable again, so you can prove to her that it isn't junk after all. We have been married for almost 56 years, so we know each other very well. As long as I can make good use of it she gives up complaining quickly. Some years after we were married, she told one of her friends that one of the reasons why she married me was "because I could fix anything". I overheard this and remind her of it when the need arises. She also grumbles sometimes when I need a new expensive tool, but never stops me from buying it, and I'm careful not to buy anything that financially impacts our family life. I too raised 4 kids, but one is still with us due to being handicapped. I'm always dragging junk home and fixing it. You should have seen the 1987 Cushman Truck when I brought it home 5 years ago. It had been sitting on the edge of a pine forest, untouched for 13 years. It had trees growing up through the pedal holes in the floor board, 4 flat tires, and spider webs in layers from the floor up to the roof inside. Even the door hinges were rusted so bad that it took 1/2 hour and 1/4 can of WD-40 to free them so the doors would open and shut, but I fixed it up and now I maintain my 3+ acres and 1,500' of lake shore with it. With my heart problems and knee replacements, walking any distance on uneven ground is very hard for me. So I use the little truck to move my tools, me, and even small amounts of dirt, fertilizer, seed, etc. to wherever I need to do anything, kind of like some home owners use a wheel barrow. It also takes me to Lowes, Walmart, or to a local burger joint for lunch sometimes, because they are all close and I can reach them on the back roads. I have flashing yellow lights and a tractor slow moving vehicle sign on it, so the police don't bother me. It's considered to be farm machinery or a golf cart and both are allowed on secondary roads here in NC without requiring a license plate. The police have followed me several times, and then passed, giving me a friendly wave as they go by. Charley

Just got a few moments to check back in. Glad you found the skate key. Mine is always on the motor when I'm not using it. If I put it back there, it never disappears. No Allen wrench is needed if the clamp bolts are original or the same as original. To open and close the blade clamps there is a lever on the side of them. How tight the blade clamps hold when a blade is installed is determined by how you adjust the blade clamp bolt by turning the nut with the skate key. You can only make this skate key adjustment with the blade clamp open. You want the clamp to hold the blade tightly, yet you don't want to have to push on the clamp lever so hard that you break it. The adjustment with the skate key needs to be in increments of about 1/16 of a revolution at a time and then a test to see if you can operate the lever and grip the blade well. When you change to a different thickness blade is the only time you will need to make the skate key adjustment and both the upper and lower blade clamps will need about the same amount of adjustment. The only other time is if the blade pulls out of the clamp because it wasn't tight enough. If the blade slips out, make certain that the clamp jaws are clean. I wipe mine off with a solvent and a Q tip if I suspect that oil or wax has gotten on them. Adjusting the blade tension works about the same way. The vertical cap screw bolt can be turned with your fingers, so no wrench or skate key in necessary, but you adjust the bolt inward to increase the blade tension and loosen it to reduce the blade tension. There is a lever on the left side to apply or release the blade tension much like the blade clamp lever. With the lever up and the tension released, you can turn the tension cap screw in or out a few turns, and then use the lever to apply and release the blade tension. Again, practice helps you get it right. If you change blades or release either end of the blade to thread it through a hole in the work, try to get the blade re-clamped in the same position on the end of the blade, or this tension adjustment will be way wrong and you will have to make adjustments to get it right again. The blade clamps and tension adjustments on the DeWalt saw are so much easier and faster to get right over this saw, and this is my main reason for preferring the DeWalt over the Delta Q3. The Q3 blade adjustments aren't bad, but definitely slower than making the same adjustments on the DeWalt. The blade front to back rocking motion is almost zero at table height, but is more severe as you get higher up when cutting thicker wood. The benefit is that this motion clears sawdust better and the saw cuts faster. The detriment is that when cutting thicker wood it will be more difficult to make sharp clean turns when doing finer patterns. Again, not really bad, just different. It sounds from your comments about the rear bearings that they are likely bad. I have never had this problem, so I can't be of much help here when it comes to how to get them out and replace them. You should be able to find numbers on these bearings to get replacements that fit. I would take the numbers from the bearing to a bearing specialty store, either in person or online and buy the replacements.Do a Yellow Pages for Power Transmission or Bearing Supply stores to find one near you. Companies like Fastenal and industrial suppliers like McMaster Carr will likely have them too, but at a higher price. Ereplacements or other tool parts companies probably will also have original replacements, but again at higher prices. There are many grades of every bearing and going to a bearing specialty shop will let you describe the use (back and forth over partial revolution at moderate speeds up to about 3000 rpm). If they suggest a higher quality bearing, compare the price difference and then make your choice. You may get a much better bearing for almost no increase in price. Bearings are like shoes. They are made in the same sizes and models by all of the manufacturers, but there are different quality levels and accessory variations available for each. Tool manufacturers frequently buy the cheapest bearings that they can get that fills the need to keep the tool selling price as low as possible. A better bearing lubricant for the purpose, or a better seal to keep dust out often causes very little, maybe 10%, increase in price over the original bearing price. I've got to back to work. I'm making and selling cotton candy. We are offering almost 30 gourmet flavors. Today the pumpkin spice(bright orange) seems to be selling very well. I use a machine that blows the cotton up vertical in a small diameter column, so I can stand several feet away from the machine and wind it up on the cone. It makes for a fun show for the customers. Here is a video of a similar machine, but not the one that I'm using. I like this video better. The machine and demonstrator in this video is Russian, but he does a nice demonstration. Charley

I'll look for my type 1 manual, but it won't likely happen for a couple of days. I'll be working out of town with my #2 son and daughter-in-law this weekend. If I can find it I can scan it and send the pdf file to you. The table insert in the Q3 is the same as the ones sold for the Delta Band Saws, so one should be relatively easy to find. I think I bought a few HDPE un-cut inserts some years ago. If I can find them I'm willing to send you one. Please keep me in mind if you decide to part your Q3 out. I'm not sure what I might want yet, but having a few spares for parts that might break on mine would be a good thing. The slow start-up of this saw is a bit sick sounding, but my saw keeps running fine and it's about 20 years old now. If you keep the saw, you will get used to and accept the way that It starts. I was once told that this was corrected in the type 2, but never got to play with a type 2 to find out for myself. There is a little "skate key" type wrench that gets used to adjust the blade grips. You will need it, or a small metric wrench, for doing this as every time you change blade thickness the clamp will need adjustment. I keep mine held in place on the outside of the motor housing by the permanent magnet field of the motor. Try to make sure that you get this wrench with the saw, if you can. Look for it magnetically stuck to the side of the motor case, as it might actually be there. If you don't find it, a metric nut driver of the right size should also work well. I would buy one of the right size and keep it with the saw, since it will be needed often. In all the years that I have owned my Q3 saw, the only thing that ever broke was the bolts that go through the blade clamps. The "Skate Key" adjusts the stop nut on the end of these bolts. Within the first few hours of use I discovered that these bolts in my blade grips were stretching and bending into a curve. A call to Delta got me new bolts that were hard and I never had the problem again. If the ones in your blade clamps are bent, just replace them with the same type of new metric bolts and you will quite likely never have the problem again. I think the original bolts in mine may have been Chinese or at least they never saw heat treating and Delta customer service seemed very willing to send me new ones, so it was likely a common problem that they had run into before and were already prepared to help the new Q3 saw owners who likely all ran into this problem. Charley

Ray, That's a pretty good saw. I have a type 1 and still use it, although I like the DeWalt 788 a bit better because the blade grips and tension adjust are a bit easier to use on the 788. A type 1 saw has a slow to start delay each time you turn it on, somewhat like the slow start feature in routers, etc.,but the speed control works very welland holds the set speed once it is running. I've been told that the speed control works better in the type 2 version. I was also told that the blade grips and tension adjustment are slightly improved in the type 2 version. Because of the rocking C frame design the blade has very little forward and back movement at the table level, but when cutting thicker materials, this rocking forward and back movement of the blade is more pronounced, but not usually a problem. It's this rocking motion that gives the saw a faster cutting action, and I prefer it when cutting larger and less delicate fret work. It's blade clamps and tension adjustment are radically different, but not bad. They are just different, and not as easy to use. This saw came out about 2 years before the DeWalt 788 was announced, and it was one of the top saws back then, but it's production life was short because of the introduction of the DeWalt 788. Again, I still like and use my Q3 Delta saw, although it isn't my preferred saw. I would be all over that one at the price being asked, since I could use another saw for my students and at that price, it's a steal, if it is working. If you want a faster cutting saw, this saw cuts faster than the Excalibur, DeWalt, and other saws available new today, especially if you are doing larger and less complicated fret work. It is every bit as accurate and will make a good second, back-up, or spare saw. that may just be ideal if you don't cut the tiny compound cut the tiny reindeer or cross ear rings like I do, but I have actually succeeded in making them on my Delta Q3 saw. It's just not as easy. If that saw was on my side of the Country, I would be after it myself. Charley

I think he might have stayed with the hobby longer if he had a much better quality of scroll saw and moved the vacuum hose to each tool as he needed it rather than trying to split the small vacuum's capability by trying to collect from all of the tools at once. It also looks like he is trying to get nearly full price for all of the tools and the bench. It will likely be a long while before he finds someone willing to pay that much for what he has. Charley

Lexan works best, if you can find it. Plexi cracks and shatters. Lexan won't. They make bullet proof windows from thick Lexan. It cuts and drills like Plexi, but it won't crack or shatter. Lowes does carry window thickness Lexan. If you want thicker you will need to find a plastics supplier or McMaster Supply. Charley

You didn't answer NC Scroller's question - What broke on your DeWalt Saw? Maybe we can help you fix it and you will then have a spare saw. Charley

I sometimes do this, as well as round the rear edges of blades, but I prefer using a sharpening stone for this and dedicated a small one to use with my scroll saw. It holds up way better than sandpaper. Don't use the stone that you use to sharpen your knives and plane irons though, because you want a perfectly flat stone surface for these uses and one used for the scroll saw will become slightly grooved over time. Charley

It might help if you change the paper size on the printer screen to "Legal", and of course use legal size paper If "Scale to fit" is checked the printer software will adjust the size of the image to fit the paper selected, so you should un-check that too. You should then be able to adjust the size up to legal paper length by adjusting the % scale. I prefer sizing my images in Photoshop and saving them in Jpg format, then using Photoshop to send the 100% size image to my printer. Then I always get the size that I want whenever I want more copies. Charley

I too have had this problem, Marg, to the point that I prefer using Baltic Birch or similar veneer plywood whenever cutting pieces thinner than 1/4", but I cut 3D ornaments from 1-1 1/2" hardwoods and rarely have problems. These Christmas Ornaments were all cut form solid woods and are about 1 X 1 X 3" in size. They are fragile, but I have never had one break while cutting it. I usually have breakage later when I drop them. These were cut on my DeWalt 788 using Flying Dutchman # 1R or 3R skip tooth blades. The wood is hard maple, black walnut, mahogany, and ash, all domestic USA hardwoods. The photo is from my cell phone. Charley

@jerry1939, I've tried skipping sides and first doing opposite ends, then cutting the remaining two sides. If you don't install spacers and tape them in place to keep the kerf width the same, and even if your saw is tuned and has a solid fence, you can still get a rough edge, although it will be minimized and clean-up will be easier. My table saw is a Unisaw and the fence is a Unifence. I recheck he alignment of them frequently, and I can still get small kerf marks when separating boxes and lids.. The sandpaper glued on flat board method is used on almost every box that I make to clean up the edges of the tops and bottoms. I'm thinking that my problems now come from a differences in pressure of me pushing the box against the fence and through the cut or from blade flex. I try hard to keep it the same each time, but they always seem to need at least a little sanding. I've improved this, but haven't eliminated this completely. Blade flex can also cause this and I am experimenting with different blades when I cut boxes apart now, but I have no conclusions yet. Charley