CharleyL

I agree with you Hotshot, I tell my my students to spin the wood around the blade with just their fingers and not their arms to follow the pattern lines, but only push the wood straight toward the blade and away from them when they want to cut it, using only their fingers. I also show them that they can stop cutting anywhere, while still leaving the saw running as long as they hold the wood down, then continue cutting whenever they are ready without causing problems. Also, I have to stress that speed is not the goal in scroll sawing. Staying on or very close to the pattern line is the goal. The tiny teeth on the blade can remove only a tiny bit of wood with each stroke, so pushing the wood into the blade harder will only break the blade. It will not cut any faster. I also had one woman who kept starting and stopping the saw with the foot switch as she cut, like is done when sewing, which is where she must have learned to do this. I finally took the foot switch away from her and made her just stop feeding the wood into the blade when she wanted to stop cutting. It only took about 10 minutes for her to realize that she could stop cutting anytime without stopping the saw, and I was able to give her back the foot switch. When they feed the saw using just their fingers it has been very easy for me to get them out of the habit of trying to cut with the side of the blade. I can usually get them broke of all of these bad habits in the first 1-2 hours of cutting, and their ability to stay on the pattern lines improves rapidly after that. I've also had a few students that had great difficulty when trying to cut curves. They kept turning the work in the opposite direction, as if they were steering the blade instead of the wood. One of them never seemed to be able to figure this out, and after the first session, she never came back to try again. The rest solved their mental block problems and became very good at scrolling. It just took them about 1/2 hour more than the rest. Scroll sawing is very different from the rest of woodworking, sewing, and other hand/eye coordination tasks in life. Some grasp it quickly, while others take much longer to break themselves of their habits. It's great fun for me to see them suddenly " catch on" with how to do it right and the smile of satisfaction that suddenly shows on their faces. From there on they do very well and most "get hooked" on the scrolling hobby, becoming better and better as their skills improve. One student went out and bought himself an Excalibur saw after only two scrolling sessions. With his added practice time between sessions on his own saw he became very good very quickly. All that I had to do in his few remaining sessions was share a few additional tips with him. I'm not trying to get you to stop using your arms and shoulders to reduce neck, arm, and shoulder pain, although it may also do this. I'm recommending just using your fingers because I have found that resting the heels of my hands on the front edge of the table and just using my fingers to turn and feed the wood gives me much better control of where the blade cuts, and I think my students agree with me.. For the most part boards are much larger and are being fed to the tool in a straight line when using other woodworking power tools.. Precision movements aren't the real issue there, since both the wood and the tool are much larger.and you have to use your arm, elbow, and shoulder muscles when feed the larger pieces of wood into them. With scroll saws, the job is much too small, delicate, and precise to feed the blade this way and still be able to steer the wood well at the same time,. Just try doing it my way for a while and see the accuracy improvement in your work for yourself. Relax, take a deep breath and let it back out. Let your arm and shoulder muscles relax, rest the heels of your hands on the front edge of the saw table, and ,manipulate your work with just your fingers, pushing the wood gradually toward the front of the blade each time you get the pattern line lined up with the blade cutting direction. Use slow rotating motions to follow curves and even motions while applying enough pressure to feed the wood forward. Stay with this for a while and I think you will see a significant improvement, if you have been using your arm, elbow, and shoulder muscles before this. Charley

The beauty of this forum and the internet is that it allows all of us to be next door neighbors to each other, and to openly share information with each other rapidly, no matter where we live or happen to be. I have made several very close friends in many places across this country and around the World. I consider them to be some of my best friends and neighbors, but I have never even met them face to face. We are truly lucky to live in an age where we can freely share information instantly with each other no matter where we are located in the World.. I hope I never have to relive the past in the time before the internet again. I'm a member of a new form of woodworking club, "A Virtual Club" thanks to the internet. This club doesn't have any meetings or charge dues to be a member. They only have one formal fifteen minute meeting each year, to elect the new officers for the coming year, and it's held as part of the annual club picnic. A very profitable raffle has provided the funds to pay all of the club's website and annual expenses, and there are well over 6,000 members in this club now. We share information with each other through the club website, much like we are sharing information with each other here. This club is about 10 years old now and growing every day. A few years ago the club bought a trailer and filled it with woodworking tools all paid for from the raffle funds and donations.We now have an Outreach Program where Volunteer members go with the trailer to any group who would like to get started in woodworking, to community fairs, and other places, to promote woodworking and help people explore the fun of woodworking,. We also participate in the Wounded Warrior Program, taking the trailer and volunteer instructors to military bases in NC. All of this is provided by the club free. If you are interested in seeing our club and learning more, go to " www.ncwoodworker,net" and look around. I've seen where our website sometimes has more visitors than members logged on.to it. We are being looked at from around the World. With the internet and this Virtual Club format, being a club member is easy. You can be as active or as laid back as you want to be, and you can remain a member without it costing you any money at all, or you can donate both your time and/or money to help the club grow. We love to post pictures of our work and help each other solve problems with all kinds of woodworking, where here at this Forum we tend to do the same, but here we generally stick to just scroll saw related subjects. Here at Scroll Saw Village we are sort of a specialized version of this club, but we don't do the Outreach Training or other face to face get-togethers that we do in Nc Woodworkers. In the past 2 years small groups of us living near each other have begun getting together for monthly luncheons, where we meet each other face to face, talk woodworking, show off our latest project, or talk about whatever subject seems to be of interest that day. These lunches are open to all members, friends, wives or husbands, and even to anyone who shows up and wants to eat and join us in the subject being discussed. The annual club picnic is really just a big version of this, but with the culmination of the raffle, the annual election, and the raffle and door prize drawings. My intent in posting this is to get other woodworkers started in thinking about creating other clubs similar to ours around the World. Look at what we are and then begin a "Virtual" club of your own with other woodworkers in your general area. The internet makes clubs like this work much better than most local traditional clubs that I've ever belonged to. Charley

Plexi transmits light through it very well from edge to edge or face side to face side, but the light doesn't come out of it at 90 degrees from the source light very well, unless you engrave or somehow interfere with the smooth surface in some way. Sand blasting will produce a frosted surface and a nice even face light when used to back light an image, but clear plexi will not provide much light if the face is smooth.. Most of the light that goes into one edge will just go through the plexi and out the opposite edge. Letters or images engraved into the surface will light up brightly, but the rest of the light will just pass through the plexi to the opposite edge.. Just keep this in mind when planning your project. A few simple experiments with some scrap plexi and a flashlight to provide the edge lighting will give you a better idea of what I am talking about. Charley

I teach woodworking and sometimes demonstrate at fairs and trade shows. Somewhere, many (about 45) years ago I discovered that I could control my scroll saw cuts much better if I didn't use my elbows and arms to steer and feed the wood into the blade, and just used my fingers to do this. There are times and occasions when you will do better not using just your finger muscles, but learning to do it with just your fingers for most of your cutting is really worthwhile. You advanced scrollers probably have already learned this, so this tip is mostly being directed at the newer scrollers and anyone who has not already learned this. I keep the heels of my hands (the palm pads just forward of my wrists) resting on the front edge of the saw table and I just use my fingers to steer the wood and feed it into the blade. Doing this gives me much better control of the cut, so I have been teaching this to my students and they all seem to grasp the ability of following the pattern lines in intricate and small work much quicker. With other wood cutting tools, it's very common to use your elbows, arm, and shoulder muscles to feed the wood into the blade or bit, so it's only natural to do this when first learning to use a scroll saw. It's a little hard to retrain yourself to not use your arm and elbow muscles, but the conversion is definitely worth doing when scrolling, as has been proven many times with my students. All I'm suggesting is that you try this yourself to see the difference that it makes. You will catch yourself reverting back to the arm and elbow method many times, but keep telling yourself to use just your fingers, and very quickly you should see a significant improvement in your ability to follow the pattern lines in intricate work.. Charley

Kevin, You will get longer blade life and smoother cuts if you run your blades tighter. On a DeWalt 788 a setting of 3-4 results in almost no blade breakage and much straighter cuts for me. Of course, other factors, like blade speed and sharpness also affect blade breakage frequency. Burning cuts indicate excessive speed or dull blades. If the blade is turning a different color, it is being overheated and has lost it's temper, likely also leaving hard spots in it that will crystalize and break at these hard points. A sharp blade heats up much less than a dull blade. If you still want to cut with it and not change it, you need to slow the saw to keep the blade from overheating and burning. Charley

Take your time, do one small assembly at a time, and get it completely back together before taking anything else apart When working on machinery I frequently take a few pictures of complicated assemblies with my cell phone camera before I take them apart, then refer to them, if I need to, when putting it all back together. Lay the removed parts in the sequence that you remove them, down the side of your bench. Then exchange the used parts for the new ones, keeping everything in the order of dis-assembly. Then re-assemble the mechanism, starting from the opposite end of the parts on the bench and you will get everything back together in the reverse order that it was taken apart. Don't think about how big the whole job is, only concentrate on one assembly at a time. Then take the next sub assembly apart using the same techniques. Continue until all of the sub assemblies have been rebuilt. If you have to stop for more than just a few minutes, write down a little note to yourself explaining which sub assemblies are done or need to be done, and where you are in the process of rebuilding the assembly that you are working on. Good organization is critical, especially when you are new at this. If you can print out the exploded views from the parts list, these will also help you get things back together. Follow these suggestions and you will do fine. Charley

Volume controls on old radios and TVs are the same type of part, but have what they call an "audio taper" which is a kind of logarithmec rate of change of the resistance of the control as the knob is turned. The control used in the DeWalt 788 is the same kind of part, but it has a linear rate of change in resistance. In both parts there is a resistance material and a wiper that moves along it as the shaft is turned. Any dirt or corrosion of the wiper or the resistive surface will cause "bad spots". When the contact point of the wiper passes over this spot. A sudden change in the resistance will cause noise in the radio or TV sound when the volume knob is turned and the speed control of your DeWalt 788 will suddenly speed up or slow down when the speed control has a bad spot in it. Turning the knob to run the wiper back and forth over this bad spot many times will sometimes wipe the dirt or corrosion off of the resistive material for the control to work properly again. Sometimes it needs more than just wiping. Thats where a contact cleaner solvent is needed to disolve and break down this bad spot. Sometimes even this doesn't work. Controls like this in a woodworking machine usually suffer from saw dust causing the bad spot, and a bladt of air will blow it away, but if the tool is in a damp location, the dampness can cause corrosion of the surface. In any case, if these methods don't solve the problem, replacement of the control is the only remaining option. Charley

Also look for similar books by Diana Thompson. She has several different pattern books available on compound (3D) cutting and they are all very good. I cut many of her compound cut Christmas Ornaments and also some of the patterns in her "3D Patterns For The Scroll Saw" book. The rural mailbox on the stand with the vines growing up the stand in this book have really amazed some of the people who have seen the ones that I have made. Some of the patterns in this book look similar to the Dr Zeus characters, so Diana may have been inspired a bit by Dr Zeus. Children jump for joy when they see the ones that I cut. Charley

It's best to heat those links in a cup of recently boiled water. This softens the plastic enough to push them on or together without cracking them. Heating them with a heat gun risks the possibility of over heating them. If you over heat them you will never be able to keep them attached. It's easy to crack one in use. If the linked hose won't stay where you want it, look closely at the link seeming to be too loose. You will likely find a small crack. Warm it and remove this cracked link, then while warm, push the good pieces together without the cracked link. Industrial Supply's like Grainger, McMaster Supply and similar carry lengths of these, so if your air hose gets too short, just buy some more and add to your existing line. They offer several sizes, so be sure to take at least on piece with you to match it.. Charley

The speed control in the DeWalt scroll saws is not sawdust proof and can get dirty easily. One easy fix is to turn the saw off and then turn the speed control back and forth from stop to stop about 6 or more times. Then turn the saw back on and slowly increase the speed to see if the "bad spot" is now working properly. A second way is to try blowing out the speed control using one of the "Canned Air" type computer cleaners or an air nozzle on your air compressor (but make certain that the air compressor isn't shooting any condensate water before doing this). You will need to remove the black cover housing the speed control and the power switch to do this. The side of the control near the wire connections has an open area where you need to use the air stream to blow the control out. If these fail you will need to replace the speed control potentiometer. Unfortunately, DeWalt doesn't sell this part alone, They want you to buy the entire speed control electronics board that includes this part for about $68. But the speed control part alone can be purchased at electronics supply houses for just a couple of dollars. It's just a 10,000 ohm linear taper potentiometer with a flat on the shaft (the DeWalt speed control knob has a D shaped hole in it), and it sells for $2-4 or you can get a completely sealed version for about $10 and never have dust and dirt problems again. Some of these potentiometers come with long shafts that require a hack saw to cut off for the correct length. Just mark it and cut it off at the same length as the original part. Installation requires soldering 3 wires. Be careful to only remove one wire at a time from the old potentiometer and solder it to the same terminal on the new potentiometer. They absolutely need to be placed on the correct positions for the control to work correctly. Charley

This mostly describes how to make compound cut reindeer, but the technique applies to all compound (3D) cutting on a scroll saw. You are going to have to have a good pin less blade saw that has been aligned well to be successful. The blade must be absolutely straight (90 deg) to the saw table in both the side to side and front to back directions. The DeWalt 788 or better model saw of similar design will work well for this, but even the DeWalt has problems since it does not have an adjustment for getting the front to back blade angle perfectly to 90 degrees. You will need to elongate the mounting holes that hold the blade mechanism in either the upper or lower yellow arms in order to move the blade to perfectly straight. It won't take much, about an additional screw diameter, but it makes a big difference when compound cutting. Tune your saw well before trying this. I've been making compound cut reindeer for 8 years now, and give them away to any woman, sales person, cashier, Waitress, Nurse, etc. who helps me in some way during the Christmas Season. Last year I made 428 and gave them all away. Each year the quantity made increases. At the end of their transaction with me I hold out my hand, palm down, toward them with a reindeer in my palm, and I wish them a Very Merry Christmas. When they reach out toward me I drop a reindeer in their hand. I make 4 sizes. The largest is about 3 1/2" high and the size that I make the most of. I can do one in about 6 minutes now. The middle sizes are either given away, as is, or I glue a pin to one side of them. The smallest, at about 1" high become ear rings. I drill a tiny hole just under their antlers and insert a gold or silver ring that is large enough to clear the antlers. On this ring I attach the ear ring hook for pierced ears. I make a left and a right version so the reindeer face the wearer. These take me about 9 minutes each to make, so they are for special women. A pair is placed in a 3 X 2 box with padding and then given to those special women. I don't sell these. You have to do something for me to get them, but I get many thanks, sometimes a hug, and occasionally a kiss on the cheek. The girls at Lowes now call me Reindeer Charley, and they all have at least one. You can also find tiny hersds of them sitting high on a shelf in many of the restaurants that I frequent. The pattern that I use is a slightly modified version of the one that's available through Mathias Wandell's www.woofgears.ca website http://woodgears.ca/reindeer/plans.html I just cleaned it up a little (smoothed the lines), changed the size to suit my needs of using it on my scroll saw, and put as many copies of it on an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper as I could, to save paper. I print them on an old HP laser printer. because they hold up better than inkjet. When cutting them out, cut the face view first and the side view pattern out together as one with the face view on the left. Don't cut the two views apart. The line between the views is the fold line. Keeping the two views attached to each other keeps them in alignment. The only scissors cut hat needs to be accurate is the one on the bottom end of their hoofs. With the pattern sized and cut out of the printed paper, cut blocks of wood just slightly taller than the pattern and wide enough for the side view of the pattern. I use 3/4 pine for the largest reindeer, hard pine, if I can get it in adequate quantities for the three largest sizes. A carpenter friend brings me scraps of construction SPF wood shorts, anything worth picking up (a foot of more long),.that I cut to size when available. When I don't have enough of these pieces, I buy white pine in sizes from 1 X 2 to 1 X 10 #2 grade at Lowes and sometimes at Home Depot..I hand select the boards to be almost knot free for large areas and then I cut the clean straight grain pieces from them and feed the fire with all of the knots and crazy grain.You could buy select grade wood, but if you are careful when selecting, you can get #2 grade and waste 30% of it because of the knots and wild grain and still save money. I try to pick the wood that appears almost quarter sawn (grain running almost straight across the 3/4 width) and has almost invisible grain lines.. Strong and dark grain lines make cutting more difficult and the darker brown lines make the reindeer look almost like a hybrid between a reindeer and a zebra after cutting them out. I use hard maple for the smallest ear ring reindeer because. they need the additional strength to survive even the cutting process. I cut these tiny reindeer from 3/4 X 3/4 hard maple. Trying to cut them from softer wood usually ends up having them fall apart as they are cut. Even with hard maple they are very delicate. I fold each pattern on the vertical line between the two views. I just align this fold line top and bottom to the corner of a block of a block of wood and run my finger down the pattern fold line to crease it along the line Then I remove the pattern and bend it further to about 90 degrees. I'll usually cut and fold all of the patterns that were cut from one sheet of paper before continuing. I use common stationery store rubber cement, and go through several of the large jars of it every year. I apply it with the bottle brush to the one wide side as well as the narrow side on the left of the block of wood, You can move the pattern around to get the fold line on the corner of the wood and the reindeer's feet at the bottom edge of the block of wood. Rubber cement is relatively cheap and works well for compound cutting because you never have to remove it after you have cut the pattern. The finished reindeer, or other compound cut project, comes from the center of the block of wood and the paper pattern gets discarded with the scrap wood. Any excess wood above or to the right of the reindeer pattern just becomes waste. I like to have about 1/4" of wood above the reindeer pattern so I can start the cut before cutting into the pattern. A little extra wood on the right side of the pattern keeps the blade from breaking out of the block as you cut the tail of the reindeer. You will need a good clamp to keep all of the cuttings together while cutting the reindeer from the pattern. The block of wood must be kept together until all of the sawing is complete. You will be cutting the reindeer two times, once for the face view and once for the side view. If any of the pieces are removed before or during the cuts, the blade will cut faster through these areas and it will be harder to stay on the pattern lines . Here is how I make the clamps - You will need to purchase two pieces of 10-32 all threaded rod about 8" long, four 10-32 hex nuts, four washers to fit the #10 all thread rods, and two 10-32 wing nuts. Look for straight rods by rolling them on a flat surface before buying them. They need to be very straight. If they are curved, it will be very noticeable when you roll them on a flat surface. I buy stainless rods because they are stronger. The regular steel 10-32 all thread will gradually stretch and curve in repeated use and become unuseable. The nuts and washers can be mild steel. If you have a Lowes nearby, all of this hardware especially the all thread rods, can be found in the "specialty hardware" gray metal drawers that are in the nuts, bolts, and screws aisle. I use two pieces of 3/4 birch cabinet plywood because of it's strength, but solid hardwood 3.4 X 1" X the length needed will work.. I cut two identical piecesof 3/4" birch cabinet plywood about 1" wide and about 2" longer than the pattern that I will be cutting. The length can be longer, but not excessively long. I clamp both pieces together, side by side,with their veneer faces against each other, aligning both the edges and ends. You could use double sided tape instead of the clamp to hold them together and in alignment , but both pieces will need to be perfectly aligned with each othe through this next step. I then mark for one drilled hole at each end through the two pieces 1/2" from each side and 1/2" from each end. The drill will need to be a size slightly larger in diameter than the threaded rod and cut through both pieces of wood with the veneer side up on a drill press. The holes need to be straight and completely through both of the pieces of wood.. Then separate the two pieces of wood and remove the double sided tape, if you used it. Now install a hex nut on each piece of all thread and run it on until each nut is about 1 1/4 inch from the end of the rod. Now install a washer on the short end of each rod, then insert this end of each rod through one of the holes in one of the piecees of wood, then install another washer and follow with another hex nut on each short rod end of the rod, Now move the nuts until they are on both sides of the wood and about three threads from the ends of the threaded rods. Tighten the nuts against the wood with wrenches. You don't want these to loosen in use. Now place the second piece of wood on the long end of these threaded rods. Install a washer and then a wing nut on each rod. Your clamp is now complete. It should resemble a square with the two pieces of wood making up opposite sides and the two threaded rods making up the other two opposite sides. You are now ready to begin cutting out a reindeer. Place a block of wood into the center of this clamp, with the clamp lying flat on your scroll saw table. With the block of wood flat against the table and both boards of the clamp also sitting flat on the table, move the two pieces of wood together against the block of wood. I always begin cutting with the face view facing up and the block of wood roughly centered in the clamp. Then alternately tighten both wing nuts to keep the pressure of the clamp roughly even on both ends of the block of wood Tighten them about as tight as you can using only your fingers. The goal here is to keep the block of wood from moving, including the pieces that are being cut from it. After each antler to hoof cut, or hoof to antler cut (one end of the block of wood to the other) you are going to have to re-tighten these wing nuts about 1 turn each because the blade will have removed it's thickness from the wood, making the block slightly narrower and the clamp will be loose. None of the pieces of the reindeer block can move with respect to each other or the reindeer will not turn out right. I always start cutting at the top of the right antler and then work my way down to the hoof on the right side of the reindeer and continue clockwise around the face view pattern lines of the face view of the reindeer. I cut all the way down and out of the block of wood at his right hoof.Then I tighten the wing nuts of the clamp. I then cut back into the block on the left side ofhis right hoof and up between his legs, then back down the right side of his left front leg and back out of the block. At this point, a tiny piece of blue masking tape, placed to hold the loose piece of wood between his legs, but not covering the pattern line on the left side of his left leg will keep the piece in place. Then I cut up the left side of his left hoof and all the way up to the tip of his left antler and then out of the top end of the block of wood. Again, tighten the thumb screw wing nuts. Then cut down into the space between his antlers, around and back out the top of the block of wood at the left side of his right antler. His face view should now be completely cut out, but not his side view. Hold the pieces tightly together with your fingers as you loosen the wing nuts of the clamp, Loosen the clamp way apart and, while still holding the pieces of the blockof wood tightly together, rotate the block and lay it flat against the saw table with the side view of the reindeer now facing up, and tighten the wing nuts to clamp the clamp against the block of wood again. The block of wood cut pieces must be held tightly together and perfectly aligned with each other with the clamp. They must also be flush with the bottom of the clamp and the saw table. Again I cut clockwise beginning at the highest right antler and continuing clockwise around the reindeer, tightening the clamp after you make the antler to hoof rut and again after you make a hoof to antler cut. If you have cut all the pattern lines,made smooth, non-stopping cuts, stayed on or just outside the pattern lines by no more than one blade width anywhere, you should have a perfect little reindeer. You can now loosen the wing nuts of the clamp and remove the block of wood. What you now have is a reindeer that's hidden inside of a rectangular egg like shell. Carefully slide and lift the pieces of outer shell off, and in the middle of the block of wood you will have a tiny reindeer. Be careful around his legs and antlers because they are very fragile. Don't force any pieces, especially those between his legs and antlers. To help with these pieces I made a tool from about 5" of 1/8" dowel, sharpening both ends with a pencil sharpener to about a small blunt point. I use this tool to gently push the pieces out from between his legs and antlers. A little careful de-fuzzing of his legs, and two small black magic marker dots added for his eyes (Just below the front edge of the front antler on each side) and a big red magic marker dot on his nose (if his name is Rudolph). Then a dip in your clear finish of choice, let him dry, and you have a completed reindeer. You will probably make several reindeer before you get a good one. Don't give up. They get easier after you get some experience. I can now cut out one of the larger 3 1/2" reindeer in about 6 minutes, but your first ones will take you much longer. Don't even try to race the clock when you are first starting. Concern yourself with making smooth lines that are on or very close to the pattern lines, and on the waste side. If you can make smooth lines and can stay within about one blade width of the outside of the line you will have a pretty good looking reindeer. Not all reindeer will look exactly alike. It will depend on how well you follow or stay on the pattern lines. No two people look the same either, except for identical twins, and if they turn out with all their antlers and four legs and they stand up on their own, consider them to be a success. All other compound (3D) patterns are cut in much this same way. Each has some unique tricks that you will need to learn as you make a few pieces of firewood, but hang in there and don't get discouraged. I started compound cutting about 10 years ago and I rarely do any flat pattern cutting any more. I like the challenge of compound cutting and making smaller and smaller things on my scroll saw. Be prepared for the look of amazement that most people get on their faces the first time that they see your work. Many people have seen flat scroll saw work, but very few have ever seen compound cut scroll saw pieces. Many will think you carved them or laser cut them.. When I first started making compound cut reindeer I would power carve them after cutting them out to make them rounder and more realistic. I would even try to apply thinned stains with tiny paint brushes to make them look more realistic. No one seemed to appreciate all this extra work and they seemed even happier when I just leave them the natural whits wood, so I stopped the time consuming power carving and I now just coat them with a 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 mixture of BLO, paint thinner and poly, dipped with a fine solid wire wrapped loosely around their neck. Then hang them by the wire to dry. A few minutes after dipping I touch their hoofs with a paper towel to remove any excess drip finish. I have a long wire across the ceiling that I hang them from. Then I leave them drying until the next day. I can put finish on 30-40 at a time. The long wire stretched across my shop just below the ceiling holds them just above my head height, so they are out of my way, but I can still easily reach them.. I will try to help anyone with questions about making these reindeer. This is a good time for experimenting with compound cutting. This same technique is used for making any of the compound cut projects, whether they be reindeer, chess pieces, tulips, elephants, mailboxes, etc., and because Santa's Workshop reindeer manufacturing doesn't need to begin begin seriously seriously for several more months.. The reindeer are an easy pattern to start with. Thanks to Matthias Wandel for the source pattern. Once you can make reindeer well, there are several soft cover books full of patterns by Diana Thompson that are excellent. Her mailbox on stand with vines is quite a challenge, so wait until you have the concept of compound (3D) cutting well figured out before trying it. She has one book on Christmas Ornaments that is great too. In her book "3D Patterns for the Scroll Saw" you will find many patterns that seem to be Dr Zeus character inspired and they are a lot of fun to cut out. The kids immediately love these when they see them. I also have one book by Frank Pozgai that I'm not at all impressed with and I will not recommend. Some of his patterns appear to have never been tested before he published them, as they won't cut out correctly. The easiest patterns to cut are those in which the image is identical in both views, like most of the chess pieces Diana's Tulip from the book above is one of these. Steve Goode has some good chess piece patterns on his website too. Please ask questions if you try compound (3D) cutting and you have problems. I will do my best to help you. Charley

I'm assuming that you have a DeWalt 788 saw Your blade grips could be slipping. Sometimes the set screw opposite the blade clamp screw works it's way out or wears and needs replacement. I use blue Locktite on my blade grip set screws to keep them from backing out. Another possibility is that you aren't holding the upper arm down slightly when tightening the blade clamp (upper or lower- the last blade clamp to be tightened). Knocking can be caused by the upper rod like Rick says on his website, but it can also be a sign of worn bearings or the bolt through the rocking arm at the rear of your saw. This bolt frequently loosens and causes all kinds of saw noise. I now clean the threads with alcohol and then use blue Locktite on the threads. Two posters have had this bolt break on them and mine cracked once. One of the posters replaced his bolt with a stainless bolt. Charley

You can use the Wixey gauge to set any angle in relation to any other angle, but when you turn it off I don't believe the it remembers the reference plane where you zeroed it. For instance, when I want to set my table saw to a certain angle, I place the Wixey cube on the table saw table at right angle to the blade, turn it on, and then zero it. Then I place it on the the side of the blade, below the teeth and adjust the blade angle to get an accurate angle setting, which is in reference to the table. The table saw can be very un-level and the blade angle will be accurate to the table anyway. With a scroll saw, you have to place the Wixey cube on the blade for your reference setting, turn it on, and zero it to the blade, then place it on the scroll saw table and move the table angle with reference to the blade. Again, if done this way, the reading of the Wixey cubeshows the angle between the blade and the table and has nothing to do with how level the saw is. The Wixey cube turns itself off between uses and loses it's reference, so you have to zero it against some reference plane each time you turn it on. It's accurate because it is measuring only the angle between the two planes. Charley

Kevin, It's impossible to please all of the people all of the time. Some are true nut cases. Don't let it bother you. Do your best, as you always have, and let the nut cases go to the squirrels. People who can't make up their minds of what they want, need to go think long and hard before ordering anything special. I have had to refuse work because of this too. I tell them that I cannot help them if they cannot settle on what they want. Then I suggest that they come back after they have decided exactly what they want and have their requests written down. If they come back with this, I make them sign it at the bottom and then make a copy to give to them along with a receipt for their payment. I make them pay the estimated cost up front.I always make the customer pay for special jobs at 100% of the estimate, up front. I keep the original of their requests and attach it to my copy of the order form. It becomes a written contract that protects both of you. When the work is complete, I double check it to be certain that I have done everything that they wanted.. Then I call them to come in to pick it up. I always estimate the job a little (usually 10%) high and then give them a refund if it takes me the time that I really expected it to. I will never charge more than my estimate, even if I loose money because it took longer than my estimate. They get the extra back if they are happy with what I have made for them. When they get money back, even if it's only 2-3% along with the work done the way that they wanted in writing, it makes them very happy. If they find anything that they don't like it's because they didn't ask for it in writing, so it's completely on them. You can then give them an estimate for fixing it or re-making it, but it's also pay 100% up front with a written request, the same as a new special order.. Some people decide to take what they paid for and are not happy, but it's what they asked for in writing. You may never see them again, but that's OK. There's no way to please them, so don't even try, let them go. Giving a little money back, even if it's just a couple of dollars, seems to make most people into loyal customers from then on. They develop trust in you and that you will do right by them. Of course, it they find any mistake and I didn't completely do what they asked for, in writing, I will apologize and make it right for no additonal money, and sometimes even a discount to cover their time to come back for it, or I'll deliver it. .I hate doing business this way, but it's necessary in this day and age. I have never lost money when doing work this way, but have gained a few loyal customers because they got what they asked for and paid for band got some money back as well. The ones who couldn't make up their mind the first time, but are happy with the end result frequently become loyal customers and are prepared with their request in writing the next time that they come to ask for special work. The ones who are never satisfied have already paid you, so you don't loose any money, even if they aren't happy. These are the nuts that need to go to the squirrels anyway. I don't sell any of my woodworking projects and never have. I used this method of doing business when I was running a successful photo re-touching business many years ago, but if I should ever decide to sell my wood bwork, it will be by this way of doing business for any special work that I take on.. You need to make a profit and you will loose money if you try to do work for nut cases. Charley

Some years back I found and bought a protractor designed for use on the scroll saw, It is clear plastic about 1/4" thick and 2 X 3 1/2" in size with a 45 deg angle cut on the left edge and the protractor degree marks are red silk screened on the face side. This little protractor has proven very handy for me to set the table of my scroll saw to any angle that I desire by just placing it on the table behind the blade and then moving the table while using the blade itself as a pointer on the protractor scale. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I bought it. Has anyone seen these for sale anywhere? I have two friends that would like them and most likely some of the members here would like to have one as well. A Wixey Angle Cube will work if you have your saw table already set and cutting at 90 deg. Place the angle cube on the table of your scroll saw and facing straight forward, zero it, and then tilt the saw table to the angle desired. To return to 90 deg , place the angle cube magnetic base on the saw blade facing straight forward (magnets on the bottom will hold it on the blade), zero it, and then place the angle cube on the table facing straight forward and then move the table until the gauge reads ) 90 degrees. The only problems with using this angle cube is that it's a bit big for use on the scroll saw, and it is designed to set one surface accurately to another.. If you don't face it perfectly to the plane (table) axis of movement, it will not produce an accurate reading. I always check my blade 90 deg setting by cutting into a piece of wood just enough to mark it, then removing the wood and without lifting it, turn the woof around the blade to the back side and then look carefully to see if the blade fits in the groove perfectly from top to bottom.A thick piece of wood works best for doing this. If it does, the table to blade angle is a perfect 90 deg. Another way is to cut slightly into a piece of thick wood near (about 1/4" from one edge) and then look to see if the cut line and the edge of the wood are parallel to each other. On a thick piece of wood it's quite easy to see if the cut line and edge of the wood are even 1/2 degree off.of 90 degrees. Charley

Lowes sells these lights https://www.lowes.com/pd/Style-Selections-13-25-in-Adjustable-Stainless-Steel-LED-Clip-On-Clip-Desk-Lamp-with-Metal-Shade/1000003084 They produce a very bright and even white light and they don't get hot. I used to burn myself frequently on the halogen lights that I was using before these. I bought two of these LED lights and replaced the spring clamps with a shop made aluminum bracket for my DeWalt 788 scroll saw that attaches to the upper arm of the saw so one lamp is on each side of the blade. Having a light on each side of the blade almost completely eliminates the blade shadows, making it easier to see the blade and cut line of the pattern. I posted about these lights here. charleyl#entry175181 ights It should be quite easy to come up with a bracket design to fit your EX similar to the bracket that I made. I used 1/16 thick aluminum for the top curved piece and 1/8" for the flat base piece. The 1/16 material was easy to shape by just bending it around the upper arm of the saw. I then used the vise on my workbench to bend the right angles on the bottom ends and then cut off the excess to form the tabs that I bolted to the base piece. These lights and bracket have added so little weight to my saw's upper arm that I haven't even needed to change the spring adjustment on my Jim Dandy Arm Lift accessory. Charley

All Scanners that I know of come with operating programs that let you scan an image and save it to a file. You can scan and then save the file in the format of your choice by using this software. Then you can open that saved file in your paint program. As long as the paint program can recognize the file format that you saved the scanned image in, it should work with no problem. It just takes two steps instead of one. I save my files in TIF format, because it does not lose data during the saving or re-saving process. The most commonly used format is JPG. Each time that you save or re-save a JPG file, the data compaction process of JPG removes some of the data to make the saved file a smaller file size. After several re-saves of the same image, the quality of the image begins to degrade. This doesn't happen in the TIF or Bitmap BMP formats. For line drawings like most frequently used in scroll sawing. Set the scanner software to scan at 150 DPI (Dots Per Inch). Charley

His last time on the forum was Mar 25, 2017 08:28 AM. I hope he's all right. Maybe his computer went down. Has anybody got a phone number for him? Charley

Take it back. Make them bring the guy who supposedly worked on it, but couldn't find anything wrong out to meet with you, and demonstrate the noise for him to hear..Make him admit that it's not supposed to make that sound, and then tell him to fix it. Get the manager involved if there are any problems. When it's supposed to be fixed, run it there before accepting it. Again, get the manager involved if there are problems. Charley

I bought a magnet on a handle to help when this type of disaster happens. About 2 months later I knocked a couple of boxes of nails off the shelf and they went everywhere. I thought to my self "no problem, I have a magnet for this" and quickly reached for it. But when I tried to use the magnet it wouldn't work. "Nothing! What is wrong with this magnet?" Then I discovered that all those nails were aluminum nails. Anybody got an aluminum magnet? I spent hours on my hands and knees picking all of them up and still find some occasionally. Charley.

There's going to be a small forward / backward movement of the blade because of the arc swing of the blade holders. These saws cannot move the blade perfectly straight up and down. It's just the way that the saw is designed. The short blade arms of the Excalibur, DeWalt, Porter Cable, and Delta saws of similar design all move the blade slightly forward and back, because of the arc swing motion of these short blade arms. It's about 1/16" and takes some getting used to, but other older saws, like my Delta Q3 have greater forward / back movement. Saws with C frames, like my Delta Q3 move the blade forward and back even more than your saw, but it's more of a rocking motion, where the blade tilts forward on the down stroke and backward on the up stroke. An Eclipse Scroll Saw is the only modern design scroll saw that pulls the blade both up and down that doesn't have any forward / backward movement of the blade. Sadly, they are no longer available. You can learn to make tight corners with all of these saws, but it takes practice, and small blades, The work will remain on the table if you either use the safety hold down (nobody does) or are prepared to hold the work down with sufficient force to keep the blade from lifting it. A larger blade will bind when making tight turns, causing the work to lift. Reverse teeth on the bottom end of the blade, or the blade installed upside down will also cause the work to lift with more force than you are prepared to hold down too. If you find that the blade binds too much when making tight turns, rounding the back edges of the blade with a small lapping stone will help. This also helps when making long dead end cuts and you need to back the blade out of the work. One of my students was having all kinds of trouble with my Q3 saw 2 weeks ago. He told me "it would only cut backwards". I found that he had installed the blade with the teeth on the back side. He was using a 1/0 blade, so couldn't see the teeth. I taught him to feel for the teeth direction using his fingers before installing the blade and he wouldn't have to see the teeth. All went well after that. He won;t likely do that again, but if he ever does, he now has the experience to be able to diagnose and fix his own blade installation problems. Charley

You may also want to read my previous post regarding bearings, and lubrication. http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/topic/21715-bearing-part-numbers-and-service-tips-for-the-dewalt-788/#entry228942 although Iggy's list of bearing numbers seems more complete than mine.. Don't buy bearings from DeWalt or eremplacementparts.com. Find a "bearing" or "power transmission" store in a big city near you and take the list with you. Ask the counter person to provide "better quality bearings" than those on the list, if he can. It may cost a bit more, but you will still come out much cheaper that buying from DeWalt or ereplacementparts.com, and you will have better bearings than the ones that originally came with the 788, so they should last much longer. DeWalt used cheap bearings when building these saws to keep the price down. If you buy new better bearings from a bearing store you will get much better bearings for less total cost than those from DeWalt and ereplacementparts.com because they will be selling you the same cheap bearings that were used to build the saw. The bearing stores can sell better quality bearings for much less money. It will be well worth your time to go there in person, but make sure he gives you the cross reference numbers for each better quality bearing that he give you so you know which to substitute for each of the original numbers. The partial back and forth motion of most of the bearings in a 788 is what wears them out. This motion gradually pushes the grease in the bearing away from the portion of the bearing receiving the wear. If the bearing could rotate 360 degrees the grease would be continually spread around the whole bearing, When adding grease you need to get it inside the bearing and not on the outside. The small bearings with the sleeves are best lubricated by removing the center sleeve and then just wiping a tiny amount of synthetic grease to the inside walls of the bearing with a flat sided toothpick and then replace the sleeve Spin the sleeve a few revolutions to distribute the grease and then replace the bolt. The larger bearings back on the motor shaft and rocker arm have side covers and are permanently greased, so you can't effectively grease them. Replacement when they get worn is the best solution for these. Synthetic grease does not harden over time and use so it is much better for these bearings. Automotive bearing grease and Lubriplate will thicken and harden over time and the automotive bearing grease is way too thick for use in these tiny bearings. Do it once and do it right, and you will likely go years before you need to do it again. Start at one end of the saw and systematically remove and replace the bearings one or two at a time, putting the saw back together each time. Then go to the next bearing location and do the same. Be careful to replace washers, spacers, etc back where they were. If you take the whole saw apart at the same time you will forget where these washers and spacers came from and will quite likely never get the saw back together properly again. Don't take the covers off both sides of the saw at the same time either. The covers are the exoskeleton (frame) of the saw and it will fall apart if both covers are removed at the same time. This isn't a very hard job, but it can be if you try to do too much at once. Charley.

Rob, I also have a Delta Q3 Type 1 and a Dewalt Type 1. Although it will take you a few hours of use to get completely friendly with your new DeWalt saw, I think you will be very happy with it. I now have no problem changing blades without looking at the bottom clamp while I do it. I always do the bottom end of the blade first, then while applying slight downward pressure to the upper arm I install the blade into the upper blade clamp and tighten it, of course doing all of this with the blade tension set to zero. After the blade is installed, I then tension it to about 4 for most work. For the knocking problem, remove the left side cover and look back near the motor. The motor shaft turns an eccentric that moves a vertical piece that pivots on a large center bolt. This center bolt has given me problems when it has loosened up. Some have claimed that their bolt has even broken on their saws. I now keep a spare, just in case. The bolt needs to be tight, but not so tight that the arm cannot pivot on it. Also check every one of the linkage connections for tightness. Each has bearings, so cannot be too tight, but cannot have any side play at all in them and all of the bearings need to be good. Sometimes running the saw with this side cover off, helps to find problems. Don't try to remove both side covers at the same time. The covers are the frame that hold the saw together. Remove both at the same time and the saw falls apart.. You have already discovered that the DeWalt has a less aggressive cut than the Q3 saw. When I do small work I prefer the DeWalt because the blade remains more vertical during the cut, so I prefer the DeWalt for this smaller work.I do a lot of compound (3D) cutting. I like using the Q3 when doing larger work because it cuts faster and I'm less concerned with the vertical rocking action of the saw. Any parts that I've needed for my Q3 have been in stock at ereplacementparts.com. These repairs have all involved the blade grips, which wore out after many years of use, but Delta did send me new harder blade clamp bolts right after I bought the Q3 because the originals were stretching and bending. I now just replace these bolts every few years when they appear to be wearing or bending, even slightly. They are just good hard grade bolts. Charley

These bellows assemblies small check valves in the ends of the bellows that will cause these problems if either one fails to close and open for each puff. removal (if possible) and cleaning of these check valves is my best suggestion to fix it. The inlet check valve needs to close when the bellows is squeezed and open as the bellows is released. The check valve in the bellows exhaust needs to open when the bellows is squeezed and close when the bellows is released. If either check valve fails to work properly, you won't get air flow. Both check valves are little flappers that should move easily. A bigger example is a fire place bellows. If you have one or have access to one, look at the way it is made. There is a large hole in the center of one of the side pieces with a leather flap attached to cover the inside of the hole. This is the inlet check valve. It lets air into the bellows through this hole, but the leather flapper prevents the air from coming back out this way. When the bellows is released, this flap opens to let air into the bellows. When the bellows is squeezed the air inside the bellows pushes this flap closes tight against the inside of the hole. The air cannot get out this way, so it pushes the valve inside the nozzle open and comes out through the nozzle. These bellows pumps in scroll saws work with the same principle, although their size and appearance will be considerably different. Just knowing how they work is usually the key to figuring out why your's isn't working. Remove your bellows and hold it in your hands. Squeeze it and release it a few times, looking to see if it's valves are working or not. Then look closer at the valves while you squeeze and release the bellows and it should be easy to tell what valve is failing. If your air bellows cannot be fixed and you cannot buy an exact replacement for it, it's quite possible that one for a similar model saw can be used. Many look very much the same, but maybe with different mountings. As a last resort, epoxy might solve the mounting problem. Charley

I have two friends that are spending Wednesday afternoons in my shop with me, learning scroll sawing right now, but they want to learn other things too. Both work with me as other train drivers of the train in my avatar. Last week I set up my I-Box jig and my Freud SBOX8 box joint blade on my Unisaw and then let one of them cut all of the box joints in a 1/2" Baltic Birch box that I am making. I did the setup and then let him make the cuts (the boring for me part). He enjoyed it and was quite excited that the four sides of the box actually fit together after he had made all of the cuts. Since this was his first time using my saw, I watched him very closely, but did not need to stop him or correct anything that he was doing. For the past few Wednesdays they have both been learning to scroll saw. Neither has ever used a scroll saw before, so for starters, I gave them each some scraps of thin plywood with wavy pencil lines to follow, kind of puzzle like patterns. I explained how to make the cuts, how to make tight turns, and the fact that they could stop cutting just by not feeding the wood to the blade, etc. They spent a whole Wednesday afternoon doing this, but both got to the point that they could make relatively smooth curves and stay within a blade width of the lines. So I then gave them a simple Steve Goode project, "Pot Duckies". I have used this pattern from Steve when starting someone out on learning to scroll saw, since it's relatively easy and doesn't require a long time to finish. I have made up "kits" for these which include Steve's plans, two pieces of 1/2" hardwood, and a copy of the pattern on Overlay Film, which is a slightly frosted mylar sheet with a peel and stick back side that can be run through a laser printer or photo copier to transfer the image to. I have the student stack the two pieces together using double sided tape and then apply the overlay film pattern to the top piece of wood. Then they have to cut the Duckies out. When finished, I give them a fingernail board sanding stick so they can sand off the sharp edges, and then some mineral so they can put a food safe finish on their Duckies. The zip lock bag that held the Kit becomes a handy way for them to take their finished Duckies home with them without the oil getting on their clothing. So they have something worth having that is also something to help them remember their scroll sawing experience. My two student friends are about 1/2 complete with this project, so this coming Wednesday they will be finishing them. I did the gluing of the four corners of the box and trimmed off the excess pin length using a flush cut bit on my router table, then sanded the corner joints smooth yesterday, because gluing all four box jointed corners of a large box is a fussy job that usually causes me to release a few words in the process that I would prefer not to say in public, so I prefer to work alone for this part, but I'm going to have one of these student friends glue the 1/4" top and bottom plywood on the "now assembled and glued" sides of the box.Then I'll likely let them trim the excess plywood off using my router table and flush cutting bit while I watch closely to make certain that they do it properly and safely.. I make a lot of boxes for many uses, and some for holding my workshop tools. Most of the boxes for the tools are made from 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood sides, with 1/4" Baltic Birch plywood tops and bottoms. The box corners are almost always joined with box joints. I then install dividers and trays inside as needed for the intended tools. This box will be replacing one that I made several years ago that has become too small for my needs. It will hold all of my scroll sawing accessory tools and blades when I take my scroll saws on the road to teach or to demonstrate at shows. I never charge to teach my friends and I never sell my work, so my insurance agent sees no problem with what I am doing. Charley