CharleyL

I guess this could be called "How to get the most from your drill press laser cross hair units". The double laser line generators for drill presses can be quite handy, but getting them adjusted so that they are accurate over a distance of table travel requires some careful calibration. I have 3 Delta drill presses, 2 table models and one floor standing. The floor standing came with a laser unit, but it was no where near accurate when I first attempted to use it. Raise or lower the table height and the crossing point would move significantly, like as much as 2 inches, requiring a different setting every time the table or height of the work on it changed. It was more trouble than it was worth at this point. I studied the problem with it for a while, and realized that the laser line generators were not adjusted to produce perfectly vertical lines. Fixing this required partial dis-assembly of the laser unit to be able to loosen the lasers so I could activate them and then rotate each laser until it's generated line was perfectly vertical, and then re-assemble the unit, hoping to not loose the vertical line setting in the process. To get them adjusted to be perfectly vertical, I installed a 4" piece of 1/2" diameter steel or aluminum rod that I had sharpened the bottom end of to a sharp centered point (spin in drill press chuck and use a metal file to cut the angled point), installing it in the drill chuck and verifying that it's point remained centered when the drill press chuck was rotated manually. I had also painted this rod with white paint and let it dry before using it. Getting the two laser line generators to project their lines perfectly vertical on the back side of the white rod was a little difficult, but I was able to do it and tighten their clamps to hold them in place within about an hour. Then I clamped a piece of scrap pine on the table and lowered the drill chuck, without the drill press running, and made a conical dent in the pine board. This conical dent then became my alignment target. Since both lasers were now projecting their lines perfectly vertical, I then used a pair of slip joint pliers to lightly grip each one of the laser adjustment knobs one at a time and with the long handles of the pliers it was easy to make slight horizontal adjustments of each laser until their lines perfectly crossed over the center of the conical dent in the pine board. I adjusted each laser this way and re-checked that they both crossed at the exact center of the conical dent. I then lowered the drill press table and re-checked the laser lines at different table positions. Since the table can move horizontally when unlocked, I just moved the table at each level until the conical dent in the pine and the lasers again intersected. If any adjustment isn't correct, it will be very obvious as you lower the table. If adjusted perfectly, the lasers and the conical dent center point should all meet at any table height setting. I have since added two Wixey laser units to my bench height drill presses. These are significantly better quality units than the Delta and both required very little adjustment to get good vertical lines from them. I used the same slip joint plier technique to fine position each laser horizontally to get the laser lines to cross at the conical dimple in the pine board, just as I had when adjusting the laser head on the floor standing Delta drill press. The attachment of the Wixey unit to the post of the drill press is a much better design than the Delta and a stainless auto radiator type hose clamp is used to securely attach the Wixey unit to the drill press post. Attach it as high as you possibly can, right under the head of the drill press, or you will be repeating this step later (DAMHIKT). With all three drill presses, I can now use the laser crossing points to locate where the drill bit will make the hole at any table height without any need to adjust the lasers. I can just turn them on and use them. They now cross at the same point at any table height and exactly where the drill bit will make the hole. The Delta lasers do not make as fine of a laser line as the Wixey lasers do, but I'm usually doing work on the floor standing drill press that requires less accuracy anyway. Most of my scroll saw pattern type work is drilled on either of the two bench top drill presses, however I am considering replacing the Delta unit with another Wixey unit anyway. I don't always use the lasers, but they sure are handy when drilling a hundred or so scroll saw blade entry holes. I can quickly move the wood and pattern from one blade hole position to the next one to be drilled very quickly, and I know that each hole drilled will be exactly where I want it. I am considering modifying each of the laser units to connect them to 9 vdc power supplies and get rid of the batteries (the power supplies being considered are the wall wort type) that will only be powered when the drill press is running. Far too often I have left the lasers on and come back in a few days to find that that the battery is dead, again. 9 volt Duracell batteries get expensive, if you have to replace them too often DAMHIKT. I

Irfanview is free and will let you resize photos easily. You can scan to a jpeg or tiff file and then open it with Irfanview, resize it, and send it to your printer. It's really intended to be a photo viewer, but it has the ability to do light photo adjustments including resizing. When you download it, be sure you download both the program and the library file for it. I'm a pro photographer and photo retouch artist who mostly uses Photoshop or Affinity to do most of my photo editing needs, but I've been using Irfanview for about 20 years now for my viewing and light editing needs. Irfan is the creator's first name. Charley

My pattern printer is an old HP Laserjet that keeps on working. For printing different sizes, you will need software to adjust the sizes that you want, but the right software will let you do many different things. I use Photo Shop and Affinity. Either one lets me add many small patterns to a single sheet, so I don't waste paper. Many programs can do this, as well as let you design your own patterns. Some are free, and some not. I'm a pro photographer, so I use Photoshop and Affinity for working on my photo projects as well as my scroll saw patterns. Charley

That is what I had in mind when I made the comment. I do like the Velcro idea though. Why not try making another one with hinges top and bottom and with a latch (two round head screws and a flat hook pivoting on one, to hook to the other works good for this), and then decide which way works best for you. Folding and compacting what you can for many trips saves a lot of time, effort, and space when not in use or traveling. You should see what I do when packing my pro camera gear for distant photo shoots. Sometimes, much of the studio contents has to come with me. Charley

Sorry, I saw the pictures, but guess I missed the video. The Velcro is a nice touch. Charley

Add hinges and a latch to the uprights of the 3 tiered versions and you can fold them down for smaller transport. Just a free suggestion. Charley

Wax your table with Johnson's Paste Wax or equivalent, but not automotive wax. Cut into an old candle or piece of canning wax to wax your blade, and do this often as you cut, because it rubs off. Cutting 3/4" wood is always a slow process, but pine can give you even more problems. Your blade sizes seem best, but your feeding speed and saw speed will need to be slowed because of the problems. Learn to let the blade cut the wood. Those are very tiny teeth on that blade and they don't cut nearly as fast as those on band saws. A blade with a wider tooth set like one that is not precision ground may do much better for this. You are likely going to need to sand the cuts anyway. It's worth a try. Charley

You are right about the pain level. I've been there too. I wrecked both of my knees when I fell 11' while fighting a fire. While wincing in pain, I continued to fight the fire, until they almost drowned me when coming to rescue me. This was in 1978 and I've had significant knee pain ever since then. I finally convinced them to replace my knees 13 years ago. I had both done, a year apart. The pain from the surgery is quite bad for about the first month and then it gets gradually less. Unfortunately, it was almost a year each time before I was pain free. Both were done at the end of October, and I made it to my son's house for Thanksgiving Dinner on a cane both years. I wasn't walking around much by then, but could do it whenever I needed to. For that first month, I lived in my recliner 24/7, then began sleeping most nights in the bed again. I also began going back to my shop about a month after the surgeries. At first I was just sitting there for an hour or so, looking around some, but not comfortable enough to do anything, and then going back to the house. Then I began organizing hardware and putting things back where they belonged, whenever I would go out there. Then I started using a round shop stool on wheels in the shop, at first at it's full height, but then each day that I could, gradually lowering the seat height a little whenever I found that I could get up and sit back down on it without excessive pain. I kept doing this until I could use the stool and get up from it at it's lowest position, but it took a couple of months to be able to do that. It's a tough surgery to recover from, but I'm very glad that I did it. The steroid injections weren't doing much for them anymore. If you want to chat more about the surgery and what lies ahead for you, send me a PM. It helps to be able to compare with others who have been through this. Charley

Do you have a good air compressor that can handle 4 cfm or more at 60 or higher psi? I found that an air powered was my best choice for this. Here is one. https://www.amazon.com/Astro-218-8-Inch-Pencil-Grinder/dp/B000RH36WU/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&qid=1597148746&refinements=p_n_power_source_browse-bin%3A9060580011&s=power-hand-tools&sr=1-3 At less than $40, it's a great deal. It uses the same bits as a Dremel, but runs faster, so it has less side pull and cuts cleaner. My hands get cold when using it, never hot. Charley

I use a tall prescription bottle for my blade trash can. When it's full it will hold about 4-5 gross of blades. I never re-use blades, mostly because I don't break blades very often, and when I remove them from the saw they are dull enough that I don't want to use them again. When full, the cap gets applied and the whole full capped bottle gets put in the trash. My drug store gives me the bottles free for asking. I have a labeled bottle for each blade size and type that I use. I even keep the brands separate. I bought some round sticky backed labels that perfectly fit the caps and I write the blade size and type, and also the brand on each bottle cap label. The bottle keeps them free of rust and the label on the bottle cap makes it easy to find the blade that I want. I made some blade storage boxes to keep these bottles in. The smaller box goes with me when I demonstrate at shows, or teach classes. It contains all of my scroll sawing tools, markers, drill bits, finger nail sanding sticks, scissors, etc. plus space for 12 bottles of blades. Before heading out I decide which blades I will most likely be using, and swap out the bottles with those in my larger blade storage box, if necessary. The larger box contains the blades that I don't use as often. It has space for 36 more bottles of blades. I rarely take this larger box with me when working away from my shop. I keep my blades in their bundled form and only un-bundle a dozen at a time, keeping the loose blades in the same bottle with the bundles of the same type and size and removing them one at a time when needed. It's easy to see how many bundles are left this way, so I know when it's time to re-order more. The label that comes with the new blades get's saved and placed inside the bottle along with the blades, so if I manage to loose track of which bottle a certain cap belongs on, I can easily look at the label inside and match the labeled cap to it. When it's time to re-order, I use the label from inside the bottle to assure that I'm buying more of the exact same blade. Trying to cut a pattern accurately with a dull blade isn't a smart thing to do. At an average cost of less than $0.25 a blade, I would rather not risk the quality of my project by trying to squeeze out the last possible bit of cutting from a blade when it could so easily damage the project. A dull blade can burn the wood, require you to need to apply too much feed pressure that will warp the blade and lead to difficulty following the lines, etc. I would rather waste the possible remaining life of a cheap blade than to chance wasting my project quality because of it. My only exception to this is when switching to a spiral blade to clean out tiny areas of the pattern. I have a rare earth magnet button epoxied to the side of the upper arm of my saw, so I can store either the spiral blade or the blade in use on this magnet, if I am switching back and forth frequently. When the project is completely cut, both the blade being used and the spiral blade get trashed, no matter how little I have used either one. I've decided that it's better to do this than to try to keep partially used blades, and I certainly don't want to return them to the bottles of new blades. If you strive for quality cutting like I do, this is the only way to achieve it. Mixing used and new blades cannot produce high quality work. Unless they begin to offer a diamond tipped blade, I will continue to throw away partially used blades because their low cost doesn't justify the frustrations of keeping track of them. Charley

That's a very nice and well kept drill press. Unfortunately, motors of this size are not worth rebuilding. The centrifugal switch in the non-shaft end of the motor likely stuck from no use, leaving the start winding energized. Start windings aren't designed to survive continuous use, so likely burned up when the switch got stuck. It's a shame, but a newer motor is likely fairly easy to find. You might want to put a slightly larger one on, since these old drill presses usually came with very small 1/4 or 1/3 hp motors. Be sure to check the direction of rotation and the operating voltage in the replacement before you buy it. Some can be changed, many can't. Charley

Here is a link to the Jim Dandy Lift for the DeWalt. It will likely fit the other saws of the same design. Once came on my type 1 when I bought it and it has served the purpose well. I did tighten the spring one position when I added the LED lights to both sides of the upper arm, but have done nothing else to it. The price is quite reasonable, but if I didn't get one with the saw, I probably would have made one similar to it. It is a very simple design. Two longer replacement screws, a spring, and an arm with a few carefully positioned holes. https://jimdandy.com/products/easy-lift-system-for-dewalt-scroll-saw-dw788 Charley

Ok, I realized that I hadn't put the link in my post, so just added it here. Take whatever time you need, but if/when you decide to build the table and/or buy the laser unit, send a note if you have any problems. You can get good use out of the table even without buying the laser. Charley

https://www.amazon.com/Wixey-Model-WL133-Drill-Press/dp/B01NAT54TX Charley

I received one of the laser units with my Delta floor standing drill press, and hated it when first trying to use the laser unit, because the cross hairs moved position as I moved the table up and down. Then, one day I decided to figure out what was wrong with it and discovered that the laser units were in need of slight rotation to make their lines truly vertical. This required placing a 1/2" diameter rod painted white and with a point on the bottom, into the drill chuck of the drill press. With It in place I made a pointed dent into the wood drill press table. Then I rotated the laser line generators until each projected a perfectly vertical line on the back side of the white rod in the drill chuck. Only then could I move the laser cross hairs until they crossed at the small dent in the wood table. Once doing all of this, I could raise or lower the drill press table or change the thickness of the parts that I was drilling and have the cross hairs remain crossed in the exact point where the drill bit would begin drilling the hole. After this calibration, I loved using the laser cross hairs, so I bought the Wixey units for each of my smaller benchtop Delta drill presses and went through the same calibration procedure. You want to attach the laser units as high as possible to the column, up against the bottom of the drill press head. The Wixey units proved to be much better made and were already calibrated quite well. They also produced a much narrower cross hair than the one on my floor standing drill press. I still performed the same calibration procedure on both to get them as perfect as possible, and I am very impressed with the end result. The mounting clamp and frame of the Wixey units are steel, so they can be clamped very tightly to the column. The cross hair unit that came with my floor standing drill press is all plastic, so it can't be clamped tightly, and it gets knocked off position easily. I have been considering buying another Wixey to replace it, but haven't done this yet. To me, the laser cross hairs make it easy to see where the drill bit will begin cutting. Adding the drill press table described above lets me position the first part in the position desired by using the cross hairs and holding it in that position while using only my right hand to loosen and move the fence up against one side of the piece and lock it in that position, then moving the fence stop, also using just my right hand until it touches the piece and locking it in that position, again using only my right hand, lets me make quick setups for drilling not only this first piece, but every duplicate piece for that project, and every one of the work pieces will have the same hole in exactly the same position with reference to that side and end of my work pieces. I have mostly been using this setup to drill the ear ring holes in the heads of my 1" high reindeer blocks before cutting the reindeer out of the blocks on my scroll saw, but I have used the drill press table for many other small projects as well. The ability to see the cross hairs where the first hole will go, and then be able to hold the first piece in position with one hand while moving the fence and stop into position with the other hand had proven to be perfect for my needs. Charley

A few years ago I made a drill press table for one of my bench mounted drill presses, specifically for precisely drilling small holes in exactly the same position on many small pieces of wood. I wanted it easy to adjust, usually by marking the hole position on the first piece and then setting the fence and stop so that every part would receive the hole in the exact same position. I already had a Wixey cross hair laser unit on this drill press, but proceeded to super tune it so that it displayed the laser lines to cross at exactly where my smallest drill bit would drill the hole. I then build the table from 3/4" birch cabinet ply and used some poplar scraps for the fence, fence position lock, and the sliding stop. All were just scraps from my scrap bin. I chose to pivot the fence using a bolt through the left end and the left rear of the table. The fence does not need to be parallel with anything but the flat side of the part being drilled, so a pivoting fence eliminates the second adjustment point. (I did go back and undercut the fence to keep saw dust from affecting the position of my part against the fence after I took these photos. It's recommended that you do this). A single knob then allows me to adjust the fence position along the curved arc of the right edge of the table, and then lock it in position by pinching the table edge between the fence and the block below the table by tightening the knob. I added a sliding stop to the top of the fence using a piece of small T track, the size that will allow the hex head of a 1/4-20 bolt to slide into. The stop is then easily locked in place, again with only one knob. I can perfectly position the first part to be drilled using the hole position mark on the part and double check this position by bringing the drill bit down and partially drilling the hole. Then I stop the drill press and lock the spindle with the bit still in the hole. Then I can move the fence until it is against the side of the work piece and lock it in place. Then move the stop along the fence until it is against the end of the work piece and lock it in place. Then I loosen the spindle lock to retract the spindle, hold the work piece against the fence and stop, and then start the drill press and complete the hole. Every part that I position against the fence and stop can then be drilled in exactly the same position as this first piece. I still use the laser cross hairs to verify that nothing has changed as I drill each piece. The design is relatively simple and the photos pretty much self explanatory. Dimensions aren't very critical either. I built this table in about 2 hours, using just what I had in the shop. The bolts used to attach the table to the drill press table are carriage bolts so had to have their heads recessed in the table. The knobs below are just two plastic wing knobs that fit the carriage bolts, and they are positioned to go through the slots in the metal table, so I can move this wood table forward and back and lock it in position easily. I use two hanger bolts, a long one and a short one, for the table clamp The short one just keeps the clamp piece from rotating when the long bolt and knob above are loose. I think this hanger bolt and knob are 1/4-20, but most any size close will work. The long hanger bolt wood threads are screwed into the clamp block and the machine screw end goes through a clearance hole in the fence to the knob. The shorter hangar bolt is also screwed into the clamp, but just goes into a blind clearance hole in the bottom of the fence. It's only purpose is to keep the clamp block from rotating when the clamp knob is loose. I used a long bolt (I don't remember the size) long enough to reach through the fence and table, several flat washers, and a stop nut on the pivoting end of the fence, with one thin flat washer between the fence and the table. Tighten this bolt only enough to eliminate the play, but not so tight that the fence won't swivel easily. This table installs and removes from the metal drill press table very easily, but I have two bench top drill presses, so I have pretty much dedicated this one to drilling small holes in multi piece jobs, so the table is usually left in place and the drill press belt is positioned for a relatively high speed for the small holes. It sits just to the right of my most used scroll saw and a coiled hose air gun hangs from the ceiling between them, which is frequently used at both positions for clearing the table of saw dust. I have a similar sized variable speed drill press that tends to get used for everything else, except for the big projects, like drilling with 3 7/8 Forstner bits, etc. I have a floor standing drill press for that. In the photo showing the drill bit I installed a much larger drill bit than normally used, so it could be seen in the photo. Charley

Glad you made it back. I am one of their repeat customers, 7 heart related surgeries in the past 20 years. Now that you know what it feels like, don't hesitate to go for help quickly the next time you begin feeling the same or similar. I'm bionic now. I got my pacemaker last Fall, so now I run on batteries. I have enough metal and plastic in me to make the scanners at the airports go crazy. One of the scanner operators told me "Man, you light up like a Christmas Tree". I also have metal knees and survived the big C twice so far. I still stay as active as I can. I'm afraid to slow down. Friends who retired and sat on the porch every day aren't here any more. Do everything that you feel well enough to do. You will last longer. Charley

The last that I bought came from Hobby Lobby. They offer about a dozen different versions. Charley

If pushing on the upper arm will cause it to start, you quite likely have dead spots in the motor armature. If it stops on one of those spots the motor won't restart until it's shaft is rotated rotated to get the brushes to contact good places. Take the saw back to DeWalt and tell them that the motor has dead spots. They will either give you a new saw or replace the motor in your saw. I think your saw is still under warranty, so this shouldn't cost you anything, except separation time of you and your saw. Charley

That will work if the edge of your project is straight, but not for curved edges that need to be routed. You need a smaller bearing that will ride along the curved edge and cut the original round-over, ogee, etc. Just a little deeper. The project that you showed in your photo is full of curves. I cannot see you re-cutting that project using a router table fence. Charley

Find a bearing that's just a little smaller in diameter than the one on your router bit and use it for making the light pass. If careful, you can climb cut this next pass because you won't be removing that much material. Try to keep moving. A little slower bit speed might help too. Poplar and Cherry give me the most trouble with burning. Using the slightly smaller bearing is the way that I clean it up, if the piece doesn't have to end up an exact dimension. If it does, I start over and sneak up on the final cut by making multiple light passes. Scraping and sanding to remove the burn marks is possible, but I hate doing both. Charley

Barb, My best suggestion, without breaking the wallet too much, is to use a re-purposed vacuum cleaner or a shop vac, with a Dust Deputy in the line ahead of it. A 5 gallon bucket under the Dust Deputy will catch 99% of the sawdust that your scroll saw will produce, and I'm willing to bet that you can't fill that 5 gallon bucket in a full year of using your scroll saw. The filter in the vacuum will collect almost nothing during this same period. The re-purposed vacuum would be my choice because it is much quieter than a shop vac. You might add a Scrollnado, if it will fit your saw, and you won't need to clean the saw dust off the floor or change vacuum cleaner filters frequently any more. You won't believe how well the Dust Deputy works to keep your vacuum level from dropping and your vacuum filters from needing frequent changing. I re-purposed a whole house central vacuum and a Dust Deputy and installed the pipes to inlet ports for it at various places in my shop and use it mostly for my scroll saws, drill presses, and sanders, but also put an inlet port outside next to the passage door of my shop. I use this port for vacuuming my cars and trucks with the original 25' hose that came with my re-purposed vacuum. My Dust Deputy sits on top of a 20 gallon metal barrel, and it's been several years since I needed to empty it. My vacuum and Dust Deputy are located in the attic above my shop with the exhaust vented to the outdoors, so not even the sub micron sized sawdust ever gets back into my shop air. For just one or two scroll saws, my suggestion above should be more than adequate for your needs. Charley

Amber shellac dries in 10 minutes and looks good on many things. I've used it several times when a finish was needed "in a hurry". Charley

I meant that for people who have separate shops and aren't there every day to make certain that the heat is still on and the temperature inside is still above freezing. Hot water systems break up pretty badly if left non-running in below freezing Weather. A neighbor of mine where I once lived in NY State had a second heat system for heating his sidewalks and driveway. So he didn't have to run it all the time, he put anti-freeze in the circulating water. Every time it snowed or got icy, he would fire up this system and keep the ice and snow from sticking to his sidewalks and driveway. I'm certain that it cost him a lot to have ice and snow free walks, but he could go away on vacation and not worry about the system freezing up while he was gone. Today, someone like this would also have it controlled by his cell phone, so he could turn it on while he was away on vacation. Charley

Don't go this way if you live where temperatures can fall below freezing or your water in the system will need anti freeze added to it in case it's off when the temperatures do fall this low. The idea of heating directly or indirectly from electric power is an expensive way to heat too, unless a heat pump (reversible air conditioner) can be used. My shop has a 24K BTU window style heat pump mounted high and through the North wall of my shop. It keeps my shop above freezing and around 70 degrees whenever I'm working in there, but I live in North Carolina where heat pumps work quite efficiently, and not in the Great White North. No part of a heat pump system ever gets hot enough to ignite paper or wood, so it's very safe. With a good pleated air filter, it makes a good shop air cleaner too. When I lived in NY State, my shop was heated by an oil fired hot air furnace in a separate room from the shop, and I filtered the air going through it with good pleated filters. Charley