BeerBrewer

Oh...I agree beware.....there are so many scammers out there it is very sad.

Scrappile...I'm inclined to agree with you. My father always said....if something seems to good to be true, then it probably isn't. I just don't know $246 for a Dewalt DW734 Thickness Planes just seems WAY...WAY too cheap when Home Depot has it for $399. If it was used, reconditioned or a second, I'd be more inclined to believe the price. I've been looking at the WEN 6522T ($323) and the WEN 6550T ($288, but I don't know anything about WEN tools. Has anyone used this brand? I've never owned a bench planer, but I think I'd could use one. I started scrolling bowls and vases out of wide cuts of wood. Then I started making even wider boards by gluing strips of different kinds of wood together and making bowl out of it. I've gotten some interesting patterns and bowls. It seems that a lot of the interesting wood comes in random thicknesses, so I need a planer to even it all out. Are there must have features for a Thickness planer? Is a 3 blade planer that much better than a 2 blade planer? I definitely want it to have a method for dust dust capture, so the Porta Cable unit is out since it doesn't have one. Thanks!

I'm interested in getting a thickness planer and I found what appears to be a deal to good to be true on http://www.buytoolshome.com/. I googled the name and I can't tell if it a scam site or not. So I thought I'd ask you folks to see if anyone has any experience with this site. Thanks!

I live on Long Island and I can't seem to find any suitable wood for my Intarsia projects. I've bought some wood over the internet, but that gets pricey quick and you can't really see the wood that you are buying. Its not only hard to find different kinds of wood, but it's next to impossible to find thicker (5 quarter or thicker) lumber. Locally about all I can find is oak, pine, poplar and maple. Does anyone one of a lumber yard on Long Island that carries a wide variety of lumber? That said I did find a place in East Northport that carries exotic lumber for making bowls, pens and such. He has almost no 1/2", 3/4" or 1" board stock. I'd even consider driving for a couple hours, but I just don't know where to go.

I was using my new 2016 Christmas Present, a Dewalt 788 Scroll Saw, a couple weeks ago when it started to act strange. I was cutting 3/4" oak at about medium to high speed, when all of the sudden the saw slowed down to a crawl all by its self, barely going up and down at all. No matter what I did I could not raise the speed back up. I turned the speed adjusting knob up and down, lightly tapped on it with my finger, gently pressed in it, basically nothing helped. Turning it off and on didn't help either. Also I was only cutting for 5 to 10 minutes at the time, so I so don't think it was over heated. As I sitting there looking at the saw working all by itself in ultra slow motion, I'm thinking to my self "Oh no, now I have to deal with Dewalt's repair center". All of the sudden the saw just started working again and did so for a few hours. This happened a bunch of times too and each time the saw seemed to have a mind of its own. Sometimes it would act up immediately, other times after an hour of so and sometimes it ran perfect all day. Thankfully, I was able to finish the scroll work on my current project and now that I'm between projects, I think I should address the issue. I'm no scroll saw expert, but this appears to be some sort of an electrical problem. Before I go to Grizzly Tool (where I purchased it) and Dewalt about this issue, I thought that it would best to consult you folks first. Has anyone experienced this issue with a Dewalt 788? If so what did you do about it? Does anyone have any ideas on how I figure out whats wrong? As always, your help is appreciated. Bob

Wow.....very interesting! I'm impressed!

Now don't start picking on my Coors can! It's a mirage that I could even find a beer can in my house. Don't get me wrong now, because I love beer as much as anyone (maybe more actually). You see I just brew my own beer and have for over 25 years. I started brewing right after Jimmy Carter made it legal!. Had I put glass of home brew in the pic you wouldn't have any frame of reference! As for MGDs, I do agree, they are a tasty brew. A few folks suggested using oil, what about using Watco Danish Oil, it comes in variety of colors or would that too soak into the end grain? Thoughts?

I'm almost finished making the wedding card box for my son's wedding this July and I thought you folks might like to see my progress. I used a pattern that was sent to me from Birchbark (thanks so much!). I printed out the pattern and took it into FedEx Office and had it enlarged on the copy machine because my son wanted it a tad larger. The original size would have been fine for wedding cards but my future daughter has other plans for it after and wanted it a tad larger. Who am I to argue with a future bride?? The box in about 14" square at the base and 13" high (I put a Coors can in one of the pics so you could judge the scale). I built the box sides using 1x12 red oak. The box is joined using a box joint that jig that I made for my cheapo router table. The top is made from 1x4 oak boards splined together, that was a first for me. I used my biscuit cutter to keep the boards aligned. All I need to do now is to stain and finish the box. I was planning to stain it darker using Min-wax Jacobean stain, but now I'm having second thoughts. When I started this project I made a test panel, so this morning I stained it and I wasn't happy how the scroll work took the stain. The scroll work seemed darker than flat surfaces and I'm sure that its all of the ins and outs make it almost impossible to wipe off the excess stain, so it appears darker. Does anyone know of an easy method of staining the piece or am I nuts for even trying to stain it?

Russell....my son and future daughter in-law loved your pattern! How many cards will it hold as is?

This is only my opinion, but odds are the poor design was not willingly caused by engineers. I'd be willing to bet Marketing and sales had a big hand in it. I'm sure the engineers and designers could have (I'll bet they did) come up with a better lower blade clamp design, but it raised the price of the cost to build the saw up 65 cents. After Marketing and sales got through adding all their margins and markups to it, they they raised the price of the saw up $35 or more! Then I'm sure marketing and sales deemed that too expensive to sell and forced the cheaper design. I personally worked as an engineer for over 34 and this scenario happened often. My son, a Mechanical Engineer had the same experience. He worked for a Bio-Medical company designing surgical instruments and stuff. He got so upset with the folks in Marketing and Sales forcing stupid design changes that he went back to college and left the profession all together. He is now a high school Physics teacher. I don't mean to throw stones and Marketing and sales folks, I'm just explaining how the design process works. Everything has a cost and trade offs have to be made. If you want to keep the costs for the saw low, you could watch craigslist for a decent used one. They do come up from time to time.

Wow...Timothy....that is very nice work. I will show them your pics. Russell....great question! Finding wood is becoming a real issue for me. Unfortunately Home Depot and Lowes have forced most of the local lumber yards out of business. The ones that remain have gotten lean and mean and don't seem carry a very wide array wood. Most don't carry any solid wood in 1/2", its 3/4" or more. That said, the Lowes by me carries 1/2' maple, pine and some oak, but nothing too wide and its hard to find a flat piece. So odds are if I use solid wood, it will be at least 3/4" thick. I see sellers on line that offer 1/2" and even 1/4", but the prices aren't cheap. Has anyone used them?

Zen Scroller....I agree that using hardwood would be more decorative, but I'm concerned about it being to fragile. I was thinking of something like the pic below, but if you have another idea I'd love to hear it. I'm open to any and all suggestions.

I'm planning to build a fretwork box for my son's upcoming wedding, but I can't seem to find any plans. So I'm going to design it myself but I have a few questions before I do. The box will be used to hold their wedding cards during the reception, so I'm thinking it should be about 16" x 8" x 8". Does that seem about right? I'm thinking that I should use birch baltic plywood...does that make sense? Is there something better to use? I'm not sure if I will paint it or finish it. As for the fretwork pattern, I was planning upon having my daughter (an artist) sketch something out that incorporates their names into the fretwork. Thanks

My son is being married this summer and they have asked if I could make them a box that they could use to store their wedding cards. Rather than just make a simple box, I'd like to make them something more decorative, possibly using fretwork, but I can't seem to find any patterns or plans. I have seen a few pictures on the web of what I'd like to build, but not details. Does anyone know where I can find one? Your help is appreciated.

I'm still learning how to use my new Dewalt Scroll saw and I've got a few questions for you folks. First let me begin by stating I'm not all that new using a scroll saw, but this saw is far better than anything I've owned of used in the past. Most of my scrolling was done for Intarsia, wood carving or misc. projects. My older saws all used pinned blades that were a real PITA to change, so I did not do any real detailed fretwork. Now that I have my 788, I started playing around with some fretwork and enjoy, but I've got questions. I made a few real simple pieces, then I made a butterfly following a pattern a scroll saw book that I bought. I came across really interesting patterns of trees cut into a circle that looked like fun projects. I even started with one that I found in pattern library on this site, but it was way to delicate and broke while I was cutting it. I tried cutting it twice, first using a 3/4" pine and then 3/4" poplar, but both broke. Frustrated I looked to the web for a different pattern, one sturdier for old fumble fingers (me). I found one that I thought would work but it was actually made with metal and not wood, so it needed some changes. I copied and pasted the pic into power point, scaled it to the size I wanted (about 11-1/4"), printed it out, pasted it on a piece of 3/4" poplar and then went about cutting it out. Hopefully I attached a picture of it below. Overall I'm happy with the piece, but it too is very fragile. I even broke off a tiny branch (left middle of the tree....you can see the odd gap in the branches) as I making the very last cut!! I think I can glue in the missing branch. There are few other branches that are in danger of breaking as well, due to the wood grain. I was thinking of gluing the entire piece to thin piece of plywood or possibly maybe even a picture, like a sunset, to shore it up. What is the best way to reinforce the piece? Should I have used plywood instead? If so what type? Where would I find it? Thanks

How long does it take you to make it?

I just got the ridgid spindle belt sander for xmas and love it. I also use a sanding mop, dremel with a small drum, a makita vibrating palm sander and plan old sand paper. I'd love a soft spindle sander, like the Seyco unit but its a tad pricey.

I don't use fence either and I don't think it will work well enough to bother with. I find that the blade tends to wonder to the left all by its self and I have to constantly adjust it as I saw. I could be wrong but I thought that this natural "drift" is caused by the way scroll saw blades are made, I believe that they are stamped rather than ground, so the teeth all tend to be on one side of the blade. I also find that the blades natural tendency to wonder left also varies with the blade size and type. For that reason, if I need to cut a price absolutely straight and if possible, I just use a different saw. If that isn't possible I just go very slow when cutting the straight line and hope for the best. I hope this helps.

I'm interested in purchasing a pneumatic drum sander for my intarsia work. Does anyone have any recommendations? I've found a drum sanding kit made by SANDBOSS (part # SBKIT3) sold by Kingspors Wood Working shop (http://www.woodworkingshop.com/product/ht50000/) and another sold by Lee Valley tools (http://www.leevalley.com/us/Hardware/page.aspx?p=45190&cat=1,42500). Does anyone have any experience with either? I also saw a non-pnematic sanding drum sold by Seyco called a Flex Drum Sander Kit (http://seyco.com/ds-01-flex-drum-sander-kit-for-your-motor/) that might also work. Lastly I have not decided how I'm going to power the sanding drum yet, but I have quite a few options. I can use my big old variable speed Makita drill (I built a jig that firmly locks it down to a bench. I made the jig so I could power my grain mill that I use for my other passion.... brewing beer), my bench drill press, but I'm not sure if I'd like the drum sitting vertical, my radial arm saw by attaching a drill chuck to the back of motor, or by adapting my old Sears grinder. I'm concerned that the last too options (radial arm saw and grinder) spin way too fast. Is that a concern? I've even thought of buying a cheap ($120) lathe from Harbor Freight. Frankly I'm leaning heavily towards using my old Makita drill. It is very powerful and is also variable speed, so I'll be able to alter the drum speed to better suite the size and material that I'm sanding. I also kind of like the cheap lathe idea, since I don't have a lathe now, but I've always wanted to play with one. You know what they say.....the one who dies with the most tools wins!! I thought it best to select the drum first and worry about powering it later. If money were no object, I'd just go out and buy a the drum sanding rig from Seyco or Grizzly, but they all seem to start around $300 and I didn't want to spend that much. Your thoughts and comments are appreciated! Bob

I just went through the same debate between the Delta 40-964 and the DeWalt 788. I decided upon the Dewalt based upon what I read on this web site and others. The saw is fantastic! I just (2-3 weeks ago) purchased it from Grizzly Tool for $499 (delivered $523.94), but it came with the stand and a light, thanks to "Pro Scroller" (he pointed the sale out to me) in another post. The stand and light have to be worth at least $100 to $125, so the price difference isn't so great. I am happy with my choice. I believe that Grizzly is still running the same sale.

Well my new Dewalt 788 (with stand and light) arrived under the tree Christmas morning and I could not happier with it! The saw is fantastic, SO MUCH BETTER than my old 13" Dremel! I have not made anything productive yet. I've just practiced cutting straight lines, curved lines, loops, swirls etc with the saw. I've tried it using different types of wood, thicknesses and blade types. The saw is real quiet and has absolutely no vibration at all. I'm impressed with the way it cuts through all types of wood. Blade changing and tensioning is real easy too. I made one slight modification to the stand, I added three round feet pads to bottom of each leg. They are bolted through the hole on the bottom of each leg. This seemed to make the saw sit better on the concrete floor in my shop. I wish the stand had a draw so I could store the blades close by. Thanks for all of your advice! Bob

Well, I looked into purchasing one of the Excalibur clones that you folks pointed out above, but all had to be shipped internationally which made an expensive saw even more expensive. Frankly being out of work as long as I am, I just couldn't justify the added expense. That's why I was originally toying with buying the Delta 60-694. It "seemed like" the same or very similar saw only it was $150 cheaper than the Dewalt. Well now that I've seen Bob Brokaw's video on the 788 and I've read more posts on this site, I know better. Now I'm not saying that the Delta is a bad saw, because I'm sure that it's a fine saw. I'm only stating that I think the Dewalt is probably a better made saw and hopefully will last longer, hence the extra cost. Sometimes its just cheaper to pay more! There is also a ton of info out on there on the web on the 788 and I know lots of people use them. Heck AMAZINGSCROLLER has 8 of them, so they must have a lot going for them. So I made contact with the seller on CL about buying his 788 and oddly enough it was still available (a first!). Then my wife talked me into the purchasing a new one with a warranty. She thought that I'd be better off with a warranty and I had to agree. So went to the Grizzly Tools web page and purchased the one with the stand and light for $523.94 that Pro Scoller pointed out above (So thanks Pro Scroller for the tip!). I've purchased form Grizzly before, have one of their 14" band saws and love it. Thank you so much for your help on this! Happy Holidays! Bob

Sorry Len.....I made a typo, I meant to say that the Dewalt is $150 more expensive than the Delta. You've convinced me to rule out the Delta. I'm going to check out the companies in Canada to see if they will ship to the USA.

Funny, but I already emailed about the dewalt on CL We shall see. I'm also looking into the Canadian Excaliburs.

Now that I'm not currently working at the moment I've got more time to focus on my hobbies such as, wood working, Intarsia and beer brewing. I'd also like to get more into scrolling and fret work as well. The only thing really holding me back is my very old 2 speed Dremel scroll saw. I find its either too slow or too fast, the blower doesn't work (never did), it vibrates too much and it only takes pin ended blades. Not to mention the hole in the table top (where the blades passes thru) is rather large making it hard to accurately cut small pieces. Other than that the saw is fine. So I'd like to buy a new saw. I've been searching craigslist for about 2 years for a decent saw and every time I see something it's either sold or the owner wants is too much for it. Some even ask near retail pricing! So I've decided to buy a new saw and I had decided upon the 16" Excalibur. Unfortunately, no one has one in stock and won't until maybe next March, but even that seems up in the air. It has something todo with a new Chinese factory. Since I can't afford the $900 22" Jet scroll saw or any Hedgner saw, that leaves the Dewalt 788 and Delta 60-694. I've heard that these to saws are near identical, is that true? I saw a really cool video how to rebuild a Dewalt 788 by Bob Brokaw and in the beginning of the video he explains the history of the saw and he states the old Delta 40-690 is a direct clone of the Dewalt 788. Then he states the new Delta isn't like the 788, but he does not elaborate. So does anyone know how different the Delta 60-694 is from the Dewalt 788? I have to assume that it is since it sells for $339 on Amazon and Lowes and the Dewalt 788 sells for $489. It just seems odd that they are same when there is such a $150 price difference Is the Dewalt worth the extra money? In addition to Intarsia, I also do a lot of woodcarving and I often use my scroll saw to help rough in the piece, so I do tend to cut thicker wood. I'd like to buy a saw that will last me a while, has an easy blade change mechanism, has the power to cut thicker stock, has an upper arm that lifts and that cuts accurately. I know, a tall order! So aside from the Delta 60-694 and the Dewalt 788, is there another scroll saw that I should consider or better still, does anyone know where I can still by an Excalibur? Thanks and Happy Holidays! BeerBrewer