BadBob

3/4-inch makes the puzzle freestanding, so it can also be used as a decoration. A 3/4-inch dragon sits perfectly on top of a door frame. When I first started making puzzles, 3/4-inch is what the customer wanted. 3/4-inch wood is readily available and requires very little prep. I'm making puzzles from solid wood 1/4 or 1/2-inch is too weak, in my opinion. I have made and sold puzzles 1-1/2-inch thick.

I know from experience that I can make simple puzzles from just about any wood. As the puzzles become more complex they also become more fragile to the point where the parts are easily broken by simply dropping them on a hard surface. I have tried 3/4-inch Baltic birch plywood. It is definitely strong enough, but I don’t like cutting plywood. I have made several puzzles from MDF and it made great puzzles. However, I don’t like the look of it or cutting it. What wood do you think is best for puzzles? Assume that I will be using 3/4-inch thick stock.

Yes, you can use your existing compressor. You will need an airbrush, hoses and adapters, a filter/regulator, a stand for holding your air when you put it down, and extra jars. There will be many other things that depend on how you work and what kind of finishes you use. Appropriate solvents and other cleaning supplies, for example.

I highly recommend the badger Anthem 155. They have a top feed version if you prefer that. DUAL ACTION, INTERNAL MIX, SIPHON (BOTTOM) FEED The Anthem®, Model 155, is the most comfortable, reliable, proficient, cost effective, user friendly airbrush ever. The two angle needle tip precisely mates with the Anthem's cone shaped nozzle enabling a single needle/nozzle configuration to spray virtually any desired material, thus eliminating the need for fine, medium, or large needle/nozzle variations. The Anthem's body design provides exacting balance and long term user comfort. The Anthem® also provides flawless performance in the most rigorous of production airbrushing environments. FEATURES • Single needle/nozzle for spraying all mediums, inks, dyes, watercolors, acrylics, enamels, lacquers, glazes, latex, Air-Opaqueª, Air-Tex®, MODELflex® Totally Tattoo® and Totally Tanª colors • Single needle/nozzle sprays pencil lines to 3" (76mm) spray pattern • Minimal spare parts to stock • Easy maintenance and cleaning • Fastest needle release on the market • Finger tight assembly tolerances • Excellent for multiple applications for novice to advanced airbrushers • Lifetime warranty on labor and PTFE seals • Fine replacement parts now available

First, you need to know what you want to spray with your airbrush. There is also a skill issue. You are going to need to learn how to use it and practice. You will need to learn how to mix and filter your finishes. Each one is a bit different. You also have to clean and maintain your airbrush and associated equipment. Cheap airbrushes are throwaways. If you break something, and you will, you will soon discover that parts are difficult to find and may cost more than you paid for the airbrush. The tips are fragile. To try it out, get the Harbor Freight Airbrush Kit. The compressor will work ( I have one), and it comes with an airbrush. When it comes time to buy a new airbrush, buy a Badger. The Badger 155 Anthem is an excellent all-around airbrush that will spray anything you are likely to want to use. It's made in the USA, and parts are readily available. It has seals the will hold up to solvents which a lot of cheaper airbrushes will not. Lacquer thinner will eat the seals. It is my go to airbrush. I have a drawer full of cheap airbrushes. I also have six Badger airbrushes. I spray shellac and cheap acrylics, including house paint.

Why not wax your table? Johnson Paste Wax is what I have used for years. When I was a kid we used wax paper to make sliding boards slicker.

I would bet that they already have it in digital form and they do have some downloadable patterns on their website and sell CDs with the magazines on them.

3M 77 Adhesive is not available in my area and the only one I found on Amazon was a 55 Gallon drum.

I try every method I find. I use shelf liner for larger projects or where I need to see through it to avoid some defect in the wood. Otherwise, it sits on the shelf because I find it to be a pain to use. Gluing the pattern directly on the wood and removing it with mineral spirits works well, except that the adhesive gets into the wood, and there is no way to get it out. It can take a day or two for the mineral spirits to evaporate from the wood. I can't do anything with the piece until it's done. I use this method for delicate pieces where the extra time and the adhesive residue aren't a problem. Clear packing tape I don't like to use. I find the shiny surface to be annoying, and I have issues with it lifting. I used a lot of it when I first began using paper patterns. I tried taping the wood patterns and applying the tape first, and gluing the pattern to it. Neither method was satisfactory. When I tape the pattern to the wood, the glare from the shiny tape was a problem. When gluing patterns to the tape, I found that adhesives do not stick to the smooth surface well. I use it for taping pieces together for compound cuts and sealing boxes for shipping. Carbon paper and tracing are unpleasant to use and produce inferior results. I stopped using this method as soon as I had access to a scanner. I like the idea of printing patterns on labels. I have purchased a box of labels for this but haven't tried it yet. I keep forgetting I have them. Blue tape is by far my favorite method. It's fast, sticks well even in dusty environments. Blue tape does not leave any residue, and I find it easy to remove from most of my projects. When I use blue tape, I can sand, finish or glue the piece as soon as I rename the tape. The only downside I have found is that it will lift wood fibers from some pieces. It sticks too well. In these cases, I use the glue and mineral spirits method. As for the cost, Steve Good posted in a recent blog post that blue painter's tape was his favorite method, and he calculated that it cost him about $1.50 per month. I don't know what it costs me, but I know it takes a long time for me to use a six-pack of tape.

Not fancy or complicated, but my grandson loves animal cutouts.

+1 for the French cleat.

I rebuilt mine fall 2020. I didn't use any new grease.

I have two scroll saws for the same reason. I don't feel like I can afford the downtime. Some of my toys are made to order, and when the scroll saw is working, I can make them. At one time, I had three saws.

Backup, Backup, Backup! I am sympathetic. I've been there, done that, and watched many other people go through it. In 35 years of working with computers and disaster recovery, I have heard this sort of story repeatedly. If it is important to you, back it up. My business and photos get backed up off-site as soon as I make a change. They get backed up to a system that does versioning. If I change a document it now has two versions that are both offsite. If your backup isn't offsite, you don't have a backup. If you haven't successfully restored a backup, you don't have a backup. Backups are a thankless boring job that no one cares about until disaster strikes. Suddenly, the guy with the backups becomes the most important person in the room. Monitor your backups. I have been given a stack of tapes to restore when a server failed to discover that all the tapes were blank. They had been changing the tapes every day, but no one had monitored the be sure the scheduled backup was running.

Bird houses do not require perches. Quote from "The Definitive Guide to Building Your Own Birdhouses" "DO NOT put perches on any birdhouse. Only house sparrows and European starlings prefer perches. If you have a house with a perch, remove the perch."

Try these: https://toymakingplans.com/free-toy-plans/

I made these yesterday. I keep patterns of small toys in the shop for this. I'm currently making a batch of dragon toys. Everything except the body is made from cut-offs.

For resawing bigger is better.

If you buy cheap, you are likely to spend a lot more time and effort tweaking and tuning the saw to get it to work well. I would not buy a saw that did not have a fence or at least an aftermarket fence available. Even if it has a fence, it might be junk. I would not buy a benchtop saw or a saw with three wheels. They are not powerful enough, and the small wheels are hard on the blades. If you do go this route, Makes sure that good quality resaw blades are available for the saw before you buy it. As with other types of saws, the blades are one of the most critical parts. The blade that comes with your saw is unlikely to be suitable for resawing, and it may not be good enough for anything. If you have a planer smoothing the cut side of the wood is easy. If you do not have any way to plane the wood and want to sand it smooth, you will need excellent blades and a well set up saw to make this possible. If it were me, I would look for a used brand name bandsaw 14-inch or larger. It might need some TLC, but your chances of getting a good saw for less money is excellent. They don't wear out. I would check and grease or replace bearings and replace the tires if they need it. Then make sure everything is aligned as per the manufactures instructions. Even if you buy a new saw, you will need to do most of this.

I looked at a lot of these tools yesterday and watched many video reviews about them. The measuring tools are almost all metric. I live in the US, and I don't own any metric woodworking tools. These are mostly useless to me. However, I did find a few tools that I am going to buy at some point.

Facebook groups are awful. They are difficult to read and search, and if there isn't good moderation, they get flooded with trash posts.

I have been using these for my glue for a long time. They are cheap and I have never had one clog unless I forgot to put the cap back on and even then it was easy to clear.

I don't pay for the international shipping. The customer pays. I was surprised what people were willing to pay. I had one that cost $65 to ship. If they want it bad enough they will pay the shipping.

I use black. I have tried red but it wasn't any better for me. I find good lighting is more important than line color.