BadBob

I got the idea from you.

These might work. White Kraft Gift Boxes 3X3x3 If your searching on amazon be sure to search all departments. These are in "Health Household and Baby Care".

Is anyone selling bird houses in gift boxes? Any suggestions are welcome.

I listen to Google Music on my phone when I'm not listening to podcasts while I am in the shop or out and about. I have a family account with Google that allows five people to use it and includes all the YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube for kids with no adds. The Family account is $14.99 per month for five people. They have just about anything you want in music and you can upload your music. Purchased music is DRM free and you can download it. In the shop, I almost always wear ear protection. My ear protection of choice is the 3m Worktunes connect. They have both wired and Bluetooth. On the rare occasions where I don't have them on because I'm doing something quiet my Bosh shop radio either by plugging in with a cable to my phone or using a Bluetooth adapter.

Loc-Line makes a clamp for tighting these.

About 4 minutes into the video Nick Engler talks about gluing end grain to end grain in a butt joint. I have done this using this method, and I can't break them apart. I suppose I could clamp one end in a vise and beat it with a 4lb hammer or use a pry bar on it, but I don't see the point. An old retired Army guy mentioned this to me several years ago, and I kept meaning to try it but never did until recently. https://youtu.be/Wmw5rayNIV4

Note that these are listed in the Industrial & Scientific department. If you search all departments for footswitch, you will find lots of different switches. You will have to scroll through lots of junk to see them all, but there are lots of them. Or try this google search site:amazon.com "foot switch" and look at the images.

What about these? TEMCo Heavy Duty Foot Switch CN0003 - Cast Aluminum Foot Switch 15A SPDT Electric Pedal Momentary 5 Year Warranty They are also available with a foot guard. TEMCo Extra Heavy Duty Foot Switch - CN0004 W Guard 15A SPDT Electric Pedal Momentary New 5 Year Warranty by TEMCo Industrial If my switch fails these would be at the top of my list for replacements.

This one came with my EX21 when I bought it used. I don't know where it came from initially. I could not stand trying to find it on the floor. It seemed to move every time I got up for something. So I mounted it to my shop made mobile base. It's under my left foot when I sit on the stool. After a couple of years, I'm still not convinced that I like it. My Hawk saw doesn't have one, and I stand when I use the Hawk. Using a switch when I'm standing is quite awkward.

Why do you spray Lacquer over the shellac?

I have done that. It works well, but the surface will have a slight curve.

I put all small metal pieces into a large plastic jug. Not just blades. If it's metal and fits through the top, it goes in the jug. Scroll saw blades, nails, screws, staples, and anything else that is small and could wind up cutting you or puncturing a tire. Little bits of metal have a nasty habit of winding up in places you would rather not have them like a tire or the bottom of your foot.

I used to live the area and loved it. My sister still lives in the area.

Nice, I casn see where the birds would look great cut from Tru-Stone.

Just a few things that came to mind while reading through these posts. Gluing end grain to long grain is bad. Wood expands and contracts with the humidity across the grain and very little with the grain. If I build it in Florida and ship it to Arizona the joint is going to fail. Dowels are not always round. In fact, they usually are not. A 1/2-inch dowel may be larger or smaller then 1/2-inch. You should always measure the dowel and drill the appropriate size hole. A 1/2 inch dowel will be a very tight fit for a 1/2 inch hole. It may not fit at all one the glue is applied. The glue makes it swell. Screws in end grain is a weak joint and may spit the wood if it is used without the proper size pilot hole. Expansion and contraction of the wood may cause the screw to loosen after a few seasons. A properly made mortise and tenon joint is probably the strongest wood joint you can make. It has been in use for centuries and was designed to use in cross-grain situations. There are plenty of videos that show test on the strength of wood joints. If I were going to make something that I wanted to be able to take apart and reassemble I would use a connector bolt. This is what Ikea uses for butt joints in their knock down furniture.

Using some statistics gathered by the AAA several years ago, I figured out that it costs me $0.75 per mile to drive my truck. It's probably more now. If I go to the nearest Home Depot walk right to what I need (rarely happens) check out and go home takes me about one hour and costs around $10. A plumbing issue I had recently cost $5 for the parts, 2.5 hours traveling, and about $20 to drive there.

I don't charge anything extra for the design, even if I have to buy it. I figure that if one person wants one, then others will want one. I almost always make two because it doesn't take much longer, and it is insurance against breakage. If all goes well, the extras get listed in my shop. Last year my best seller came from a custom order. I might charge extra for a personalized item, but so far, all of the personalized things I have done are quite simple and only took a few minutes. Admittedly, my selling experience is somewhat limited.

Not as busy as I would like. With my wife working at home and trying to keep my grandson out of her way as much as possible, there isn't much time left.

What is trustone? I googled it and all I found was financial stuff.

I'm an early adopter of online shopping. I hate driving all over town for hours to discover that they don't have what I need or the price is so high I can't or will not purchase from them. Many stores online inventory is wrong, so looking at their webpage to see what they have is unreliable. Two days ago, I drove ten miles to pick up a part that the web page said they had 30 in the store only to find an empty bin. I had to drive to another location and get the part. It took two hours and cost $15 for a $2 part. I think that once people get a taste of online shopping, many will switch over.

For me, this is a sort of hobby/business. I want to enjoy what I am making and make a profit. I don't do any shows. There are very few in my local area, and only a small percentage of them are of the type I would attend. The buy-in cost when you don't have any of the equipment is too high for me. The one excellent show we have here would cost me $700 to buy all the equipment and pay the fees. Then I have to have a lot of stock. In my online store, I don't need any inventory. I can do everything made to order if I want to. I get along with computers very well and have been on the internet since the mid-80s before the invention of the web, and everything was text-based. An online store works great for me.

I have glued up many bits and pieces to make blocks for these Steve Good 3D Bird Houses. I got lots of practice with my plane and bench hook. These are all wood reclaimed from discarded furniture. Poplar and mystery wood from Indonesia. I discovered than my smoother plane does a great job of removing paint.

I found 1-1/2x1-1/2 inch poplar and oak at Lowe's. Home Depot didn't have any square stock. I bought all the straight poplar pieces. That should do me for a while.

I don't pay much attention to the whiners in my Etsy group, mostly because they can't give you the numbers, so they don't know anything. I only go there to see if there is anything new going on. I know social media is a moving target and that I need to keep up with the new social media as they come along. I also need new and different things in my shop. I watch several shops that have lots of sales. All of them have lots of items for sale. I came up with the number 200 as all of them have 200 or more listings with lots of choices. Etsy is always touting following the trends. I don't do that because it would have me making things that I don't want to build on the outside chance that someone might buy it. If I must follow trends to get sales, I might quit. However, I would like to make a profit.

I love Evapo-Rust. It works great, especilly for small parts. What I like best is that I can keep using it until it stops working, and when I'm finished I can pour it on my lawn as an iron supplement. There are no chemical burns or hazardous waste to dispose of. You can probably get molasses in 55 Gallon drums. I seent rust removed with all sorts of things. Potatoes and water being the strangest. It smells terrible. Lye solution will remove rust and seems to work better if you add a piece of zinc. I used to hunt civil war relics and used this method to clean heavy rust off of cast iron. It takes a long time, but it works.