rash_powder

Sometimes there is great creativity and talent involved in creating a simple, elegant solution to a problem; especially if the solution perfectly meets the end users needs/wants. All the sheaths look nice and are great.

If you can measure the RESISTANCE between the two wires, you will find the high value and low value. Head over to digikey and you should be able to find an adequate replacement that will fit. There may even be part numbers somewhere on it that you can use to find the replacement. All that said, you have what is called a potentiometer; it varies resistance from one set of pins to the other, with the middle being common. Think the balance adjust on your stereo. Using only two of the pins makes it function like a rheostat, which is just a fancy adjustable resistor. Think like the volume control on your stereo. Pots are far more common. Try blowing it out with air or contact cleaner first. It may just be the internals got a bit dirty. A common failure is 'dead' spots on the insides; that cannot be fixed.

Those of us who were deployed always said 'no news is good news'. Generally meant your family/buddies were still alive since bad travels faster than good. That said, best wishes for a full and speedy recovery to Steve!

I have a large sign I made myself several years ago but never hung. It was leaning against a bedroom wall and warped; so I put it in the bathroom to rehydrate. One shower and it straightened out, so I left it in there for a few days. A good, gentle steaming fixed it. Might work for your project, or other peoples.

No matter how hard you try, even following the line precisely, you will never get two seperate pieces exactly the same when cut individually. There will always be tiny errors/defects/whatever you want to call it because you are human. Cutting multiple parts at the same time will greatly increase success rates. Also, with pine, the grain can guide the blade in ways you do not want. I primarily use popler, but any wood can 'steer' the blade away from time to time.

I have read in the past that cupping occurs from the stock not equal air exposure on both sides, so one side dries more than the other. The solution was to get the hollow side wet as that side's wood fibers shrank more than the domed side; then lay the board wet side down to try and even the dryness out in the board. I have tried this with no success. I have tried to moisten boards and then press them flat and let them dry with no success. Whatever I am doing doesn't work out for me. It just seems that with kiln dried lumber if its cupped or warped thats how it is. Best of luck and very excited to see the results of your test. How did you get the cuts so good with that much warp? I would not have been able to keep them perpendicular to the face.

Are you talking bushings? McMaster Carr has a fantastic selection, as would your local machine shop. I have play in the bushings in the arms of my Hegner and need to replace them, just don't want to pay what they ask for them. They are most probably off the shelf components and NOT the $13 each that they ask. I rebuilt a John Deere snowblower auger/impeller with new bushings from the machine shop for far less than half what John Deere asked for all of them.

I found the site. tibbixel.com lots of stuff there.

An aquarium air pump kit can be gotten for about $30 and will come with a hose to run from the pump to the blower. Those pumps are dead silent.

Try looking for SVG files instead of clip art. I've found a site on Pinterest with gobs of SVG files for free. Clip art is kind of an outdated term for this stuff anymore. I'd share it here but not sure if that is allowed.

So I was just using inkscape and had this very same problem. The solution was to select the image I wanted traced. Then it all started working.

I have run into this too with some images; for whatever reason they will not trace. Yet others still do. I *think* it may be an embedded feature of some pdf files to protect copyrights.

If you have or know someone with a laser, have them lightly burn the pattern on the material. It will look as though it was drawn on.

I have seen blue print cabinets! The WAPA (Western Area Power Association) office in Fargo has several. They are legit 1960 furniture! All nice oak and heavy duty. I don't think they use them anymore, but being a government outfit it would be tough to get them. In our shops, we hang prints from sticks. It works well for the 4'x3' paper that engineering prints them on.

You are looking to make a full size rocking horse? A bandsaw would be a bit more appropriate for that size of project. A 10" at the smallest. Ample power and throat capacity. 14" saws can usually be found fairly cheap if you look for a while. In my area about $150. Smallish things can be made on them also. I wouldn't say scrollsaw small but you could make a 1" or maybe a 3/4" wheel pretty easily. Unfortunately it would not do internal pockets without a little bit of trickery.