Wichman

About 30 years ago I worked at a restaurant, in the back was an electrical panel with 2 breakers and no cover for the breakers. Fire Dept finally flagged it as an offense, Store manager asked me to fix it. I had a local sheet metal shop make me up a panel out of 18 gauge steel. I carefully marked out the opening for the breaker, then, using a mini hacksaw blade chucked into my Sears 20" "Professional" scroll saw cut out the openings. As Fab4 has stated, loud, really really loud ( foam earplugs + over the ear muffs; and it was still loud). Finished the monstrosity and installed. Done and passed all inspections since. It was cut out of 1/8 plywood, but I cut a butterfly valve for a carburetor once. Not on purpose but I have cut pin nails used to hold alignment on stack cut patterns. Its tough on the blades but they cut. I have cut, steel, plastic, acrylic, copper, leather. And the list goes on.

Jerry, I was having similar issues with Basswood. This morning I picked up a can of "Static Guard" at the local Krogers, in the laundry dept. It works fairly well, enough that I'll keep a can around for the issue.

We mostly used this for the mat board, we used another version 1/8" wide for adhering fillets ( wood ) to the mat board.

Here are some of mine:)

I have used this stuff extensively while working at an art publishing business. Miles and miles of 1/2"wide tape rolls used in a special dispenser call a ATG gun. There are several grades of adhesive; from kinda repositionable (until seated with pressure) to "oh crap that never moving". All the grades of adhesive can be removed with heat (we used a laundry iron with no water in it). I didn't know it was available in wide rolls though. I may have to try a roll or two. Once set, we would pound the material with the heel of our hands, it is permanent.

I use 1/8" and 1/4" Bass wood from Hobby Lobby, mostly. The size of the ornament generally determines the thickness I use; larger/thicker, smaller/thinner. Hobby Lobby is sub optimal for sourcing for production work, never can tell when they will have more product. They also have 1/16" plywood, I haven't bought any so I can't speak to the quality of the material. I've never tried ordering online from them although that is an option. I was surprised that the basswood held together for the pine needles in the Idaho ornament, but it's been fine. (I cut 16 ornaments in stacks of 4, not a single failure). Last year I used 1/4", but this year I used 1/8" (not sure why)

This was an annual show in the town I live in (pop 60,000). A number of the attendees' also go the the Farmers market I was selling at, so there is some crossover. My most expensive item sold was $20, and I sold a bunch of them. I know that many of the major retailers are panicking because black Friday just didn't happen. I went to Wal-mart Monday to get a new phone and the black Friday deals were still in effect, in years past if you missed BF you were just SOL. It's a brave new world out there, and we're just going to have to adapt.

The show was a disappointment. Overall sales were okay, but the vast majority of the sales were made in 2 hrs on Saturday (between 1 and 3 pm). Sunday's sales were 10% of Saturdays sales. At least 40% of my sales were to other vendors, it's great that they are supporting me, but that's a really bad sign for the show. Sigh, there's always next year.

very nice

If you have glue squeeze out on a 90 degree line the flat sander can get in close to clean up the edge. The flat sanders aren't very useful for sanding an entire project, but rather for fixing details. When I made the vanity tray I missed a spot on the tray, the oscillating tool allowed me to fix it without disassembly On the fancy wand with a crystal the small flat detail sander allowed me to sand both the inside and outside of the end and keep it flat and square. The big advantage the oscillating tool has is that it won't grab the piece and throw it across the shop.

For that area I would use a Dremel drum sander. There are sanding drum available to 600 grit, so you would be able to match your 320 grit primary sanding. For intricate inside fretwork I either use the saw blade as I'm cutting or if I miss the defect while cutting I will use a diamond bead reamer for the Dremel. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018MNCZ4K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 These are also useful in cleaning up small pilot holes to make threading the blade easier.

Thanks, These are stack cut 4 at a time from 1/8" basswood, pattern was from Scroller, blades are FD Polar #1 throughout, dipped in 50/50 shellac three times. I can't believe the pine needles hold together until I get the shellac on.

Don, Both pictures have a item with the heart showing. The heart is located just above the "O" and can be mistaken for one of the potato eyes.

All the Idaho ornaments with a heart sold. I just fixed the pattern so that all the patterns have hearts (I had half with and half without). I also fixed the heart so that it's just and outline now, instead of being solid (easier to cut).

16 "Idaho" ornaments finished for the show today.

HF is a great way to test out whether a new style of tool will work for what you are trying to do. For $34 (tool plus two heads) you can tell if this is going to work, if it does then when the cheapo dies, upgrade. HF sells two different detail sanding head, so be sure to check both (or buy both).

I have my last show of the year coming up this week end, getting projects finalized.

That's one of my goals for this winter, set up and test cut some plaques on my new router table.

If I need to sand in a tight area I use my oscillating multi tool. One of the attachments is a triangular head sander with hook and loop attachment. The hook and loop also allows for a green scrubby to be attached, got the ex-wife PO'd when I cleaned up a couple of glass casserole dishes she wanted to replace ( I still have and use them ). The advantage is it's not just one tool that get used once in a while, there's a whole slew of attachments, so the tool gets used more.

Yes, I painted the backer orange, I even checked that the foxes eyes are commonly orange. Picture from the National Park Service. Looks orange to me.

Whew, almost done with this one. Tomorrow I will add a couple of coats of shellac. 12 1/2 hrs of cutting 15 minutes for the plaque outline. 3/8" Elm for the plaque 1/8" hardboard for the backer, backer prepainted. FD Polar #1 for most of the fretwork, about 4 holes needed #2/0, #5 Polar for the outline. A lot of time but it looks good.

It just depends on the venue. The Farmers Market I used to sell at required crafters to make their own items, their are always cheaters, but the FM bylaws require vendors to allow inspection of their facilities; and that includes Farmers. The current leadership of the market is relaxing quite a bit of the rules, one reason (of many) that I chose to not be a vendor there anymore. Before I will apply to a craft show I will do a walk through, too many resellers and it's a hard no.

I modify patterns all the time. Sometimes size, sometimes other things. Rose with a name, added custom names, then added dohickys to bridge the letters in a decorative way ( I've used hearts, butterflies and rubber ducks so far). The double lidded basket and the vanity tray I added pining the mortise and tenon joints. The small open basket I lengthened the square tenon so I could pin them and added a bottom. The fancy "welcome sign" I modified the size to fit the wood I had. I use the program "Big Print" to modify pattern sizes, with this program I can pick a particular spot on the pattern and resize it to a specific size ( say 5" wide to 4 1/2" wide, which is what I did with the Welcome sign ) The dresser mirror I added an additional overlay on the backside, used #2 screws to attach the front overlay, added a piece of glass to the back. Now instead of just a mirror, it has an oval picture frame in the back, just flip back an forth between the picture and the mirror Back in the day, I used a copy machine to make a giant feather for my mom, as big as would fit on an 11 x 17" piece of paper, added the eagle/buffalo/shaman figure in the middle of the feather. On and On and

I would recommend you to talk to the canvas shop people and ask their advise. Tell them what you are trying to achieve and ask for they're recommendations, They may have or can order a gortex type material (pores to small for liquid water but large enough for vapors), you just never know.

Eberle is a German company that currently specializes in metal cutting band saw blades. I could not get any results for a history of what they manufactured in the past or a timeline for when products started and/or stopped being produced. I noticed that they do manufacture a cobalt alloy band saw blade; I'd give my eyeteeth for some cobalt scroll saw blades, sigh, maybe when I win the lottery. Just a note, I tried a google search for who actually manufactures which blades and drew a complete blank