FrankEV

Love Eagles...great job.

Great cut. Down here in Florida the Robins don't hang around too long. But right now they are migrating North and stopping to visit. We have had many of them roosting in our trees over night. In a week or so they will be all gone and we will back to seeing mostly Cardinals that are around almost all year long. When I lived in NC we had a few Robins that hung around all year and yes they can be very protective of the teritory.

Excelent work. The HD sign puts mine to shame.

You met the challenge beautifuly...great Job. Yes, finding where to paint behind the cut panel is hard. The frame complements the panel very well.

I have a similar rachet type like yours, but the corners are metal and do not stand the strap off the frame so the rachet is very difficult to use and can bugger up the wood frame. That is why I looked for another solution and found the SEDY. I also found this kind a SPITA to set up quickly befor the glue dries.

It is best to just snap a pic, transfer it to your PC and then drag and drop it into the bottom of your post for all of us to view and comment on. I personally do not do instagram or click on any links that I'm not 100% sure about. You will hear this over and over...WE LOVE PICS!!!!

I finally found a source for many spieces of both Hardwoods (Maple, Walnut, Cherry, Hickory, Mahognay, Sapele, White and Red Oak, Ash, Alder, Bass and Birch) and Softwoods (various kinds of Pine, Fir, Cedar, Spruce and Cypress). It is: M&M Enterprises, LLC, 1502 State Avenue, Hoilly Hill, Fl 32117, PH: 386-672-1554 Chuck, the office guy, was extreamly nice, showed me around and said I could hunt through the stock any time I wanted. They only sell full board lengths (what ever they have in stock) and the price is by the board foot. The great thing is that they have quite a few pieces in various verieties that are greater than 10" wide. Most of the material is rough sawn, but they do offer a planning service. Adds about $1/board foot. I found a piece of 4/4 Superior Walnut x 17" W x 8' long and a piece of nice 5/4 clear Maple x 12"+ W and about 70" long that is slightly warped. Both will be be planed down to a full 3/4" thickness with one straight edge (S3S). Hopefully the planning will flatten the maple. Their prices are NOt cheap but not as bad as one might expect.. These two boards should keep me in project maateial for a while. They also have a lot of smaller size stock (4/4, 6/4 and 8/4) in the various verieties that I plan to explore for making frames. The Poplar I have been using is inexpensive, but not very pretty wood and only availabe in 3/4" boards at Lowes or HD. I would like to add a profile to some of the frames I make, but the wood must be at least 6/4 to do so. Sorry that this find is only for those who are fairly local to me.

I've use this kind a while ago. Yes they do work, but the tension exerted my not be uniform, take a lot of time to set up/break down, needs a wrench to adjust the tension , and are a SPITA to store. The SEDY or the other identical brands like the Power Tec are so easy to use, set up and break down is very quick, uniform tension all around with just a simple twist of the wrist, and it stores in the draw nicely. Like I said, it is IMHO the best tool out there to square up a SIMPLE frame during glue up.

I found this Kenny Hopkins pattern in the Library and thought it was something that would be nice to make. I resized and modified the pattern just a little to suit an 11”x14” panel with a 3/4” perimeter frame. The cutting was fairly easy and was done with Pegas #1 spiral blades except for the straight cuts on the frame which was done with a Pegas #5 MGT R. The cut panel is 5/32” Maple solid core ply affixed to a 1/4” BB ply stained dark with MInwax Ebony stain applied over a base coat of Walnut stain. Again, as usual, I finished the panel with multiple coats of clear Gloss Spray Lacquer. I made the custom frame from 1 3/4” wide Poplar. In an attempt to improve the looks of my frames, after sanding to a fine finish with 600 grit paper, I used a Minwax pre-stain treatment and then finished it with a Minwax Gel Stain in a new color I found called Brazilian Rosewood. This color stain is medium dark but fairly transparent, exposing and beautifully highlighting the Poplar grain. I thought this looked very good and complimented the panel nicely. The frame was then protected with a couple coats of satin Wipe On Poly.

In the thread re: Thinking About a New Miter Saw, discussion moved off track to making Frame miters. This got me thinking that it might be a good idea to offer this tool for those who make frames There is a lot of ways and tools people use for squareing up a frame during glue up. And, I'm sure many know about, and use, this tool, but for anyone who may not be familiar, the SEDY Band Clamp is, in my opinion, about the best one out there for simple rectangular frame making. I have purchased and used more than one kind of band clamps in the past. The rachet type is great for furniture work and such. I even had one that came with many different corner pieces that you could make all kinds of shapes up to an octagon. However, I found all the rachet types were dificult to use when making frames. The SEDY is quick to set up, easy to use, very strong clamping strength, and, assuming the miters are fairly accurate, will make good tight joints. I do not pin nail or spline my frames and I have never had a Titebond glued frame joint separate. However, I will use Frame V-nails in soft wood frames to ensure this cannot happen. And, just one other trick. Apply painters tape to the finish side of the frame at the joints before applying the glue so the glue squeeze out does not get on the surface. No mater how much sanding is done the surface that gets glue on will never take stain as well as the other wood areas.

Les, Please read my reply to kmmcrafts above. I highly suggest you don't waste your money on a power miter saw for making picture frames...YOU WILL NOT BE HAPPY. If you have a decent table saw, buy a good frame miter making sled. Perfect miters every time and lengths exactly repeatable.

My shop is so small I do not have room for a powered miter saw. So I actually bought one of these (not Craftsman, but almost identical) recently to make my frames. Yep, not a quick as a powered miter saw, but it is very accurate as long as you make sure to clamp everything down well before cutting. A power sliding miter saw is very expensive just to use to cross cut wide boards. If there is room, a radial arm saw is a much better choice for cutting wide boards. Great for making dados also. IMHO, even the most pricy power miter saws are not as accurate for cutting precise miters as this hand powered saw or as good as a professional miter sled for use on a GOOD table saw. I had both, a good power miter saw and a profesional table saw with a mitering sled, when I had my full workshop back in NC. The sled was, hands down, much more accurate then the Miter saw.

Welcome to the Village from the East Coast of Central Florida. We transplanted down here from Fletcher (S/o Asheville) in the Mountains of Western North Carolina about 6 years ago. Had lived there for almost 19 years after retiring and relocating from LINY in 1996. Loved the area, but even the Winters of WNC was getting to me and, having to blow and pickup the Poplar leaves from the many trees on my property that fell from August to January was becoming just too much of a chore for this old man. I gave up a fully outfitted 24 X 30 wood workshop, that I sorely miss, when we moved down here. Currently working out of a smal 8X12 shed making saw dust a dust pan full at a time.

Don't know who that is, but the cutting and overall clock is really nice. I might have darkened the background under the Hair to male it read just a little bit better.

Love the pattern and the cutting is very nice.

It has taken a few days to get back to cutting again after installing my Dust Collector (DC) System. I have been working on a few projects at the same time, one being a sculptured piece that required removal of material with a Router. Using a router sled to lower areas on the project, my hand held trim router produced a tremendous amount of cutting materials. This material would have filled up my small shop vacuum quickly. Using the DC pull around hose, the cutting material was easily and quickly picked up. I also had the need to do a little sanding on my table mounted combination disk/belt sander. With the DC operating the sanding dust was collected and no noticeable amount disbursed into the air. In preparation of another project I used my table saw to cut panels and with the DC system attached and turned on, the saw dust was collected and there was hardly any material disbursed into the shop. The little saw dust that comes off the top of the saw was again easily picked up with the pull around hose. Then yesterday morning I spent over 3 hours at the scroll saw. I let the DC run continuously while cutting. My dust collector box under the table worked like a charm. Most of the generated saw dust and small pieces that would normally drop to the floor or onto my apron and shoes, was almost collected one hundred percent. I simply picked up, and tossed into the collection box, the small cutout pieces the popped up out of the cutting. Only a few got away and landed on the floor. Large cut out pieces were simply grabbed and pitched directly into the trash can. Since I did not add a top of the table collection hose to the system, I did get a little saw dust on top of the work and table but this is very insignificant and again easily cleaned up after cutting with the pull around hose. Previously, the floor of my shop would be littered with cut out pieces and saw dust for a few days until a project cut was completed and I stopped to actually clean up. Yesterday, it took less than a minute to clean up the floor around the scroll saw to pick up the few pieces that got away and the minimal amount of sawdust that dropped to the floor. I can see that a few minutes of dusting the shop walls, shelves, stored materials, etc., now and then, will keep the shop a lot cleaner than it has been in the past. Just a little FYI. The temps are cool these days and I have a small heater to warm up the shop. While cutting yesterday with the heater on, it started to get too warm so I shut the heater off. The DC system pulls a lot of air out of the shop and it immediately began to noticeably cool the shop down. This is a problem I will easily live with. Hope my DC install post and this followup was helpful.

Good golly, you ruined the whole piece, darn, and it was looking soooo good. Good job and nice cut, If you hadn't said anything no one would have ever noticed. And, BTW, that is what makes yours special and differnt from any other's cutting of this pattern.

My Contractor table saw is easy to move and I can pull it away from the wall far enough to cut project panels and such. I take it ouside to do long rip cuts or cut large pieces of Ply. I tend to use the saw as a work surface to do finishing work with a drop cloth covering the table.

A small electric heater designed to be used in a workshop. When temps are in the 40's. it takes about an hour to bring it up to a comfortable temp to work in. If it drops much below 40, I just skip a day and the temps will bounce back up. Not often here in Florida will the temps stay below the 40's. No possible A/C. Power suppy not adequate and no wall space for one. I work early mornings with door open and a fan on. Bought one of those portable personel cooling units that uses ice to cool the air and the fan operates on USB voltage (about 5 volts I think). Havn't used it yet but the high temps will be back in a couple of months. Should add a few hours a day of work time.

Thanks. Thought maybe you and others might want to see the whole 8' X 12' shop: Looking in the front double door. You can see I don't have to walk very far between work stations. The shelf across the rear wall has a bunch of my extra Motorcycle parts. These will probably be relocated to my storage unit when I need the space for more wood working stuff. Right side. Light wood storage on shelf, lots of clamps, hand tools, etc. Left side. Ive had that narrow work bench for about 40 years. Top shel has a bunch of portable power tools in their cases. Lower shelf for all those small items you reach for, for every project. My home made Router table. The wood tool chest was inherited from my father who got it from my grandfather. Probably near a hundred years old. The battery in the back corner is for my box trailer and is on a battery tender There is alittle Echo Dot out of the pick just above the plugs. that lets me listen to my Sirius/XM. My Sanding station on a home made roll around cabinet. The yellow motor with wand is a slow speed carving setup that I currently have a sanding mop installed. Works great to get the furries off the back of cuttings. A few hand saws hang on the wall behind the station and a little plastic drawer cabinet for small picture hangers and such mounted in the back corner. My Dremel area with my upside down dremel drill press and separate dremel with wand for using high speed carving bits. After drilling blade holes I use the wand with a small ball carving bit to taper each hole on the back side of the cut to make threading the blade easier. I generate a lot of sawdust with hand tools (drils, sanders, small routers, etc.) on the work bench, so the drag aroung vac hose will be very nice to keep the area clean. Contractor table saw with a small pancake compressor in corner, used for pin nailer and air duster nozzle. When I have to rip long pieces or cut large panels, I move the saw outside onto the paving in front of the shed. Then it easy to clean up the generated saw sust with my leaf blower. Another view of my Pegas saw setup. Those are blade storage test tubes with caps in a flat board mounted to the side of the stand. Very convienent reach. The flooring material you can see in this photo needs to be replaced. Used a cheap thin stick down vinyl material that is not sticking well. Rain comes in the doos while ';m working weting the floor and with the high summer temps,the floring material is lifiting. I need to replace with a more durable permanently secured material. Next Spring's project. Unfortunately as you can see I have no wall space to hang any of nmy work.

I was in thed process of replying to you when SVV went off line. I did purchase on of those personal cooling devices last year after the end of the very hot days. I haven't tried it yot but plan to do so when the hot temps return. I'm hoping it will give me a few more hours a day when the temps are way up there.

If you have room to set it up in a corner all you would need to do is make some movable framed walls lined with sound atenuating insulation to enclose the unit. Add hinges to the walls to allow them to swing away to acces the unit for emptying the collection bag. The overall height of the unit is only about 5 feet so the enclosure would need a top also. But don't forget it would need a small vent to the ouside where the air can excape.

East Coast of Central Florida. I have a small heater designed for workshop use that will take the chill off the low 40 degree temps, rather quickly, for those few days of the year we have "winter". The bigger problem is the High 90 degree days we get in the middle of our "looooong summers". I usually have to work very early in the mornings with doors sopen and a fan running, quitting by 10 or 11 AM when it gets unbearable. AC is not an option.

I only have two 90 degree situations, all other turns are smooth large radius done with the hose itself. One 90 is at the bottom of the 2 1/2 vertical drop where it tansitions to 4" just inside the wll of the workshop. this spot has the maximum suction as it is just a few feet to the dust colector itself. The other is at the top of that same vertical drop where I Teed the 2 1/2 in each direction. Again just a shot vertical to the run to the dust collector. Also not I used clear hose most places so a blockage will be easily seen. That being said, you are correct that I do need to watch to make sure I don't get any blockages.

Welcome to the Village from East Coast of Central Florida from FrankEV another Grumps. I was only 40 when my first grandson was born. At that time I said I was much too young to be called a grandfather, eventhough I sleep with a grandmother, so I said just call me Grumps. It stuck and my kids and grandkids still call me Grumps. However, that monika stays within the family. Here I'm just...