Ken Lotts

Whenever I can, I use 1 mm since it accommodates all the way up to FD-UR #5. My drill press holds a 1mm bit just fine (which surprised me). I was worried that I would be breaking the bits since they are so small so I bought a pack of 50 (Amazon $8 for 50 bits). My drill press has been great though and I have not been breaking bits like I thought. I just ordered some #68 bits because I can see that they will be handy.

I love your cabinet idea. gives me some ideas. Thanks!

Good topic! great info here.

Congrats on the tools! Reminds me of when I got my garage built ten or eleven years ago. Lots of tool purchases... drill press, table saw & miter saw were first day items for me. Lived all my life with no place to put tools so when I finally got a place I wasted no time getting some serious tools. Here in southern AZ I want but cant justify a boat Lol..

Very nice!

Super project! Love it.

Wow, Love the cars..

Nice!

Cant wait to see some of your stuff.

Awesome work! Really a nice piece.

How cool!

I too grew up in the 50s -60s and I can remember laughing at them so hard tears would come. Now I have totally lost the ability to find their stuff funny enough to laugh at. Your Mime though... THAT made me laugh! Thanks for lighting up my morning

This simple to cut plywood jig totally secures the goose neck of a magnetic based LED light (available on Amazon for $10) and prevents it from shifting in any way. It would work on a number of different saws.

I like this Frank. The frame turned out really nice especially for these birds. Very unique look. I might play around with your staining idea on Poplar. Its always interesting doing that sort of stuff. BTW, I was in Home Depot the other day and my eye caught some super cheap 1/2" Cedar fence pickets ($2.52 for a 6ft board) and the boards were all straight as an arrow. Well I can afford $2.52 so I went to playing with one.. I tried oiling it but that was a waste but then I stained it with Minwax Dark Walnut and the transformation was amazing (IMHO). The problem is that it has an odd smell since it is "Incense Cedar" which is a smelly tree but I made some signs with it that look great.

An amazing shop. I can almost smell the saw dust Lol! Can hardly believe how well you maintain everything in there. My shop is not even 10% as disciplined. I spend too much time searching for tools that I leave laying around Lol! Steve Good would likely get a kick out of seeing your project wall!

Beautiful work!

That looks great. It also looks like a LOT of fine craftsmanship. Extremely well done!

Welcome Michael, great to have you here.

Awesome!

Really nice sign! Nice radio too.

Awesome. Thanks.. exactly what I needed to know!

Thanks!

I found some 7/8" red birch on clearance sale a few weeks ago at Woodworkers Source (in Tucson) and I have been itching to press it into service so I did a quick cut for a fellow ham radio operator who is a good friend. Now I will need to make a few more for others Lol! I like this wood a lot. It scrolled nicely even though it was 7/8" (I used a #7 FD-UR on my Seyco). I made the pattern with MS Word using Arial Rounded MT Bold (size 180). I did a fun test run with 2x4 lumber on my own callsign last week. I had to use a #9 blade to keep things moving. The super soft pine just bogged anything smaller than a #9 down. Being 2X4, it looked OK but I decided to spray paint white it to hide it's origin Lol! I discovered that I had placed the pattern right over some rip out at the edge. Oh well, it was just for fun anyways These desk plaques really help dress up amateur stations.. Here is a shot of an older plaque I made years ago to showcase one of my retro setups. As a business idea for those who sell their stuff, If you do a "sample" call sign plaque you might get some custom orders. Just a thought.

Looks awesome. Inlays really done well!

Wow, That looks great! Really nice!