Tallbald

We have the Wen momentary foot switches for our Wen and Jet saws. To avoid foot issues for us, I made riser blocks for us each with a fulcrum point that fits just before the heel of our shoes. penny's is different from mine as her foot is shorter. Our foot rocks on this fulcrum like a teeter totter easily and our foot stays relaxed. The rubber feet of the switch fit down into the flat bottom holes of the riser blocks, and the cord lays in the cut groove, helping the switch stay in place. The Wen switch is hinged at the front (corrected) of the metal switch body. Works for us well. Don

Ahhhh Hobby Lobby clearance, 12 years ago, thanks to Penny's contribution to our kitchen remodeling! She knew they'd come in handy one day down the road... Don. Don.

I mounted the new Jet on 1/4 inch thick rubber washers I cut and glued up from old band saw tires, with another 1/4 inch thick washer on top of the foot. Bolts go through the stand top into 5/16-18 T-nuts and are snugged a bit. Very pleased so far with the saw's performance, but I have so much to learn and practice upon. This saw is a pleasure so far to use during practice. The tilt top stand lets me sort of move sawdust off the table to drop into the slide-out scrap and dust container. I need to come up with a neater, cleaner routing of the cords though. Thank you all for all your encouragement. Don. VID_20230304_161741293.mp4

The second saw arrived yesterday to compliment our beautiful little Wen 16 inch. Our Jet 18 inch, a comparative behemoth, is a solid, outwardly well-crafted machine that cuts beautifully in the practice wood I tried. I mounted the saw on the newer tilt top stand, started routing the wires to the power strip and attached the LED flex neck light. This little saw inspires confidence. I'll try the "nickel test" next time I plug it in. Quieter than its' brother Wen. I know the Jet 18 and 22 inch saws do not seem to enjoy the following of the DeWalt, Pegas, Seyco and some others, but I studied features and prices deeply before making a decision. The couple hundred dollars or so do make a difference to this retired bald old fat man's billfold. The difference will buy a lot of blades and wood. Busy looking through books on puzzles and following here and on Facebook groups for inspiration. Wish me good fortune with both these saws and my wish to become nearly as accomplished as all you other folks here already are. Don

Hahaha that makes me grin. Penny respects that I need and want the shop cleaned, blown out and organized back to "ready to roll" before closing the door for the night. As I commented before, Penny's much more uhhhhh... "casual" about her sewing room. I was a Tool and Die Maker part of my career and organization was my modis operandi. Don

Love that! So happy for you guys. Don.

Gosh yes it's wonderful. First spouse of 22 years just wanted me to "get it done", whether it was building antique repro furniture, custom molding for our home, mantel surround for our new home fireplace or an entertainment center etc etc. Penny, whom I met a year into bachelorhood 17 years ago has always been a crafter. To this day she quilts, Cricut creates (the vinyl version of laser cut crafting I guess), makes custom costume jeewlry, works in wood and anything else that strikes her interest. Today she's to be in our shop again making some decorations for Easter again. What a wonderful life partner I have been blessed meeting... Don

More time in the shop with my Shop Partner and wife, Penny. A few rabbit and egg decoration blanks for the Easter holiday completed. We are both learning as we travel this scrolling journey together. Warm weather this week and three evenings in our shop side by side. Love this lady and our lives together. 17 years so far strong. Don. VID_20230227_185251660.mp4

That's just cute as a bug's ear! Love to hear how the little puppy works for you. Don

Well thank you for your kindness. Yes, I push myself 95% of the time to complete to completion the complete process. But I go a fast and easy route. The boiled linseed oil I favor comes in quart bottles or cans, around $15 at Home Depot, and is easy to brush on, leave minutes or hours and wipe off extra. The can lasts a loooong time. I burn the oily rags in a fire pit right away though, as left in a wad they can combust on their own. After a few days the drying is complete it always seems to me. This is the stuff our grandparents sometimes used on garden hoe handles etc. Easy to touch up scuffs too. Oh. Just learned that our saw now is arriving tomorrow which is Sunday. Good that it will be early but bad because we have church in the morning and a church class in the late afternoon. May have to skip church though because don't want a $750 package to set unguarded on our front porch... Don.

Thanks to each of you for the kind words. Barb believe me, this stand is not difficult to put together. For me it was a matter of figuring out the scrap and waste lumber on hand and building to accommodate materials. This is an improved version of V1.0 I made for our WEN scroll saw (pictures of V1.0 are below). I'd be happy to share any dimensions if someone needs them. Yes, penny and I are fortunate to share hobbies and interests. But all is not completely common. Penny doesn't do leather (I have a saddle sewing machine and craft custom gun holsters and belts) and I do not mess at all with her Cricut machine and supplies. Just not interested myself really. All my best to everyone. Don

The tilt angle is 15 degrees. Penny and I tried several different angles until we found the just right tilt to reduce strain on our backs. Penny is a full foot shorter than me. The adjustable height shop stool helped find optimal angle too. Here's the custom-sized foot riser for Penny to firmly position our momentary foot switches. Mine is not as tall. Truthfully, Penny's comfort is more important to me than my own. We both have medical issues. Don

Thank you each for the good thoughts. I agree about the scarcity of Jet talk. The Jet seems to live in the shadows of the Pegas, Hegner, DeWalt and Excalibers. This 18 inch one is the junior version of the full size Jet, and gets quite good reviews. I studied many videos and see many scrollers, as am I, are bottom feeders. So that shouldn't be an issue for me. Quality was big concern for me, what with reading of electronics failures, bad vibration problems and a few other things on some saw brands. I can only hope this Jet runs as well as our little 16 inch WEN. The Jet has a 5 year warranty that hopefully I will not have to test. The smaller 18 inch size will not be a limitation for Penny and me. Everything we want to craft will fit nicely into the 18.5 throat depth. In a positive affirmation I designed and made a second tilt top stand that builds on my first tilt top one. A 15 degree tilt, close tolerance hinges and steel pins that mate into moving parts keeps everything solid as on the first version. This one though has a large drawer and slide out lift-off waste and chip container. A 1 7/8 inch thick laminated yellow pine top, laminated 1 inch thick bottom shelf and better locking casters add to the package. All wood was scrap, pulled out of the home store trash can or from the home store 70% off lumber cart. Funny the suggestion was made that Penny take up quilting. Too late! She's a quilter from way back when before we met 17 years ago. Together she and I collected antique sewing machines, like our two Singer Featherweights and our 1920's hand crank Singer 209. She and I sometimes make quilts together. And she uses my saddle sewing machine Bertha Jo (300 pounds of sex in iron and steel). penny and I simply love being together. Crafting, talking, whatever. Here are pictures of the tilt top table V2.0: Thank you each again. Don.

My Beloved Spouse and Shop Partner Penny and I are so enjoying time in our little shop learning to use our WEN 16 inch scroll saw. I made a riser for the foot switch as she's a foot shorter than am I. She's cut out rabbit profiles to represent our three grandchildren in a craft project, while I've drawn and cut out sunflowers. Loving our time together so very much. For 4 months Penny has been urging me to order the Jet 18 inch saw, which is the best size for the projects we want to do. Ratings are great in so many respects and the price point is OK for Penny and me. I'd been tracking the price at a big chain home store, and it, along with a major online retailer had the saw for sale for $709. When the home store raised their price early this week to $850, I feared the online retailer would soon follow suit. I finally broke down and honored Penny's request to turn loose of some money and with some trepidation, pressed the "place order" button. Penny was right. The online retailer sure enough raised their price also to $850 this morning. Whew. I'm both excited and relieved! As a "positive affirmation" some time back, and to use up some of the scrap pile of lumber, I kept moving in our seasonally cold shop and crafted a modified tilt top stand for either the new saw I'd hoped for one day or some other tooling. This one has a drawer and a sliding, removeable scrap bin, and room below for a small vacuum. Anyway I just wanted to share our excitement here that next week the second of a scroll saw pair will arrive. Don

I am tickled to goodness for you! Wow what a nice piece of machinery. Congratulations!!! Don.

Really happy for you!! Don

Say thank you all. I did buy to try the 5 gallon stainless tank Craftsman at Lowe's for $55. For certain quieter than my 12 gallon 18 year old Craftsman. Going to see if noise for this out in the shop is better or not. Sure would enjoy mounting and storing this small vacuum underneath the stand of my next scroll saw stand, currently under construction. Son already has asked to buy my 12 gallon beast. Thanks again. Don.

Not completely what I was looking for but I did find that Lowe's has a 5 gallon stainless tank, 4 HP Craftsman shop vacuum that several buyers have stated in product reviews is markedly quieter than other shop vacuums. I have in mind being able to mount this small vacuum underneath a scroll saw stand shelf and keep it hooked up to the saw. It will be easily removable for other uses. And at around $55 the price is within my budget. Thank you all folks for sharing your insight! Don

That's a nice arrangement. It looks so well laid out. Below is my wall collection unit and the large chip cyclonic separator I made. I attach the hose to each individual machine as I start using them. No room for a permanent piping setup. I've been thrilled with this arrangement since I made the separator a couple years ago. It has a plywood baffle inside the can that directs the chip flow and prevents large chips from accumulating and going up into the can output fitting and into the suction fan/bag. The scroll saw of course is a fine dust maker which would let me get by with a small cannister vacuum that rolls around with the saw. I agree I'll be better off with a shop vac attached to my wife's and my scroll saw(s). Quieter sure would be best though. I appreciate everyone's thoughts and time here. Don

Good to know and thanks. Thinking here a "quiet" shop vac like the DeWalt QT, with a bleeder mechanism I can if need be make myself. Encouraging. I already have hearing loss and "quiet" is a good thing to avoid further damage. Ear plugs and ear muffs present problems for me, so I'd prefer a different approach. Don

I guess it's the 4 inch hose necked down to the little 1 1/2 inch duct on my Wen saw and Wen portable oscillating spindle sander. The Shop Fox wall collector screams. My old Craftsman shop vac does get louder and higher pitched, but not like the wall mount collector. This brings up a question maybe you or someone could answer. Years ago I seem to remember a vacuum my Dad had that had a sliding collar covering a hole in the wand. A user could adjust the collar to fully or only partially cover the hole which adjusted the suction power through the wand. I wonder if I rigged a "bleeder" of sorts like that was, if the load on the motor would reduce and noise also? I know I'd lose suction flow some but maybe it would still be enough to draw the fine dust from a scroll saw? And maybe better on a motor? Don

I love hearing about repurposing successes. My wife and I are happy repurposers too! A central dust collection system is just a pipe dream (grin-LOL) for me. My setup is a wall mount Shop Fox motor/fan/bag, but I built a cyclone separator using a fitting kit from amazon and a 33 gallon galvanized trash can. In two years I've never had more than 1/2 an inch of dust in the bag, b ut the trash can fills up regularly. And into the garden the shavings go, to be tilled in and help the soil. The system is too powerful for a scroll saw collection fitting and I hate to strain the Shop Fox with such a constriction. That's why I'm investigating a "quiet" shop vacuum here. Thanks to all for your replies folks. I appreciate your time and typing! Don

Hey thank you folks. Don

Ahh thank you. I had used "shop vacuum", thinking of "shop vac" as a specific brand only. Thank you. Don

I'm sure that the noise of a regular shop vacuum used for scroll saw dust collection becomes hard to bear for more folks than just me. Necking down my wall mount 1HP dust collector from 4 inches to 1 1/2 inches creates a screaming air stream at the nozzle end and I imagine the constriction is not good for the dust collector motor itself either. "Quiet" is a relative term I know, but I wish there was a smaller shop vacuum that I could dedicate to a scroll saw (and my WEN portable oscillating spindle sander) that didn't sound like a jet engine spooling up for takeoff. Price is an issue for me as I expect it is for some others too. Could anyone point me to a discussion here or out there somewhere online about quiet alternatives please? Thanks as always. Don