Doug

By the way, you Brits should know most Americans have found they do not like taxation with representation - especially the representation we seem to have at this time.

is the opportunity to start and end nearly every day with this forum and to enjoy the contributions of each of you - your wit, your wisdom, your help, seeing your work, and seeing your patterns and finding some of them simple enough for my limited skills. I never know how to do a subject line to get the most possible to read a post but I did want to share my thoughts about SSV and what Travis and main elf/moderator Clayton provide for each of us. To express my appreciation I just renewed my Patron/Supporter status for two years. I encourage each of you who are visitors to become members (it is free) and if you get only part of the enjoyment from SSV which I do, I encourage members to become supporters. SSV is not in your face about donations and I was a member some time before I finally looked at the drop down menus at the top and found by clicking on "Support SSV" it would help me get to a place where I could help support what Travis, Clayton, and any other moderators may do. Running a successful forum takes an enormous amount of time and some amount of dollars. It took me some time to figure out when my Patron/Supporter status was due to expire but I found if I went to Support SSV and Add to Cart I would get an Oops Already Purchased message and if I clicked to View or Renew it would then tell me when my support expired - Travis, you might consider showing this in member profiles so it is simpler for us challenged folks. For $10 per year, I get more enjoyment from SSV and all of you than any other $10 I spend. To all of you fellow Americans, Happy Fourth of July To all of you Brits, I understand you have some celebration on July 3 (today) to celebrate in some manner that we would no longer be throwing your tea into Boston Harbor so enjoy your celebration. And to all of the rest of you, I hope you each have a lovely weekend and I look forward to hanging around this entire group for another couple of years. Thanks again to Travis, Clayton, and any others I do not know but should be thanking for keeping SSV up and running and I hope that each of you

I think your challenge is going to be the choice of wood, the width and depth of the wood, and how it is hung so the weight of the pictures does not break the scroll art in the curve or elsewhere. Let us know what you decide on, how it works, and share pictures when you are done.

Check out Gary Beasley's upgrade which appeared last October - I did it and think it a great improvement; and the extra weight does not make my arm light sag. http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/topic/7569-lamp-upgrade-on-my-dewalt-scrollsaw/

Great idea Fay and another use of woodworking skills and method to re-purpose wood scraps. Another method is to use food storage containers of the appropriate size for your glue bottle/tube so it can stand on end in the container - my solution for mustard, glue, or whatever is thick and not in a container which will stand on end by itself.

Sorry all. My obsessive compulsive personality will not permit me to leave a project undone. It is so bad, I finish some before I even start them.

When I finish something new the last steps are 0000 steel wool, air compressor, and then put it in a shoe box or other container until I give it away. That way I never have to worry about where my thingie is. Also with my memory there are so many different items I call thingies I cannot keep all of my thingies straight. Never thought to take pictures of all of my thingies. Great idea Robbert.

Daniel Looks great - you will have fun with the new toys. I could not help but notice the pink fly swatter. Is that to satisfy your violent feminine side?

I thought many of you might be interested in the information at this web site http://grizzly-jet-shop-fox-tool-hunter.blogspot.com/2009/02/shiraz-balolia-owner-of-grizzly-imports.html Apparently the same individual is the owner of Grizzly, Woodstock International, and Shop Fox. Shop Fox has a dealer network Grizzly does not. Shop Fox has a two year warranty, Grizzly has a one year warranty. Although they may not be identical machines, I would venture that they have many interchangeable parts. Just food for thought; especially when thinking about how happy you are you bought a Grizzly rather than a Shop Fox or bought a Shop Fox rather than a Grizzly.

Roly I don't drink so I just have half as many toys as I want. Hans - I do not have the skill or patience to do everything with hand tools - At my age even if I had the skill and patience, I would not have the time to accomplish everything I wanted without power tools - BTW, I do still buy green bananas, I am not THAT old p.s. My wife is a quilter - do you know how much some of those sewing machines cost??

Thanks to all of you for all of the good comments and food for thought. Planning on a Jet spindle sander and Jet bandsaw and wanting to make sure I got their current 15% discount; I got neither. With your help I decided on the Ridgid spindle/belt sander from Home Depot at $199.99 which was a significant savings over the Jet even with the 15% discount. For the bandsaw the decision was much more difficult. I finally came down to the Grizzly 14" anniversary edition ($525 + $79 shipping = $604), the 14" Jet ($749.99 at $637.50 after discount), or a 14" Shop Fox ($599.99). I think the Jet was probably the better of the three, but not by a large amount. The Jet does have a five year warranty, I can pick it up locally, and if I have problems I can get local warranty service. The Grizzly has a one year warranty, no local warranty service, and I have to trust there is no damage in shipping which creates problems. The Shop Fox has a two year warranty, I can pick it up locally at the same place which sells the Jet, and I can get local warranty service. The Grizzly and Shop Fox both come with a fence and miter gauge. The Jet comes with neither and it is about $150 just for the fence. Both the Jet and Shop Fox are sold by a local hardwood store which I like to frequent and support whenever possible (you are right Danny - Midwest in the Big O). Sorting through all of this and other miscellaneous details, I ended up going with the Shop Fox. No discounts but at least the Jet discount weekend got me motivated to get something done and with all of your help I spent a lot less than I thought I was going to need to spend in order to get toys of reasonably good quality. The Grizzly probably would have been a great buy and I probably would have not had any problems but dealing locally kind of swung the decision. Now I just have to try and figure out where the new toys go. Maybe some of the grandkid toys need to leave so there is room for grandpa toys - gonna have to work on that part of it. I am not going to leave my vehicle outside of the garage/shop and I do not have the nerve to even suggest my spouse should leave hers in the driveway. By the way - a kit would not be acceptable to my grandson although it would have been acceptable to me.

I have several Rigid toys and am generally quite pleased with them. I had thought about the sander but so often things that are designed to do two different things do neither very well. You two and taking me to the prior thread has convinced me that my fears are unfounded so that is the way I will probably go so thanks Danny and Travis. Now, how about Jet for the bandsaw? Even if I save a couple hundred on the sander that does not get me from a $375 10 inch band saw to a $1,000 14 inch band saw. I know Jet is generally good quality which is why I landed on them at sale time. Any thoughts from anyone?? Travis - what bandsaw did you get and which do you wish you would have gotten? Thanks in advance for any comments.

My oldest grandson (14) is an avid guitar player. He recently sent me a video and said "Grandpa, I think you have all of the tools so that we can build an electric guitar." Well, I looked at the video and it had some real serious workshop toys which are out of my reach. After looking further I decided we might be able to build the guitar, it would give us a good bonding experience, and maybe if we were able to pull it off in 20 or 30 years he could tell his children what he and grandpa did. Bottom line, I decided I might not again have this opportunity with him so I needed to give it a try even though it will stretch anything I have ever done and it will cost a lot more than just going out and buying him an extremely good guitar. Having made that decision some of the nice but not necessary toys became, if not necessary, desirable toys as we are starting with mahogany blanks for the body and neck which need to be cut and shaped. Jet is having their 15% off sale this weekend and I am contemplating getting their 10" bandsaw ($374.99 less 15%) and their benchtop oscillating spindle sander ($489.99 less 15%). The 14" bandsaw would be nice but I would just not have enough use for it to justify the price difference. Does anyone have positive or negative feedback on Jet or on the 10" bandsaw or benchtop oscillating sander or want to offer other suggestions. Thanks for any thoughts you want to share.

Really special. But is Big Red Danny the Nebraska Cornhusker or is Big Red the dog?

He who dies with the most toys wins. May your mom have a long life and maintain her love for her son and grandson in the same manner.

Amen to all that was said above. The only reason to use the PC is so you have more appreciation for the DW788. DO NOT RETURN THE DW788. If you like doing other things with wood you will love scrolling. I assure you, when you go out there and turn the saw on you forget about other things and are only in to what you are doing - a scroll saw will lock you in mentally and for longer than a chop saw, table saw, planer, or almost any other woodworking tool - a lathe might do the same but I do not have a lathe. Cruise this site to pick up all sorts of hints about using your saw, blades, dust control, etc. I am constantly in awe of what the folks here can do, much of which I am not willing to attempt, and there willingness to respond to questions and provide whatever help they can. If you have great talent you will love scrolling and if your talent is more meager like mine you will still find what you like and can do and will love it just as much. It is an addiction which will not result in you being incarcerated and you go to the wood store rather than the pharmacy. Most of what I do is word art with a lot of short sayings but what I especially enjoy doing is names for children. They are a very appreciative and uncritical audience. Look around in the user gallery and pattern library for things you might like to try and never be frustrated. The more you do the more you learn and you will find the niche you enjoy. Enjoy, ask questions, share pictures, and share what you learn with all of us and especially with scrollers that come after you.

Duane It looks awesome. Wish I had that much room. I put my EX21 on 3/4 ply with 4 inch locking swivel casters and then put 3/4 ply with the same footprint as the base between the top of the stand and the saw so I could keep most frequently used scroll items - blades, etc - handy. For me it works well. Just went back through the thread and see I already said this - thought it sounded familiar. On well, old man, bad memory. Duane - I added the above pictures if a visual helps at all. I did have a new table top done by a machinest friend and it is two four inches wider and 4 inches longer in the front. For me, the larger table top is a joy.

But we all love you Paul so what is the problem?

I have a Fein which is fine, but expensive. Kevin is right on Dust Deputy. I have an Oneida Dust Deputy between my vac and dust collection point and you do not get sawdust blow by from your vac and rarely ever need to clean your vac filter. The Fein is one of the more quiet vacs but I do wear hearing protection. If looking for a vac I suggest ignoring horsepower ratings and looking solely at decibels and suction - cfm - cubic feet per minute and to make sure you get something with over 100 cfm.

Roberta is about to become a very happy woman!

Jim I am not a doc but I think your friend maybe needs a new one or needs to ask the same question of a pulmonologoist (sp?). I just cut and pasted the following from a posting last year that you can follow if you click on the thread in my prior posting in this thread. Carl also speaks from experience when he makes his comments on dust. ** Read on ONLY if interested in potential harm from sawdust. Excerpt from a British Medical Journal Article: "It should be noted that in some of the large scale general population studies assessed by the American Thoracic Society, the original aim was to determine the overall impact of workplace exposures on the population burden of COPD, and not necessarily to identify workplace specific causes. However, in certain studies, information was sought on the specific substances and occupations associated with increased prevalences of COPD. Occupations linked to increased prevalences of COPD include construction, leather, rubber, plastics manufacturing, plastics and rubber workers, textiles, food products, spray painters, and welders. Specific substances linked to higher prevalences of COPD include quartz, welding fumes, wood dust, sawdust, asbestos, and solvents." The full article can be found at: http://oem.bmj.com/c...t/62/4/212.full And a couple of other articles: http://www.wood-data...s-and-toxicity/ http://billpentz.com...clone/index.cfm

How come you did not scroll a bunch of paper clips to photograph? Have you quit taking your medicine? Have you shared this with your shrink? Have you been given a prognosis for this condition?

Duane Here is a start: http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/topic/7141-dust-collection/ Do some cruising on prior posts. A lot of talented folks and given a lot of good ideas on dust collection. I am not fond of the EX21 dust collection system. The pictures you see are of my green EX21. I have the black EX21 now and use the same dust collection as I did on my green EX21 rather than the dust collection system which came with the EX21. You will find several comments about folks not being extremely fond of the EX21 dust collection system. None of this helps with DC on your other toys but maybe gives you some ideas. Main thing is just to do something to protect your lungs and keep tweaking it to make it work better; this includes always wearing a dust mask. Whatever you do, I strongly recommend using the Oneida Dust Deputy between your vacuum and your tool. It is amazing how much it collects and how little gets through to the vacuum - you seldom have to check or clean your vacuum filter.

Check out Ironwood or Leadwood - I think there is a reason for the names they are called. I would not want to cut either with any saw.