Hi folks, after lurking for about a week I thought it was time I stuck my head through the door and said hello to all you fine scrollers.
My name is Larry, I'm 54 years old and I am an ex-pat Brit who's been living in Canada for the past 18+ years. I have dabbled in various forms of woodworking over the years and was very much into marquetry work in the early 1980's but I have never tried scroll work before, hence my presence here so that I can absorb as much info as possible!
About 10 years ago I was hit with a disabling medical condition that meant I lost my career as a result and I have been trying to get by on a small disability pension ever since. Being disabled means I have lots of empty hours to fill and I am hoping that scrolling will fill at least a few of those.
My start in scrolling has not been the best as I have already had to return the first machine I bought and I just took delivery of my second machine tonight. I started out with what looked like a good deal, one of the major Canadian chains had a recent sale on this machine.....
It was on sale for $70 instead of $230 and had a lot of nice features like two-way tilting table, built in work light (on the same tube as the blower), tool-less blade changes, quick release tension and variable speed with a digital readout. I had read the reviews on the company website and they were somewhat mixed with some people liking it and others saying it was full of 'issues' and should be avoided. As they had a full refund policy if returned within 7 days I decided to take the risk and buy it.....big mistake! My example lived up to
all the bad points raised! It would not hold a constant speed but rather it 'hunted' between about 450 stokes per minute (SPM) and 1400 SPM. I had read that it needed a very clean power supply and when I fed it through a surge protected power bar instead of straight into the wall outlet it did smooth out the 'hunting' a little bit but that just revealed other problems. At anything above 1/2 speed it would start to rattle and clank and going above 3/4 speed had it 'walking' all over the bench top as the vibrations were so bad (and that was even before you started cutting!) I also had issues with the exhaust port which the manual stated would fit any vacuum hose but neither my shop vac nor the household vacuum cleaner would fit either inside or over the port. Needless to say it went back and I got my refund.
I picked up this one tonight from my local hardware store....
It cost $99 and I have seen it on the net under a multitude of guises including the Harbor Freight own brand, the King Canada brand and even as a Skil brand. I have not had a chance to cut wood with it yet but I did fire it up in the living room and it purrs like a well built sewing machine (with which I have a lot experience...see below). The main blade holders are for pinned type blades and it comes with a couple of adapters so that you can use pinless ones but as they require the use of Allen keys to change a blade I think I am very quickly going to change them to thumb screws to make life easier. The bellows seem a bit 'wimpy' as there is not a lot of air coming out of the blower at lower speeds but I will see how it goes and if required I can rig up an old aquarium air pump I have laying around here to blow the dust off.
While I am here I will take the opportunity to answer a couple of questions that invariably come up when I join a new forum.
Q. What does your 'handle' mean and is there any significance.A. 'Tako kichi' is a Japanese phrase that means 'kite crazy'. Before I became too ill to fly (I don't have the stamina to spend long days on the flying field anymore) my wife and I earned an international reputation for the large kites we used to design, build and fly. On the kiting forums I am also known as 'The Wizard' a name given to me by a former World Champion kite flyer after I invented a hand-held electronic device used for starting a specific type of competitive kite flying event. The device has since been used at six World Championships and literally hundreds of smaller events.
Q. What is the guitar you are playing.A. It's not a guitar as such, it's a rather rare beast as it is a
fretless acoustic bass. Acoustic basses are becoming more popular these days but very few of them are fretless (i.e. they have no frets like a guitar but have a neck more like a violin, cello or double bass). The fretless bass has a unique sound and is far more difficult to play well as it requires a lot more precision from the player.
As this is a woodworking forum I thought you may appreciate a larger picture as it is as much a work of the luthier's art as it is a musical instrument.
The front, back, sides and front face of the headstock are all in an exquisite pillow maple finished with an amber stain/varnish with a very high and smooth gloss. The neck and bridge are a deep brown mahogany and the neck is a 'compound' type which changes shape (in the cross-section) as you move from the headstock to the body. The finger board is rosewood and is inlaid with a very intricate design using mother-of-pearl and abalone inlays. The sound hole rosette is also all abalone. The strings are round wounds (for tone) but are wrapped in a black Teflon tape so that they feel and play like traditional fretless flat wound strings. The Teflon means the strings are extra slippery (great for 'slides') but they don't gouge the fingerboard like regular round wound strings would do.
I will let you know how I get on with my new 'toy' and hopefully I will be turning out more good projects than scrap before too long!
