Topics

136

General Scroll Saw Talk / Simple Box question

« on: February 22, 2013, 07:33:12 pm »

I had a few scraps of 3/4" pine and 1/4" birch plywood. I cut box walls as 2 concentric rectangles from the pine and glued on the plywood. After sanding it made a pretty nice box about the size of a deck of cards (or a pack of cigarette). But all the box builds I've seen seem to cut the box walls from 2 different pieces of wood. Is this only because of the saw kerf? This small box seems to have a good fit, and I can make it tighter by reversing the top (slight differences in the cut line make it snug).

Any thoughts why you'd use 2 pieces rather than one to make the top and bottom walls? 

137

General Scroll Saw Talk / Apprentice needed

« on: February 22, 2013, 09:50:41 am »

My son sent this picture. Looks hard.

138

Tutorials, Techniques and Tips / EX-21 Dust Port

« on: February 16, 2013, 07:47:25 pm »

My EX-21 came with a dust collection port. It is a 2.5" female vacuum connection. I have a small 1.25" Stanley vacuum that I used with my P-C saw (P-C has a 1.25" female vacuum fitting).

I found vacuum adapters from a 2.5" male hose to a 1.25" female fitting but none from 1.25" male hose to 2.5" female fitting.
 
The pics below show a plug cut from 3/4" pine board. The outer circle was traced from the 2.5" female and then cut with a 10 degree angle, tapered smaller toward the saw. The inner hole was traced from the 1.25" male and cut with a 2 degree angle also tapered smaller toward the saw. The inner hole is cut off center to help pick up dust that gravity has pulled down inside the bigger female fitting.
The 10 degree plug fits nice inside the 2.5" female, and the 1.25" male hose, which is already tapered to fit into a 1.25" female, is snug in the 2 degree inner hole.

139

Ask Steve a question. / "Gadgets" Section

« on: February 16, 2013, 10:10:39 am »

Just a thought - Have you considered a Gadgets section to pick up the great mechanisms that members are posting? The Ferris Wheel and Pooping Dog are examples of projects that have some dynamics to them and seem like they might be worth their own category. Clocks, machines, etc. 

140

Brag Forum / Middle Earth Bookmarks

« on: February 13, 2013, 12:17:51 pm »

These bookmarks are a St. Valentine's Day gift for a girl who was reading J. R. R. Tolkein back in the 1970's.

They are made from iron-on oak veneer stuck back-to-back. 2"x3.75", about 0.050" thick. Finished with Feed-n-Wax.

Tolkein readers will remember the symbol on the right as Gandalf's mark. I always thought it was a rune for 'G', but in researching this a little it seems that this is the rune for the letter 'F'. Maybe wizards pronounce or spell their names backwards?

The other is Tolkein's own symbol. Anyone know where it comes from? I'll send a copy to the person with the 1st right answer.

141

Brag Forum / Presidents' Day - a great man to the end.

« on: February 11, 2013, 09:44:03 pm »

This is converted from an actual B&W photo (Daguerreotype?) of Abe Lincoln. I ran it through Gimp Threshold then did some island sinking and bridge building (note the neat part in Abe's hair!). I sent the pattern as well, but if anyone wants to cut it, I'd recommend you skip the name at the bottom. It's a lot more detailed sawing and it's not really needed - most people will know who he is .

It is 5"x7" on 1/4" birch plywood. Cut with a 2/0 R blade on the EX-21. Finished with Feed-n-Wax.

142

Ask Steve a question. / Surge suppression for your saw?

« on: February 11, 2013, 12:14:07 pm »

Normal  woodworkers are usually using big induction motor driven hardware that doesn't much care about power surges. But most scroll saws seem to have a soft-start, power electronic speed control and some logic to tie it all together. At least my P-C and EX-21 have that.

Steve - I see you have a surge suppressor for your power strip. Do you recommend that all scroll saws be powered through a surge suppression strip? Seems like a good idea to me - we have a lot of $$$ tied up in these saws.

Single speed and Hegners saws might not need it - some of the Hegners (Polymax) seem to use belt changes to get speed control rather than power electronics so a surge may not be a problem.

143

Brag Forum / Yet another candlestick and box...

« on: February 10, 2013, 10:55:58 pm »

A St. Valentine's Day gift for my beautiful bride. This is the 2nd Sue Mey candlestick from SSW&C issue 49, and a new birch plywood gift box for it to go in. The candlestick is 3/4 scale. The plan calls for a 2x2 blank, but the blank I had was 1.5x1.5 rosewood. It is a little under 4" tall. The legs were a chore - very thin, but the wood is strong. The box is 2.5x2.5x7 - room for a candle.

I changed the box design to remove the tabs from the upper edge of the box top and instead used a 2-layer top. The outer layer has the roses from Steve Good's mail holder scrolled into it. The inner layer is painted with red and green watercolor paint to color the roses and leaves. This time I remembered to keep the grain running the length of the box, and kept the lighter colored birch to the outside. After rounding the edges, the inner ply is exposed like a border, and the feed-n-wax gives it a slightly darker color. I like the look. 

144

Intarsia / Box Dressing

« on: February 10, 2013, 10:07:55 am »

This is a butterfly from the March 2013 Creative Woodworks. I wanted to dress up the plywood box so it made a better gift box. My first attempt at intarsia - the box is about 6.5Lx2.5Wx2.5H. The body of the butterfly is a piece of ebony cut from a mandolin keyboard (scrap after fitting the keyboard to the neck). Sorry but I don't know the wood in the wings. It has a dark grain so looked like a good fit for the texture of the butterfly wing.

145

Brag Forum / Candle stick gift box

« on: February 08, 2013, 12:22:50 pm »

I had some 5mm birch plywood that proved to be not much good for portrait work (cheap stuff from Lowe's that would not support a thin strip in the portrait). Rather than pitch it, I thought it would be OK to make a gift box. I'd posted the rosewood candle stick (1.5"x1.5"x5") and planned to give it away. So a wooden box would be a nice touch. I wanted the inside to be 2x2x6 to allow for wrapping the candle stick.

I started the cut by trying to weave the blade in and out of the joint tabs using a 2/0 blade, but the cuttings are mostly long straight lines and the 2/0 is a bear to keep on a line. I tried a 423 blade - it's fast and great on the straight lines but can't make the tight 90 degree turns. I decided instead to cut the box sides as rectangles to the outer dimensions of the tabs, then go back an remove the material between the tabs.

The 1st picture below shows the sides for the box bottom. The 2nd shows the cut pattern, with hash marks where the waste is removed. The plywood is 5mm, but the tabs are 1/4". This left a little room to make a fit, and was later sanded flat on a belt sander. The corners are also rounded on the belt sander.

The 3rd and 4th pictures are the finished box bottom and top. The top is cut just like the bottom but 10mm longer and wider to fit over the bottom, and with thumb cut-outs to get it open. It is finished with feed-n-wax (Amazon Prime, $8.88). Looks good a smells good too. I wish I thought to cut a rose into the top before I glued it up. Maybe next time... 

146

General Scroll Saw Talk / A Gooseneck LED Light for the EX-21

« on: February 06, 2013, 03:56:40 pm »

I found a 24 LED clip-on light at Lowes - Styleselections #0352725, $20.00. It is a brushed stainless gooseneck lamp with a heavy spring clamp. The clamp is connected to the goosneck with a hex nut. The clamp has padded jaws, so it looked like a good fit to connect to the EX-21 table.

The clamp is pretty strong, but anything on the table is liable to get in the way. So I measured the thread end of the gooseneck where the clamp attaches, and then the mounting hole for the hold-down on the EX-21 (which I removed when I got the saw). That was a good fit.

The lamp has an in-line switch - too big to fit through the hole in the hold-down bracket. I pried the switch open, but found it was a single pole switch - so only one wire was broken and the other fed straight through the switch and would have to be cut. I decided to cut the wire between the switch and lamp and add two crimp-on bullet connectors (1st picture). Stagger the bullets so you make sure to connect the + to + when reconnecting the wire, and put the female of the bullet on the power source side - that way if they come apart, the source side is insulated.

The other pictures show the lamp in place. The clip-on clamp is on the table just to show its size. The lamp is very bright and the gooseneck stays in place with the saw in operation.

147

Brag Forum / Compound Candle Stick

« on: February 04, 2013, 08:27:31 pm »

This is from the Sue Mey design in Issue 49 of ScrollSaw Woodworking. I had a blank from the Wood Werx scrap pile that was 1.5" square, so I reduced the pattern to that size, and added 1/4" thickness to the base. It measures 5" tall and fits a 1.5" tea candle or LED candle on top.

I think the wood is rosewood, but maybe someone knows better. It was covered in wax, was very slow cutting, and the sawdust looked like red brick dust. It scorched some until I changed to a Seyco #423 blade - then it cut nicely, but the blade was harder to turn to meet the small pattern.

It is rubbed with BLO and looks like rosewood, with rich red that varies from dark rose to dark dark (probably some of that is scorching). If anyone has an opinion on the wood I'd appreciate the info.

148

Brag Forum / Tesla on EX-21

« on: February 03, 2013, 10:49:36 am »

Cut on my new EX-21

149

Ask Steve a question. / Profile detail

« on: January 22, 2013, 07:12:18 pm »

Did you consider including the member's saw type in the profile? I'm always interested to hear what folks are using.

150

General Scroll Saw Talk / Uploading a picture that was too big for the site.

« on: January 20, 2013, 04:07:05 pm »

This was cropped from a full sized 1.5MB jpg picture to get below 128kB.

Sugar Grove Bald Eagle - this guy and his mate have taken up residence in our neighborhood.