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I don't remember a time where I haven't had Steve Good and SSV in my morning routine!! Well I guess about 15 years ago!!

Shopsmith here also. I have had mine since about 1981. I have upgraded several times since then. I have almost enough parts to build two more.

My latest wood-art piece. 11 x 14 inches.

I deliver meals one day a week for our local meals on wheels program called Manna. They asked me if I'd make keychains to give all the volunteers. Their logo has a loaf of bread and two fish so I worked that into the letters. The M being a slice of bread, and the A's being fish if you can't tell. Now just 74 more to go. At least I know what I'll be sawing for a while. It'll be a good excuse to listen to Christmas songs early while I'm cutting.

Here's what I use. A 1/4" Jacobs chuck. it holds the finest bit. You can find them on most old 1/4" electric drills. Just thread the correct size bolt into the chuck, cu the head off and place in the chuck of the drill press.

Hegner ( I have the 22" saw) or Hawk for light industrial use. The Hegner Polymax 3 for commercial, 40 hrs a week, cutting. In my ( not so humble ) opinion, any saw with the motor in the back of the saw, is only in the "serious hobbyist" category. The motor in the back puts more pressure on the motor and it's connection points ( leverage, force on the blade while cutting multiplied by the length of the arm ). In my opinion, this will lead to a shorter lifespan.

I have completed 36 stand up puzzles to add to the cache. These are 4 new designs that I have cut from 30mm Radiata Pine, using Olson #7 Mach for outside cuts and a Olson PG #5 for inside cuts Two coats of gloss lacquer over acrylic paint. Boats 170 x 150mm. Cat 215 x 130mm, Utes 230 x 100mm, 3 little pigs 220 x 170mm

As to going beyond the typical drill press throat depth, think outside the box ( and upside down ). I want to do large live edge panels that are way beyond the throat depth of my current drill press ( 7 1/2" ). I have a dremel plung router ( too much slop ) and the reviews on the drill guides are iffy at best. So I thought that I could beef up the rafts and mount a drill press upside down above a workbench, remove the head from the column and reinstall the head, what would now be right side down. But most drill presses will not allow this, but there are some. Here is one example: https://www.grooves.land/bosch-tischbohrmaschine-pbd-bosch-hardware-electronic-pZZa1-2097583520.html?language=en&currency=USD&_z=us&srsltid=AYJSbAd-dcHA4dK5-N-c6ABb6X-Jvf0254o1vej3oStdj7F6thsvPn61w14. I have not done this myself, yet. Just thinking outside the box.

It would not surprise me if the Metro Vac and the Seyco Vac are one and the same. My Seyco vac played out with in 3 years. It steadly got louder with time. I now use an old shop vac that is as loud as could possibly be so I enclosed it and added sound reducing ceiling tiles All this was found material that was being thrown out.

I have a hawk and a Hegner. Lots of adjustment issues with the hawk and none with the Hegner. Hegner is the only saw I know of that states that it is made for 8 hours a day, everyday use. The Polymax 3 is the one I have and use it to do all my inlays. I also have a 15" Jet that was made decades ago that I use to make toys. Both of these saws have induction motors and are single speed. The Hegner, however, is belt driven and can be slowed down by moving the belt to different sizes on the pully. I leave it on slow to do the inlays. I have used the Hegner every day, for hours usually, since I bought it new in 2008. No problems or repairs. (I do not do fretwork)

I have a Dremel drill press--save your money. Doesn't have much of a throat, so you are very limited on size.

I've always kind of wondered the same thing Paul... I've read in the pash about the shop vacs melting or catching fire yet I see a lot of folks using them, LOL. I myself used one for a couple months on my Excalibur to use on the dust port.. Worked really well.. so much so that I'm thinking I might go back to that set up but using a quiet DeWalt, Fein, Festool type quiet vac. I hated the noise from the shop vac.. To change the subject some more.. I had both my systems ( Seyco vac and Shop Vac ) set up to come on / off with the foot switch ( not both vacs at the same time but that's how I set up the shop vac and when I got the Seyco I did the same ) but I've read a couple times that could be hard on the foot switch and or scroll saw or vac.. Should one have these hooked through the foot switch or not? Seyco vac comes with the items to hook up that way and they are lower powered vacs than a large shop vac. so maybe the Seyco is safe for that but would a actual shop vac be safe to do like that? I'm actually leaning toward the Festool as it comes set up with a power outlet to come on with the machine.. Maybe Fien does as well? Interesting topic.

Not to change the subject but I have a question dealing with this subject. I have read several time that shop vacuums are not made to be run a for long periods of time. Hence not good for dust collection purposes. Yet I also read of a lot of people using them. I guess the question is are shopvacs appropriate to use as as dust collectors?

Me three. Actually, Steve Good first, then SSV.

Really great logo for web site. Love the green color. If you want to get T-shirts and/or hats, check with a local mechanize supplier or even someone with cricut machine to make sure it can be printed or stitched. Our club redesigned our logo and now is struggling to have it made so it can be stitched on hats.

My Hegner is on a three legged Hegner stand. The back leg is up about 3/4". It is very stable.

I had tried three different "mini chucks" of the type you mount in the drill chuck. All three chuck wobble so bad they were unusable.

Same here; I rarely use the rotary tool for drilling. I would only use it for a bit that would not fit in the actual drill press.

They are brilliant. Love the colours. 10/10 Marg

Just one keyring at a time Charlie the time will go so fast....not. It looks great, I can see the bread and the fishes. Marg

They all came out perfect! Thanks for sharing.

All are great. I especially like the three little pigs. Beautifully painted, as always.

You make the most awesome puzzles. The finish is always five stars.

Honestly don't think it was caused by back pressure from the muffler. It has a dust separator that came with it but it still gets plenty of fine dust in the dust bag. Me being cheap I ordered some bags off ebay but they are crap paper bags compared to what came from Seyco. The paper rips very easily and sometimes just putting them in they get torn.. The back of the vac was full of fine sawdust.. I change the bag and blow compressed air through it on a regular basis but I think my replacement will never see one of those paper bags.. I'm going to order some from Ray again. For me they don't last real long because while they don't "fill up" with dust they get a fine somewhat thick layer throughout the bag and thus restricts the air flow. I've mentioned in the past about the Vac getting louder and having to change the bag and clean out the vac with compressed air to make it run quiet again... About every week for me.. others might get a month or so but this should be checked regularly if you have this set-up.. could be a fire hazard too.. as the way the vac is made the air flows past the motor to cool it ( I assume ) and that fine dust gets back in around that motor.. that dust doesn't take much to ignite.. Honestly contemplating just getting a good vac made for this like that new DeWalt that was brought up a while back or a Festool.. I looked at the Festools today as we made a trip to the lumber store and they carry them.

You definitely got the eye for it. Well done!

Very nice work!

Your own fault Kevin, You should never, let the smoke out:

I have 2 pedestal drills. My old one I use for sanding mops and home made drums. It's an 18 speed, but I changing belts for various jobs gets a bit beyond the joke after awhile, So I got a variable speed unit which I use for just about everything else. It has a light and and laser pointer, which is pretty useless as the drill bit points to where the hole is going to be anyhow. A pic of my new (Newer) Pedestal. I like the free standing units as I don't have to find bench space to place them.

Ideally, a Hawk G4 or BM series is the Cadillac of the Hawk saws.. but those are the newer models G4's started around 2005 and then the BM series came out in like 2012? ish.. Used ones are somewhat scarce to find.. Most of what you see out there for sale is the old 1980's and 90's era. Somewhere around the mid 90's and older there was quite a lot of them that got a bad rap because of the VS ( variable speed controller and or the motor ) or motor had issues and so many will say stay away from those. The "Ultra" version came out around 95-6 and they are pretty good saws.. They run the more square looking lower blade clamp. stay away from any that have the round barrel style clamps as those would be the ones with the motor issues.. even though I loved the one I had.. lots of people have issues with the clamping style of the lower clamp.. If you find one cheap enough they are decent saws just know you might have a burnt up motor at any given time.. I only gave $100 for the one I had but I did do a lot of upgrades and rebuilding of it.. and figured I was smart enough and have some good electric motor shops around I thought I could probably find a reasonable way and cost effective enough to retrofit a different motor on it if I needed to.. ran great the whole time I had it.. sold it to a member here and last I know it's still going good. That all said I do recommend a Ultra or newer saw.. I don't have any personal experience with Hegner but I'd say they would be one to look out for as well.. I want to give one a spin one day myself... just waiting on the right right one with the right price.. There are things to know with those as well when it comes to older and newer models. I'm probably not educated enough to give advice on those..

Commercial setting, Hegner and Hawk. Just my opinion.

Just in case this didn't make it down under, wanted to share one of my all time favorites. Very short but I love it. Sang it to my kids, and now grandkids.

I do a TON of inlays. (I did 30 this past week) Pretty good quality, lots of quantity. (It all sells though). To make it easier, and a lot more like fun, try adjusting your cutting angle to a looser fit. If you use a thicker underside wood than the background wood, and a looser fit, you can push the inlay wood up about as far as it will go and glue in place leaving the back closer to flush than the front. This closes the kerf gap, and you can sand the front flat in a stationary belt sander. Backside also. Learning how to fill in any gap after doing inlay is important. I use a mixture of white glue and sanding dust and force it into any gap with a credit card. Then sand flush. If you are having trouble with cutting straight, with little wandering off the line, cut slower and have your blade so tight it is almost ready to break. Here is one of my inlays I did for a friend.

Thanks Marg , I do like the expression,I love cutting out big cats they are awesome lots of fun to do. Hope you are well

Ok, I had posted in a few replies on other threads that I was learning to hand carve and had taken a one day turning class. Since a few of my carvings were initially cut out on my scroll saw, I figured I would share them here. If anyone is a carver, please let me know. One of my goals in learning to hand carve, was to use it to enhance my scrollsaw projects, in particular, my Intarsia work. I am enjoying carving and turning. I have hand carved 6 pieces now I think. One of them is still a work in progress so not shown. It is based on a JGR Intarsia pattern so I will have to share it later once it is done (The carving part is done, but it has framing I’m trying to work out how I want to do.) They are all cut and carved from basswood. The photos appear in the reverse order from what I carved them meaning Mickey carrying balllons was the last one (6th) which I just completed yesterday and then go back to the larger flower which was the very first attempt. Mickey is also the only one I created my own pattern for from a card I had and did it all on my own with no directions or advise on how. The rest of the pieces are patterns from video tutorials and patterns provided by Mary May. If interested in learning to carve, I have found her tutorials to be great. Mickey, the jack-o-lantern and the butterfly on a flower were all first cut out as flat pieces on my scroll saw then carved. Thus why I feel comfortable sharing here. The two smaller flowers, technically I used my saw on as it was one board I cut in half. The largest flower, done on the round natural board was not on the saw but I threw it in since it was my first attempt. I added some wood burning to the first flower I did and then did wood burning on the butterfly and flower. Mickey and the Jack-o-lantern do not yet have a finish on them. I am probably going to attempt to add color to them once I get a little braver to try that(and find some time.)

Bonjour tout le monde, I like westerns movies (even spaghetti's western movies) I have one small periods western movies currently. I haven't very satisfied of my job (never) but I show it to you anyway. I hope you'll like it (or not) Eric

Here's what 3 of my 5 will look like when cut, the other 2 can stay a surprise.

You mean like wearing your levis down low, cigs pack rolled up in your white T-shirt sleeve and a ducktail hair do,,,, dude? sorry.

Lol , you think you have problems . In the Carolinas they raise so many pigs for the market that they have to truck the poo elsewhere!!!

Well, I didn't want to embarrass you twice.

FYI - Ultimately it doesn't matter for this particular project as it will be painted. Making Iggy's shelves for the puzzles to stand on. I just thought it was an interesting contrast in wood and hadn't really seen that blonde of poplar.

Maybe I should run back to grab some more. They had a fair bit in the 1/4" x 4x6'. The thicker boards were the "green" colours.

I was getting ready to paint a backing for a piece and was going to do the usual and lay it on some scraps. I saw I had a bunch of paint can caps and came up with this idea to put some screws in and turn them into free painters points.

Okay Ray, not nice to make fun of the mentally impaired and by the way,,, "popular ant" are the ones most liked,, that is not hard to figure out.. (why are there empjis of a guy sticking his tongue out at someone!!

I run a Chrome book and it took awhile for me to figure it out. I have to download it first and then go into the downloads and it, somehow, magically plays!!!

Good idea, does your head hurt from being so smart, RJ

Hello, thanks everyone for supporting me and my family, your help important for us at such difficult time and it gives me possibility to continue making patterns - I have many more ideas.

I'd still do the glue-up first. I'm not sure how well the glues we all use will stick to the finished surfaces. Most of our finishes have oil in them and the glues depend on soaking into the wood fibers.

Well, then from now on I'll buy "shape" paper for my ROS "shaper".

As per Carole will say of making bowls on the scrollsaw, we don’t say SANDING we say shaping, it sounds better that way. LOL

Glad to see you and your family are safe, RJ