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Just completed for the Granddaughter. Pattern from the Berry Basket, 1/4 inch Elm (from my tree), FD Polar #! for the fretwork, #3 for the outside and large curves, 3 coats 50/50 shellac/denatured alcohol. Stack cut four deep (1" thick)

This is another sanding topic that might be useful. I sometimes need to sand the edges of a narrow cut or vein. These are sometimes too narrow for cloth backed sand paper. If I use just a thin piece of regular sandpaper, it breaks very quickly. So, I take thin but good quality sandpaper and back it with packing tape. Then simply cut into whatever width and length strips you like. I make them from typically 180, 220, and 320 grit sandpaper.

There seem to be always questions about sanding and what people use. One thing that I like is small sanding sticks I make. I start with wooden sticks like popsicle sticks. I have several different sizes. i use good sandpaper and spray the back with 3M77. I line the sticks up next to each other and apply the sand paper to both sides. I make certain it is well attached and then cut apart with a razor knife. They work really well on small parts or difficult areas. These took me about 10 minutes.

I just finished cutting this wood-art piece. This one took about 18 hours to cut and another 2 hours to make the pattern. I made it from a painting by artist, Ted Blaylock.

You can also get this one at Costco and Walmart. Do you still have those in CA? OttLite 2-in-1 LED Magnifier Floor and Desk Lamp | Costco OttLite 2-in-1 LED Magnifier Floor and Desk Lamp - Walmart.com

Bob, when the clamp goes flying does it usually go to one side or the other? When my lower clamp takes a joy ride it always goes off the right side of the saw. Getting tired of searching the floor for it I used a piece of cereal box cardboard to create a "fence" to contain the clamp. Since I put that up I haven’t had to look beyond the top of the saw whenever the clamp takes flight.

I'm not familiar with the RBI setup, but I started with an old Craftsman saw that had a lower blade holder that would fly off when the blade broke. It had a small hole in the holder. I used fishing line to attach it to my stand. It was much easier to find on the end of the line than crawling all over the floor looking for it.

Made these out of old scratched LP's ..cut the vinyl and glued to 3mm hardboard

I installed the new style plastic blade holder clip today and took it for a test run using a blade that I was fairly sure I would break sooner or later. I cut with it for about an hour before it broke, and the lower blade clamp is lost somewhere in my shop. I am going to put the old blade holder clip back. The plastic one is very flimsy and much easier to get the clamp in, but the older steel version holds the clamp tight and only lets it go once in a while. The truth is that I'm getting very tired of hunting for the clamp, and I am considering getting rid of it and parking a shiny new saw in its place.

Made this picture of my godson/nephew

James McAvoy, as Tumnus, from The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. Seemed right to take this picture in the woods. If you're not familiar, Tumnus is a faun. Sort of half goat, half man I believe.

Pattern by Marilyn Carmin , size 15” x 10” x 1” Walnut

Wow, GQ certainly didn't think so:

Wow! My daughter would love to see that. She loved Mr Tumnus. You did such a great job capturing him...so impressed!

Nice piece, Charlie, but that is one ugly dude!

Reading all the above just strengthens my belief that Baskin-Robbins got it right. A flavor for every taste.

I don't believe they ever made a metal one.. Even the Ultras had a plastic one and someone suggested to them to make them from spring steel and they finally did it starting with the G4 saw starting around 2005.. now they make steel ones for the "Ultra" but not for the round clamp saws.. I know lots of folks mention on the forums over the years about the cheap plastic ones getting weak and breaking etc. and they just make their own from metal..

I kind of agree with Larry and Bob, Although I've never had my hands on a multi-tool the tool body looks like it's long and would be awkward to hold onto.. I think I mentioned previously that I find ways to hold the piece being sanded rather than the tool.. If you got a bench vice pinch the 1/4 sheet sander in that then hold the piece being sanded.. fine sanding can also be done with finger nail board sanders etc.. too.. Again, I've not used a multi tool but I find way better sanding control by having the sander be stationary.. Sanding mops and mac mops do an awesome job.. Before I had some of these tools I just used my drill press as Larry mentioned.. No Drill Press? got a bench vise? clamp a hand drill in that.. Glue sandpaper to old dull scroll saw blades and use the scroll saw to sand tight areas.. and if you have a 1/4 sheet sander then cut up the used clamped 1/4 sheet paper from the ends where it's unused. The saw only has ( depending on saw ) 3/4 inch blade stroke so you don't need to cover the whole blade in sandpaper..

First off I guess I was under the impression that you didn't have a clip in the first place and why I suggested to get one.. If you had the metal one it was more likely homemade and probably the better one of the two as plastic gets old and brittle over time and either looses it's holding power or just breaks.. When I got my first Hawk with the round clamps and it never even had one on it when I got the saw.. well actually it did but it was just the end part where it screws to the saw arm. LOL. It would fly out of that new one once in a very great while but usually the holder slowed the force down so much that the blade holder would still be on top of the saw. Three year later it started getting weak and was allowing it to escape more and more often. I always wanted to make a metal one like is on my newer saws but sold the saw before I got to that point. I believe I mentioned something about making a metal one.. maybe you made the metal one you have?

The lower clamp on my Hegner will fly off and hard to find. Luckily, I have several.

That is an interesting Idea. I did something similar with a sanding mop.

Once you have one you won't be without it. Just being able to cut a molding flush with the floor, nothing else works. As I mentioned above, we wanted a medicine cabinet in our master bath and the only place for it was the side of a cabinet that had an inner wall. I laid out the lines on the cab and used the fine-tooth blade that vibrates. Once it was through the wall it was just a matter of following the line. Noisy but effective. I used a shop vac at the same time to suck up the dust. I've used the triangular sanding pad on just about everything I've made. I bought one of the first Dremel models about 12 years ago. Since then they've changed them but I don't know if they improved them. My only complaint is the placement of the air vents. They are where you would naturally want to hold the tool for the best balance. I just take breaks to let it cool.

I made this trivet for my son's Tiki Bar.

Pattern by Roy King

I had done this in the past, but your way of doing this is much easier than the way I was doing it. Really like your way. Guess what I am going to do tomorrow. Thanks for the tip Larry, and also for sanding things #2. Jery

Maybe I should rephrase that to say the way they had him made up had him looking ugly.

With a scroll saw, you can do so many things that your project determines the sanding tool you need.

Beautiful

My metal one came on the saw. It looks original. The plastic one is so flimsy that it is almost useless.

Well, if that's what you can do during recovery, I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do when you are all better. NICE CUTTING!

Take this as just my opinion. I do Intarsia, puzzles and things using typically 3/4" hardwoods. I do not do fretwork. I would not consider using a multi tool at all. I find them heavy and awkward for sanding smaller stuff. I use all kinds of sanding stuff but use my drill press with sanding drums, mac mop, sanding stars and other things. A drill press with various attachments is very flexible. I also have a series of sanding blocks I made with different grits on them for flat surfaces.

Down Right Beautiful job!! She will Adore it. Love your choice of wood.

So OCtoolguy you do use an oscillating sander along the lines of this for sanding scrolled items with good effect then? The price point is good on some models. And I like the mop ideas put forth by many. I know my faithful 1/4 pad deWalt sander is getting heavier these years for any fine manipulation. Stinks to get old and sore but the alternative is less attractive. Looking for similar performance and versatility in a smaller and lighter package. The flush cutting possibility sure would have been nice back in the day for me. So many choices... Don BLACK+DECKER Oscillating Multi-Tool, Variable Speed, 2.5-Amp (BD200MTB) - Power Oscillating Tools - Amazon.com

Thanks to everyone for your help on my lighting situation! So much information but it helped me make a decision. I went ahead and bought the Ottlite at JoAnn's it was on sale plus I have a 25% off coupon so it was $73 and I just picked it up. My oh my, that is sooo much better. However, I think I will need to hang some lights over head from some chains for my entire side of the orchard shop. I will need to wait until the snow melts to uncover our orchard Ladders because those rafters are way up there. I like the idea of the linkable lights because I have a long skinny side of the building for my workspace (kind of like a long hallway).... but I will also look into the Harbor Freight. I also will buy a sewing machine light because I think that will help just a bit more. Thanks again!

Well I would still need a blower or vacuum to clear off the sawdust from my workpiece to see where my lines are, My Hegner doesn't have a line-loc line on it to aim it off to the side. This was a big complaint on my first "old Hawk" saw I had as it just had that clear air hose that aimed toward the front of the saw, was the first upgrade I did on that saw was to buy the line-loc upgrade kit from bushton, LOL. I probably can buy the stuff to update it for the Hegner too but I want to toy around with a homemade collector set up instead of having the blower.. May still need a blower but I just wanted to tinker around with it.. not like I don't have another saw to use until I get time to mess around with the Hegner and dust collection and find what will work best for me. I haven't been working a whole lot in the shop because I'm working on a new website store build.. I have 600 items to list on the new site and approximately 5-7 photos to edit for each listing item.. doing this in this damp, wet snowy, rainy cold, kinda blah weather that we are having transitioning from winter to spring. Maybe by the time I get the new store ready to launch it'll be sunny and warm though the shop has heat.. my issue is I'm a outside kind of person if it's nice out.. and I've wanted to build this new site for a few years but holiday time is too busy to build a site and after that it's bookkeeping / taxes and summer is playing around / building up inventory.. so this time of year is perfect to get things set up for the new store. LOL..

I have seen the same thing. I used a Taiwan-made castiron saw sold by AMT for years. It was the smoothest cutting saw I have ever used. I'm talking glass smooth edges. I got rid of it because the blade chang was terrible when compared to an EX21.

Right, maybe slightly off topic here but, I have noticed a difference on how smooth / glossy the edges are by which saw I'm using if that makes any sense at all, and really noticed it when I first got that Hegner saw recently. The Hegner using the same blade ( Pegas MGT #5 ) cutting on the same exact trivet that I was making at the time had a very smooth glossy edge and I picked up on that detail right off the bat when first using that saw, which is why I switched saws to both the Hawk and Excalibur.. The Hawk wasn't as smooth edged as the Hegner and the Excalibur wasn't as smooth as the Hawk or Hegner.. None of the saws made "bad" edges but the Hegner made noticeably smoother edges. Not real sure why.. and might be just the way I was cutting since it was a first time using the saw maybe I was feeding the wood differently. Honestly haven't used the Hegner much since the first couple cuts as I need to find some time to modify the dust blower or make a dust collector set up.. can't stand the thing blowing the dust right toward me like it does so I don't use it. When temps warm up and I get some fee time this summer I'll rig up something for it.. as I do really like the saw..

terrific work, I build model cars. I still have a few hundred to put together.

Thanks for the Great Compliments, Preprius I do have a pattern for a Warthog I just made up my mind on which one to do, I had 2 that I was working on, I decided to make the easy one. After I finish up on a few others.

I started out with 4 2-bulb 40 watt flourescent overhead lights. Then H/F came out with their 5000 lumen LED lamps for $20 ea. I put four up in place of what I had. My little shop is so well lit now that sometimes I turn 2 if them off. I also have H/F lighted magnifiers mounted on the wall with LED replacement bulbs in them. I have NO problem seeing my work. If I make a mistake it's usually from loss of concentration. I DO like a lot of light.

A couple clocks I did a while ago..

This is a clock that I make with my first year sobriety chips.

The Toughbuilt fits the my saw blade just fine. As for the accuracy, I cut segmented rings to make bowls, If I wish to cut 16 staves to make a round, each stave has to be 22.5°, which means I have to cut each side of the stave at 11.25° With the Wixey, it was a trial and "sneak-up-on-it" adjustment. The Toughbuilt (although I haven't tried one yet) will, hopefully, eliminate the trial & error phase.

I have only made two clocks. These dragons were made as Christmas gifts.

Here's my contribution.

After looking more closely at the photos and seeing the comments about the size I might just pass on it.. The more buttons and options for it will probably just confuse me on how to use it anyway, I think I might stick to the Wixey brand one for $10 more..

Since I am an avid golfer, I had to cut this one

I have the Toughbuilt and still learning it. The mode button can be a little confusing however it works a lot better than the user!