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Plaque (one of three) made for a friends soccer team coaches. 18 inches tall. Birch plywood. #5 reverse tooth

New shadow box project. I combined the view under and above the water, I think came out nice. Project size is 6,5 x 8,5 inches, 5 layers. Video of making Bass Bass pattern

This is for my daughter's graduation. My apologies for the long read....It certainly took me multiple tries and a long time to create this. I used maple and walnut for the keys with black wood veneer turned sideways (the keys are 5/8 thick). The mahogany and walnut stripes are also 5/8 and were stack-cut on the Hawk G4 so the pieces could fit together when I separated them. I also used the veneer turned sideways to take up the kurf.... I made the ornament on top and the ones inside the box on my EX 21. I also cut a thin piece of walnut for the under side of the top since I didn't want the piano keys to show when you open it.. I polished it to a high gloss. The bottom was all walnut and I purple floxed the inside. The music box was a challenge since it came out of an antique powder box. 20240605_140234.mp4

With that type sled I suggest you put a stiffener type fence at the front of that sled. It will keep it from cracking down the cut line. the best squares to use is a machinist's square or an architects square. They are the most accurate. You always square off the blade on the flat of the blade and not on the teeth. One factor that comes into play many times when making frames and cutting on a tablesaw is the quality of the saw and the blade. if there is runout in the arbor of the saw then this can show up in the cuts. same goes for blades. If warped it transfers to the cuts. Good luck

If you are cutting the miters on a tablesaw, there are many videos on the net that show tablesaw sleds that are real easy to make. The key is to make the sled fit to your saw. Use both miter slots to support the surface board and then build off that using the blade as your reference point. never use a fence to reference off unless the fence was built off the blade. The most important factor is to use the same length sides that are opposite if doing a 4 sided frame. Here is a photo of one of mine that I use for many things but can easily adapt to make picture frames with. I build these for all angles that I need instead of using a varying fence because I feel once set up there is no fussing when angle is changed.

An Alex Fox modified pattern. I used 1/4" solid Walnut 8" square. Rather than cutting 12 rings, I cut 7 rings leaving a wider base. Cut on the Pegas Scroll Saw using Pegas #1 MGT blades. After sanding and dipping in diluted Shellac, two coats spray Lacquer Clear Gloss and sanding between coats. Comments welcome.

Ray, yes that was a tough one, but nobody was going to beat the 5 car, I hate when he wins that whole hendrick group are stinking up the leauge, will see what next week brings, RJ

That is basically not true. The fence is not really a fence but a support block of some sort that keeps both halves of the plywood flat. With a sled as you show the plywood can warp ever so slightly up on one side of the cut and will throw the cut off. The support can be any height you want so that you do not cut through it. Many people make this about 4" high. As far as weight well I can not answer that. We are talking a couple ounces. The riving knife is no thicker than the thinnest blade you are using. Yes you can not use a blade guard but that should not be a problem. I have no blade guard on mine since I got the saw. I use too many different type sleds that the guard gets in the way and is not useful . Safety is amplified with the use of sleds and hold down clamps. I would suggest hold downs clamps as well. This keeps the pieces being cut from creeping up on the blade and you push through. Any slight movement gets amplified with each cut. Again the most important part of doing a frame with 45 degrees is the exact same lengths on the parallel sides. again good luck.

I've had a Dewalt 735 for about 10 years. A word of caution - even though it has handles, it isn't portable at 95 lbs. unless two people (one on each side) are holding the handles. The built-in blower works great at removing the chips from the planer, but the first time that I ran it in my shop, the chips coming out of the planer hit the opposite wall at about the same height as the planer. A hose and collection method is an absolute must have. Since that first use, I bought the hose and barrel cover accessory that was being offered back then (discontinued), and I use the planer outside my shop in the driveway with the barrel cover attached to a 60 gallon plastic barrel. To make it easy to move the planer in and out of my small shop I bought a Delta Miter Saw / Planer stand (Dewalt now makes an improved version, the 736 model). The mounting holes in the planer base didn't match the rail spacing of the planer stand, so I made an adapter base from 3/4" cabinet Birch ply, and drilled holes in it for both the planer and the mounting rails of the stand and bolted the adapter to the stand and then bolted the planer to the adapter. This stand is easy to move with the planer attached, and stands on it's end like a hand truck with the planer still attached, in the corner of the shop when not needed. It wheels out of the shop easily like a hand truck and opens to working height with the help of built-in gas springs. The model of the DeWalt stand is 736. Inside in my small shop, this stand/planer combination only requires about 2 sq ft of floor space for storage. I keep the barrel upside down, outside and behind my shop until it need it. Don't try to use a shop vac as a chip collector for the 735. It is far from adequate and will plug the planer with chips in less than one pass. You need a 4" diameter hose to a big barrel as a minimum for chip collection. Black & Decker make a leaf vacuum with an accessory hose and barrel cover that looks identical to the original hose and barrel cover that was offered for the 735 planer. It may work without modification, if you want to try it. Here is a link for it https://www.homedepot.com/p/BLACK-DECKER-Leaf-Collection-System-Attachment-for-Corded-BLACK-DECKER-2-in-1-Leaf-Blower-Vacuums-BV-006L/202045620 Again, it looks to be a workable alternative and is nearly identical to the one that had been offered for the 735, but I haven't tried it. Charley

Actually, the scroll saw and sanding dust is some of the worst because it is so very fine.

If my memory is correct, I think spar varnish generally cures softer than a normal interior varnish. Since it's made for outdoor applications, it needs to be softer to allow for more wood movement. For future reference, it may not be as desirable for projects that will be subject to wear and some abuse, such as a table top.

Thanks for the insight. For the moment being it's only scroll saw projects. But even the small amount of dust it produces, I can "feel" the dust in the air, so I am afraid that as soon as I increase the activity with the band saw, the problem will be much bigger. I use the mask even when I am outside sanding and I don't get close to the scroll saw without it. Perhaps I am too cautious.

Kevin, Just finished a butternut live edge slab table for my wife last week. Sanded it to 400 grit and then applied 5 coats of minwax warm gloss polyurethane. I went over lightly with 000 steel wool between each coat, tack clothed it then applied the poly and repeated this process for all 5 coats. When completed it had a beautiful finish and just as beautiful as any epoxy resin that I have done and seen. Good luck with your table! Richard Ashland, VA

As mentioned there are many factors that go into making a shop safe from dust but will tell you this is impossible. Now I must preface this as my opinion only. Each tool unless fully enclosed will spew dust in the air. Just the nature of the tools. yes there are ways to limit it but takes good quality tools and knowledge of capturing this dust. The main source of the dust mask is the closest thing to perfect you can get to protect your lungs but you need to wear it religiously. The air cleaner you show is basically the same ones we all can buy here weather a wen or another brand. What you want is a 2 stage filtering system with them which the one you show does have this. The secondary filter is the most important and need to be changed every so often. The outer filter is also a changeable filter on the unit you show and cost less. They get clogged more readily than the inner so may require more changing. But this device is a air exchanger to break it down. It will not collect dust at any one specific spot. It circulates the air and exchanges with cleaner air. But what is never addressed is that it also blows dust around and that comes out the back end. It is just another tool to collect airborne dust which is a good idea. They need to be centered in shop or if using more than one then set up to collect half the shop for each. The Festool vac you show is just that a well built best on the market shop vac that actually collects down to 1 micron of dust particles and these are excellent but it is not used as a dust collector that can pick up large bits of chips and things like this. The hose size can not handle that and you get in all the cfm calculations and all that. They are made for things like collecting fine dust at a scrollsaw where you can direct the suction. The drum dust collector you show is more for shops that deal with large chip production tools such a planner, jointers, tablesaws, bandsaws and lathes. They can be helpful in collecting sanding dust if set up correctly too. But to truely deal with sanding dust the best is to use tools that have dust ports on them and hooked to a dust extractor like the festool you shown. Many tool brands have such dust ports. Capturing dust at the source is always the most efficient way to keep a shop clean. This basically a break down as to what you are looking at. To tell what tools to buy is not something I can do. I believe you live in the UK so I have no knowledge what is available. I suggest you need to decide what it is you will be doing in the shop and build around that. If you are dealing with large chip producing machines then a larger better quality dust collector system sized properly is the way to go. The air exchangers are always a good add-on tool to clean the air. they can not hurt. If you are using lesser size tools like scrollsaw and lathes then a shop vac with good dust collecting abilities will work fine. if you are combining all this then a full shop work up would be best. But again a dust mask of good quality is the perfect way to always protect the lungs. Good luck. Again I must say this is MY opinion only. Others will jump in and help some too.

You are right. Maybe there is no need to make a really big investment for the moment being. I have been searching the forum and one thing seems clear, the most important seems to be "attacking" the dust on the source. I might concentrate my efforts on this point, right now.

There has been a lot of discussion on this subject. I don't know if there is a right or wrong method but anything you do will help. A good respirator mask is the first thing to buy. Check out the Wen air cleaner. I love mine. Good luck.

Well, since I really don't a bunch of time to get this right.. even though I started this idea / project over a month ago.. custom orders and life have taken a lot of time up that I normally would have been done with this by now.. Anyway, today I just did the pattern design in my CNC software and since we want to "paint" the carved areas and then topcoat it, it works best to "seal" the wood before carving with whatever finish I'm going to use and then seal the carved area with another couple coats, then use the acrylic craft paints on the carved area then I seal it all up again. Not knowing how these other finishes will work with the craft paints etc. in this process and being somewhat limited in time I went ahead and sprayed the gloss spar varnish stuff I've used in the past on it for the first couple coats to seal it up.. SO, I guess I've made my decision up.. Still very interested in options / opinions for future projects I will be doing some more of these natural edged slabs since i have quite a large pile of them.. Most are Walnut but have many other varieties too. This is somewhat how the design will look carved out of the one upper corner of the slab. It'll be the upper left with the white edge below it.. trying to put the carve in the less grain area if that makes any sense, LOL In the first photo it'll be in the farther corner closer to the bike tire.

I would use “Osmo” oil, if you want it shinny choose the glossy one and the more coat you apply the shinier it gets after the buffing. BTW a great piece of black walnut

Lord knows I can’t change.

I’ve been wanting to do this one for quite a while. Very fun pattern by Botas Helder. Planning to do a few more similar patterns to go over my grill. The barn door is from a century old barn from my wife’s family.

nicely done, i agree the background might look better in a light blue pastel

Slowly trying to gather the tools I think will need. Didn't add a fence at the front because it will not only add more weight but would be useless one the blade passes through it because it can't be dropped on from the top and clear the blade and riving knife.