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Here's my version of a lift arm for the DeWalt DW788. I know, how many ways are there to skin a cat. I wanted something very simple to build and use. This design features a tapered catch that slides under the existing plastic housing by the speed control. The arm (1/8" x 1" aluminum) is positioned so that the latch pin normally sets about 3/8" away from the black plastic housing. The arm can be raised or lowered without interference. With the arm fully raised the latch pin clears the housing just enough to allow it to be pushed left to contact the yellow arm. To latch the arm in the up position simply raise the arm with an up-turned right hand and use the thumb to push the lift arm to the left. Allow the arm to come down and trap the latch pin under the housing. To lower the arm simply lift it up and the latch pin pops away from the housing allowing the arm to drop. The latch pin is a 1/4" x 20 flat head phillips screw. I'm sure it could have been used as is but I decided to turn a shoulder at the base of the head. This eliminates wedging the housing between the screw head and the nut. The mounting holes in the lift need to be positioned accurately to keep the arm as high as possible but still allow the latch pin to clear the housing. The arm only droops about 1/8" when held up by the lift.

Howdy All. So SSV looks a bit different lately. Things aren't where they used to be, other things I can't just find. What's going on!? Well, let me explain for those who haven't been keeping up with the different threads scattered around SSV. I thought I'd pull it all together in one spot, so you all know what's going on. Last week, my hosting company sent me an email saying that SSV is taking too much server resources and they are limiting our server load. They basically told me that I have to optimize the website so it requires less resources. If I'm unable to comply, I'll have to upgrade my server, move my website somewhere else, or they will lock down the site. While SSV seems like a small community, we have over 250,000 posts, 10,500 images, 6,500 members. There usually is anywhere between 40-120 people on SSV simultaneously. So we do use a lot of computing power. The thought of a dedicated server is certainly appealing, however, it's tremendously expensive. I can barely afford to keep SSV running on it's own. And moving to a new server would take the costs of running SSV from a few hundred dollars a year, to a few thousand dollars a year. And while SSV Supporter Badges help me offset the costs, it comes no where close to paying for a dedicated server. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of a large publishing company to flip the bill for us. So my next best move is to do my best to optimize the website the best I can. I've cleaned up the databases and updated our PHP. Our software is a few years out of date and inefficient. So I had to update the forum software too. As you can imagine, when you upgrade software, they introduce new features, remove old features, update the look and fix performance issues. During this move, it re-arranged certain things, but I'm getting them back to their right place. The forums are in place and work the same way as before. They have a slightly different look, but nothing too dramatic. The Gallery and Pattern Library is also in place. I have some more tweeking to do to that, but it's completely functional and seems to work well. Blogs and Chat Room are still there and work the same way. The Articles section is still intact, however the new software treats them differently. So I have to figure out how to organize and update them before I make them public again. The old pages are still there, but I have to fix them to work with the new software. After that, it's mostly cosmetic. I have a huge list of things I'm working on. Some have higher priority than others, but I'm getting to them as fast as I can...I promise. This move came very sudden and I had to act quickly or risk losing SSV forever. I drained my scroll saw fund to save the Village (I was a only couple weeks out from getting the new Jet scroll saw). But it is worth it if we keep the lights on. I poured my heart and soul into this community over the last 8 years. I do not want to see it go away. Rest assured that I will do everything I can to make SSV a great place to be. I've already received a number of angry emails and even one rage quit. While I understand that things have changed, I didn't do it out of spite. I did it to save SSV and the wonderful community we have built. I'm just a regular guy. I go to work every day, take care of my family, and I enjoy making sawdust in my garage whenever I can sneak away. I'm not an expert IT guy. Just someone who knows enough about computers to be dangerous. I'm doing the best I can as fast as I can. If you need to post or send me an email, take a moment to realize there is a regular person on the other side of that email doing everything he can to make it right. I'm happy to answer any of your questions here. Please be nice to me. I've had a rough week.

While my move from my current Delta 4-694 to a DW-788 isn't imminent (I tend to give these things a lot of thought and study), I did have a question that I could not find answered anywhere else. I found a HEAP of questions/answers at the link I've posted below. In one of the responses, I read where the DW-788 uses 51/4" blades. On my Delta, I use 5" blades. Now, granted I'm still very new to this hobby and that 1/4" may not make ANY difference, however, it's one of those things I want to be certain of, since I have a particular blade that I prefer to use, that happens to only come in 5" (that I know of). Can anyone expound on this? Thanks!! Questions/Answers https://www.amazon.com/ask/questions/asin/B000022313/ref=ask_dp_dpmw_ql_hza