I've been busy cleaning, painting, and reorganizing my work space. It's a converted porch that I have been using as an office for my home-based business and will now be a combination workshop/office. Still tons to do sorting files, improving electricals and lighting, and building a work/storage table, but I assembled my saw and dust collector today and tried them out.
While the saw (2 year old 20" Hawk bought used) is nice and quiet, the dust collector (http://www.scrollsawer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7001) sounds like a 747 on take-off, so I need to build an acoustical box for it. I couldn't stand running it, so I didn't. The little sawing I did sans dust mask got to my lungs, so I know I need the machine, and soon. And, um, quitting smoking wouldn't hurt.
The saw is a lovely piece of equipment. It vibrates rather objectionably at 7 on the speed dial (1325 RPM) and above, and I'd appreciate thoughts from others about this. The saw stands on a carpeted surface which probably doesn't help. I leveled the saw stand, btw. I probably won't use that much speed, but I'd like to make sure that the saw is OK.
I have FD and Pegas puzzle blades, and tried the Pegas first because they are reputably more fragile, so I thought they'd point up bad technique better. I cut some strip-type puzzle pieces freehand from some 3/16" birch plywood and was very impressed with the smooth surface on the sides of the cut pieces and lack of splintering on the bottom, just a little fuzz that can almost be knocked off with a cloth. The cuts came out good, with no bevels or burns. Those little teeth can cut at remarkably fast rate, and I'm going to have to slow way down for smaller pieces. My eBay wood is full of voids, so I'm going to chop it up for practice. Practice will be helpful, because I'm a long way from controlling the saw as I'd like to.
My goal is to make jigsaw puzzles, which is why I jumped into scrolling. I hope to have something to show soon!
Many thanks to SSW for this forum, and to many members for solid advice I've received so far, directly and from reading old posts.
Pete
While the saw (2 year old 20" Hawk bought used) is nice and quiet, the dust collector (http://www.scrollsawer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7001) sounds like a 747 on take-off, so I need to build an acoustical box for it. I couldn't stand running it, so I didn't. The little sawing I did sans dust mask got to my lungs, so I know I need the machine, and soon. And, um, quitting smoking wouldn't hurt.
The saw is a lovely piece of equipment. It vibrates rather objectionably at 7 on the speed dial (1325 RPM) and above, and I'd appreciate thoughts from others about this. The saw stands on a carpeted surface which probably doesn't help. I leveled the saw stand, btw. I probably won't use that much speed, but I'd like to make sure that the saw is OK.
I have FD and Pegas puzzle blades, and tried the Pegas first because they are reputably more fragile, so I thought they'd point up bad technique better. I cut some strip-type puzzle pieces freehand from some 3/16" birch plywood and was very impressed with the smooth surface on the sides of the cut pieces and lack of splintering on the bottom, just a little fuzz that can almost be knocked off with a cloth. The cuts came out good, with no bevels or burns. Those little teeth can cut at remarkably fast rate, and I'm going to have to slow way down for smaller pieces. My eBay wood is full of voids, so I'm going to chop it up for practice. Practice will be helpful, because I'm a long way from controlling the saw as I'd like to.
My goal is to make jigsaw puzzles, which is why I jumped into scrolling. I hope to have something to show soon!
Many thanks to SSW for this forum, and to many members for solid advice I've received so far, directly and from reading old posts.
Pete
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