Buying wood online/ Saw Upgrade question

[Imawoodbutcher]

Hello All!

I was wondering if anyone could suggest a online vendor to buy wood for scroll saw projects. I'm wanting to buy wood to make the Scroll saw boxes in Diana Thompson's book. "Custom Wood boxes for the Scroll Saw" as well as wood for Freestanding puzzles. (Fantasy and Legend)

Finding wood seems to be the most difficult thing to do since I took up woodworking as a hobby.

I already get my blades form Mike at Mikeswokshop ( great blades by the way)

Also.. on a different note. I'm think of upgrading from my Dewalt and I really leaning towards the Eclipse or the Excalibur ( for the top feeding). Any thoughts plus or minus would be great.

I have actually talked to Mr. Melon about the Eclipse and he really impressed me but my only drawbacks so far is not being able to see it and bottom-feeding.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dan

[jttheclockman]

If you subscribe to any of the scrolling magazines there are many listed. One of my favorites and they have great quality wood is www.heritagewood.com Many people use www.sloanswoodshop.com

As far as the saw goes I will leave that to others but will say this the excalibur is just a bigger version of the Dewalt. Has the same head assembly.

[Frumper64]

Online Wood Vendors

I've gotten wood online from Sloan's Woodshop and have been very impressed with both the quality of the wood and with the customer service.

[3_M]

Here is one more.
http://www.ocoochhardwoods.com/

Mike M

[Imawoodbutcher]

Thanks for all the information. I'll be sure to try those sites out.

Dan

[Carter-Johnson]

I buy all my wood for jigsaw puzzle making at Wildwood Designs. Mainly I use 1/4" 5-ply poplar, but I also use some 3-ply of various woods including aromatic cedar (smells good).

Carter

[Rivari]

As far as the saw goes I will leave that to others

Whats this? John you never stop short on your saw advice.

Honestly Carter if you are looking for advice on saws John is definately one of the folks to talk to, he has a shop which is a cornucopia of goodies.

[don snethen]

Eclipse Saw

Dan,

I have a comment on your question regarding which saw to choose to upgrade to. I have not owned an Excaliber so will not attempt to assess it. Several months back I was in your same situation. I was wanting to upgrade from my DeWalt to the Eclipse. My two main concerns? Not being able to see the saw anywhere and the uncertainty of having to change to bottom feeding. The nearest Eclipse owner is (or was) several hundred miles away from me and I didn't want to make the long trip. So through Ernie I contacted several of the Eclipse owners and asked them my questions and in turn received nothing but favorable and encouraging answers. Now after three months of using mine I find that I am very pleased with the saw. As far as the bottom feeding goes, the transition was much less troublesome than I had imagined that it would be. Of course, I am just a hobbyist whose time is not that precious so speed at the scroll saw is not so important to me. I am used to the bottom feeding now and do not find it awkward or inefficient. About the only thing that I would do different if I had it to do over again would be to order the saw sooner than I did. My pleasure in scrolling has definetely increased since buying this saw. Good luck in your decision making.

Don

[jttheclockman]

Don

You have piqued my curiosity as to the big difference between the two saws. You sound as if the Dewalt was a problem to use. What makes the big change from dissatisfied with a very good saw to the Eclipse. I have the Dewalt and have sawn on the Ecclipse all but just a few things but as far as cutting goes they are not much difference. The big thing is the zero tolerance or at least close to zero tolerance on the blade travel. Curious minds want to know.

[Imawoodbutcher]

I have had 2 Dewalt's. First one was scuffed up badly when it arrived so my wife had me return it. ( It ran great). The replacement does fine at low and high speeds but tends to vibrate a bit at mid-speed. I had it checked locally and they said it was fine.(these are the old ones still made by excalibur)

I eventually want to try intarsia when i'm more accurate with my cutting.(still a newbie) I just want one that will dependable, low vibration and very accurate.

If any one else that's new like me wants a cheap way to hone their skills, buy some pine and cut puzzles from the book "Fantasy and Legend" scroll saw puzzles it has a variety of different lines to follow(sharp points, curves etc) And the kids love to play with them.


Dan

[don snethen]

Eclipse Saw

John T.

Perhaps I sounded a bit presumptuous in my response to Dan's request for thoughts on the Eclipse. "Thoughts" to me meant my opinion of my few months of using the saw. Not being an experienced sawyer like you I probably should have disqualified myself from responding to Dan. However, that being said, I have found the Eclipse more user friendly for me. No, I did not like the front-to-back blade movement on my DeWalt nor did I like the blade holder design as it seemed to gradually create a curl on the lower blade end due to the machine screw's rotation. I also could not always be sure that I repositioned the blade in exactly the same place each time and I am sure that my blade tension often varied. The true vertical blade movement of the Eclipse is much more to my liking and has made very fine starts and stops easier for me with better looking results. And my tight turns are also better and cleaner. On the rare occasions that I have needed to use spiral blades, my tolerance for their cutting action has improved.

Obviously, there are a lot more satisfied sawyers using DeWalts than Eclipses due to the sheer numbers of each and probably always will be due to the much higher price of the Eclipse. While I can't say that there would be a "big difference" between the two saws for you, there is enough of a difference for me to make my change-over seem very worthwhile. And while I may never attain your skill level and quality of work, I am enjoying producing more of my quality and level of work since using the Eclipse.

So please accept these "thoughts" of mine as just my opinion. Obviously, I am now a bit prejudiced and maybe am even trying to justify to myself my hefty expenditure for this saw.

Respectfully, Don

[Imawoodbutcher]

I'm actually going next week to visit a person with a Eclipse to try it out.

Mr. Melon, the designer of the Eclipse gave me his name and phone number. Turns out this guy really likes scroll saws so he has several for me to try.

He bought one of the first few saws that were made and the only negatives he had was he was not able to mount his magnifying light due to the design of the head of the Eclipse. He also was not able to use a foot switch due to the safety design of the saw.

Other than that he said it was a dream ( of course he still loves his hegner too)

Dan

[jttheclockman]

I am getting my Don's and Dan's mixed up here.

Don

You don't have to justify the buying of the eclipse to me at all and I wish you many many years of success with it. It is a very nice saw indeed. Like I have said I have tried it and I see that saw at the picnics and agree it is a very well built saw, Ernie is a nice guy and will always help with them. I wish you would have asked about your problems with the Dewalt because there are remedies. I happen to be partial too but to the RBI saws and you hear good and bad about them also but I would recomend them to anyone for sure. Hope seeing lots of pictures from your shop with the use of that saw. keep the sawdust flowing.

Dan

I did not know you can't use a foot petal on that saw. See you learn something everyday.

[don snethen]

Eclipse Saw

Dan,

I had forgotten about not being able to use the foot switch on the Eclipse, perhaps because I did not use one on my DeWalt. I had previously tried the foot switch but found that I did not like having to keep my foot in a position near to the switch. I guess I am sort of foot-loose when sitting for extended periods of time at the saw. So, if you were used to that feature then you would obviously miss it. As for mounting a magnifying glass/light, I have opted for a magnifying glass mounted onto the rod intended for the hold-down foot. Others have done this, too.

Wanting more light on my table area than the small built-in light, I mounted the flex-arm light from my DeWalt onto the upper arm of the Eclipse. I just used band clamps (padded) to secure the attachment bracket and find that this works very well for me. I have my saw, my light, my fan and my dedicated scrolling mini-dust collector all plugged into a fused switched plug-strip which is also mounted to the side of the upper saw arm. When I turn on the plug-strip switch everything comes on and I am ready to saw just by depressing the saw's front on-button. I found that leaving the rear master key-switch on all the time allowed the timer to continue running. So I went to the switchable plug strip that is easily reached from my stool and if I choose, I can then monitor just the time that I have spent on a given project. I have only used this feature a couple of times but found it interesting to see just how long it has taken me to cut a project.

I think that most of us customize our saw station to suit our individual tastes and I imagine that you will also do that on whatever saw you choose to switch to. It's those little after-market tweaks we do that add to our overall satisfaction. It is interesting to learn of the varying ingenuity utilized by so many woodworkers.

Don

[Imawoodbutcher]

Don,

I have never used a foot switch on a saw. I have not used a mag light yet but definatley will use that.

I was just passing on what was said to me on the phone by a Eclipse owner.

I think those were very minor negatives to me and quite possibly could be different now(he said he bought one of the first ones.)

I'm afriad the only real downside will be when I finally decide to buy it waiiting for it to arrive. The guy I talked to on the phone waited 2 years for his.

Dan