Sandpaper Bargains

If your looking for a place to get a bargain on sandpaper and other sanding & finishing supplies, I thought I'd mention a place that has some really great deals. Klingspor's Woodworking Shop. I recently bought a Rigid random orbit sander and needed to get some discs for it; after a trip to the local big box stores where they're getting $3.97 for a package of 3 discs, I decided to look elsewhere.

I've purchased other items from Klingspors in the past, and looked at the sanding supplies but didn't want to stock up on paper at the time. After doing a little math I decided it was time to stock up and save a couple of bucks. The Stearate coated Aluminum Oxide H&L 5" discs come in 60 - 1500 grit and cost $4.50 for a ten pack. To save more they offer a Combo Pack of 50 that includes 10 of each 60,80,100,120 and 150 for $16.95, 50 discs purchased separately would be $22.50, if you get the combo pack you can save an additional $5.55 ! These are a great general purpose discs that you can use on wood, paint, bondo & fiberglass. They also have a combo pack that goes from 180 -400.

Another deal to look at is their Bargain Boxes, I chose the 5lb. box BB45110 for $15.95. This is the heavy duty stuff, mostly good for power sanding. I plan to cut most of it up to use with my Makita 1/4 sheet sander. The paper I received came in 4-1/2" x 11 sheets, when you add it up I basically have 50 sheets of 9 x 11" paper for 15 bucks, I'm happy, this will go a long way for me. They also have some pretty good deals on rolls and sheets. Klingspor has many types and grades of sandpaper and abrasives in their woodworking shop, so have a look for yourself, with the way prices keep skyrocketing we all could use a good deal these days when we can get one.

Klingspors also has many other products for power and hand sanding, as well as glue, varnish, brushes, books and tools. There is also a wealth of information about abrasives and sanding available on their website. You can visit their website here or get yourself a catalog here. They also have an industrial division too.

Puzzle - Kitten Puzzle

This is my latest puzzle, I made it for my niece. It's a photo of my Mom's cat Lil when she was a kitten. The puzzle is made of 1/4" Baltic birch plywood, and has 24 pieces. The puzzle was sandwiched between layers of pasteboard and taped all around with masking tape, the pattern was glued on, and then the whole thing was wrapped in clear packing tape and cut on my scroll saw, "strip style" with Pegas puzzle cutters blades.


If you would like to view a larger picture of the puzzle or see some of my other projects, please visit my photo album.

Free Childrens Puzzle Plans

Would you like to try your hand at making some simple kids puzzles? If you would, here are some nice puzzle patterns from the Shop Smith website. A Tortoise, Hare, and a Partridge in a Pear tree. They're sturdy and quick to cut, and you can't beat the price, the pattern is free. I'd make them out of Birch, Poplar or another hardwood. These are made from thicker stock than I would normally cut from, I think 3/4" would be fine, but the author wanted them to be free standing. You could make these for your own kids, or make some for the craft fairs & flea markets that are right around the corner. Heres the link to the instruction page, and that has a link to the pattern page. They can be painted or finished in some clear coat like Rocklers clear toy makers finish or a food safe finish. Whatever you choose to finish them with, just make sure its a lead-free/child-safe finish.

Zero Clearence Table Covers

In the last post we covered table inserts, some scroll saws don't use inserts, they simply have a hole in the table. For these types of saws you can use a cover on your table to accomplish the same thing, more support underneath and less space around the blade.

Some users simply trace the outline of their table onto a piece of hardboard, cut it out and clamp it to the table top, the problem with this method is that the clamps always are getting in your way.

What I recommend is to trace out your tables shape leaving about 1" more around the edge onto the hardboard, plywood, MDF or the material that you have chosen, and add cleats to the bottom side. The cleats will hold the cover from moving around, and if you wish, you can now clamp to the edge of the table with small 1" - 1-1/2" c-clamps, leaving the top free to move your cutting uninterrupted.

To get started, choose your material, outline your table top as above, now center your cover on the saw. To make the cleats cut some 3/4" wide pieces out of 3/4" thick stock, pine will do. Then cut them into about 1" in lengths and glue the cleats in place using clamps so that they are snug to the edges of the table. When the glue has dried mark the hole for the table from below and drill an appropriately sized hole for your blades. Now your cover is ready to use.

There is one other benefit to using this method, some saws have really small tables, especially the round type. By increasing the thickness of the cover from 1/8" to 1/2" - 3/4" you can make the tables size and shape to fit your preferences. The only time this could pose a problem is if you are cutting really thick stock, then just remove the cover to get back the total capacity of your saw.

Zero Clearence Inserts - Reduce Tearout & Chipping

On the left is the stock throat plate that came with my Craftsman saw. I only use it with sanding belts, and when I'm cutting really large parts. I made the one on the right out of 1/8" MDF. The stock throat plate creates several problems, one is small parts want to drop down into the saw's base, and the second thing is the tear out on the bottom of most pieces that you cut due to the lack of support underneath. You can remedy this problem by using zero-clearance inserts, or at least an opening that more approximates the size of the blade that you are using. These can be made out of many materials, including scraps of plywood, MDF, tempered hardboard, acrylic sheet, etc.

They are very simple to make. The one above was made by stack cutting several pieces of 1/8" MDF that were secured with double sided tape in between, then trace around the original throat plate and cut outside of the line to make them a tiny bit over size, you make them fit tightly by sanding around the edges (if you make them to loose add a thin piece of tape around the edge & trim).

If you are lucky enough to have a throat plate that is a standard size of a hole saw blade, you could cut them out with a hole saw in your drill or drill press. The only drawback to this method is that you are limited to the 1/4" hole left by the bit in the center of the hole saw, however you could cover the the hole with tape or card stock when done and make the appropriate sized hole with an awl or small drill bit.

One other consideration in the final fit, the one that I made above sits just shy of flush with the table top, so it needed to be shimmed up to make it flush. You can use paper, index card, cereal box, the back of a writing tablet(paste board), tape, or whatever else that you can glue to the back to make it fit flush with your table top, remember these are disposable. If you can't find a combination that makes it fit flush, make it sit just proud of the table and then sandit down a little until its just right.

What if my saw doesn't use a table insert? We'll cover that in the next post.

Puzzle : "Plenti - Grand "--- Pin-up Girl Puzzle

This is the latest puzzle that I finished cutting. It's a puzzle that I made using a vintage vegetable crate label. The puzzle measures 7" x 9" and has 135 pieces, contains 8 themed figurals as well as a second puzzle in puzzle. It was cut from 1/4"- 5-ply Baltic Birch plywood using Pegas puzzle cutting blades. The front and back were finished with clear lacquer, the edges were left as is so no extra clues are given to the location of the edge pieces.

I saw this label and new immediately that it would make a great puzzle. The label is a vintage vegetable crate label from the 1950's, the J. (Bud) Vukasovich Co. from Watsonville, California. This is a pin-up girl themed item that was so common back in the 1940's and 50's, pin-up girls adorned everything from calenders to airplane fuselages of that era.

After studying the label for awhile I decided to add some figurals to the puzzle to add interest, in staying with the theme of the label I used vegetables that could have been grown in California, carrot, garlic, avocado, green pepper, chili pepper, celery and corn, although corn is probably not a big crop in California; I grew up in northern Illinois and was surrounded by the stuff as a kid, the air was filled with the wonderful smell of corn in late July and August as it ripened.

The other thing that was obvious to me was that the young lady should be a big feature of the puzzle, so I made her a small puzzle within the puzzle, I didn't cut her into to many pieces as I didn't want to loose to much of the fine detail that was put into the little portrait.

If you would like to see more photographs of the puzzle please click here

Pyrography Workbook by Sue Walters

If you're not familiar with pyrography, more commonly know as woodburning, you should be. Woodburning is a great way to embellish many scroll saw and other craft projects, or it can be a beautiful art form all by itself as demonstrated here in this wonderful book by Sue Walters, Pyrography Workbook - A complete guide to the art of woodburning.

Sue covers all aspects of pyrography from the most basic woodburning tool that most of us are familiar with to the most advanced wood burning units with many sizes and shapes of tips for very fine detailing. She also discusses materials for woodburning, most of which I never even considered, gourds, paper, leather, logs, pieces of timber and Tugua nuts. There are also lessons in the book, from a very basic "ducks in bull rush" to the beautiful wolf on the cover of the book. There are ten other beautiful patterns and a guide to what each should look like to help complete them. Two of my very favorite pieces of art from the book are Sue's "Platypus diving" and "Turtle Rising" . If you're interested in learning how to woodburn or advance your skills this is a book that I own, and would definitely recommend you to get, If would like to see some of Sue's unbelievably beautiful art work you can visit her website here

Free Pattern - Hummingbird Scroll Saw Scene

Well, I think spring is finally here. I was outside with the dog the this morning and I heard a red wing blackbird in the distance, but the real proof was the three Robins that were looking for worms in the yard, when they return you know that the weather is finally going to get warmer. With spring here I was looking around for a pattern to cut, something seasonal. I found one that was just perfect, over at Accents Woodcraft Designs website. A hummingbird pattern, best of all its free, its nice just the way it is, but I was thinking of trimming off the corners into an oval and making a suncatcher out of it. The design would also look good on a box to make it something extra special. It is offered as a gif image, so resizing it should be easy to adapt for any project you might have in mind.

Supplies - Woodworkers Supply inc.

If your not familiar with these folks you should be. They have a great product line-up and there service is fast and friendly. I have made several purchases from here and been very satisfied. The company that I'm talking about is Woodworkers supply inc. They carry large inventory of stationary and bench top tools including Woodtek, Powermatic, Jet, Steel City, Delta, as well as small portable tools by Porter-Cable, DeWalt, Bosch, Makita, Freud and Triton.

The catalog also has hardware, finishing supplies, dust collection equipment, saw blades, router bits and many more items. If you would like to shop the on line catalogs, go here. if you would like to order your free catalog go here.