Creative Woodworks & crafts 2002-03, страница 49

Wes' Workshop

Subject• Scroll Saw Attachment

The Olson FretLite

Have you ever noticed that as the project gets larger, the difficulty in locating the blade entry hole from the bottom of tlic project gets worse and the room left to raise a side becomes less, reducing your area of visibility in which you can locate the hole. Well help is on the way. If you do not mind drilling a hole or two in your scroll saw table, you can install a battery powered light called the "Olson FretLite" that is now marketed by the Olson Saw Company. One hole is mandatory to allow the light to shine through. ( I tried to get it to shine through the blade hole on all of my saws without drilling, but it obstructed the motion of the lower blade clamp on all of them.) The light is equipped with a magnet and a metal strip with double-faced tape so it can be mounted on ferrous or nonferrous tables. You can drill a second hole in the edge of your tabic for the switch if the table edge has sufficient width.

Batters' changing only requires unscrewing one screw and replacing with two lithium wafer batteries which provide a sendee life of about 124 hours. The instructions are well written and illustrated and all that is required is an electric drill with l/4"-Oia. and 3/8"-Dia. bits and a 1 /2"-Dia. countersink to smooth the edges of the holc(s).

Live edge wood

The term "live edge" was used in George Ahlers' Dawn Patrol project. When dealing in lumber, we arc often confronted with local terms that, although different, mean the same thing. In this instance, live edge refers to a log that is cut clear through, leaving the bark and/or sapwood on both

outer edges. Two other terms meaning the same thing, at least in this area, are "cut through and through" and "slab sawn," or just plain "slabbed." I'm sure that if you visited a saw mill in your area, you may even learn another term for it.

Fig 1. You can see that the light provides sufficient illumination to locate even the tiniest hole.

Fig 2. The switch can be mounted in the leading edge of the table or at any other location you desire within the limitations of the length of the switch wire.

The end result is a board that has not been trimmed for grade and can contain any number of defects or degrades. It is a method of cutting I do for myself, as I get to select the grain and defect patients) that we need for our projects. They are far more interesting

when they come from a log that is cut from the upper part of a large tree or a butt log that contains a j crotch. In normal milling, they f arc edged (bark and as much sap-j wood as possible removed to i leave straight edges) for lumber and i f still containing knots, iireg-| ular grain, holes and the like, they 1 are sold at a lower grade standard which means less profit to the £; mill.

As woodworking artists, however, those character flaws and grain defects arc regarded as prizes because now you can enhance the intended design by £ incorporating them into the overall pattern. At the present time there is no standard for what we call "art wood" and our lower grade of "craft wood." Bird's eye and curly maple have a standard : which is based upon the amount of |eyes per a square measure for ^bird's eye, or the amount of curls per measure for curly. The better Sthe quality, the higher the price, j!which is typical of everything wc enjoy in life.

So where do you find such |wood? Visit any local sawmill, the smaller the better. Most sawyers fare of the same breed. If we see

glUmm Seven the smallest bit of interesting 'pattern in a piece, it goes into a pile someplace. Right now I have about a tandem dump truck load of slab wood that I need for firewood for the winter. I doubt that all of it will get bunted because Alice will be there as I cut it up. By the way, "slab wood" is the first or second cut taken off each of the four sides of a log as we cut. It often contains some really nice figure and character marks, but is not very stable until properly dried. Large mills grind their slabs, reducing them to mulch. Little guys like me

use it for heat.

Creative Woodworks & Crafts March 2002 • 49