FIVE FROGS WOODWORKING

A while back, I mentioned in a post that I sometimes get frustrated by burn bans where I live. My shop is heated by a woodstove, and when air quality gets low, I cannot burn wood. My neighbor can, but I cannot.

The only utilities available out of town where I live are electricity and land line phones. Installing a propane or natural gas or oil heater would require some expensive infrastructure installation. I don’t really care to have large fuel tanks on the property, nor loose much shop space to an inside heating unit. This summer, I had an electrician install an electric heater in the shop. I only have a 60-amp sub panel feeding the shop, so I was limited to a 40-amp load. (Upgrading to a 100-amp sub panel was cost prohibitive considering the distances involved.) That resulted in a 7500-watt heater mounted high up on the wall.

I also installed a ceiling fan to help move the rising hot air down to the lower levels of the shop. The shop walls are 12 feet high, and the center peak is at 16 feet. Hot air rises and it gets pretty hot up there even when it is still cold on the floor. The fan runs backwards to pull colder air up and displace the hot air at the top. So far, it is helping distribute the hot air very well.

I also have a Jet air filter on the wall that moves a lot of air, so it also helps move the hot air. It is an energy hog compared to the ceiling fan, though.

Additionally, I have a “milkhouse heater” that plugs into a 110 V AC outlet. It is a 1500-watt heater. This little milkhouse heater sits on my workbench and blows directly on my hands as I use the scroll saw. It helps a lot. I have used this heater for years in addition to the wood stove, at least until the shop warms up enough.

If I am restricted from burning wood, I have roughly 9000 watts of electric heat I can call on in my sort of insulated shop. That does not sound like much, does it? Just for comparison, the electric central heater in my well insulated house puts out 17,500 watts of electric heat.

Let’s convert the shop heaters to BTU’s. To do that, we multiply by 3.4. So, 9000 watts for an hour (9 kWh) is equivalent to roughly 30,600 BTU’s.

Monetarily, 1 kWh of electricity is costing .14448. If I run my electric heaters for 10 hours for a day, it is costing me (9) x (10) x .14448, which is $13.00.

Now, let’s look at wood heat. When the stove is burning, I typically throw in two pieces of firewood every couple of hours. If that is a cubic foot of wood, I am burning .5 cubic feet per hour. Notice that I have my scroll saw fairly close to the wood stove.

1 cord of firewood is 4 feet x 4 feet x 8 feet, or 128 cubic feet. My last load of delivered firewood was $300 for western larch, colloquially known as “tamarack” even though it is not true tamarack.

So, $300 divided by 128 cubic feet gives $2.34 per cubic foot. For the same 10 hours as above, it is costing $11.71 to heat the shop. Pretty much the same cost, right?!?

Well, wait a minute. How much heat is in that firewood? Most of the common cheap pines, spruce, fir, cottonwood, alder, etc., have about 15,000,000 to 18,000,000 BTUs per cord. The western larch sells for a premium price because it has 23,000,000 BTUs per cord. Depending on your source, these numbers jump around quite a bit. A good hardwood is even better, but hard to get in this part of the country.

23,000,000 BTUs per cord, divided by 128 cubic feet gives roughly 180,000 BTUs per cubic foot. If I am burning 1/2 cubic foot per hour, that is 90,000 BTUs. It becomes apparent that the electric heat is way more expensive than the wood heat, being almost 4x the cost per BTU. Additionally, the shop is not necessarily well insulated, so the losses can be significant. If it is less than about 20 degrees outside, the wood stove barely heats enough to work. I historically have not tried puzzle cutting if it is that cold outside. The electric heat by itself does not have a chance on a cold day. I have improved insulation in the shop over the last four years. As built, the walls have fiberglass insulation sandwiched between the outside sheet metal and fiberboard on the inside. The ceiling has 2″ thick fiberglass insulation under the sheet metal roof. The peaks were uninsulated as was the roll up door. My kids helped me install foam insulation board on the peaks, and a garage door company insulated the roll up door. But it is still basically just a pole barn at heart.

Going forward, on a really cold day, I will use both heat sources, which will give about 120,000 BTU’s an hour. We are hitting our first cold spell of the season tonight. It has been unseasonably warm so far. We will be in the low teens this weekend. I will be running both forms of heat and see how it works. That will add up to $25 for a ten-hour day. If the puzzle I am cutting takes 10 hours to cut, you can guess that will be factored into the price! However, in my last 100 puzzles, only seventeen of them hit or surpassed the 10-hour mark. Most are under five hours.

Just some “cold” economic facts to consider when pricing puzzles for sale!

Happy Puzzling!

Bob

In May and June of 2023, I posted a series of blog articles about scroll saws I currently have or have used in the past. I cut some similar puzzles on three of those saws and discussed the different cutting experiences. Of the saws I wrote about, I preferred my Dewalt but indicated I thought the Hawk was a higher quality saw. In December of 2023, my Dewalt started having issues and I needed to replace it. I was in the middle of a custom order and needed something soon. I continued cutting on the customer’s order using the Hawk. When the new saw came in, I finished the order with the new saw.

I decided I wanted to try one of the newer constant tension parallel link scroll saws that have some adjustability of the front to back movement of the blade. (For more on this topic, see my Part 4 entry from June 14, 2023.) There are a number of saw names/brands that fall in this category: Seyco, Pegas, Excalibur, King Industrial, Jet, etc. In sorting through the options, I zeroed in on either the Pegas or the Seyco ST-21. They seem to be functionally identical. I talked to a couple of retailers who were familiar with both. For various reasons, I decided on the Seyco ST-21, although it was pretty much a toss-up.

The Seyco comes with a stand included in the price, the Pegas does not. The Pegas comes with the blade clamps everyone seems to love, the Seyco does not. Seyco has an outstanding customer service reputation. Grobet (Pegas), not so much. One of the vendors that sells Pegas saws in the US has posted on one or more scrolling forums about slow customer service from Grobet. Other forum members have chimed in supporting that customer service with Grobet could be better. The Seyco has a bigger tabletop made from steel. For more $$$, you can buy a bigger table for the Pegas that still is smaller than the Seyco table. When I ordered around Christmas time in 2023, Seyco had a sale in progress that was $100 of store credit towards blades and accessories. Everything leaned Seyco for me, so that is what I ordered.

I’ll not bore you with unboxing details, but here is a picture of the assembled saw. Notice that huge rectangular table! 16 1/4″ wide by 28 1/4″ long.

I will try to follow the same sort of format I previously used. I’ll start with the fact that this is a constant tension parallel link mechanism. Rather than re-explain what that means, I will refer you to my blog entry from 26 May 2023. Scroll saws Part 1 Basic-Info. The advantage to this parallel link mechanism is less vibration than a parallel arm mechanism. The disadvantage is the larger front to back blade motion created by the greater arc of the short arms moving enough to create the up and down blade stroke. This is discussed in Parts 2 through 4.

The advantage to the Seyco style of parallel link saw is that the fore and aft movement can be minimized by adjustments made to the saw. This is the major difference from the Dewalt which led me to spend roughly $400 more for this saw than a new Dewalt would have cost me.

Adjusting the blade movement

The first step is to ensure the upper support arm is exactly parallel to the table.

The upper support arm is the large horizontal black metal piece in the above photo. You want the distance from the tabletop to the bottom of the arm to be the same along the entire length of the support arm. This is adjusted (with the blade removed) by twisting the knob on the upper right. You can use a ruler or tape measure, but I used a set of inside calipers.

Note the position of the adjustment knob. It has a white mark on it for easy reference. I have not had to adjust mine since I assembled the saw a year ago.

Next is to adjust the front to back movement of the blade. Interestingly enough, this is NOT explained in the manual that comes with the saw. So, perform this adjustment at your own risk. The geometry of this saw is identical to the Dewalt, i.e. the arm length is 3 7/8″ and the stroke length is 3/4″. This gives a theoretical range of motion front to back of .018″ to .073″. You may remember that on my Dewalt, the measured blade movement is .036″. On the Hawk saw (different saw mechanism), it is only .009″!

I started by measuring what this came to me with from the factory. To make a firm measuring surface that would not flex, I used a large handheld coping saw blade of rather large size and placed it in the blade holders backwards. Next, I mounted my magnetic gauge to the table with the feeler against the blade. I removed the cover over the motor screw so I could turn the motor with a screwdriver. I then rotated the motor and marked the measurements through the full range of motion.

It was initially .031″. Not much better than the Dewalt. I loosened the motor mount bolts and twisted the motor through various locations until I had the least amount of motion.

I did not try to find the worst amount of movement, but I had one measurement that went to .045″. The best I could obtain was .023″, which is where I retightened the mounting bolts.

Geometry tells us the best that could be theoretically achieved is .018″, so this .023″ is fairly close. I was really hoping for the .018″. Anyway, it is better than the Dewalt, but still a long way from the Hawk measurement of only .009″.

Other saw features

Tilt Mechanism

Moving on to the rest of the saw, I’ll start with the tilt mechanism. Unlike my other saws, this saw has a tilting head and blade rather than a tilting table. I absolutely love this feature. That table is incredibly stout and will not be inadvertently knocked out of square with the blade. I rarely cut an angled piece these days, so the tilting method is not critical to me. I do sometimes knock the table on the Dewalt, and it moves. If I am not aware it moved, I can start cutting on the saw without realizing the blade is no longer square to the table.

The saw motor/head assembly is supported by two large pins which go through corresponding holes on the stand. It pivots freely on those two pins until it is locked down by the knob in front under the table. Unlike many of the other saws of this style, there is no gear mechanism employed to tilt the saw head. Nor is there a potentially inaccurate angle gauge to bend down and look at under the table. (I never trust those to be accurate on any of my equipment.)

Instead, this saw comes with a digital angle gauge that sits up front where it is easy to see without getting on your knees to look underneath the saw table. This gauge is made by Wixey. It is held in place with magnets on steel components. I had another Wixey angle gauge for over 10 years that I use for table saw set ups, jointer fence alignment, etc. They are pretty good little tools. Here are some pictures of the two of them side by side.

The one that came with the Seyco saw uses inexpensive and easy to obtain AAA batteries. The older one on the left uses an expensive watch battery. After I set up the saw a year ago, I pulled the battery out and put the new gauge and battery in a drawer for storage. I was hoping to use the Seyco gauge for all my needs going forward because of the better battery situation. I pulled it out to take some pictures for this blog post and cut some 7-degree tapers for an inlay project, and after a couple of minutes, it stopped working even with a new battery. I have emailed Seyco about it since it is basically new and unused. I have had this saw for a year now, so we’ll see what response I get. The saw itself comes with a 2-year warrantee, but I do not know if that applies to the angle gauge it comes with. (Edit – I received a response from Seyco. They will indeed replace the faulty digital angle gauge. Hard to beat that kind of customer service!)

First, you square the blade to the table. The saw comes with a little 2″ engineer’s square for this purpose. I do not normally use a square for this. I just use a piece of wood, cut a slot, and reverse the wood to see if the blade fits in the slot.

Once the blade is square, you zero the Wixey gauge. I had to put a new battery in my old one for this series of photos. When I mounted it and turned it on, you can see it was not zeroed yet.

Once the gauge is zeroed, you can loosen the adjustment knob and pivot the saw head to the angle you want. My most common use in the past was at 7 degrees for making some inlay projects. The next picture shows the amount of tilt possible from left to right. This was before the provided gauge stopped working. One item to note is that the saw motor is mounted on the right side of the saw head. When you loosen that adjustment knob, the weight of that motor wants to go full tilt to the right. Be prepared!

Magnetic table cover

An optional feature I chose was a magnetic table cover with concentric rings and lines. You can see it in the above photos. If you watch Steve Good’s 7-year-old video on this saw, they originally came with the magnetic cover. Now, they are an optional accessory. Not strictly necessary, but I do like the lines converging on where the blade passes through the table. When I am cutting some gnarly twists on the saw, they help me realize I may be pushing sideways too much, which makes a bad cut. After a year, this one is getting wear marks on it. I am not sure if I will replace it when it is time.

Heavy duty stand

The stand is strong thick steel and is incredibly sturdy. As mentioned above, the saw comes with the stand for no additional charge. Additionally, it can be set up as a floor stand as I did, or it can be set up as a benchtop saw.

Here is a picture of the saw stand as compared to the less sturdy Dewalt stand.

If you look at the bottom of the legs, you can see there is a short section on all four legs. If you want a benchtop saw, you just use these short pieces without the long sections. Also, you have some adjustability on how tall the floor stand is by attaching the short sections through different holes. Also, you can make the front legs shorter than the back legs if you like the saw to tilt towards you. I often sit in a bar height chair while cutting, so I went for the full height. I just put a board under the back legs if I want it tilted.

Big table

This has a huge table on it. I like the big table that helps support large puzzles when I first start cutting them. Here is the table as compared to the Dewalt.

Once again, if you look at Steve Good’s video on the Seyco saws, his originally came with a slightly smaller table that had “saw dust collection trays” around it. Those are gone, which I think is probably a good thing.

The table is made from steel and is about 1/4″ to 3/8″ thick. It is coated with something, maybe powder coated. When waxed, it is pretty slick, but I do have that magnetic cover on it.

On/off switch

The on/off switch is pretty small. It is also “protected” on the sides by metal tabs that stick up. I had never used a foot switch before, but it was readily apparent that I would need one with this saw. I did purchase one separately. 25+ years of habits are hard to overcome, but I have adjusted to using a foot switch. I have now purchased another one to use with the Hawk saw and probably will get a third one to use on the Dewalt when I get around to fixing it. If you are not using a foot switch, do yourself a favor and get one.

Blade clamps/tension adjustment

This is the one area where I believe the Dewalt is a better saw, including the Hawk saw. The blade changes are quick and easy. On the Dewalt, tensioning is done with a little lever right there with the rest of the controls. I can easily change out a dull blade and continue cutting within 10 seconds without any issues. That includes the time spent pulling a new blade out of the container I store them in.

On these newer saws, there really is not a tension adjustment. You replace the blade and move the tension release lever, and the blade clamps automatically adjust using a spring built into the upper clamp. I at first broke about a third of the new blades I installed in the saw before even turning it on. At first, I thought it was a defect in the factory blade clamps, so I bought the Pegas replacement clamps that people rave about. No difference. I have to install the blade with a little curve in it to keep the tension from exceeding the blades strength.

It turns out that it is really an issue with the blades I like to use, not the saw’s fault. I use the Pegas MGT 2/0R blades. They break easy and this is indeed discussed on a few forums and has been mentioned on a couple of Facebook groups. This really came to life for me while cutting the double-sided pocket watch puzzles last summer for the 2024 Puzzle Parley puzzle exchange. I tested a number of different 2/0 size blades to compare the cut roughness on the double-sided puzzles. None of the other blades broke on me when placed in the saw. Just the Pegas MGT 2/0R blades. This was never an issue with the Dewalt style of blade clamp and pressure mechanism, as the tension is manually adjusted. You just move the tension lever until the tension is correct.

I still prefer to use the Pegas MGT blades, but I have to ensure there is a little bit of curve when I install them in the saw. When I tighten the blade, sometimes I have to release the tension lever and readjust because the blade is too loose. Blade changes just take longer than they do on the DeWalt.

Speaking of reverse tooth blades, you may remember from my prior blog posts that different saws have more or less of the reverse teeth projecting above the table. Like the Dewalt clamps, with these clamps you can position the blade higher or lower with respect to the table. I can position the blade so the reverse teeth only come up about 1/8″. This gives me the cleaner cut on the backside without causing tear out on the front side.

Summary

After a year of using it, I am very happy with the saw. I did not cut another dragon tails puzzle for this, as I still have some unsold dragon tail puzzles for sale. I don’t currently need another one! So, I cannot compare cutting times per piece like I did before.

I love how sturdy it is and the non-movable table. I do not normally cut at an angle, so the tilt mechanism does not matter to me. I would say that I do like the digital angle gauge accurate to 1/10th of a degree that is visible from the topside.

The saw is practically vibration free. I put a glass of water on the table while running it at full speed and barely had any ripples in the glass. I put the same glass of water on the Hawk table, and the saw got wet. Really wet, until the glass fell onto the floor. If it was running, the Dewalt might have had a splash or two with that test.

Besides cutting puzzles, I have used the saw to cut some animal shaped wooden blocks for the grandkids to play with when they are here. With the right blades installed, it plowed through 3/4″ thick maple, hickory, and alder with ease. Very smooth polished edges to the cuts which required no sanding.

Is it better than a Dewalt? For the most part, I would say “Yes, it is better than the Dewalt.” Was it worth $400 more better? I guess that depends. If looking strictly at the front to back blade motion issue (which is why I originally bought it), that little bit of adjustment was not worth the extra $400. Looking at the stand and the sturdy tabletop with some of the other features, I am quite happy I have it. If I did not have the extra money, I would have bought a Dewalt and also been quite happy with it. The Dewalts are great saws and much more affordable. Plenty of people are using Dewalts to make many many jigsaw puzzles. I just would not have had that itch scratched: “are the $1000 saws better than the $600 saw?” I do not regret buying it.

Is it better than a Hawk? $1000 saw vs. a $1600 saw? For what I am primarily using it for, I like the Seyco (and Dewalt) better. The Hawk does cut more precisely. Blade changes are a little more finicky on the Hawk. The speed range on the Hawk does go down to 40 strokes a minute. (Why would I need that? The Hawk, with an optional coolant drip tank, can be used to cut stained glass with diamond blades). The Hawk can adjust the fore and aft angle on the blade for more aggressive cutting. The Hawk can be modified with an optional wide and lower set of legs for use with a wheelchair. Not really a quality issue, but I like that the Hawk is still made in the U.S. I like to support American workers. The Hawk is a higher quality saw overall, but I prefer to use the Seyco or Dewalt for puzzle cutting just because of blade changes.

Of course, all of these can be found used for a lot less money. New ones have a list price that can often be undercut due to sales. I say $600 for the Dewalt as that is the current price I find online, but I have seen it recently for significantly less. You do have to be careful on what it includes (stand or no stand, for example).

And, of course, there are used saws out there. This is the seventh scroll saw I have purchased in my lifetime. It is my first brand new one. I would have bought a used one, but Pegas and Seyco saws do not pop up on craigslist or Facebook Marketplace near me. I think there was one Pegas before Christmas, and the seller wanted almost as much as a new one delivered. Not happening. Currently, there is a Dewalt about 50 miles from here that is listed for $425 that is advertised as “assembled but never used”. It includes a stand, a light, and a bunch of blades.

I hope that this is interesting and useful information for someone. It took me too long to write for it to be a total waste of time! <smile>

Happy Puzzling!

Bob

Over a year ago, I started a project to run comparison tests of various wooden materials available for puzzle creation. Three blog posts resulted: the first talked generalities about plywood types, the second talked about the specific types of plywood I would be testing, and the third presented results from cutting ten of those specific types. The first article explaining plywood types and terminology was posted on November 10, 2023. The third blog entry with the first set of results and observations was posted on December 13th, 2023. Now that it is December 2024, I should probably catch up with the rest of the samples and finish this.

Just as a reminder, I was cutting the same size puzzle with the same size and brand of blades for all of these. I was cutting them with a John Stokes inspired piece style that my wife named “Dragon Tails”. The only difference was to the different types of wood used. I cut these remaining samples primarily in February and March of 2024. However, my Dewalt scroll saw was taken out of service in December 2023 and replaced with a new Seyco saw. That really should not make a difference as far as this comparison goes, but it is a difference.

1/4″ Maple Cabinet Grade Plywood

You may remember that cabinet grade plywood is a step up from construction grade plywood. It has more layers or plies made from a higher quality of wood, often a hard wood. At least one outer layer is aesthetically pleasing. It is not necessarily void free, however. Here is a side view of two pieces of different thickness cabinet grade plywood.

You can see the 1/4″ one above has a void clearly visible in the edge view. This piece of plywood is the test subject here. Because these are cutoffs from a local cabinet shop, the pretty side has a clear finish on it. I cut this with the finish side up. As with the previous puzzles, I started by cutting the decorative edge.

As before, I tested the cut off pieces to see how strong they are. They did not seem to be unusually weak, but definitely not as strong as a multiply such as Baltic Birch or Appleply.

This stuff cut relatively easily. Part of it may be because it has less layers of glue, which is hard to cut. The top side with the finish cut beautifully and basically splinter free.

It left a highly polished cut on the internals.

The backside was a different story. Plenty of splinters and even pieces of outer ply coming free.

Here is a shot of an internal void with other damage.

In finishing the puzzle, I was able to repair or minimize all of the issues with the exception of the one in the above picture. For that one, I was able to salvage the missing material and glue it to the piece, but a close examination of the completed puzzle shows the flaw.

Since this piece had a clear hard finish on one side, I made it the back of the puzzle. I painted the unfinished side with acrylic spray paints and made it the front. This is a fun puzzle to assemble. It is easier than one that is painted on both sides, as it is clear which side is up, and which side is down. Here is the painted front of the puzzle. It has been 9 months since I cut and finished this puzzle, but I can quickly observe four flaws in the veneer. Can you? Three of them are on the edge and really do not make a difference. The fourth one is the one pointed out above.

Here is the backside with the clear finish.

Solid maple

Moving on, the next puzzle was cut from solid maple. No plies here!

First was to cut the decorative outside edge.

Next was to test the relative strength of the edges. Since this is not plywood, grain makes a difference. For the part with the grain running longitudinally, this was the strongest wood tested. It held up very well.

For the section with the grain running the other way, however, it was a different story. This is the hazard with narrow pieces of solid wood. It broke very easily. Having said that, after cutting the puzzle I wiggled some of the pieces that looked like they may be vulnerable. Given that the tabs are relatively short, they seem to be fairly strong, and I did not break any of them.

There was really no splintering that occurred while the cutting was going on. That is the advantage of a solid hardwood. Here is a close up with the zOrb magnifier of the front.

Here is a shot of the fuzz on the back that is easily removed by light sanding. There is no splintering, just “fuzz” from the saw blade passing through.

Being solid wood, I opted to finish this front and back with different shades of Danish oil finish.

And the back.

1/2″ Maple cabinet grade plywood

This one is an outlier because it is cut from nominal 1/2″ plywood instead of 1/4″. I reassembled these puzzles to jog my memory as I was writing this blog entry. I have to say this one may be my favorite out of all of them. The 1/2″ thick wood just feels different. It was very satisfying to assemble.

As usual with this puzzle piece style, start with cutting the decorative edge and testing the relative strength of the edge off cuts. The strength test was actually meaningless, since the wood is twice as thick. Comparing it to the 1/4″ material is not a fair comparison.

As with the 1/4″ thick cabinet grade material, I cut it with the finished side up. There was no significant splintering that occurred on the topside.

And, as with the 1/4″ material, there were some outer ply issues on the bottom side of the cuts.

And, as with the 1/4″ material, most of these were covered by the spray paint and do not really affect the completed puzzle appearance. I left the side with the “factory” clear finish as the bottom of the puzzle, and spray painted the unfinished side to make the top of the puzzle.

A note on cutting. A very small and thin blade is used to cut jigsaw puzzles. As the blade dulls, you have to push harder to get it to cut. As you push harder, the blade tends to bow in the direction of pressure. With this thicker wood, that bow in the blade can make it so the wood kerf kind of bends as you make sharp turns. Consequently, you can end up with pieces that do not smoothly fit with each other. For me, I end up replacing blades more often than I do with the thinner woods. Another option is to move up a blade size or two when cutting the thicker woods.

1/4″ Alder with MDF core

In my previous article, I had cut a piece of 1/4″ Maple MDF core. This was pretty similar. The alder outer plies held up while and did not splinter. I am not going to take up a lot of space with pictures on this one. I finished it front and back with Danish oil finish.

1/4″ Maple Appleply

Once again, this is a repeat of a prior puzzle with a different wood flavor on the outside. That puzzle was cherry Appleply. I really like the Appleply product. It stands up fairly well. I know another puzzle cutter has complained about hitting some voids, but I have not run into that problem with this product. I really have nothing new to write on this material that I did not write about for the cherry Appleply. The only real difference is that the lighter wood takes the stain colors differently from the cherry wood.

1/4″ Hardboard

Like the MDF core products, this is another one that blew away some of my prejudices. I kind of thought this would disintegrate into splinters and scraps. Originally, I could not find my hardboard and joked about cutting one using some scrap pegboard. However, I did find my piece of hardboard and hacked off a puzzle blank. A quick measurement shows that 1/4″ is really about 3/16″. So, it is thinner than most nominal 1/4″ material.

This product is so different from what I use that I need to include a few photos here. This is the top of the uncut product. It does have a few scratches on it, but they will not impact the final product.

This is the backside. It is a rough surface, so is useless for bonding images to. You can see it has a repeating pattern pressed into it. I assume other options are available. This stuff really looks like the material my Wentworth laser cut puzzles are made from, other than the rough backside.

I cut the decorative edge and tested the strength of the edge cut offs. As expected, it is a little weaker than most of the plywoods, but not terribly so. The area of the break looks a little different from what plywood looks like.

It cut very cleanly with minimal fuzz and zero splintering.

Here is a close up of the top cuts. It is the cleanest of any of them.

Here is a close up the sides of the cuts.

Given the texture of the back side, my only option was to paint the top with the acrylic spray paint and leave the back unfinished. From the top, it looks like any of the rest of them.

The backside presented a difficulty for me. Because the paint bleeds down the side, it can actually wrap around and suck onto the bottom of the piece being sprayed. If both sides are being painted, this is not a problem, as that side will be painted anyway. In the case of the cabinet plywood above, the backside already had a clear finish on it. This made it easy to remove any errant paint. Not the case for this though.

If this puzzle had an image on it and were cut out as normal, I would find this to be a very adequate puzzle material. Am I going to switch to using it? No. The puzzles I make are labor intensive and most of the price is from the labor time. Saving a few pennies to use this product would be very counterproductive for my customer base. Most of my customers want a nice-looking puzzle front with a nice smooth visibly appealing wooden back.

Other woods

There are a lot of other woods out there. In my original posts on this issue, I had mentioned making one of these puzzles from construction grade plywood. I am not going to waste my time on that. I would like to sell these puzzles, and I think that product would not make a good puzzle.

Additionally, I have since experimented with three other wood products while making the 2024 Pagey Elliot Puzzle Exchange puzzles. Solid basswood, basswood plywood, and Italian Poplar plywood. I used all of those materials up and do not have any left to make a Dragon Tails puzzle with. I would say all three of those products could be beneficial to a puzzle cutter. They are light weight and very easy cutting. In fact, they are worth considering due to the ease and speed of cutting. Time is money, and most of the cost of a hand cut puzzle is the puzzle cutters time. The downside is that all three of those woods are boring to look at. Just a plain drab white wood. One puzzle maker makes his puzzle wood from solid basswood and attaches his own outer veneer to make a pretty back. That has its own time factor.

Summary and conclusions

I started this looking for a replacement for Baltic Birch. It seems to me that the quality of Baltic Birch is declining, and it is a boring looking wood. The table below captures some of the data from cutting these puzzles. There are some inconsistencies that do not make sense in the numbers. For example, why did the MDO alder core take longer to cut than the MDO maple core when the alder product is thinner? It also took more blades for fewer pieces. The sample size is just too small to really be accurately meaningful.

However, some valid observations can be made. The hardboard used the most blades and took the longest to cut. This makes sense, as it is comprised of a lot of resins and glue, which are hard on blades and cut slower. The harder plywoods (Appleply, Baltic birch) took more blades and more time.

I had previously determined that the single ply cherry product from Boulter and the Meranti plywood were totally unacceptable for my use.

I would add the hardboard to this category. I think it would make a decent puzzle material for personal puzzles. It actually would make good puzzles period, but I think for a high-end customer it would not be desirable.

I was really surprised by the veneer peeling problem with the cabinet grade plywood. I have used the 1/2″ thick stuff for numerous puzzle projects over the years and not run into this. The difference is that I have mounted an image on the bare side and cut those puzzles with the finish side down.

From the rest, I pick Appleply as my first choice. It has some drawbacks in that it does take more blades and a little longer to cut.

Second choice would be if I could find some MDF core product with a nice outer ply that is thicker than the two samples I used. After sitting down to assemble a number of these in one sitting, the MDF core puzzles were noticeably thinner. The okoume and sapele would also be good choices. The MDF is very flat and easy to cut.

Baltic birch remains an easy backup. It has been easy to source locally.

I would still like to find some lightweight wood that has a nice outer veneer surface on it.

If I did this over, I would choose a different piece style. These dragon tail pieces individually take way too long to cut for a project like this. Additionally, I ended up cutting 18 of them, which is a bit of a sales problem. Due to the amount of time it takes to cut them, the price per piece is high. Although unique looking, they are admittedly spendy for what you get.

Some of these have been sold. Some are listed on my Etsy store if you are interested. https://www.etsy.com/shop/FiveFrogsWoodworking

Happy Puzzling!

Bob

In this post, I will discuss some issues I have encountered with my dry mount press. I will also review the manufacturer recommended maintenance on these. My particular press is a Seal Masterpiece 210M. This unit was designed for mounting images to a substrate up to 1″ thick. A picture of it is below.

This is an older unit (30+ years), but new ones are listed for sale on numerous sites such as Artgrafix, Blick Art Materials or B&H Photo. The company has changed names to Bienfang and then to D&K, who is selling them under the “Expression” brand. A new one lists for around $2500 and up plus shipping and sales tax. I found mine on eBay 12 years ago for a lot less money. I just did a quick perusal of current eBay listings, and they run from $300 to $800. Spare parts are available if needed.

This model has a platen size of 18.5″ deep (front to back) and 23″ wide. Other models of this exist with different size platens. On this model, there are two adjustment screws on either side of the on/off switch and indicator lights. These are for adjusting the clamping pressure. The smaller models only have one pressure adjustment screw.

You can use this to mount larger materials in multiple passes. You can manage something up to 23″ wide and as long as you want if you support the amount protruding out the front and the back. I have done this with a couple of larger puzzles that were 16″ x 24″.

To achieve a successful image mount, the standard mantra is that you need to limit moisture present in the materials, use the correct temperature for the adhesive and the image, and apply the correct pressure for the correct amount of time. I will add to this that you need to ensure the back of the image is not too slippery or contaminated with a slippery substance. I strongly encourage reading the applicable sections of a book entitled “The Mounting and Laminating Handbook“, 3rd edition, by Chris A Paschke.

Temperature and pressure are functions of the press, the other items depend on operator technique.

Temperature Control

Temperature control is the first issue I want to address. I had a series of puzzles where I had problems with the image peeling from the wood. The paper itself was not delaminating, but the adhesive was failing. After several bouts of extreme frustration, I discovered that the temperature gauge on the unit was reading higher than the actual temperature as measured by other devices. This meant my adhesive was not adequately activating.

When the press is first turned on, you have both indicator lights on.

In theory, when the press has reached the temperature set by the control dial, the orange “heat” lamp goes out and the red “power” light stays on. When you add new material or the press cools down, you will see the orange light cycle on and off. This particular unit has a problem. Adjusting the temperature dial does not result in that temperature, and the temperature gauge is wrong. I discovered this by using the long meat probe from my smoker and a temperature strip. I later additionally confirmed it with a multimeter that includes a temperature probe.

The picture below shows the issue. The control dial is set to 200, the temperature gauge is showing about 183, the “heat” lamp is out indicating the press has reached the desired temperature, my smoker probe is only showing 171, and the temperature strip is showing a temperature between 167 and 176. (The smoker probe is guaranteed accurate within 1.8 degrees.)

I use Fusion 4000 adhesive. It requires a minimum of 170 degrees to properly activate. So, basically the adhesive was not being heated enough to properly activate. You do not want to just crank up the temperature, because ink jet prints start to degrade over 200 degrees.

I found some directions in an internet forum on how to adjust the knob to be closer to the temperature gauge.

The way to do this is first remove the knob. Next with a small screwdriver adjust the small screw in the center of the knob shaft. Turn the small screw counterclockwise to increase the temp setting and clockwise to decrease the temp setting. Small increments can make quite a difference in temperature…try 1/8 turn to start and then after the temp stabilizes see whether the set temperature agrees with the indicated temperature.

I messed around with this for almost an hour. It takes a small diameter screwdriver with a blade that is at least 2″ long. The words “small increments” are a huge understatement. I was able to get the dial indicator closer to the indicated temperature, but they are still different. I finally decided it was not really worth any more effort, as the indicated temperature is still wrong no matter if the dial agrees or not.

For my next project, I used the temperature strip and my multimeter with a temperature probe to verify the temperature of the press. The temperature gauge on the press indicated about 198, the temperature strip indicated between 185 and 194, and the multimeter indicated 186. I could buy replacement parts, but now that I know about the issue, I can just check it like this.

Moral of the story is to verify the temperature of your press!

Adjusting the Clamping Pressure

The cam locking system develops a total clamping pressure of 1200 pounds if correctly adjusted. That works out to a couple of pounds per square inch if you have a project as big as the platen. It is more than that for smaller projects. That should be more than sufficient. If you want more clamping pressure than that, you will probably need to get a vacuum press.

To adjust the clamping pressure, you need to first load the materials to be mounted into the press. Close the press, but do not apply pressure by locking it. If it is adjusted properly, the lever arms should be at a 45-degree angle. Refer to the scanned pages of the Owner’s Manual below on how to make the adjustment.

This is where I recently ran into an issue. The locking nuts had corroded onto the pressure adjusting screws. The asterisked direction above to lock the press to remove the pressure on the locking nuts did not work. I had to use some pliers to get them to come loose. I kept the press closed and completely removed the locking nuts. It was a battle most of the way.

I then used a wire brush and a small wire wheel in a Dremel type rotary tool to remove as much corrosion as possible from the threads of both the adjusting screws and the locking nuts. (If you do this, make sure to collect all the debris to keep from contaminating future projects!) To prevent future problems, I coated the threads with anti-seize before reassembling. (Note that this is not included or recommended in the owner’s manual anywhere.) The anti-seize I had in my shop was the high temperature variety and is gold in color.

A note of caution. This stuff goes everywhere. I once heard someone joke that if you use anti-seize, even after you take a shower you will wake up in the morning with your pillowcase coated with this stuff. Be warned!

So, how often do you need to adjust the clamping pressure? If you set it and keep using the same materials, probably never! But, as you experiment and change your backing material thickness, you should check it every time.

For the picture below, the setting has not changed between three different thicknesses of plywood. The leftmost image is nominal 1/4″ Cherry Appleply, the middle image is 6mm okoume plywood, and the right side is nominal 1/2″ cabinet grade maple plywood.

The difference between the left and right images is pretty clear. The adjustment screws need to be adjusted to achieve the correct pressure for the 1/2″ plywood. Actually, you may have a very difficult time closing the press like this.

Maintenance

The owner’s manual has a short list of recommended maintenance items.

1. Cleaning – the first one on the list is critical. The upper platen lifts when you open the press. It is a flat piece of steel. This is the piece of the press that heats up. If it has deposits or build ups on it, it can cause impressions in the surface of the mounted image. If you notice your mounted puzzle image has little divots in it, you probably need to go check the upper platen for smoothness. They make a cleaning solution for this.

This cleaning guidance also applies to the release paper. The press is loaded from bottom to top with:

• release paper
• plywood
• adhesive
• printed image
• release paper

If the platen has any bumps on it, those bumps will press through the top piece of release paper and put a dimple in the image. If the top piece of release paper has any residual adhesive from the last project, that adhesive will melt into the image and ruin it. Here is an example of this.

I now scrape the release paper between each project with an expired credit card. School of hard knocks here.

2. Check the sponge pad. On the bottom of the press is a thick sponge pad the size of the platens. It is relatively heavy. The material can begin to degrade with time. For people who are mounting prints to foam board to put in a picture frame, soft spots can cause uneven pressure across the image when clamping. Uneven pressure can lead to poor adhesion. In our case, where we are mounting prints to plywood, I do not see it as a critical issue. I have checked mine and it is fine. That is a good thing, as the replacement pads are about $140.00. Something to consider if you are looking at purchasing a used press.

3. Check the temperature – I have already beat this topic to death. It does say to use Seal Temperature Indicator Strips, but I found some other brand online. You just need to pick some that cover the temperature range you want. These came with a sticky back. I attached one to a piece of scrap plywood and throw it in the press when warming it up to do a quick temperature check.

4/5/6. No real discussion needed. I did find a loose nut on one of the pivot points once.

I sat down to write a short entry about the dry mount press and ended up writing another small booklet! If you have managed to read through the entire thing, I hope you find it helpful.

My owner’s manual came with my press when I bought it. It was printed in 1990. I found a newer one online from 2005. It was while they were labeled as Bienfang and owned by Elmers Glue! Everything is pretty much the same other than being reformatted and the name change. Here is the link to that. Bienfang Owner’s Manual.

As always, happy puzzling!

Bob