New toy

Or, hopefully a new tool.

Santa brought me a scroll saw for the workshop. My first ever and I am a total novice.  It's quite stimulating to be faced with the need for a new skill-set and realising that few of my existing skills will transfer across.  So, we have an old dog trying to learn new skills: what could possibly go wrong?

Luckily, we have YouTube at hand offering lots of free, new-user tutorials.  Whatever did we do without it?

I spent a couple of hours today following advice to bolt the saw to a baseplate and adding a non-slip mat between the saw and the baseplate and  another between the baseplate and the bench. Apparently vibration is a common problem and the base and mats may help.

The saw is from a company called Lumberjack. It is not quite an
 entry level machine, but equally not a top of the tree, high end saw.  I had hoped for one from Axminster Tools, but Santa found they were out of stock. I think this model is the same one, but badged by Lumberjack. Needless to say, both come from the same Chinese factory, but may be differently finished and quality assured. So far I am pleased with what I have.

I added the saw to my Santa List because I wanted to make some lettering for signs for our allotment site. From what I have seen so far, the Lumberjack saw will be more than capable of lettering - assuming the operator can master the needed skills of course.

It's nice to have a new challenge.