Oily Rag Disposal: I have learned in industry to dispose of all oily rags in fireproof containers. I use the wood stove but a coffee can with water in it will work as well. Some oils will just evaporate, some will spontaneously combust if all conditions are just right. Please don't take a chance and treat all oily rags and papers as if they might cause a fire. Not worth taking a risk.

Pete

Cutting metal tins: My wife asked me to reply to someone who would like to know how to cut an opening in a tea tin to be used as a small room box.

The biggest concern is safety, since you will be working with an abrasive cutoff wheel and will encounter flying grit. I ALWAYS wear safety glasses or a face shield and a dust mask. First apply masking tape to the approximate outline of the hole. Then mark the exact hole to be cut out with a felt tip pen. If the tin has a border or some art work that is to remain showing at the edge of the hole, then skip the tape and marking pen and follow this border. I use a Dremel tool with fiberglass reinforced cutoff wheels. These are about 1-3/8 inch diameter and 1/32 thick. I've found the non-reinforced wheels to be very fragile and break a lot. Speed should be about mid-range on the Dremel for thesewheels.

To do the actual cutting, I sit down, both feet on the floor, and cover my lap with a large towel or pillow case to control the flying grit. Then, holding the tin in my left hand and the tool in my right hand I rest both wrists on my legs. The idea here is to have a very firm base for both tool and tin because the wheel can grab easily, causing damage to the tin or to you. I rotate the tin clockwise about 45 degrees so I'll be cutting at a comfortable angle.

Starting on the right hand side of the hole and about 1/4 inch from the top of the hole, I gently ease the wheel into the tin until the wheel is about 1/8 inch through. Then carefully move the tool along the line until about 1/4 inch from the corner. The plan is to cut all four sides first, then go back and cut the corners last. This way, you won't have to deal with the center cut-out flopping around while trying to finish your cutting. For tins that have a border around the hole, it is safer to rough cut about 1/32 or more from the border, then go back and finish cut to the line. Remember that the tool will skid along the surface sideways marring the surface without warning, so really pay attention when starting the cuts. Once the hole is cut out, use a six inch flat file to smooth the edges and gently file away burrs on the inside and outside.

I have used this procedure to cut holes in tea tins, aluminum coffee pots, large steel enameled coffee pots, and copper tea pots. The main thing to remember is to go slowly and very carefully to avoid mishaps. Good luck!

Jim Nielsen - Wisconsin

Dremel Tools: Dremel tools are alive and well and not hard to use. Dremel is the only rotary hand tool I will use, because they make a bunch of accessories for it that increase its usefulness quite a bit. None of the other ones will fit the accessories. Dremel is not hard to use, but you should practice on scrap wood a bit until you have a good idea what it will do under certain circumstances. For example, if you are using it freehand with a sanding drum, it can catch on the edge of the wood and throw your hand/tool off to the side. Not a big issue, you won't be hurt or anything, but it could grind a gouge in your work. So you need to know about these points.

Dremels are wonderful tools for miniaturists and for many other purposes as well. If you are going to get one, get one with the flex shaft attachment. You will like the flex attachment for fine work because it's the size of a fat pencil and much easier to control in REALLY tiny places. By itself, it costs about $25. It's a bargain(maybe $15 more) when purchased in the box because you get a lot more bits and pieces to play with. Go ahead and get one. You'll love it.

Jeanne, San Anselmo, CA

Danger of shop made circular saws: Unless you are very careful how a Dremel tool is mounted and how the circular saw blade turns relative to the work, a shop made circular saw can cause accidents. Think of how all the miniature table saws are made. A portion of the blade extends through a horizontal table and the work is guided by either a sturdy rip fence which is parallel to the blade or a miter arm which is perpendicular to the blade. These hold the work solidly against the rotating teeth.

Among woodworkers it is universally understood that pushing lumber through a table saw without either a secure fence or a miter arm guiding the work is inherently dangerous and can cause kickback and nasty cuts. Kickbacks cause accidents.

Incorporating the elements of fence, miter arm and flat, secure table into a shop made Dremel jig is a difficult undertaking. Unless you know how to do this safely, I don't recommend making a table saw out of a Dremel Moto-Tool unless you have a lot of mechanical experience and understand all the forces at work.

If you can't afford to purchase a miniature table saw, either cut by hand or buy an inexpensive scroll saw. Learn to plane the edges straight and square. That's how all the great 18th century furniture makers worked in full scale. I think it makes more sense than getting stitches.

Many of you know we conduct many workshops using Preac table saws. We sell exclusively Preacs which we like the best for making furniture. The Jarmac, Micro Lux, Unimat and Dremel table saws are also safe to use and cut effectively. Personally, I leave the design of such things to the experts.

Someone mentioned using a larger table saw. I use a 10" Delta Unisaw to re-saw lumber, cut ply wood and occasionally cross cut miniature lumber. The thinnest blade available for a full size table saw is 3/32<.093> inch thick. I regularly use a 2-1/4 inch Preac blade .020 or .028 inches thick. This requires much less power, much thinner throat and is very safe. Making miniature with a full scale saw may be perfectly safe, also, if done properly. The margin for error is less than with the smaller, less powerful machines and the consequences of a mistake are likely to be much more damaging.

Pete

Dremel saws: Bill is talking about a Dremel hand held Moto-Tool (like a carving tool)and various ways to adapt it. He is absolutely right that you must not put a larger blade than Dremel's old 1" diameter blade, or the 1-1/4" Gyros blade on the Moto-tool in any setup. The speeds at the rim can be too fast, the blade disintegrates, and you are in danger.

HOWEVER, the Dremel 4" table saw, which several of us were talking about, is a real table saw designed to be a table saw and designed to use the 4" blade. Used properly it is no more or less dangerous than any other table saw ever sold.

Barb Jones, Cupertino, CA

Cutting Tips:

** Use a sharp knife ALWAYS

** Replace or sharpen blades often

** X-Acto blades (or similar) can be sharpened using an oilstone - in fact I think some "X-Acto-type" blades benefit from being sharpened before use.

** Use the right thickness blade - a surgical scalpel type blade is great for cutting but for thick stuff, especially Foam Core, which has a soft inside, use a heavier blade (e.g."Stanley" knife or the heavy duty X-Acto) A too thin blade on thick material will waver, giving you a perfect straight line on one side and a wavy one on the back.

** Use a steel rule to cut against, ideally a cork or foam backed one (so it won't slip) with a raised finger ridge (so if you do slip your fingers are protected)

** Cut in several light swipes, extending the full length you want to cut (stopping part way will look wonky- trying to cut through the whole thickness in one slice will go wrong)

** Use a good quality cutting surface - those green self healing mats are good (get from dressmakers supply stores)

Sanding Tips

** Use very very fine grit sandpaper. I mostly use 320, 600, 1200 grit. 220 is my heavy grit

** Final "sanding" is with a scrap of nylon stocking/pantyhose or brown paper bag.

** Put the item you are sanding on the work bench and hold the sandpaper

** Use a sanding block to avoid sanding a dent into the middle where your fingers pressed down

** Hold another piece of the same thickness stock next to the bit you are sanding and sand right over the top of the two of them (avoids getting edges thinner than the rest and clamps those @$#%&!! tiny bits in place)

Sandra Monk in New Zealand

Cleaning Oil-Based Stain from Brushes: I have used oil-based stains for the past 20 years. I don't own a can of water to put them in, as I clean and reuse them. The things I do throw away, I allow to dry out first, before putting them in the garbage. If you want to dispose of your brushes and rags, and don't have a can of water, just lay them out somewhere to dry. Drying oil-based products generates heat. If you have a lot of things soaked in petroleum products drying, such as several brushes and a heap of stain-filled rags, the heat can be considerable and spontaneous combustion can occur. The water acts as a heat sink, keeping the heat generated below the ignition level. However, one brush, allowed to dry naturally before permanent disposal, will not constitute a problem. If you want to be extra careful, place it on something fireproof (a couple of bricks, a clay tile, etc.) and make sure it is not near a wall or curtain.

Jeanne

Precautions: Whenever possible, when using a Dremel, four things to remember:

First, try to work with both hands making contact somewhere. In other words, brace your hands together with the workpiece in between, and you can avoid some wild jumps and slips. For instance, I often hold the workpiece in my left hand, working with my right on the piece. My right thumb is extended out and pressing on the back of my left thumb, which is holding the workpiece. This serves as a smooth pivoting point and as a bracing mechanism to help with a less shaky cuts as well as add strength and leverage to our control of the machine, and keeps the pink finger bits away from the cutting edge.

Secondly, when cutting near the upper or furtherest edge (away from you), you should stop before getting to that edge. As you may have already noticed, the cutter can often grab that edge and literally drag your hand around and under the workpiece. This results sometimes in serious damage to the pink finger bits that are holding the underside of the workpiece. It's absolutely the best idea to turn the workpiece around so that you can address the work at the edge by pulling the Dremel toward you. This also reduces damage to the edge because you have more control.

Third, if working on wood, most cutters should be worked at high speed. Crank up the speed to about 3/4 speed or soĽno need in going all the way up, but halfway is a bit slow. You have more control over the tool at those speeds with cutting tools. However, not so fast with the sanders. These would just burn the wood. If working on metal, bone, etc., each has an optimum speed to work with. Know your materials.

And finally, this caveat: The tan to brown stuff with the distinct grain and hardness, is the wood. The soft pink to brown stuff with no grain but sometimes a bit of hair, are your fingers. Don't cut the pink stuff.

Dave Pierce

Precauions: I HOPE YOU aren't cutting off with a saw blade in the Dremel. That is an absolute NO NO! The Dremel should be anchored down andthe blade should be cutting through a table. There have really been some very serious injuries using a saw blade in a Dremel. Please do not use saw blades in a Dremel unless you absolutely know what you are doing. I don't. Use cut off fiber discs to cut off but then use goggles as the discs can explode.

Bill Hudson

Hearing Aid Batteries: Lots of good ideas on what to use the batteries for in miniature, but do remember most batteries contain toxics and will leak toxic/corrosive materials after a certain period of time.That's why the garbage disposal suggests not putting batteries in the trash but taking to your hazardous waste disposal unit. Also keep out of reach of small children and pets--they can put them in mouth and swallow them.

Patricia