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

Repairng Older Dremels: I have located a company that may be able to repair older Dremel tools. I understand it is not associated with Dremel Corp, but run by a relative of the man who invented the MotoTool. A catalog is available at no charge. Dremel Repairs, 4631 East Sunny Dunes, Palm Springs, CA 92264 619/327-3003 http://www.dremel.com

Dean Jenson

Dremel Jig Saw/Scroll Saw Blades: These blades have a short pin at either end that hooks into the arms of the jig saw above and below the table. At one time I did see pin-end type blades at our local Sears store. They are also available from Scroller, Ltd, a catalog for scroll saws. Their telephone number is 1-800-486-6053.

The blades originally packaged by Dremel came in two flavors - coarse and fine. If currently available with these options, go for the fine size. I never did use any of the coarse variety when I used the Dremel.

Pam

Lathe substitute: You can use a variable speed drill press or a regular variable speed drill held securely in a vise as a lathe for simple short turnings... if you are turning small stock use the adapter for tiny drills to hold the wood.

Sammy

Dremel Saw Blades: I needed some saw blades for the discontinued saw and contacted Dremel directly. They said they have about 6,000 left. I got six of each, which I figured will last me to the next millennium. Anyway, your local Dremel dealer can order them for you, or you can go to their website: http://www.dremel.com.

Sharon Begley

Rosary pliers - rosary pliers are what you need for making round loops in wire. I've seen them at craft stores and WalMart in with the flower arranging supplies. Pearl Art and Craft and JAF also carry them in a little better quality.

Rose

Painting Tip: A piece of foam (like that used in shipping) goes a long way for those painting projects. I cut it into small, odd-shaped pieces and it gets into all those crevices. Forget those expensive foam brushes!

Janet Gorelick

Strong Glue: Just found a new glue at the home improvement store. It's Elmer's polyurethane glue. It's expensive but worth it! I build mini furniture and this glue is unbelievably strong.

Janet Gorelick

Pliers: Available from Ron Stetkewicz, HCR 1 box 61B, Cairo, New York 12413, (518)622-8311, email: Skhardware@aol.com. He also makes wonderful brass hinges.

Bill Leimberger

Glue Tip: Use hot glue to hold something temporarily, and Aleene's glue to hold it forever. When gluing on trim and other things that can be hard to clamp, use the combination of the two. Use a dot of hot glue and then draw a line with the Aleene's glue. Don't try to mix them, alternate them. It works great. The houses don't fall apart in the heat and you can still get some of the benefits of the hot melt glue and fast action.

Deb

Miniature Planers: Turning a door planer into a miniature planer: Over the years there have been a variety of attempts that we know of to make a miniature planer. As far as I know they have all failed. I used an Inca full scale planer for years to plane down to 1/32 inch until I changed from flat sawn to quarter sawn lumber for grain appearance and stability. With the quarter sawn lumber most of the work went into the dust collector. Incidentally, Bill Robertson also uses this machine to plane very thin material with a backing board. He tells me the results have a great deal to do with the positioning of the stars and other celestial bodies.... Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

For the last three years I have gone directly from resawing to the thickness sanding without using a planer. I use a Woodmaster sander for big runs. It is hard to change abrasives and destroys sandpaper frequently when a thin end of the wood gets caught under the paper. That method is time consuming and replacing belts is expensive. You have to make sure the bow of the wood is up. The results are good and there is little waste. The only disadvantage is that it dulls saw blades faster. One of these days I will buy a better thickness sander with a variable speed belt feed. Big money!

I use a Preac 4 inch thickness sanding machine for small batches. It works fine with very little waste but it is quite slow. Without even getting into the safety issues, I don't think a hand held door planer would work at all on thin material. There is no good way to incorporate a system to hold the strips of wood down. There is no way to feed. There is no way I can think of to make a jig accurate and rigid enough to plane plus or minus .003 inch, what is what you need in miniatures.

For an alternative, you could buy a Makita or similar thickness planer which would work OK down to about an eighth of an inch or even thinner depending upon the wood species, moisture content, grain and the position of the stars. You would need to use a backing board. I use Melamine because it is slippery.

You can buy a small Preac thickness sander that will work under 1/64 of an inch. I reduced a run of 20 or so sheets of paper backed veneer from .020 to .015 inch without any waste once I figured out how. This machine only has a 1/8 HP motor and I think it would be hard to hurt yourself with it. This is how I do all the exotic wood we use for boxes and inlay. This machine will use a shop vac for dust collection which you absolutely need with a thickness sander or planer. Equally essential when sanding exotic wood, to keep it out of your lungs.

Pete

Glue tip: Another really good way to glue your house parts together is with a line of tacky glue spread thin with your finger and then with drops of Super Glue interspersed along the line.

Roz

Bandsaw Tuning: Bandsaws need careful tuning,which at first may seem a pain but when practiced a bit comes easily. Not only must the blade tension be adjusted correctly as previously mentioned but also blade tracking and the blade guides. If you have the directions for the saw, read them until you understand them. Practice the steps several times and follow them religiously. I hated my new bandsaw at first but then got smart and learned to use it.

Don Dickens

Rose-Making Tool: I made a rose-making tool by filing off the top of the eye of a large needle, then heating the pointed end of the needle and sticking it into the end of a large glue stick. It's been five years now and the needle is still imbedded tightly. It isn't the least bit "sticky" to the touch and it cost almost nothing to make.

Darlene on L.I.

Picking up stuff: Those eyeglass foam nose pads might be perfect to stick onto the inside ends of an old tweezer. That way you'd have better hold for slippery mini things. Maybe you'd have to widen the tweezers' opening distance and trim the pads somewhat to fit your tweezers. It might be worth trying. Also, I often use the moistened uncooked spaghetti trick to pick up minis, but I think the drawer knobs might be too heavy for it.

Darlene

Micro Mark Mini Power Tools: I have three of the MicroMark power tools. The jigsaw is ok as long as you don't try to saw through anything thicker than 1/8". I have managed quarter inch stock but very slowly (this was plywood though). The orbital sander is great. I bought an extra snap-on pad so I could have fine and course grit paper ready for use. I probably use the drill most. I keep it plugged into the variable speed transformer all the time for easy access. These tools are so small you can keep them right on your workbench. I've enjoyed using mine since 1989, no problems with any of them so far. They seem to be very well made.

Susan Wise in Denton, TX

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

Miniature Tools: For those who might be interested, Sears has a kit of miniature tools that look just like Micro-Mark's (pages 6 and 7 in Micro-Mark's current catalog). I believe these are made in Germany and retailed through several outlets. Sears has the name "Craftsman" on theirs, but I would be hard pressed to say they weren't one and the same as Micro-Mark's. I didn't pay quite as much at Sears. Sears sells them as a kit and they even have their own heavy plastic carrying case that holds all of the tools. The little stationary table attachment for the jigsaw comes with the kit also. The transformer, router, jigsaw and orbital sander make up the kit. There is a place for the drill, but it does not come with the kit. Not all Sears stores carry them, but you can have them order them for you. I really like being able to have all of the tools in a case, as everything is in one place when I am ready to use them and they travel very nicely with you. They also include jigsaw blades and sandpaper to get you started. Don't expect them to do the job that a regular size tool will, but it's every bit as exciting to power up that little jigsaw and hit the wood with it!

Lynn in AR

Something for cutting angles other than 45 degrees: I hesitate to suggest a hand tool costing thirty US dollars, but the Dobson Mitre Right would sure fill the bill. It's a handsaw set in a frame allowing it be swung in an arc and then fixed in place. Hobby Builders Supply's on-line catalog has a good picture:

http://www.miniatures.com/

Mary in Oregon

Glue for light fixtures: I've lighted more mini homes than I can count, and I've found that silicon or Aleene's tacky do just fine and don't damage the wiring. I've always used masking tape to hold in place for at least 24 hours. There are times when you can't tape it, so find items around the house to hold it in place for 24 hours, like a drinking glass, jar of peanut butter, etc. Just be sure not to use glues with acid that will eat the covering over the wires. I want to strongly warn against using Superglue or Quick Grab (these are what I referred to as glue with acid) when doing lighting. You may be very careful and put just a drop, but remember others won't always be so careful. I don't ever use any type of Superglue as it will eat through the insulation on the wire and it will also discolor the metal of the light fixture over time. Patience with white glue is the safest practice, and there will be no damage done to your expensive lights.

Jinger