kmmcrafts

I've got 5 hours on the clock on the new Hawk.. it's cutting quite nicely.. BUT.. I have some more tuning and tweaking I want to do with it.. and this large order came up for those 10 crosses then slammed with 5 clock orders and several ornaments went out the door too.. so I ended up doing most of my cutting split up between the two saws that are tuned and ready to make dust.. Most of my 5 hours cutting was good on that new saw.. then I tried to make a adjustment to it.. and got it all messed up with some bad vibration in the speed range I wanted to cut.. so put the new Hawk on hold until I get a little more "play time" ..

I've seen that stuff when I was looking for a dry lube for my Hawk saw lubrication.. they recommend a dry lube but that is all they say.. so I never knew what exactly to use.. I found a similar product but made by P.B. I think my next trip to town I'll get a can of this since my other can is about gone.. I ended up liking the stuff so well I use it on about everything from door hinges, brake cables on bicycles to windows as you say.. LOL Amazing how much the stuff works.. I went through most of the can in one day, LOL

I do constantly look for "New" customers as only about 5% are return customers.. that said.. I think any business is constantly looking for new customers.. You can surely tell who is in it for business and who isn't when you look through websites.. well that statement is wrong.. as some don't know how to do it as a business.. My wife has a co-worker who's husband does etsy.. makes rustic looking signs and coat racks etc.. business was booming for them at first and he quit his decent paying day job to do etsy full time.. Now their shop is dead.. and he has had to pick up a part time job.. His issue IMO.. is they never did any advertising.. they never did anything to build a following.. they just list and the buyers came... What many people don't know about etsy is.. Etsy gives "NEW" shop owners a boost in searches to get them off their feet.. so naturally a new seller is going to get some boosted page views for the first year.. but as a seller you should be trying to build a customer base to "your shop" . build back links.. The links in my signature here... every time I post a message or reply.. that is a back link.. The more of those you get throughout the internet the better boosted your website gets... especially when someone clicks on those back links.. Some of the way googles search works to put a site near the top ( first pages of search results ) is popularity.. If people are using links to a page from another site that boost your page in search.. so basically.. every time I post here it's as if I'm building popularity to my web page ... This is why they say to do Blogs..social media, and pins on pintrest etc.. building backlinks and followers etc.. Anyway.. this co-workers husbands etsy site has fizzled out.. I told my wife to tell them to raise their prices 15% and take that money to advertise.. I've never seen a retail ( that's what etsy seller are if they are selling ) store whether online or brick and mortar not advertise.. yet small online business's such as artist and crafters are cheap and don't want to pay for advertisements.. You have a choice to ether pay for ads.. or sit at your computer all day and build back links and post on social sites all day long trying to get attention or to be seen by new people... Or you can do both paid ads and work the social pages etc. too.. if you have time for that.. Either way you must not just list and sell if you want to survive... I do paid ads in multipal places.. from right on etsys promoted listings to instagram and facebook ads.. Just one example.. I paid in one of these places $420 but sales directly from the ads resulted in $3200 in sales.. so basically I spent $420 so I could make $2780.. A lot of "new" seller will run a daily ad budget of $1 run it for a week and no sales so they say they aren't doing that again.. as it was a rip off.. Some times my ads might not get any result in a sale for a whole month.. but over the coarse of the year there are results.. people aren't patient enough to see results.. many don't know how to do business.. Brick and mortar stores pay big money to print fliers advertise on the radio and tv etc.. what makes a person selling crafts think they can succeed without taking a portion of their sales and pouring it back into placing ads is beyond me.. If you don't do it.. your sales are going to be about as good as a local craft show that doesn't advertise well.. Its like opening a brick and mortar store and never put a sign out saying what you are or sell, LOL people drive by and wonder what that building is.. LOL I honestly think people are wrong when saying that one cannot make a living at scroll sawing or crafts.. I think they just don't have the mindset of how selling crafts works in an ever changing world.. Not picking on anyone here and saying you don't know how to sell.. but the way many people buy these days is not the same as they did 10, 20, 30 years ago... where is everyone's attention at these days?? The buyers are out there still.. but where they are at has changed..and still changing..and will always be changing.. faster changing than ever before as technology grows... so one in the business needs to constantly roll with those changes or sales will be dropped and go out of business..

Not practical for where I live.. not many people want to drive out to the boonies to have a car detailed... I also live 1/2 mile off the main road on a gravel road.. I have all the equipment to do detailing.. well most of it anyway.. special high end carpet / seat shampoo machine etc.. but..as I said.. not real practical.. once they get to the main road after a detail.. it's need detailed again...

I can't tell you how many of those I went through in the business... well not exactly like the one shown.. I first started buying the air powered ones.. they are much nicer because of better speed control on certain contours of a car body.. if not careful that electric one will burn the paint right off a edge on a car LOL.. No need to ask how I learn that.. LOL.. Took a long time to get used to the electric ones.. they don't loose power on some heavy buffing like the air ones do.. and the air ones you can make then just barely spin.. Electric spins lowest I think was 750 or 1000 RPM ? anyway.. certainly take getting used to between the air and electric..

I've heard of this place before from somewhere.. but forgot about them.. I used to buy some thin stuff ( 1/16 ) from a seller on eBay years ago before I had a way to make my own.. But I don't even use the real thin stuff anymore.. Used to use it for bookmarks, pendants and keychains.. which reminds me.. I still have a brand new box full that I purchased about 8 years ago.. all exotics.. 1/16 thick..

I've never seen buffing wheels like that.. but then they wouldn't be too practical for the autobody world.. This is what I have.. and I just use the medium buffing compound that I would use on cars.. Since I have this stuff on hand.. it's what I use.. The wool pads are plenty good for this purpose.. since I not looking to make a mirror, lol https://www.ideaautorepair.com/product/6131/equipment-tools-hand-specialty-tools?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4qvlBRDiARIsAHme6osSFtd7AFwRaye8134M0oBEYr7Efw9wcGwkDPvOSd1OmZkGKJKdQXwaAicOEALw_wcB

Think it was Randy ( Hotshot ) that sanded his down to a real fine sandpaper and then buffed it out like you would a car with buffing compound.. looked like a mirror finish... I've done the same thing but without doing the sanding.. I don't want a mirror.. Might see my reflection and mess me up, LOL.. Ideally the sanding marks gives less surface drag so it should be easier spinning than a complete flat surface.. Anyway any new to me saw I use a my buffing wheel and compound on the table to clean them up good.. then I use Johnson paste wax periodically after that.. My dewalt one time had got something on it.. believe it was some sap from cutting something that wasn't completely dried out but don't now that to be a fact.. anyway I ended up having to run the buffer on it again because the paste wax just wasn't getting it good.. it'd help but quickly need waxed again.. like about every other day.. after buffing and the paste wax.. it was fine again..

The bottom line? I wrote all of this so those folks that think they need / want another saw can use my topic to persuade the spouse to let them have another saw.. and you just ruined it for them by saying you see no advantage of having two different styles of saws.. Shame on you From this point forward will you be using one saw as the primary saw??... No.. Heck no... I need more saws to use.. Hegner is next on my list..

Okay... thought it'd be fun to time my crosses since I'm making 10 of these ( picture posted in case someone hasn't followed my other threads about this order or run upon this topic later down the road).. For those that don't know I added hour meters to all my saws.. I got an order for 10 of the pictured crosses.. Cutting from quarter sawn Red Oak using #5 FD -UR blades.. So far I've got 8 of these cut.. 6 of the 8 came from the same board.. other 4 come from another board. Now.. I realize that the same board can have different densities throughout the board.. I've cut 3 on my 1998 Hawk 226VS Ultra... and 3 on my Excalibur.. The times are on the order I've done them.. (ie first number is the first one I cut on that saw.. last number last one I cut.. decimal is tenths of an hour (6 minutes for those bad in math LOL ) Hawk 2.3 - - 2.1 - - 2.0 Hours Excalibur 1.9 - - 1.7 - - 1.7 Hours Just for fun..... Times on the first couple I cut.. NEW Hawk BM-26 Pegas MG #5 first 1/4 of cutting then switched to FD-UR #5 2.0 Hours Excalibur with Pegas MG #5 blade 2.7 Hours The Pegas blade is typically my go to blade.. however cutting this Oak found to be too aggressive and it seemed to find the hard soft spots horribly.. like hard spots where slow so it naturally want to push a bit.. then the soft spot was like cutting paper.. real difficult on the Excalibur aggressive style cutting.. even though I have it tuned to be about as least aggressive as it can be set at.. Was much nicer cutting with that blade on the Hawk but still kept me on my toes.. LOL Cutting this quarter sawn Oak makes this grain very un-uniform.. like every couple milometers it's a soft or hard spot.. the soft spots might run a 1/8 - 1/4" then a couple millimeters of a hard spot.. There was a posting quite a while back about some sort of Pine - Fir type wood that was really bad cutting like this.. this is how the quarter sawn oak cuts.. LOL Nothing like regular cut Oak.. So getting these 10 crosses cut has been a challenge.. but challenge is fun.. also experimenting with the blades finding what blade ill cut this easier and the differences in the saws cutting it.. If I were still using the DeWalt to cut with it's real aggressive cutting.. I'd be saying a lot of bad words probably LOL Cutting these from a different type of wood.. I'm pretty sure these could be cut fairly easily in 1.5 or less hours.. Heading back out to the shop to cut the last 2 of these on the Excalibur..

I'm glad you posted this topic.. I had been looking at the china made dust separator, but I like the more compact design etc of the one you show here.. plus it's cheaper than the actual dust deputy.. These are a great deal and work well too ( brother in aw has one on a sandblasting cabinet..) but I like the more compact of the one you have.. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dust-Collector-Dust-Seperater-Household-Cyclone-SN50T-Industrial-High-Efficiency/283443009681?hash=item41fe851891:g:WwAAAOSwaKVcqKv6

Long video here but here is one that is pretty informational about business / money etc..

According to a study I read a year or so ago... about 1% succeed at it.. I've failed 3 other business's.. due to the fact the actual "Process" wasn't fun..after going at it from a business standpoint.. I don't feel that way I my venture that I'm on now... YET anyway.. Some of you guys might find some interest in a person named Gary Vee He's on youtube and most other social sites.. FB Instagram twitter etc etc... I find his perspective of things very much in line of how I think of things.. and not many folks view finance, income, and happiness the same way I do.. I've said it before.. that there are people that can live a comfortable life on $30,000 a year.. and there are others that cannot live a life on 200,000 a year.. some of that is because they are chasing happiness and trying to keep up with the Jones.. LOL Get a minute and look for this Gary Vees video.. I'll warn you though.. He talks a bit like a sailor ( language ) if you're offended easily or have young ones around that shouldn't hear that.. If you're on FB look for him there too.. all his content is the same themed.. but different takes of the same subject across the different social sites.. so youtube might have longer videos than some of the other sites that he just does short clips.. I've kinda kept my mouth / keyboard shut on this topic this time.. I disagree with many of the opinions posted here.. but it's real interesting to see others perspective on the subject.. I'd like to see more replies of others opinions. hopefully un-heated discussion...

I see both sides of the spectrum on the hobby / business topic.. I've been on both sides of that coin few times.. I love taking an old crappy looking car and restore it.. done many cars in my days.. turned it into a business for a few years and the work involved took the fun out of it.. The EPA and all the regulations in place for paint fumes and exhaust filtration systems regulations for excess paints disposal and fees etc.. turn the work into a nightmare.. Many shops around that do "low key " activities that skip a lot of the real legal way of doing business.. I'm not one to do wrong things and look the other way... just not how I was raised or who I am.. I shut down the business after about years of headache.. not worth it.. to me anyway.. was good money though.. Doing my scroll work as a hobby and turning it into business isn't going to get me rich in money... but I'm much more happy running this gig than any other business's I've started and run.. this stuff has very low overhead.. no real expensive equipment really needed.. There is something to be said to be your own boss and work your own schedule.. But the real deal for me is happiness.. I can't have the flexible schedule and make the money I make doing something I enjoy at any "Job "... All "Jobs " are almost always a headache.. in some way shape or form. The business side also has headaches.. But I'm in control of how bad that headache is.. It's not always smiles and happy times.. but 95% of it is.. and I've never had a job that was anywhere near made me 95% happy all the time..

That's a few hours Rolf, LOL Do you put any drops of oil at those pivot points? Something really odd to me anyway.. The manuals for the newer saws ( my ultra is a 1998 )doesn't say anything about oil on the bearings.. only the wedge and the front cam lever.. The older saw 1993 220vs manual says to put a few drops of oil on the pivot points.. The older saw has a thrust type ( I think ) thin disc with ball bearings in it for pivot bearings and i can really see that they need bearings. The later models have a steal caged bearing.. my ultra didn't have any grease / oil whatsoever in it, and if I remember correctly Randy ( Hotshot ) took that BM-26 he had apart and had the same designed bearings with no oil or grease.. I packed the bearings in my saw with some synthetic grease.. I believe Randy did the same thing.. Not sure if they are made to not need oil / grease.... it ran incredibly smoother when i put it back together... but.. I can't pinpoint it to the grease in just those bearings because I did a whole saw grease and tune maintenance.. Thinking about taking my new saw apart and seeing if it has any oil grease there.. I doubt it since the wedge and cam lever were very stiff working at first because of no lube.. Apparently Bushton doesn't send them ready to run.. Still don't know if the pivot bearing need grease or not.. but I don't see any harm in adding it.. I'm catching up with you on hours but it could take a little time.. got 4 hours on the clock of the new saw.. Wish I had hooked an hour meter to all my saws when I first got them.. but didn't think to do so until a couple weeks ago.. got about 20 hours on each saw other than the new Hawk since I put the meters on..

Well dang Brad, I sure hope you get to feeling better and can get out and make some sawdust..

I'm not young... but not that old either (50).. I guess I don't know how to work for a dime either.. I end up working what I consider my hind end off... and still don't make a dime.. many times it cost me money to work... I'd like to be schooled on how to work for a dime... Any takers to tell me how?

Hi Brad, Good to see you postin again, I'd been wondering about you and hoping you 're doing good and just making sawdust Yes the speed on my 1998 226 Ultra, my BM-26, and my DeWalt all have the maximum 1750 SPM speed.. The Excalibur and the very old 1993 Hawk 220VS is maxed out at 1500 SPM ... All three of my Hawks will get that blade flex on high speed.. though it's worst on the larger two saws.. in part because they can run faster.. and.. the longer arms.. The Excalibur and the DeWalt have very short arms.. right at the front of the saw.. only about 4-5 inch long arms.. and the design is a rocking motion..rather than a straight up / down motion of the longer arm saw types.. which is why I stood and still stand by my theory that the short link arm saws such as the Excalibur, DeWalt and like saws cut faster.. I went round and round with a few on here in the last couple years about this subject.. many disagree.. yet many that have had and used both styles of saws agree that the Hawks cut slower than the others.. assume the Hengers are a slower cut too as with any of the longer armed saws.. You are very correct about keeping the saw in tune... and maintained.. it doesn't take much to get that massive arms to get the blade going all wonky.. just a dry bearing dragging ever so slightly in the connecting rod ( rod between motor and lower arm) really messed up my tune on my Hawk Ultra last year.. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on.. because I check all the "normal" things to look at.. finally I just took the whole thing apart.. those bearings the grease had dried up.. and was causing enough drag to mess up that blade motion.. Anyway, Good to see you scouting the forums and putting your 2 cents in..

Well, here we are on Friday morning.. My goal was to have all 10 of these cut.. However I got to spend only about 3 hours a day in the shop... every day this week so only about half of my normal day.. due in part because spring break and I had forgot about many family obligations I had going on such as my kids eye exam, drivers licence now that he turned 16.. LOL anyway.. lots going on because he is off school on spring break.. I did manage to get 6 of the crosses made.. also had to take one day and make these items shown below as they was ordered this week.. since I have a 3 week deadline to get the crosses done.. I chose to hold on those and make the items below as they're scheduled to be in the mail by the 18th.. and the crosses aren't to be in the mail until the 24th.. So anyway.. even though they aren't scheduled to be mailed until the 18th.. I've already made them and will be mailing them out this morning.. then back to the shop to see if I can get another cross cut.. So I was a slow poke in the shop on getting my quota out.. I still managed to make 6 of the crosses 5 Duster ornaments 1 Farm Scene clock 1 z/28 Camaro clock AND... I still made time to get on here and bug you all, Now.. guess I better get busy and get the 5 ornaments, and the 2 clocks packaged and ready for the mail lady when she shows up.. luckily the other orders was in stock..

This is a issue with the Hawks for sure when you use the small blades.. I like a faster running saw speed.. and with the Pegas.. I some times have troubles with the #3 .. The pegas blades are awesome blades but they are also very thin and flimsy for a lack of a better word.. I end up having to slow the speed down when cutting with a number three pegas.. I break pegas blades from time to time on the Hawks.. but very rarely do with a FD or Olsen blade.. This doesn't happen on my EX or my DeWalt.. I run the EX full speed.. but... remember.. full speed on this saw is a little more than 3/4 the way up on the Hawks.. unless it's the older Hawks.. as my old Hawk tops out at 1500spm.. same as the EX.. That said.. I've run my Dewalt full speed with the pegas blades in the 0/2 and no issues at all with the blade breaking or flexing.. I believe Randy (Hotshot) talked about this issue way back when he had the Hawk saw couple years ago.. This has never really been an issue for me because I very very rarely use a blade smaller than a #3 anyway.. unless it's a spiral then I use a FD 0/2 and never any issues.. but then I do slow the saw just a little with spirals anyway.. @Rolf If you have a camera and can video your saw running on the blade.. play it back in slow motion.. You'll really see the flex of the blade then..

This thing is a monster of a scroll saw.. shouldn't have too much vibration with that kind of mass, LOL https://cincinnati.craigslist.org/tls/d/florence-scroll-drill-press/6848878120.html I'll upload the photos just in case the ad is deleted..

I was actually thinking about trying it on my new Hawk for the bigger things I make.. since I have to take the arm off if I want to remove it completely.. I've never even tried to use the thing.. so maybe I'm missing out..Since you brought this up.. I'm going to try it on purpose to see if it's something I really want to take the saw apart just to remove it..

When I was sawing in the house years ago.. I used a old cardboard box and taped it to the saw stand on the DeWalt.. That dust doesn't seem to fall in my lap and on the floor with my older Hawks.. something that I really liked about them.. Not true with the new Hawk though.. and the EX, DeWalt etc.. I run the shop vac to the port on the EX lately and I never get much dust at all on the floor or my lap.. LOL.. Downfall to that is that the shop vac is a big powerful one and sucks the board to the table... who needs a hold down foot when you have a suction device ... and also the other issue is the noise.. Hoping to buy a quieter vac soon.. and pipe some fittings for the Hawks..

I tossed and turned on this subject of whether to cut the slot or not.. I got up this morning thinking that I'm not fooling with that slot.. I like the idea of it being a wall hanging and or a shelf sitter.. BUT.. It's advertised as a shelf sitter.. so that's what I'm making it as.. You say you don't glue to the base.. and only use screws.. I used to do just screws as well.. that said.. I've had many more problems with using screws than just gluing them.. I've had a couple personal items as well as a couple customers come back with broken items.. What I found ( your case maybe different ) was that with screws you're only holding the piece at two small points where the screws are.. every piece that was damaged was broke off at the screw points.. Drilling a hole in the middle of a 1/2 - 3/4" wood to mount the base to only leaves a small amount of timber on each side of those screw.. In my personal experience if the piece accidentally gets bumped and falls over.. the piece almost always breaks. Especially with the Red Oak with its weak open grain structure.. I had only a few issues out of several hundred.. I asked about this issue on another woodworking site.. It was suggested to stop using screws and just use glue.. or they did say using both is great too because the screws would sort of work as clamping pressure to the two joining pieces.. Since doing the glue ( no screws ) I have yet had any issues with the two different pieces of wood.. Had issues where the piece broke.. but not at the glue joint.. I've been gluing since about 2008-9.. I first learned scrolling in 2006 and wasn't doing much work like I do now.. in that short time I had maybe 5 pieces that broke where the screws were.. from 2008-9 to now.. not one issue with glue only.. Sometime in between the 2006- 08-9 timeline I started using dowel pins and glue.. but had bonding issues with the rods getting enough glue and coming apart.. Maybe I'm using the screw method wrong.. you have way more experience with it than I do.. Not saying you're wrong and I'm right.. just stating my experience..

So.. I cut a couple of the bases out tonight. got a decent fit on one and the other is slightly loose.. Seems kind of weird type of joinery honestly.. since wood breaths.. I could get a nice fit now but after I put a finish on it and it soaks up some oil.. it may not fit.. I like the idea of doing these like this for shipping reasons.. I kinda wondered about doing similar to doing inlay.. or bevel cutting the base so it would go in and wedge somewhat.. then I wouldn't get a loose fit.. but then it probably wont sit down into the base good enough.. I don't mind doing some sanding a little at a time to get a nice fit.. just worried by the time I finish these it's all going to fit differently.. I don't want the customer to get these and have them all loose or so tight they don't go together very well..