kmmcrafts

Since I got those fancy timers.. LOL they really bring to light how much time it takes to cut a project.. I did the first two cutting on the Excalibur.. I have the saw set up so the blade is almost straight up /down.. The Oak I'm using is quarter sawn.. quarter sawn oak is a pain to cut.. because you hit many dense spots and then ll of a sudden it lets go and like cutting paper, LOL .. I wanted to cut these from regular sawn Oak.. but the boards I have on hand are not wide enough.. or still not dried out.. I do have a local lumber store where I go and hand pick lumber as you do.. my store is about 25 mile away.. which where I live everything is 15-20 mile.. LOL but its in a town that I just don't go to often.. so every time I go.. it's more of a special trip.. I wasn't going to take the time to make that special trip when I have this Quarter sawn here and plenty of it.. Anyway.. back to cutting times.. The first one I made running the EX too me 2 hours and 3 tenths of an out.. The second one took 2 flat.. I switched to the NEW Hawk just to play around with tuning the saw.. I've got almost 1 hour in and I'm more than 3/4 done cutting.. now... I know that even the same boards have different densities etc.. and I laid out 6 patterns all on this same board once I plained it down to size ( 1/2 ) .. That short parallel link design even set to be straight up down less aggressive cutting.. is still too aggressive cutting this type of wood.. I can feel those soft spots using the Hawk.. but it's not nearly as difficult to cut.. and the table has a lot more support out in front of the blade.. Normally cutting cherry etc.. that aggressive style blade action of the EX isn't an issue.. many times I like that style so I can get projects knocked out.. Anyway.. There is the reason to have both styles of saws.. also a reason to own several saws.. Part of the reason it's taking time on the EX too is.. I've not had much cutting time on that saw... but then.. only have 2 hours on the New Hawk too.. but it's so much like the older one that It comes natural too me.. I need to buy a couple more saws... I have ten of these to make.. and only 6 saws to cut one on.. already cheated and made two with the Excalibur. LOL About those hour meters.. Love them for timing my works.. but.. have to say if I was to do over again.. I'd probably not bought all those digital ones.. I like the fact that I can zero them out for each project.. but.. since the 10's digit only changes every 6 minutes.. you could be 5.9 minutes off on time.. at least with the regular meter that I hooked up to the new Hawk. I can see that 10th digit is almost changed to the next digit and round it up to that 6 min.. mark..

My brother was in the Army for Vietnam... I was quite young since I was born Nov. 1968.. so I don't remember anything he went through or any details.. I think I remember hearing said that he was drafted in.. Not sure what job he had or did while in... I just remember while he was waiting for my dad to pick him up when he was coming home this stray puppy kept hanging around him.. and he played with that pup.. when dad got there.. he picked up the pup and brought him home to me.. was one of the best dogs the family ever owned.. Thank you to everyone who served not only for this particular war.. but to all who serve or have served...

You can make me one that says KevsKrafts Workshop... Now you got 7 to make, LOL.. They look awesome!! Great cutting on those.. I must have missed this topic about Brenda starting this..?

Yeah but, How many times has the topic changed from the original topic..

When you're broke... and no job.. you'd be happy to do 10 of these and pocket some $$$ for 3 days working in the wood shop.. Many people work everyday in factories doing the same line putting the same screw in something for their whole lives.. I don't mind repeated work for a few days - a week.. but after that.. I'm done with it.. LOL give me something else to cut.. Heck I don't care really if it's the same thing to cut.. but lets do it in another type of wood to change it up a bit.. I always give myself plenty of time to do these jobs.. I got 3 weeks on this one so I can break it up a bit and cut something else for a day or two..

Yeah I pick them up all the time.. I also pick up soda pop cans.. Here in MI we get $ 0.10 for them.. funny thing is everyone that buys a soda / beer pays that deposit.. then throw the cans / bottles out the window when driving etc... Those are a gold mine around here.. years ago they implemented the deposit on them and it helped a great deal cleaning up the sides of the roads from the cans etc.. but now people just toss them out.. well not like as bad as it used to be.. but I walk a 3 mile block about every day in the warmer months.. and almost every day I can come come with $1 - 3.. As a kid.. that was gas money for my car.. I remember riding my bike and picking up the cans... I'd leave them in piles along the way and then come home pick up my car and go pick up the piles ... Someone got smart watching me do that.. and picked up all my piles one day.. I dang near ran out of gas.. was counting on those cans to be there when i went back and someone stole them.. They probably thought they hit the jackpot.. and they did.. usually would get $5 piles.. I even hid them off the road and usually behind a tree.. maybe even 10 -15ft off the road.. so pretty sure I was being spied on and then robbed LOL ... I've never piled them up like that ever again.. I usually would get $20-30 worth of them in piles scattered about a 5-8 mile radius.. and back then that was a tank of gas, out to eat, and a trip to the movies with a girl...

I don't have a clue on pricing either.. I just wing it on estimated time it takes to make one.. I've made a few of these over the years and the first one I charged $40 for it.. after making a few more I realized it took a little more time than my estimate.. so I bumped up the price to $50... over the years the price of lumber and cost of other things have went up.. I now charge $64 each.. I forgot how bad Oak stinks when cutting it.. maybe I'm not getting a good seal on my dust mask.. but the whole shop stinks like Oak.. ( did I mention I hate cutting Oak ) I now wish I had charged $150 each, LOL Cutting on my second one right now..

I always seem to think I'm far enough out from under the saw to stand back up... lets just say the underside of that saw is just as hard as the top side.. much harder than my head.. Still hasn't knocked any sense into me.. but that's okay.. I wouldn't be the same if I had some sense..

Sue Mey pattern... Yeah not sure if I'll use the new saw.. I'd like to get it all dialed in.. but keep getting orders.. I've got plenty of time ( 3 weeks ) to get these done.. but I still want to just knock them out, LOL.. Still working on the 36 Ford clock order.. but I'm waiting on that person to get back with me on some details so.. I'll get these done first I suppose..

I probably could stack cut them.. they are 1/2" thick though and I'm not a big one to cut much more than 3/4".. so most likely will just cut each one at a time.. At least it's a fairly easy one to cut..

I've been conveying for a week with some retailer.. ( might be Walmart the way they tried bargaining LOL ) They been trying to bargain with me for a lower price since they want to quantity order some of these.. I think it's a wedding shop.. Anyway I wouldn't budge.. was kinda hoping they'd give up and walk.. well they didn't and now I'm the lucky guy to cut 10 of these.. If I can get my Hawk dialed in maybe a good chance to get some hours on the machine..

Here it is the right way... I hope.. LOL

I'm surprised that I hadn't noticed it during the picture taking.. Thankfully I had just glued it up took the photo and it was out drying.. It wasn't fully dry / cured and I was able to pull it apart.. and re-glue this.. It is now the correct way, LOL

Dang it.. I layed them all out and then had an issue with one of my strips so I took it out and remade another strip.. just so happens I thought I still had it layed out..

I did some practice cutting text again.. fun project from Sheila Landry's website.. I cut this from 1/8" BB ply stacked three.. then the backers are 1/4" Walnut ply with solid walnut strips in the back to hold all together.. I have a few other patterns of these type plaques they have on their site.. probably take a short break on cutting text though.. and I have to cut the 36 Ford pickup that Jim made a pattern for me anyway.. This measures about 18" tall x about 15 wide if I remember correct.. Cut this on the Hawk 226 Ultra.. ( Pegas MG #3) was cut before getting my new Hawk.. actually cut for a while.. just gluing the backer and assembling took almost as long as the cutting..LOL

So you can say you have many PHD's... Me too.. LOL.. My wife was talking to my kids ( mainly about Doctors but education and explaining different degrees ) about PHD's .. I piped up and said I have several PHD's The kids looked at me kinda funny and the wife had a slight puzzled look on her face wondering where the heck I was going to go with this one.. Once I explained myself.. they all just smiled and shook their heads.. Gotta keep them all on their toes.. LOL

Sells it to local horse farms and stock yards.. Not sure what the demand is at the moment.. but about a year or so ago he was telling me that he was grinding up the wood chips ( scraps go to a chipper where he sells chips to landscape companies ) to make sawdust instead of the chips.. at the time.. sawdust was almost more valuable than the lumber itself, LOL Just cannot sell to the farms etc if there is Walnut sawdust in there.. guess it makes horses sick? Not sure the reason ... but even just a little walnut gets in the sawdust.. he can't sell it to the horse farms.. but still okay for the stockyards..

Everyone has a different style cutting.. blade life will be very dependent on many different variables from blade speed, feed rate, to the material at hand.. I think most of us know that.. You might get an hour on them blades.. but " hours " is quite a stretch.. I say this as I did get an hour cutting BB ply last night but with spirals.. and I was only cutting a stack of two. .. My style of cutting wears out blades faster.. Back to style of cutting.. I almost always stack cut up to 5/8" thick BB.. probably the heat from cutting such thickness.. but if I''m only cutting 1/4 or less then yeah.. blade last much longer.. and it is typically too sharp at first so I slow the saw down until the blade gets that edge off.. as I start having to push into the wood a bit.. then I'll speed up the saw. In this case.. yeah you probably can get over an hour.. probably a stretch to get 2 hours though.. Not saying your wrong or I'm right.. just different style cutting.. BB ply is tough on blades though.. that's a fact.. LOL

Yeah the Pegas and also the Olsen blades are more brittle if one gets bent at all.. I've never used any blades smaller than a 0/2 that I remember of.. Does seem like I had some years ago that was 0/3.. but that would have been when I was just learning to saw.. around 2005-6.. Those blades are easy to get bent too.. since they have teeth on all sides they get hung up sometimes trying to feed them through the pilot holes..

Last year I bough a few packs of the Pegas spiral blades in various sizes.. Tried them doing some portrait work on the Hawk.. but I was on a mission and I kept breaking them so I went back to the FD-NS .. today I started cutting the dog portrait from my pattern request section that I asked for. Using the Excalibur to do the cutting since I have never cut a portrait or used spiral blades on it.. The FD blades was quite slow going.. stack cutting 2 at 1/8" BB ply.. and using the FD-NS # 0/2 so I bumped up to the FD #1 which was too aggressive going.. I remembered the Pegas and thought I'd give them a go on the Excalibur for this project.. Gotta say those blades are awesome.. I'm almost done with the cutting and have only used the one Pegas blade and two of the FD blades.. The Pegas is still cutting better than the FD blade when the FD blade was brand new.. I must say though.. They are faster cutters and I've slowed my saw speed down considerably for better control.. I think the FD-NS is easier to control especially if you're new to spirals.. those would be the choice.. The FD -NS blades was always slower than the other spirals from FD.. and I no longer have any of the others as I always like the easier control to the NS... With spiral blades... having an aggressive cutting set up on your saw.. the FD-NS blades are a must in my opinion if you're new to spirals.. Those blades work awesome on the DW saw.. but they are quite slow going on the Hawk and the EX since I tuned the EX to be not as aggressive.. set up to cut much like the Hawk.. In fact They way it's set now.. I think the Hawk is more aggressive.. Impressed with how much you can tune that EX.. Should be finishing up my portrait tomorrow.. hopefully some pictures in a couple more days once cut and the poly dries...

Not had too much problems with thicker pieces of Oak.. and I make a few projects from it.. not a big fan of cutting it.. the smell to me stinks.. ( not that I try to sniff up the dust and always wear a mask ) but I do like the look it gives.. Never had any luck with 1/8 - 3/8 thick though .. in some cases even 1/2 inch.. My go to wood is Cherry.. If it warps in the thin stuff I typically cut it up small enough to make ornaments out of it to salvage the wood if I can... Never said it's crap wood really.. just not my top choice to cut.. Cuts nice too.. just smells and warps easily.. unless you get to pick and choose the boards.. A lot goes into lumber warpage.. including how it's stacked, dried etc..

Birch and Walnut for contrast is what I use a lot.. most of my wall clocks and signs are nothing but BBply.. and walnut backer.. I've also used Red Oak with walnut.. (The sign picture )

The scroll saw will be fine with Hard Maple.. You might say a lot of bad words trying to cut it though....

I'd only get a small sample of them.. if they do indeed last hours of cutting time then that sample should last several weeks.. and plenty of time to get more on hand before you run out.. I only tried one blade out of the sample pack that I had of these and the rest of them still set in my drawer.. Maybe I'll mail them to JT.. You should try lots of different blades.. as everyone has different taste and style of cutting.. I didn't like these blades at all.. Not my style.. could be for you though.. Hours of cutting.. that's pretty stretched.. I only lasted about 5 minutes before I had enough of that blade myself.. again.. you might like it though.. I've tried almost every blade style offered by Olsen, FD, and Pegas... Not saying that all there blades are junk or anything.. but.. I almost exclusively cut BB ply or solid Cherry, Oak, and soft Maple.. I've always gravitated back to just the FD Ultra Reverse or... Pegas Modified Geometry.. Those are the main two blades I always come back too.. They are sharp, fast cutting, and a good all around blade that I don't seem to have issues with burning.. well I do something will burn cherry if using the Ultra Reverse blades for some reason.. but never have with the Pegas. which is really pretty much my go to blade.. The Pegas MG numbers 3 and 5 primarily..

That is who I was thinking of.. Sure miss him around on the other forum.. He was the "Original" puzzle king..