kmmcrafts

JT The older Hawk also has the same style bolt with rubber over it.. I didn't think it did at first.. but it does.. just down there farther and harder to see.. I think Rocky is bottom feeding as well... And yes while the blade is flexible and moves around easily.. it is still more difficult to do the feeding of the blade on those larger projects.. You having saw experience for so many years and doing large projects on the same saw that you're used to running it probably just comes natural to you.. It mostly does for me too.. but switching from one saw to the other that the arms go up a different amount I can certainly say that if the arm goes up slightly higher it is in fact easier.. still can be done either saw.. and running just the one saw I've gotten used to that.. Yes I did order a new Hawk.. BM-226 basically the same as the older saw like you and I have with the exception of the arms coming out in front of the angle adjustment and a few other changes.. I haven't received it yet.. but plan to do some talking / video about it once I do get it and start assembling it etc.

I'll try to explain some of this to clarify.. The first picture shows a bolt sticking through the side of the saw at the back.. just below the upper arm.. This bolt has a rubber sleeve covering the threads to cushion the blow from the arm coming down and hitting it once you release the blade or break a blade.. Pic #2 is the measurement of the distance between the saw table and the upper arm raised up.. This is on my old saw 1993 220VS old enough to use the round lower clamps.. Pic #3 is the distance on my newer ( 1998 226 ultra.) that has the square type clamps.. ( I believe like your saw JT as I recall you having a bent pin on one of your clamps ) As for why does it affect threading the blade.. I'm taking my experience ( Bottom feeding ) it's difficult to raise the lumber up high enough on larger projects when your trying to catch a hole way out in the middle of the project.. to see and or just thread the blade through.. If your arm goes up higher.. you can raise the lumber up at a steeper angle and easier to see and thread the blade.. Many times one can raise a different side of the board to get better angle to see and thread the blade.. Edit: That orange box is just the bottom of my tape measure that got caught in the picture.

Right JT.. every company makes mistakes.. if not yet.. they will sooner or later.. some more prone to mistakes than others.. A great deal of thought goes into how I would decide on whether the company still gets my business.. and how the mistake is handled is a huge part of that..

Just in case the video don’t work here are some pictures. Note the height difference between the old saw and the ultra.

Not sure this short video will post but here is what we are talking about. A995D79F-D76A-41F1-990C-26C32CF43952.MOV

Copied from a FB Post.. Totally me the last couple days going through the pattern files on here..

I think we're all talking about bottom feeding because we all have the older Hawks that I believe are all bottom feed only saws.. The older saws the upper arm goes up higher.. after looking more closely at my old 220 VS it does in fact have the stop on it.. it's just down there a long way and I didn't see it at first.. The Newer ones the stop is placed up much higher and not allowing the arm to go up all that high.. It'd be a bit easier to use if the stop was 1/4 - 1/2" down farther.. as it's not horrible but certainly is in the way some.. that old Hawk goes up so high that the next thing in the way is the accessory arm.. or the blower tube depending on how you angle the tube..

Beautiful pen, Thank you for all the great information.. I'm glad I asked the question as I almost just bought it and gave it a try for myself.. I didn't realize there was casting type and all the other types.. so who knows what my out come would have been because of these different types.. Again Thank you for taking the time to shed some light on the topic,

That’s what I thought you probably meant. Must have been the way it was read on my part. Perfect example of how words can be read in different ways. This is how I do too.

You make it sound as though you've never made a mistake before so no one else should either, LOL They are human and mistakes happen.. easy to get mixed up when your packing several orders a day... that said.. I don't do business with companies that have messed up more than 2- 3 times for me either.. Leslies Patterns comes to mind when I say that.. Also hate doing business with companies that have poor communication.... If I email them and they take more than three days to reply back.. etc.. I've got about 3500 orders I've done over the years.. and all 5 star rated and positive feedback.. My first mistake was last Christmas time.. same lady did two orders but one with a different address.. and I sent both to the wrong address.. as I got them mixed p backwards, LOL but they went to the same person just wrong address's.. I right away mailed out both orders to the correct places and told them to keep or donate the others to their favorite charity..

You probably could make a slot in a piece of angle iron and bolt it into the same bolt hole and use a shorter bolt so it doesn't still hit the bolt.. Then put a soft piece of molding ( maybe car door edge trim? ) or a couple beads of RTV silicone to sort of cushion it so you don't damage the upper arm..

Use to be a seller on Etsy that never cut those fine lines like that.. they always cut the main stuff and then wood burn (Pyrography) the details into the rest of it.. Always looked nice.. and is an idea for some things I suppose.. but me and wood burning.. event though i have a nice burner outfit.. looks like I hit it with a torch instead LOL

Les My old 220VS Hawk someone must have taken the stopper off.. as that one the arm goes WAY up.. in fact when I broke a blade one day the arm sprung up and busted my light bulb in my magnifier, LOL Being it was my first Hawk I didn't know it was supposed to be there.. Then when I got my Hawk 226 the arm didn't go up very high.. I never gave it a lot of thought until just about a week ago when I was doing a bigger project the the arm was always in my way.. to fix it... I just switch over to the 220VS.. but then started having a blade breaking issue.. My fault of coarse LOL.. anyway long story short I switch back to the 226.. even with the arm not going all the way up.. Finally when i had enough I started investigating what the heck it was hitting.. LOL.. I had thought about doing just what you was talking about.. But do note.. while it does help some.. the accessory arm then gets in the way.. or.. the blower tube, LOL I don't know if anyone else had done this or not.. but I'm considering either drilling that or making a L shape bracket and cut the bolt shorter so then provided you position the bracket correctly would let the arm come down a little farther.. this way you can possibly adjust it? Otherwise drilling holes might turn it into swiss cheese before you get a desirable distance, like they say.. measure once cut twice.. or was that measure twice cut three times, LOL

I found this on eBay but it's not the same.. I did some looking but haven''t found anything yet.. might just be someone did their own design and it's not available for purchase.. https://www.ebay.com/itm/DXF-CDR-File-For-CNC-Plasma-Laser-Cut-Tailor-Shop-Sewing-Salon-Clock/232654400416?hash=item362b486ba0:g:6JAAAOSwxOFadxL4:rk:1:pf:0

I've had a ton of request from customers this last year for many of the record clock styles but cut from wood.. I started looking into files a bit.. there seems to be a ton of files made for the CNC laser.. many are selling on eBay.. I'm sure i've seen this somewhere.. but these sellers seem to be scattered all over the place for the CNC type files.. from Amazon, eBay and even Etsy.. I found several I want to buy from eBay and will be doing some soon.. Not sure is wall hanging clocks are making a comeback or what.. I mostly sold out of them over the holidays and slowly building back my inventory. If I run across this one I'll point you to it.. Many times if you see a file made for CNC you can ask the seller to change it to PDF.. they probably scratch there heads on that as to why because they won't work on your CNC. but most are happy to do so.. Then you just print the file like a normal pattern..

Shipping is not bad if you're ordering 100 pcs at a time.. but yeah I agree if your just ordering 1-5 clocks.. then definitely a bit high.. then again they do have shipping materials to buy and if you're only buying a couple clocks.. it's costing them more for shipping materials than they make on the clocks.. so I see both sides of the coin.. If they are buying them at the same cost as I do $2 each.. and they sell to you at $6 each and you only buy 2-5 clocks.. they have to take a loss on the shipping box and bubble wrap.. unless they get a free priority mail box which in turn the cheapest priority mail box now days is like $8.. If they buy boxes they can get a box at about $.50 each and mail first class which would be around $3 - 4 shipping.. so they don't make a killing on this unless they charge higher shipping shipping.. I'm betting most clock orders are only 5-10 pcs at a time.. take time out of the day to package the order and it shows you really don't make a lot of money on them.. which I'm sure is why they keep cheapening up the clocks.. If I were to sell clocks.. they'd be pricey for the orders of 1-10 clocks but with quantity they'd get much lower cost.. due to the shipping cost.. Sloans and other places do offer quantity discounts.. woodworkingparts do not..

5-6 years ago when I first started using them the clocks was $5.05.. from woodworkingparts no quantity discounts.. everyone else was $6.35+ with the exception of Sloans unless you buy 30 or more.. then sloans was cheaper.. at the time I was only dealing with people that took online orders and paypal payments.. before I really started my business.. now woodworkingparts sells the clocks at $8.. and sloans is $6.. unless you buy quantity.. then you can get them as low as $5.25.. BUT, you're still getting a cheap made clock.. they are good clocks as far as motors running and keeping time etc. Or at least was (see below about this ) But my experience with the plastic housings is they clips get brittle and crack / break off.. I'm sure there might be a supplier of the metal ones somewhere online.. but I've never found them so I went on a hunt to buy a quality made clock.. turned out.. I get them cheaper than I can buy the cheapo ones for anywhere.. As a hobbyist, I'd still be dealing with woodworking parts. as they do have good service and as a hobbyist.. I liked buying my stuff online..anytime of the day /night.. sloans is hard for me to remember to take a minute out of my day to call in my order.. which is inconvenient to me.. For me I'd pay more for the convenience of online ordering. As for the Quality of clocks.. My experience has been most all clocks are made from the same company or supplier.. you just choose the price point and the service from whom you buy from... BUT.. use to be most all the clocks run the same PC21S movement ( basically a seiko watch moveent ) but now there are a Chinese movement also available.. and a lower priced clock.. I ran out of clocks for a bit last year and needed more before my supplier could get them to me.. so i ordered a small amount from Sloans.. These I received was packaged differently while the plastic case and dial looked the same.. Pretty sure the movement is different.. and I suspect they maybe selling the cheaper Chinese made movement clocks now.. I never did look to see for sure so I don't know.. I only ended up selling one to a customer then my neighbor came for some more clocks to buy and I sold those to him as I wasn't going to use the plastic ones any more than I had too.. If I thought the interest would be high enough.. I'd get myself a retail sales licence and become a supplier for the better made metal cased clocks.. I do sell a few here and there but if interest was there I'd start another business.. I think I could really be a competitor of these suppliers that are ripping people for a plastic clock case and now maybe switching over to the cheap movements.. But then.. suppliers stopped buying the metal ones because of price.. so.. who knows maybe its a dying business and these suppliers just buying the cheapest they can to hang on to the business.. I can't see spending hours to make a beautiful clock only to put a junk insert in it, LOL But whatever..

I did a lot of business with these guys when mom and dad ran the place in WI.. When they retired and the kids took over ( still awesome people and service ) they moved it to FL.. and started inching up the prices. I still do business with them but the prices started taking my interest elsewhere.. I moved to sloans.. another awesome place to deal withand about $3 cheaper per clock.. same manufacture.. Then i found the actual manufacture and buy direct.. clocks are $2 each and I custom order them with metal cases and better motors for higher quality.. Downfall to direct is ordering several hundred at a time.. but I typically sell a few to a woodworker guy down the street and some on eBay etc to not have them setting around here forever going bad.. Thought about becoming a retailer for clock parts.. You can't even buy the quality clocks that I get here in the USA anyway.. all of them here are plastic..

I have a ton of keychains I made about 8 years ago.. They are silhouette cutout and then glued to a backer with a hole drilled for the chain.. I used the InLace material on some of them and sold them for a while.. they was good sellers at the time but the ones I have on hand wouldn't really look good with the red or black inlace.. so I got to thinking about the resin.. would rather have a clear probably gloss.. The first chain I made is one I use and have carried for a long time.. still holding up well with the inlace.. The reason I never sold the others is I thought the cutout would catch or snag the insides of the pocket or ?? and damage the pocket and or the cutting.. so i really wanted to fill this cutout.. back at that time.. i'd never heard of the epoxy resins.. and I have no experience with them at all.. Is this stuff strong durable stuff? Like if I coat the whole keychain will it wear off quickly? If I only fill the void area.. can i sand it flush and buff it out shiny again.. I guess my real question is.. Is it strong and durable and how would you do this.. Just fill the void as level as you can without creating a lump. or lump it up and sand it down.. I'm contemplating buying some of this stuff.. If I do.. what's the shelf life of it? I have other projects I'd probably use it on eventually but.. from what i see a gallon works out cheaper than a 16oz. but then mayby not if I only use 16oz and the rest goes bad LOL.. Looking for any tips or advice on these.. I need to do something with about 100 keychains that have just been setting in limbo for a Looonnggg time.. I need to move them out.. Heck.. if they are still good sellers.. Maybe I'll make many more of them, LOL

Awesome, I think I'll order from Seyco.. since I have a couple other things I want to order from them..

Bill you bring up a lot of good points about where the saw is made etc.... The awesome price that they are selling these saws now will probably drive down the market of used ones.. or make them harder to sell? Those that shop used might consider keeping an eye out for the China made one.. not sure if the China one will be a problematic saw or not.. but it'll sure make used shopping more interesting to figure out with all these different saw options now.

Half slice of bread and barely enough butter... but it was good... the process to get the bread and butter, the comments from happy customers etc was what really made it worth the effort..

Very nicely done.. I've cut and sold a few of the cat clocks in the past.. Fun ones to make for sure..

I've given some thought to many of the wonderful ideas you all have suggested.. I think for me the best route is going to be buying the smaller tubes.. I measured the holes on the saw.. and they appear to be around 5/8" wide and 1-1/4 tall oval slots.. Not too king on drilling holes in a brand new saws base really.. and further more.. the tubes I have are quite large at least 3/4 inch but thinking maybe even slightly larger than that.. The step drill at my local hardware was like $18 but I see harbor freight has them much cheaper.. either way .. not to interested in drilling on a fairly new tool.. If I do take the saw to the camp site this summer.. I'll only take just the saw.. because I wont have the space to put it inside with the stand and everything.. so thinking the slots they have made is what will work best for me.. so guess I'll be buying some tubes...

Thanks for all the opinions.. they pretty much say what i was thinking myself.. I think I'll just set this project off the the side and soon I've gotta place an order for some 3-1/2" inserts so I think I'll just order a clock for this project.. then I think the next one I cut I'll size it to fit the clocks I keep on hand.. If I do all these patterns to to the specs that the designers suggestions I'd need to own a clock parts store with all the different sizes and styles, LOL Thanks again everyone,