kmmcrafts

Hope you sell double what you're shooting for,

Very nice, you've been busy

Thanks Kevin..

Yes, I cannot wait for nice weather everyday.. Seems like a longer period of cold this year.. not extreme cold.... like we get sometimes..

Well, I did some closer inspection of my upper clamp.. I seem to be able to put the blade all the way to the back now that I changed my thumb screw.. so.. I'm guessing the old thumb screw that came with the saw was defective.. in fact the end of it was distorted and I'm not a over tightener on these normally.. after all.. my Dewalt ones have never been changed other than to put the swivel style ones in it... about 8 years ago... and I've owned the saw 11 years now.. Anyway I took a closer look at it today and was shining a light back there to see where the screw hit the blade with the blade all the way to the back.. looked to be able to hit it every time.. I haven't sawed much since I put the swivel screw in it the other day.. so either the deformed screw was the problem or I was doing something wrong.. I'll see when I get back out and make some sawdust again..

I could be wrong as i did very little research. but someone posted about the " Saw Bird " blades the other day.. the web site says they are a German made blade.. I'm pretty sure they are no more than the normal FD blades.. Now. what about those high dollar super sharps.. cannot remember who sells them.. someone posted about those with high reviews a while back..

You don't like the lower clamp? or the upper one? My understanding as if you buy the upgrade ( pegas anyway ) that you have to change both upper and lower.. then you loose the clamp and tension in one lever feature.. which is what attracts me to that saw.. otherwise it seems like just another Excalibur type saw.. which is fine and a great saw.. I just like that upper clamp design for doing lots of fretwork seems like it would be a nice feature.. On a side note.. I've looked for a replacement jet upper clamp to see if one could modify it to work on a DeWalt or Ex type saw.. but I'm thinking probably not if they say both clamps have to be changed with the Pegas upgrade..

I had trouble the other day getting logged onto my youtube account... ( guess they expect you to remember the password ) Anyway, I uploaded another short clip of the other side of the saw where the lumber drops down to a set of rollers.. I'll leave a link to the first video from youtube as I'm not sure everyone was able to see it.. since it was from FB.. so the first video is the same one as I posted above.. the second one will be the other end of the saw.. Enjoy

I'm a bottom feeder.. for the bottom clamp on the saw.. you do put the blade all the way to the back of the clamp.. but the top clamp if you put the blade all the way to the back the thumb screw misses the blade.. Maybe it's a good time to start top feeding.. then I won't have to deal with that anymore LOL.. Though it is better with the swivel style clamps.. and I guess I'm getting better at it.. Just too used to the DeWalt.. as on that saw you push the blade all the way to the back of the clamp... matter of fact.. you do on the Hawks too...

Those Seyco ones are nice... I ordered 8 sets of them years ago for my DeWalt... but have only needed the one set I put in it way back when... I was just under the thought that the Ex saws came from the factory with the swivels.. apparently not? My saw is the newer black model with the dust collection port.. so it's not all that old..

That's me Ray... I have 5 saws two Hawks, DeWalt, Excalibur and a old Delta.. I'd like to get a new Jet and a Hegner to try.. Really been considering selling the Hawks.. I've had lots of fun with them.. and love them for the thin wood cutting... I just don't do much work with thin wood.. LOL... Probably keep the newer one for a while longer.. Imagine the Hegner cuts much like the Hawk does since they have similar arm design etc.. Love to try the new Jet with that new designed upper clamp.. that just seems like it would be the best saw for fretwork and a bottom feeder like me, LOL

That's interesting to hear the history of these old mills.. My uncle has a hobby mill ( right next door to me ) that was from the late 1800's.. He has a ford 300 straight 6 powering it.. big ol circle blade.. ( which is what my brothers mill was up until about 2008 when he switched over to a bandsaw.. Those bandsaw blades he has are about 5-6 inch wide.. when I was there the other day a log truck showed up and the driver thought it was funny that he was picking up logs from one mill to deliver to another mill ( my brothers ).. I guess the one mill hired my brother to saw the Hard Maple logs for them because they couldn't cut it with their mill with the 3 inch wide blades because the blades kept drifting in that hard maple.. I'll grab some pictures of my uncles set up the next nice day that I have a minute to take a 1/4 mile walk..

Does anyone know if the Excalibur's come with the thumb crews with the swivel ends ( whatever they call them ).. I was always under the impression they do.. but my new still boxed used saw doesn't have those little inserts in the end of the thumb screws.. ( well at least the top clamp didn't have them. ) I've been having some issues with the blade staying in the top clamp and so i took it out and was going to clean it up and found that it doesn't have those inserts.. Maybe the bottom clamp does.. as I haven't looked yet.. I did go over to steal the one out of my DeWalt and now no issues a all.. ( I do have a few NEW sets but stole it from the DeWalt because I didn't want to open a new package up if it wasn't the same ).. Anyway I just was always under the impression that is what the saws came with? My Dewalt didn't have the screws with the ends either when I first bought it new.. but the replacements did I think.. maybe it was just the Seyco ones I bought that did.. Not sure but at any rate.. i think all saws should have the inserts in the end of the thumb screws... I flip / flop back and forth.. on the Hawk and Ex.. but I think once I get more use on the EX it'll be my go to saw.. I still have trouble getting the blade clamped into the upper clamp ( bottom feeder ). I wish the set screws was designed in a way that you insert the blade all the way to the back of the clamp.. rather than trying to guess if I have the blade in the right spot as I turn the set screw... but putting in the thumb screws with the inserts in the end made it much easier.. as before that if the blade was to the back or front too far the screw spinning would make the blade move away from the screw and I kept tightening it only to find that the blade didn't even clamp.. with lots of use.. I was getting a feel for knowing that the clamp was pushing the blade away.. but it sure was annoying and taking a lot of time fiddling with the darn thing... something that if the blade was supposed to go all the way to the back wouldn't be an issue..

Thanks for the comments.. There is quite a lot of history with my brothers mill.. Those mills that you all seen at the shows is very similar to what my brother started out with.. being the youngest of 7 and my brother with the mill is the oldest.. I was just a very young kid playing in the dirt and in the sawdust pile when my father would take me over to the mill.. They use to do their own logging and the whole works.. But I do remember my brother first running the saw with a old ( not sure the model ) John Deere tractor with the big belt to the PTO pulley of the tractor.. Then he upgraded to a diesel semi motor..

They don’t happen to be rebranded FD blades do they? I asked because many of the names and styles remind me of the FD brand. I see that a lot with the Olsen brand blades. Years ago when I first started I purchased several different brands and styles of blades. Was upset when over half of them was just Olsen blades lol

Very Nice!!

He commented on one of my post last night..

Last fall I mentioned about taking several video clips of my brothers sawmill operation.. Well got busy with orders and whatnot and never did do anything with the videos.. actually forgot until I was going through images etc on my phone.. For some reason I was having trouble getting this uploaded to my youtube channel ( will keep working at it ) so in the meantime you can find the video clip on my instagram or facebook page.. Probably more of you on FB than instagram so i'll post a link to my FB page.. if you're on instagram just search it for KevsKrafts.. should bring up my IG page.. I'll post more clips of other areas of the sawmill business later but anyway... enjoy this small clip... https://www.facebook.com/KevsKrafts/ Oh, a lot of the clips didn't turn out real great ( poor lighting and cheap phone camera ).. was hoping to go today to take some more clips but supposed to be cloudy and maybe rainy today.. so maybe another day I'll try to get some "good" footage.. Edit: Maybe i can link it into this post from FB.. Not sure if you can view it without being on FB or not?

Not at all... The glue joint if done properly is stronger than the actual wood.. which is why many use plywood for thin and fragile items.. Many things we buy for our homes have been glued.. tables, desk, cutting boards etc etc etc... so a small piece breaks.. glue it.. Now... with that said.. I won't sell a piece that the glue joint is obvious... most everything I've had break.. once glued. I could never find where it was... Ie if one piece out of a stacked cut broke and I glue it up and once they are all sanded / finished etc.. even though I know where the piece was broken. many times I cannot tell which one was the broken one.. and if i cannot find it among the others. then I guess I have no reason to worry about it ..

Glad to hear you've been able to make some saw dust.. hoping you get a complete recovery soon..

Thank you, Yeah I had sold quite a lot over the holidays last year.. Then I took as much of a break as I could with old man winter hanging around.. pretty much been just cutting what is ordered.. but with that warm up we had.. got me back out in the shop.. supposed to cool back down again.. for a few days.. so probably not going to be doing a whole lot again until nice weather comes back...

Thanks, They do sell fairly quick.. The facebook page I rarely mess with.. I need to be better about posting on there.. I like to mess around on instagram better than FB..

Yeah maybe.. lately I make 5 clocks and sell 6-7 LOL.. ( I'm more than okay with that though... ).. Like to get caught up soon so I can cut some of the puzzle patterns I've purchased.. The weather we've been having is messing with me though.. 1-2 real nice days.. then 5 + cold days. Like old man winter keeps coming back because he forgot his coat when he headed out the door so he has to step back in for a few days to find his coat, lol

Thank you!

Years ago I tried renting a storage unit to have shelter for storage and working on a old classic car I was restoring.. Needless to say they declined me once they knew I wanted to work in the unit.. for insurance purposes etc they said they couldn't allow me to work in the unit.. as it's a storage unit not a shop.. plus they also said if I was working and something caught fire it'd not only burn up my car and the storage unit.. but it was putting every one else that had neighboring units at risk for damage.. This was 30 - 35 years ago... most of these places I would think would be much more strict on working in one now than they was way back then.