kmmcrafts

Thanks for the tip.. I didn't know that..

My set screws are the same way.. I did this when I first got my saw.. and do it to any new saw I have had since I figured this out.. sure makes sawing a lot easier and smoother running when a saw is tuned good..

Well there are a lot of medical helicopters.. and a lot of medical personnel to fly / work on them.. from the USA to International to Military etc etc.. LOL.. That said.. My experience is.. This ornament won't be a hot seller next year.. Last year was my bodybuilder / weight lifter ornament.. this year I sold a whole 3 of those even though I stock piled a bunch of them.. LOL.. The year before was the Ford Bronco ornament.. sold 2 this year and about 3 last year, LOL.. So it's never the same ornament..

I believe that was a Pegas MG #3.. I switch all over the place on blades.. sometimes I'll use a #5 Pegas MG.. then other times I use FD-UR either #3 or #5.. I normally run a pretty good blade speed on the saw.. Usually 3/4 -full speed.. I think in the video I have it turned up around 1/2 - 5/8 on the dial.... was difficult sawing looking through my phone screen like that, LOL..

I have the Jim Dandy Easy Lift attachment added to the saw.. don't know how I used to saw without it now that I've used it for about 8 years.. LOL You can get them at the link below.. but it'd be real easy to make one yourself too.. with just a few dollars worth of hardware from the hardware store.. http://www.jimdandy.com/products.html

Yeah I know exactly what you mean.. I also like to watch a "real time" video.. that is unless it's an hour or more long..

Yeah... it was the end of a long day of cutting clockwise so I was trying to unwind...

Yeah, not to sure about that.. my son does video reviews of lego builds and toy reviews etc.. He's been trying to get me to do videos for at least two years now.. but I am really camera shy and most times when he wants me to do one.. I'm on a mission with doing an order or something and never could get it worked out.. He's pretty hyped about me finally doing this one, LOL

I did a video of myself cutting out my best selling ornament for this year..( just shy of 100 of these sold this year) Probably the most boring 20 min. video you ever watched.. but I know some that will watch it all the way through..I taped 4 boards together ( usually do 5 at a time ). Excuse the movements in the camera.. I taped my phone to my Magnifier light.. was tough doing this as I couldn't look through my magnifier light because my phone was there.. so I cut these looking through my phone screen.. I had to slow down the saw and cut slower than normal.. probably about half my normal speed at cutting these.. This particular ornament sells for $15.97 each. I can cut approx. 20 per hour on a good day.. but really my average is more like 15.. as you can see in the video at about half speed I cut 4 of them in 20 min. This is my first YouTube video so be easy on me, LOL If you like the video subscribe to my YouTube channel as I will be doing some other videos on my process and some other type of things as time allows etc.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlcygntBix0

I think you really hit the mail on the head square and true with this statement.. I break blades with my Hawk.. and more so if I haven't used it in a while after using the 788.. i believe in my case.. I'm pushing the blade too much.. I'm used to the aggressive cutting of the 788.. I like to cut fast and the Hawk seems quite slow going for me.. which is really my biggest drawback from the saws.. My 226 has as many SPM 1750 as my 788 does.. but at full speed I was getting a lot of vibration... so I have to back it off a ways.. whenever I cut on the Hawks I feel like I'm forcing the wood through the blade...especially after the blade has been in the saw and cutting for about 10 min or so.. I ready for a new blade.. If I'm not breaking blades.. I'm still changing them well before I would need to on the 788.. I haven't cut much on my new EX-21 yet but I can say.. the SPM are slower than the 788.. but the blade clamp design is much like the 788.. and seemed to be cutting pretty much the same as the 788 would at a slower speed.. I kind of wonder about the blade clamp design of the Hawk.. you see they are allowed to rotate and or flex because they are on a round pin at both top and bottom.. which when pushing on them you can see that they will rotate to the back slightly.. the 788 and EX saws the blade is clamped firm into the clamp and it is a much more rigid blade once clamped and tension is applied ..that the blades are on the Hawks.. So yeah.. for me I'm quite certain it's because of the less aggressive cutting of the Hawk.. I do love cutting thin wood on it because it's easier to control what's going on with it..Just that.. well... I don't cut much thin wood.. well I do.. but typically stack cutting so.. it's not thin wood, LOL almost always cutting 1/2" +..

Yes, the name is Rick Gray.. I think I've seen another topic somewhere concerning him and someone mentioned he is on FaceBook .. I don't know for sure.. just what I had seen somewhere on another topic....

I could be wrong but I think woodywoodscroller is a female. I believe it’s Rick Hutchins? Wife Rick is the one that used to run the free4allpattern site shortly after the msn groups got closed down and everyone migrated to scrollsawer site.

I guess maybe I mis-understood the original part of the topic.. I took it as.. "is the end near for selling scroll work" .. To that question.. NO... Maybe the way the crafts are being sold is changing.. and those that don't keep up with the times are at a loss.. Most all the craft shows around my area are a joke.. more like a flea market loaded with resellers.. even the one that is supposedly a high end show that is juried and cost $700 to get into.. with a waiting list.. it's a big joke... would I sell at one provided I could? Yes.. Do I want to? NO.. Hauling a set up to a show is not my idea of fun at all.. then packing back up the products I don't sell and bring them back home... I'm not one who likes being in a large crowd.. Much easier for me to make products.. and inventory the items ( or no inventory and just made items as ordered which is what I did this year ).. No sense in making inventory for items that might not sell real well.. Once the first one is made for the pictures.. I don't need to keep that inventoried.. Back when I first started selling my kids was much smaller and dependent on me.. doing craft shows wasn't an option.. that was something I was going to do once they were bigger... well.. now they are bigger.. and my online sales keep me busy enough to stay out of the shows.. so i don't really have the need or want....for doing the shows..

Depends on how much you want to believe. I never believe people when talking about sales and I try not to include them unless pushed. Many things do go into sales of any items and of course location is always #1 and #2 I don't think location is much of an issue selling online... Do you? Selling online in various vendor sites such as Etsy is a crapshoot to say the least.. I'd say it really depends on how much effort you put into selling online no matter where you sell. I find it odd that people can downplay online selling especially when they know nothing about selling online.. can and will lead to an overflow of product to choose from and thus price wars. Guess you'll have to stay a step or two above the others.. do something different to stand out.. Personally I find that the majority of sellers online know nothing about internet marketing and SEO.. Like I've said many times.. doesn't matter what the prices are if nobody is seeing your web page.. ( My ornaments are selling about as fast as I can make them at $16 each... most of my competitors sell at $8 - 10 ).. Guess maybe I am a step above the others..as I've had classes on internet marketing and SEO.. I will comment about the laser thing. It has always been an obstacle to us scrollers.. Lasers probably do have some effect on scroll saw work.. but I find that most people that know very little about them seem to think that they just magically pop out products at a 100 pcs per hour or something.. You can scroll faster than a laser can cut.. most lasers cannot cut very thick material.. unless your talking about a $50,000+ laser.. then you have to sell the crap out of stuff just to pay for the laser.. not to mention that they do wear out just like any scroll saw would.. The affordable lasers for the crafter type people are lucky to be able to cut 1/8" material.. They do make great engravers or pyrography type stuff.. and are good for many other things.. but I don't see woodwork/ fretwork style stuff as being all that great at.. A CNC router is the same way.. great for carving.. not so good at actually cutting fretwork type stuff.. the router bits can only go down to a small diameter.. hard to get good sharp corners with a round bit that is still bigger than most scroll saw spiral blades.. That all said.. yes like I said in the beginning.. lasers probably do have an impact.. but I think there is room for both..as both have their limits.. I never sold anything craft wise 30 years ago.. so I don't know what selling was like back then.. My father tried his hand at selling his work.. Did a years worth of craft fairs back in 1989 - 1990.. only one show he made enough money to pay for the booth.. He told me one day to take all the stuff and hand it out to my brothers etc.. I took the stuff to work to show co-workers.. I ended up selling about everything he had within a week.. and had a couple orders for him if he wanted them.. when I gave him a wad of money he was like.. whats that for.. I told him I sold all his craft work... he couldn't believe it..

Funny you mention this.. I've turned a couple customers over to the laser made stuff since they wanted " perfect " work.. customer took 8-10 days to get back to me.. I got the order..and a big one too.. $500 worth.. There are tons of laser made stuff on etsy.. there are tons of other scroll sawers selling the same items as me on etsy.. yet I'm busy enough to turn work away.. done over $3000 in sales in the last 10 days... just on etsy.. Something a scroll sawer can do.. that a laser cant do very well....unless you have a very $$$ laser set up.. and that is stack cut.. While I am only one person.. and a guy with a shop full of lasers can run more per hour than I can.. I can out cut a single laser any day.. and I can have nice clean unburnt edges.. I could add a lot more to this list.. but I've got to get back out and cut orders...

That is pretty impressive.. Hope you do great at your next event.. then if you're anything like me you'll take a few days off and get bored... and then back to work.. LOL Enjoy your last show and your break afterwards.. you're gonna need it.. at least a couple days.. LOL I should keep track of how many items I sell.. I could do it the hard way and look up each order on etsy and the other couple web sites I sell at.. unfortunately they don't keep track of individual items... while my orders counter only shows me to have had about 300 orders.. a very big portion of those orders was multipal quantities.. for instance today I only had 12 orders.. but one of the orders was for 30 ornaments and another one was for 15 ornaments 4 clocks in another one etc etc etc... in all just today I've done $1472.81 in sales.. days not over yet.. LOL I've been averaging $200 a day for about 3 weeks now.. with the exception of today and a couple of other similar days... getting tired and burned out.. just about ready to put all my stores in vacation mode..

Yeah, mine had downloaded it and the computer was hogging all of my slow internet.. could hardly get online for the last couple of days.. then this morning it wanted to restart my laptop.. I clicked to restart it and figured it'd be done when i got back home from taking my son to school.. NOPE.. in all I think it was about 3 hours.. lucky for me.. I printed my days worth of orders and patterns.. so I just went out to the shop and worked.. then later checked my messages etc..

Yes, always paid up front on orders.. only time I don't take payment up front is during the design stages even then ( provided it's personalized ) many times it's non refundable payment up front for the artwork.. don't typically charge that artwork fee if it's an item other customers might like and I can add it to my inventory..

Well, Very very surprised.. but.. I just received a message from the customer.. took him awhile to respond back.. I'm guessing he couldn't find anyone else to do the ornaments for him.. Anyway.. I got the order.. of coarse now that I am about 6 clocks and 20 ornaments behind.. LOL Guess I'll be putting in a couple 10 hour days to get caught up and get this order done.. I rarely work overtime.. can't afford to pay myself time and a half let alone double time, LOL

I couldn't tell it to anyone just because I remember the moves more than.. actually how to do it by telling someone.. But.. with that said.. my son was determined to learn my trick.. there are youtube videos that would teach you how..

I also memorized the rubiks cube.. My son come home from school one day and thought he was going to get one on me.. he borrowed his friends cube... made some smart bet about getting some computer time.. Think he was joking with me at first but when I told him the deal was on.. he got a big grin on his fave like he was going to get some computer gaming time.. he thought there was no way to solve the thing.. while I didn't get it in 3 min. as it had been 35 years or so.. and I did make a wrong turn on it a few times.. but within 10 min. I had it.. his mouth dropped.. he forgot all about the bet about being able to get online.. he was floored that I got it.. had to message his friend with a picture.. It was priceless.. I think the puzzle challenge is a great idea..

I've been meaning to ask these same questions.. and I'll add another question.. how easy would this unit move from one saw to the next? Since I have 5 saws now, LOL but in reality I only use one at a time .. no really out of the 5 I only intend to use / keep 3 of the saws.. Wish I could figure a way out to use two at a time.. I mean.. I've got two hands and two eyes.. shouldn't be that hard to do.. Thinking in my situation maybe I should look into a Festool vac.. and pipe it to the saws with a shutoff valve or just unhook hose from one saw to the next..

I came to the conclusion last year that... I'll never ever be able to take on all those custom orders I get at this time of year.. so this year I turned off my custom ordering buttons on my web sites.. While it's been slower I've still made more money than last year and about 110% less stressed.. sure.. I'm loosing out on the awesome orders and many times my customers come up with some of the best sellers I have.. but.. at the end of the day.. the money I would of made wouldn't do me any good if the stress killed me.. LOL or.. I'd end up spending more on doctors appointments and prescriptions.. just not worth it to me.. This year I am plenty busy with out all those custom / personalized orders.. I still get the occasional customer asking for something.. but it's far less and also like I said far less stress.. I've even turned away a few orders this year.. Take care of yourself..

I run across this the other night and thought how odd looking the saw is.. I knew they made a 214 14" saw.. but I've never seen one of these.. https://www.ebay.com/itm/RBI-Hawk-212-Precisions-Scroll-Saw-Compact/122843092001?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

JT, Not to change the topic off coarse from your question... I don't recall whether you said you'd be selling these... and I am sure you probably already know about copyright and trademarked things.. I just wanted to give you a heads up before you get too involved in making a bunch of stock / inventory.. although probably wouldn't be an issue selling at craft fairs etc.. But anyway to get to my point.. A lot of these military things "ARE" copy written and trademarked.. I know they are from pattern books and there should not be any issues with something from a book.. But the truth of the matter is.. Well here is my story.. take it with a grain of salt if you wish.. I had some military themed items on etsy.. ( still do some ) and the patterns was from books or online pattern websites where I purchased the pattern.. specifically "Navy" themed etsy sent me a note saying they took down my Navy stuff due to a complaint from the Navy.. they sent me info to contact the Navy person that said I had copy written items in my store.. They took down several of my listings I had that was Navy related.. I never took it to the person from the Navy and just left it as was.. Many of the military branches have their own logo etc that is copy written.. as well as their own phrases.. such as... " proud sailor " which was one of the things I had that was dinged copywrite.. So.. my point is.. just because something comes in a pattern book.. doesn't always mean it's not copy written.. Many of those patterns in the book you are referring to use the military branches logo / icon.. Not telling you all not to make the stuff.. just being informational about my experience with selling certain things.. Etsy is a big well known company and I personally think nobody would have any issues selling these at a craft show or event.. but when you bring your sales online you open up a whole new audience.. that audience can sometimes be some jerk that is turning people in for questionable things etc.. or just another woodworker trying to compete with your items and turns you in.. I don't know.. but I do know that many of that military stuff really is copy written.. BTW the way the Navy found my items was by going to Etsy and doing a search for Navy according to the info that was given to me through etsy but from the Navy.. Again, just because a pattern is from a pattern book.. doesn't mean your behind is covered.. LOL