kmmcrafts

They used to be one of the saws to have back in the day.. However parts are hard to get for them now days, even though many of the parts I think are the same but not 100% sure of that. Rocker arms etc I believe are probably the same as todays saws..

Wonder how many folk back then squawk about it not being handmade like we get today about the laser and cnc stuff.. I'll bet the blacksmith didn't like the standardisation crap and having to make stuff to tolerances..

Yeah, I've sold a awful lot of ornaments over the last almost 20 years.. heck some have bulk ordered as many as 400 in one single order.. and I agree.. I get more people buying the light colored BBply ones over the hardwood one's back when I used to offer the options.. nobody was buying the hardwood ones so I kinda stopped offering them..

I think for metal you'll need a fiber laser.. or maybe spray-paint the coin and then laser the paint off to reveal the lines.. I don't think any laser marks on metal without coatings other than a fiber laser which are not cheap.

I think that probably depends upon where you live.. Even with a really good lumber store near me.. 12" wide boards become either scarce or expensive and if one doesn't have the means to mill their own it's not so easy as you might think. My local supplier will custom do anything you want if you want to "pay" they'll glue up for you and mill to whatever size you like.. I have my own milling equipment but I still remember the days very well where I had to either have something custom made / cut for me or skip over the projects altogether.. So maybe easy where you are but that's not the case for everyone.

Was going to mention this, I have had several customers over the years request Cherry or other wood for a custom ornament and then they receive their order and realize the lighter colored wood shows up much better and then want me to make another from the lighter wood, LOL I now explain this a little to customers when they ask for darker wood. Trees are decorated with bright colors and lights that take the focus away from anything that isn't bright or light colored. I almost exclusively use 1/8 BBply now days..

This reminds me of those collapsible baskets that was popular back in the 90's early 2000's.. I have a boatload of the patterns but only cut one of them just to try angle cutting on one of my saws back in the day.. and that was about the only time I done any angle cutting, LOL

I've got a laser but I don't do that because it's time more time consuming to set up laser to do the quick engrave just so I can go back to cut it, LOL... If I'm setting up the laser to do something I'm just going to cut it on the laser while it's there and set up to run.. But my laser is more than just a low powered laser for marking / engraving so I can cut it out quickly and easily. In fact this is what I do now when people request personalization.. it's too time consuming to get a un-perfect scrolled ornament lined up to laser engrave on it so I just do the engrave and then cut it on the laser too so everything is lined up perfect.

To help out sometimes I will drill a couple different holes for the same cutout area.. this way I can cut in a direction where the board is toward the back of the saw giving me more sitting / standing room at the front of the saw.. and also as JT mentioned.. bend the blade ends so they cut from the side instead of the front of the saw.

When I do them from hardwood lumber I make them at 3/16". I don't make very many out of hardwood anymore as many of them get partially painted so I use 1/8 BBply.. Thinking about going to 1/16 ply actually because many of the painted ones get glued to a backer.

I have not seen much on any bearing replacement on the Hawks other than the arm that connects the lower arm down to the motor.. I have done that on one of my saws and have seen topics where others have also done that. Never seen anything on the arm bearings though. What kind of questions do you have about the arm bearings? I've had the arms off of a couple of my Hawks but they were older saws that had a different style bearing than these newer saws.. but maybe I can answer if you have a specific question about them.

This showed up on my FB page this morning.. I thought it was interesting set up.. I think it might work well for fine dust but I don't see how this would work for chips.. I see it getting plugged up with chips.. https://mullettools.com/products/mullet-boom-arm?fbclid=IwAR0lxHwegDTkpLSImNQdWxhcSu7dxCxsyKEDZdgPhWzdzm7jedLUI9deLts

I also use full sheet labels for most all my projects unless it's something larger than the standard size sheet of paper and i have to piece it together. I also use my 4 x 6 shipping label printer now and then to do a quick one off print of something small enough to fit on it, such as a single ornament that's personalized or whatever. However most of my personalized stuff now days I use the laser to create what they want.. since it's there and it can cut and do the personalized engraving anyway why not just do the whole thing on that. The Gnome's are pretty cool and looks like a good way to use up some scraps.. most my scraps I save for the summer camp fires so they at least get used and enjoyed by many. Gotta say though they are typically small bits as like you.. I use up most of what I can..

15+ years ago I would have to agree with what Larry and JT are saying.. and many folks years ago got burned on the money they spent on the crap tools they sold back then and will never buy from a company again because of that.. so I do understand where they're coming from. Not all of us are rich enough to go buy a $300 DeWalt or Milwaukee sawzall for a 1-10 times of use.. example.. I need to cut a hole in my roof to install a vent.. I don't have any saw to do that job.. do I spend $300+ or - just to do this job or do I go to HF and buy the $40 tool? Likely will not use it much at all after this particular job but if I need to and it still works then that's a bonus I suppose. The other option is to pay a contractor $500 or so for doing the job for me.. Years ago I would have not considered HF for the tool but they have improved the quality quite a lot.. and they are very good at honoring the warranty if it's needed. I broke a 18" breaker bar, I snapped the pin that holds the end onto the bar. Guess adding a 4ft pipe to it wouldn't hold up.. also bent the handle quite bad. They exchanged it too with no questions asked and it was probably over a year old.. Sears wouldn't do that for me 10 years ago with their Craftsman one.. At one time they used to be good on exchanges like this but they got pretty peddy in the more recent years.. I'd buy HF "Pittsburgh" brand tools way before I'd consider Craftsman now days. Craftsman built up a great name years ago but then cheapened up trying to make cuts for more profits.. HF started out cheap but over the years have gotten better.. A lot of contractors and ditching DeWalt stuff from what I've heard locally because DW is kind of doing that now... Just how companies do to try to survive I guess.. So that All said I can understand why some feel the way they do about HF tools.. I can also relate to buying a cheap tool just to do a job yourself and save a few bucks too. Most tools I buy from them are just low expectation use tools for a particular job I'm working on.. If I intend to use a tool a large amount then I do look more towards a well known brand quality tool.. but also got to watch it with some of those too as most of them are cheapening things up.

So I bought this tool yesterday because I had a job of changing out my toilet flange and I needed to cut some of the old PVC pipe / flange away and Harbor Freight happen to be the only place i could find a very small saw blade on a arbor.. I originally was going to use a drill to do the cutting. I do have a dremel that may have worked too but I really didn't want to take my plunge router attachment off of it so I bought this flex shaft tool.. Maybe I expected too much from this but it lacked power on the slower speed setting and on the higher speeds it kept just turning off.. to the point I had to keep flipping the switch off and back on again.. It did come in handy and I'd probably still be trying to use the drill so it was useful but.. as I was working with it I found that if I took it super slow it did work great.. so again maybe it was just my expectation of a larger more powerful saw.. I've had a few dremel tools over the years and I always felt the same about those so it might be just me expecting a very small tool to have the power of my higher end air powered saws / grinders etc.. that i use for working on cars etc. Maybe it would work great for sanding and or carving with some small bits.. I sort of figured the PVC pipe would be soft enough that this would have powered right through..

So just wanted to update to say I finally had the opportunity to test this adapter out.. and I gotta say.. It's junk, don't waste your money. It works great until you are actually going to drill and then the vibration or slop in the way it connects it kept stopping on me wiggle the battery around and start working.. Probably a good way to burn up a tool or the battery contacts of it or the battery itself.. I think it's probably best to just use OE style batteries..

Yeah it can be tricky but once you do a few you'll get the hang of it. I did a whole set of drink coasters out of slate of a friends dog that had passed away but can't find only one photo. Then I've done ornaments from BBply. My laser is a CO2 so they are not as great for doing this type of engrave like a diode style laser is.. Also trying to engrave a black dog on black slate was a bit of a challenge LOL.

I see you built a nice enclosure for it.. I love to scroll so I will continue to scroll saw.. but I also love the laser as it can and does help with doing personalization on scrolled pieces as well as full on laser engraving / cutting projects.. My goal isn't to stop scrolling but it is to maybe cut back on adding "new scrolled items".. New stuff will be mostly CNC and Laser stuff.. current scrolled stuff that is decent sellers for me will continue on.. The laser is really simple to use.. but the CNC is a different story. I've been playing quite a lot in the last few weeks with the CNC... and I've learned quite a lot. Having bought both machines at the same time was too much for my brain so I chose the easier one to run since they both run on different programs and file types.. learning one at a time made more sense to me.. some smarter than me could probably swap between the two different drawing and running programs but i kept getting the two programs functions mixed up. I have a router mounted laser to fit into my CNC as well but have not tried that yet.. I Got fairly comfortable with the laser and the functions so now 5 years later I am trying to get more into the CNC side of things.. and because of that I don't have the time to scroll / run the laser/ and try to learn the cnc.. so scaling back on the scroll work make sense and I've been selling the trial and even some of the error pieces come out good enough for a sale as I learn to do better.. The main products I'll be selling will still be scrolled work.. and love to scroll so will continue to scrolled work until I get tired of it or can't do it for whatever reason.. CNC and laser allow me to run them while doing other things like packaging orders or drawing up another cnc pattern file, working on the websites etc... The machines don't pump out production like a lot of people think.. ( at least mine dont ).. a lot of sanding with the cnc stuff.. but maybe because of the type of cutting bits I use.. so many to choose and not cheap like scroll saw blades.. so just the cutter bits is a learning curve on top of all the programs etc. needed to make it work.

I have mine set up to my foot switch for the saw... so when I step on the foot pedal to turn the saw on the vac comes on too..

If you're going to go to the small box like Ray suggested.. you could get one of those free expensive cardboard boxes they toss out at local stores.. or better yet.. order something small from Amazon that you've always wanted and then you get a dust box with your order. LOL That's what I did back in the day with my Dewalt.. I had a box that I cut a small bit out of the one side so it could snug fit and hold itself in place around the lower base portion of the saw. It caught a lot of my small project pieces too.

Not all portraits are created the same so knowing how long it takes is a rough guess.. I've cut 11 x 14 inch portraits that only had 15 inside cuts and could be cut in 30 minutes... I've also cut portraits same size with 1187 inside cuts that took 14 hours to cut.. I don't do portrait type work anymore unless it's done on the CNC.. my CNC design software tells me how long it'll take to carve.. I have a rough idea on how long it'll take to finish sand and seal up with clear.. It's a much more clear and accurate time frame than the wild guess you do with scroll sawing. I've made enough clocks and ornaments to give a good enough estimate.. but portrait work can be tricky.. maybe I just haven't done enough of those to get a good time estimate.. I quit selling them years ago because they are too hard to sell at a price point that is profitable.. For me anyway.. others may have better experiences than I did.

Just for the record, I bought the Scrollando system too and installed it on my Hawk.. I used the same vac (Metro 5000) as the Seyco system uses. I think personally the tubing size is restricting the flow but i might be wrong. Also the hoses for me was a bit on the short side but I am using it on a 26" Hawk so it is a big saw. Have issues with getting the darn suction hoses to stay where I want them etc too. I'm not 100% satisfied with it but at the same time I felt it is more designed for Dewalts and Ex saws.. I feel the same way about my Seyco system. I've burnt up the vacuum on my Seyco system once already.. but I suppose it's not engineered to be in a commercial type setting either, but one has to wonder.. would a $500+ Festool or Fein vacuum hold up to the commercial type use I was throwing at them small Metro vacs.. I saw enough that I was having to empty the Seyco canister once every 2 weeks and really could use a dust bag every couple days.. I've been taking the bag out of the vac and taking it outside to blow out the fine dust that escapes from the dust canister as the fine dust plugs up the air flow of the Seyco Metro Vac and it starts getting loud. I've not invested into anything new yet because I'm honestly sort of getting out of scrolling in a commercial type setting and have been working with the CNC and Laser.. CNC makes dust chips and will be connected to my dust collector soon.. Laser has built in exhaust that I hook to a port that blows outside similar to a dryer vent.

Hopefully they'll post it here as well because it sounds like a interesting read..

It kind of depends on the project for me (ie if very detailed portrait type of cutting that's going to take 12 hours to complete then I typically drill 10 - 20 holes and sit and cut those out then get up to drill more holes and always walk over to the sander to sand the back side burs off of the drilled holes. ) but typically every 20 - 30 minutes I'm getting up and doing something else for around 5-10 minutes. Some projects I might sit a little longer just to complete it if it's almost finished or something. Side Note: I drill the 10-20 holes in those large portrait type patterns and put a tick mark on it so to keep track of how many drilled holes I did for said project.. since that is one thing I'm often asked is how many holes did you have to drill and cut.. Most designers don't count to give that sort of info even though as I understand it... that info can be generated in the drawing software somehow so nobody really has to physically count..

On my Excalibur I have the Seyco scroll saw dust extractor.. It works really well for the dust underneath the saw, however the dust from the top lands onto the table top and as I spin the wood around I end up pushing some of it off the table and onto my lap just like you show here. Almost nothing goes to the floor.. The best set-up I've had so far was just using the dust port on the saw with my big loud shop vac. but the drawback from that is the noise, and the suction is strong enough to hold my board down to the table top.. which doesn't bother me too much so long as I keep the table top wax and very very slick. The only dust that escapes is what the dust blower blows to the side which lands onto the vac hose that is connected to the dust port. Often thought about going back to that set up with a T into the vac hose somewhere so it could have a suction hose off to the side so catch that dust that the blower blows to the side. I would want a much quieter vac though.. and not sure if the suction on a quieter one would be the same or as efficient. Due to the loud vac, I just continue to use the Seyco system as it seems to be a happy middle ground, at least until I can get more business and have some extra cash to buy a quieter vac. or find a good used one on Marketplace.