kmmcrafts

I've mentioned many times that I get request all the time for engraved ornaments.. Just thought I'd show How I modify the design of an ornament to do the engraving.. I should also note that I have also scrolled in names or dates in this area as well... and that is what I normally do for short names or just doing a year on it.. this is what I'm doing today as I have a order for 30 with the business name on it.. I won't show the name as someone might know someone and see the image so you get to see the blank samples.. Was going to finish up the clocks today but then I have a lot of sanding to do on those.. since I have an appointment with my financial adviser this afternoon I didn't want to get all dusty and dirty.. so going to knock out this 30 piece custom order before I go and then when I come back home I'll do some work on the clock order.. Last photo shows the original designs.. First one shows how I made the space to add engraving etc.

Don't really use it much but it sure is handy to make clock bases and some things I cannot really do with scroll saw.. Knowing what I know now I'd probably not bought it and just went with a larger more powerful laser.. I think April was that last time I ran it, LOL.. Most times I just scroll or use the table saw to make the bases but I do like to give them that added touch with my business name carved on the bottom.. especially when the clocks are going to several different people as gifts like this case.. this way each of those 21 people will know where they came from and may come look at the other things on the websites.

Well my wife wanted to go Christmas shopping early and I wasn't really in the mood for that so I stayed home.. Fired up the CNC and in two hours had carved 27 clock bases.. so now I have 18 clocks scrolled and more than enough bases made. I should have been productive and cut the clocks or done some sanding while the CNC was doing it's thing.. About all I did was clean up around the saws and drill press etc. where I had been working.. Then my son stopped by so I called it a day.. Had I been productive I could have had all 21 of these made and ready for sanding / finishing.. Currently have around 12 hours into this.. Guessing I'll have about 2 maybe 3 hours.. of sanding, attaching the bases, and finishing..

Quit a bit early tonight.. but I have 18 of the 21 cut.. I ran out of space on my board for more patterns so I gotta get another board down and plane it etc.

Well I got a later start on these this morning because I had a couple of other projects that I needed to finish sand and get dipped in Danish Oil so they can go in the mail next week.. plus I had a few orders to package and get in the mailbox.. Anyway I sanded the next board down. applied my shelf liner and patterns to it.. then cut them into manageable sizes, drilled the holes for the clocks and pilot holes... I came in for lunch at noon ( right now LOL ) and ate.. I got 5 completely cut and the 6th one is only got the one cutout next to the clock and where the hands are left to cut so cut that one out and then cut the profile and after lunch and then I'll start on the next several.. Think I might be able to have all of them cut out by the end of the day today so then it'll be just CNC the bases and some sanding / finishing. I'd guess it'll be another day of work to do the bases and all the sanding and finishing.. Looks like it'll end up being a 3 day job... Not sure if I mentioned it or not but in the beginning they planed to order 25 but they dropped it back to 21 of them so I don't need quite as many.. Have two in my inventory but plan to just make the whole batch so those two can stay in inventory, LOL.. Mondays are always a bust for me to get in the shop this time of year because of all the orders from the weekend have to get packed and then there is too many and the mail driver won't pick them up so I have to drive them 12 mile each way to and from the local post office.. IF I even make out to the shop it's not usually until after lunch. The total price for the customer paying was just shy of $1200 After shipping and my expenses I'll likely end up around $900.. Obviously not counting electric etc. for shop lights and all the little things.. With all the ornaments sold so far this week across all sites.. I've got about $500 on Amazon in sales and $300 on Etsy Nothing from the other two sites currently.. still have the weekend to go through yet.. which is when I get most my business.. Currently setting at around $1800 for the week which for this time of year is still not great.. but better than it has been so far this year. Usually expect around $10,000 - 12,000 in sales the first week of Dec. and close to that the second week and around half of that the last week of Nov. So it's typically very busy this time of year.. This summer was a bust.. lucky to have $300 a month.. normally that much a week or two.. so it's definitely down this year..

Nice video!! I don't do any type of editing to my video as you can tell.. I normally will cut the original sound down and add some sort of music to them but not for YouTube videos.. I don't do too much video on YouTube.. mostly watch others videos, LOL.. I do like to put short video clicks up on social sites though.. but video editing and whatnot takes a lot of time I could be making sawdust, LOL

Well, I'm not starved but I am pretty skinny.. Honestly without doing other side hustle stuff the last couple years I'd be a lot skinnier, LOL There was about 2 years where my wife didn't work much for health reasons and the business kept us alive and paid for our health insurance etc. while she got through a tough time.. tough for us all.. but with the business I was able to be here to help her with the kids yet still bringing in some cash flow.. Now I'm not so strapped to make sales like I was for those years and my income shows it too. I don't work nearly as hard as I did during that time.. But at that time I was raising family and being a caregiver to the wife and running a business to help support us.. don't know how I did it honestly but glad it's better now, LOL.. I will say you find ways to promote and make a business go when you "really need the money"

Most times I cut counterclockwise but I do cut either direction.. I do not do the stopping normally but because the camera was in my normal view of sawing I wasn't trying to mess up. LOL. I actually think I can cut this a couple minutes faster on the Hawk.. the blade is straighter up / down and the sharp turns are much easier.. even though I have the EX adjusted as straight as possible.. I still find the Hawk much more relaxing to do the corners. As for the position of the pattern.. IF it was a straight smooth edge will place the pattern so the bottom doesn't need to be cut since that saves time.. This particular one had a bad spot in the wood that I was trying to make go into the waist area of the cutout.. Also... you will notice the first time I changed to a different hole I rotated the magnifier to the side which is what I normally do but I realized the camera was just looking at the ground and not me changing blade, LOL.. This takes longer to get the magnifier in the right position by just lifting it up rather than swinging it back and fourth in front of me.. It's pretty tough cutting with the camera / phone resting on top of the magnifier because it only give me about a inch at the widest point of the mag lens to look through and it was way off to the side instead of in the middle where I normally look through so it was making me look at the lines off to the side rather than straight on.. Made cutting more difficult which is why I was stopping to back out etc.. Anyway, glad someone enjoyed watching it. I probably shaved off close to 5 minutes using the Hawk and no phone setting in my normal view.

Here is the boring 20 minute video of me cutting real time video.. might want to turn sound down / off as I didn't edit the sound out so you hear my vacuum dust collector running.

I recorded myself cutting the first one and if my finicky internet works well enough I might try getting it on my YouTube channel.. the video is 20.46 minutes so my first one was that long.. I even messed up and took the blade out of a hole that I wasn't done cutting on but thought I was, .. Also went slower because I placed my phone onto my magnifier light and that restricted my view.

Just to update.. after lunch I went out and cut 6 of them in just under 2 hours.. this is only the clock cut out not the base or anything.. I started with about a 4-5ft. board and planed it to the thickness and had it sanded with shelf liner and the patterns already applied before lunch.. then after lunch I used the scroll saw to cut the patterns out in smaller sections and scrolled them out.. Then I got another board down and planed it to the thickness needed and cut the paper patterns down to size and laid them out on the board to see how many I could get on this board.. Then i came inside to do the dishes and checked time.. i was in the shop 2hrs and 20 minutes do do all that.. It really is a easy one to make with only having 4 holes to drill out and cut, LOL.. Oh.. forgot to mention.. I also drilled the holes for the clock in that time too. @BadBob That is why I do what I do.. Never was happy working for someone else that didn't appreciate me and would replace me the next day after I quit or die or whatever... Don't punch a clock.. take on work or turn it away if I don't want it.. and best of all.. make close to the same money and don't need a extra car to insure and maintain etc.. in the end I really have more money in my pocket.. Little stressful sometimes not knowing how your year will do each year since most the business comes in the last 3 months of the year, LOL.. But that's better than the everyday stress of fighting traffic to drive to a job and work for someone that doesn't appreciate it.

The CNC makes the bases and carves my website on the bottom.. Is that cheating? I don't know because I never have used a scroll saw to make the bases anyway.. Either a table saw or bandsaw and then round over the corners with the belt / disc sander.. and this gives the base a professional touch with the engraving on the bottom... some may not like that but it's what works for me..

A couple times I've been close to my 14 days to get the made to order or custom order in the mail.. There have also been times this time of year that I do get a little uneasy and I'll remove my made to order listings for a few days or just put stores in vacation most and leave a message that I shut down a couple days to get caught up... I get quite a few repeat customers that order the same stuff in bulk / wholesale every year.. The word desk / shelf sitter order that I have... They have been a repeat customer since like 2012.. each year they give me a different word to cut out.. I have a pilot school that orders 200 of a certain airplane ornament that they give out to the students each year... same thing with one of my nurse ornaments.. I'm not much for doing design work and one offs custom work.. takes me at least an hour to put together a design so I much rather do bulk orders of the same item than try to keep up doing custom one offs.. aside from just laser engraving and personalizing current items I have. I bought my laser originally to do production cutting of these type ornament orders however I was disappointed to find out that I can stack cut almost two times as many as the laser can cut in a hours time, LOL.. Only way a laser would outperform me is if I had two lasers or one bigger larger power one.. but either of those would cost several thousand dollars so I just use it to do a different ornament types and engraving which is hard to do with a scroll saw..

Yes it is a easy one to make and about a 20 minute cut.. cutting time is really only a small portion of involved time though... sanding and finishing is another good 20 minutes.. packaging them up for the mail is probably another 10 minutes making up boxes and wrapping them etc.. at the end of the day each one is probably around 2 hours in time investment.. It's one of the patterns from the cherry tree? if I remember correctly.. They have a bunch of clock patterns.. I bought the complete set of patterns from them when they closed up the business.. something like 3000 patterns I have on file from them. The person that ordered them is going to be giving them out to the pastors at some Association Appreciation Dinner thing is what she told me.

Oh boy... went from hardly any business to .... I have a order for 25 of the praying hands clock to make and delivered by 12-6.. AND 26 pieces of the word "knowledge" cut out as a desk / shelf sitter cut from 3/4" material and just using the scrollsaw font. Now I just got two more clock orders for my Dachshund dog clock and has been sold out and switched to a made to order status.. LOL.. Meanwhile ornament sales also picked way up and many are getting close to being sold out.. Moral of my story is.. be careful what you ask for.. a couple weeks back because business hadn't picked up yet I prayed.. not asking for work but for guidance as to where the big man wanted me to be... business had been slow and I was only asking if I should keep at it or look for a job.. Now I got a whole years worth of work to do in a few weeks, If I'm missing from the forums I maybe sleeping in a pile of sawdust in front of my saw..

I stepped away for most of the summer this year as well.. but about a week ago orders for scroll work started coming in and was selling out of scrolled ornaments.. now I'm working my tail off trying to keep up with some clock orders while also almost selling out of some of the ornaments.. weird how each year business is so different.. typically get orders throughout the whole year but it's been pretty slow all summer.. typically I've started picking up business for the holidays around mid Sept.. but it was pretty slow all the way up until just a little over a week ago.. I'm not usually this busy until end of Nov.. but they all just came all at once out of nowhere.. I figured the year was going to be a bust.. but if this keeps up through the holidays I might make up for lost business all in the couple months of the whole year, LOL

Have a few of those shops around here.. I sold at one back around 2012 - 13.. got okay sales however it seemed things liked to just walk off too... you was responsible to go weekly and tidy up and replace inventory etc.. The problem I had more so was you had to rent the space as a signed contract in 3-6-12 months.. I think I could have done very well over the holidays but it seemed impossible to get those months available.. Then the owner that runs it her husband got very sick and the store ended up being closed several days a week while she sat with him at the hospital.. while I totally understand that situation.. I also paid a contract for my items to be in a open x amount of days / weeks.. no kickback for all the closed up days.. at the end of the contract I lost a couple hundred to sell there..

CNC's are way more complicated than a laser.. You have to worry about spindle / router speed... speed of up and down as well as left to right.. how deep of cut you make and how many passes needed for the finished depth.. Then there is usually a lot of finish sanding of all those details that was carved out.. It's a lot to do.. for me it's more work than just scroll sawing... typically IF I need more than one piece it's also faster with a scroll saw.. but the time you set up the machine and all the finish sanding etc.. I can stack cut three signs faster than I can carve a couple of them..

I'm not against laser work being at a craft show because there is more "hands on" than one thinks.. more skill than one thinks too.. BUT.. I don't agree with passing them off as handmade... I sell my laser and cnc works right next to my scroll sawn stuff and explain the difference. I personally find that many / most folks today could care less how it's made.. they just like the item.. some will jaw drop when they find out the scroll work is really hands on handmade as opposed to the laser stuff.. but then they turn around and buy the laser item they actually like best.. with the laser you can just add so much more detail and personalization that's much harder to do with scroll work.. I didn't really start the topic to make it be handmade vrs laser.. more about the lack of safety of what this person with the laser may have been doing.. like I said.. maybe he wasn't actually running it but with everything plugged in it sure looked like he was set up to run it.. My laser is made with a enclosure and intake and exhaust fans.. not a small portable deal that I'd want to drag out to a show either.. Some folks with them will have a enclosed trailer where they have a mobile set up and that I feel is probably fine... I just cannot imagine running the set up he had with all the people around and the smoke that these create.. not to mention the fact that he could possibly blind someone if something went wrong with his system.. To be fair he was right next to a door.. maybe he stepped outside to actually run the project.. I would hope he at least did that..

So this is a big show that's been happening for quite a few years and it's always packed with both vendors and shoppers, even a waiting list to be a vendor... Not much for scroll work there at all.. there was 3 - 4 different vendors with turned pens.. couple vendors with turned bowls and some salt / pepper grinders.. one person have a few CNC signs and cribbage boards. Didn't see much of anything laser work until we got way down to the one end in a hallway ( was at a school ) and to my surprise there was some laser stuff but what was more surprising than that was the fact they allowed him to have his open framed laser engraver set up and was doing custom orders on the spot.. I cannot believe this would be allowed for many reasons besides the smoke that comes off these, LOL.. These kind of machines are supposed to give out special glasses to where in case a laser beam reflects off of something... In my mind this is like taking a cutting torch and cutting metal in a school hallway, LOL.. I do not get how this was allowed at all or even how the vendor even remotely thought it would be acceptable.. not to mention the liability of possibly blinding someone.. I realize for the most part with common sense these are fairly safe to run.. but you just don't know how much common sense a customer or a customers child might have if they seen the thing running.. Now.. if this was a outside event.. Maybe could sort of... nope.. still can't see having a open frame laser running where customers would be able to watch... Now, maybe he never fired the machine? I do not know... I never seen him running it.. but it was there and set up with the computer hooked up and he was messing on the computer doing some graphics work and had some people standing around him.. May have been a customer working on a design and then once agreed maybe he fired up the laser.. I'm not sure but I can say I sure don't think this would be allowed..

Pretty good question that I look forward to seeing everyone's opinion on.. That said, I would think you would want breathable canvas but I do not know that for sure. My experience with covering things here in the northern states may be different than what you have. My experience with covering project cars ( not tools and equipment ) has been breathable covers.. Years ago I wanted to cover a project car for a year or two while I gathered up parts and built and engine. I covered the car with non breathable plastic tarps.. I thought I would be doing the car a good thing by keeping the moisture out.. however not considering the fact that there is moisture in the ground and what I did was create a moisture trap.. when I removed the tarp.. the bottom of the tarp was covered is water as was the car.. and the car had way more rust on it than it would have had if I had just not covered it at all.. This was back in my teenage years and was a big lesson learned.. I now use breathable stuff to cover to let moisture out.. and some material somehow keeps rain water out yet lets moisture out at the same time.. Had a cover on my 5th wheel camper made of that stuff.. Then I learned that the wind blowing on the cover of the camper flapping the cover around was actually wearing through the rubber roof.. so now I do not cover the camper.. At the end of the day I guess nothing last forever no matter how much care you take of it.. sometimes all that extra care is just a waste of time.. Anyway after all that.. I'd say breathable with the type of climate I have in my area.. curious what others might have to say..

Nice smooth edges is what I also experience with FD blades... Unfortunately I also find they don't last nearly as long either..

I've had a lot of interest in these.. however only ever sold 1 of them.. have two more in inventory and one was supposed to be for a friend that never followed through with actually buying it. LOL.. Probably didn't like the high price and mine wasn't even above $100... As much work that goes into these I probably have it priced too low.. Mine are probably not as nice as yours since I stack cut from BBply and then glued to a walnut backer.. I've been thinking about raising the price on them to around $140 and then put them on sale in a month or so for 25% off.. which is close to what I originally sell them for, LOL.. When people feel they are getting a deal is when they buy something, LOL I won't be making any more of them.. Not with a scroll saw anyway, LOL

I've not experienced blade stretching... only have experienced stomach stretch over the years.. I also find that Pegas blades are sharp a great deal longer than most other blades.. Regarding blade stretch... are you sure it's not just slippage in one or both clamps? IF you're losing some tension that can reduce blade life too so it very well could be the reason for a shorter blade life. This is what I've found to be a issue of my own and others may experience the same. I somewhat like to cut fast and a Pegas blade is a bit of a aggressive blade so I'm not feeding the wood "pushing" through the wood as fast on longer less detailed cuts such as straight lines or anything where there isn't a great deal of detail. I find that with Flying Dutchman blades I tend to "push through" because the blade isn't as aggressive cutting. FD blades used to be my go to blade I always liked the "Ultra Reverse" and still do use them from time to time. I do think they give a nicer "smoother" cut edge.. Years ago I found many projects I would get some burnt edges in tight turns etc with them and blade life to be short.. well it was normal blade life at that time because once I tried the Pegas Modified Geometry I had significantly longer blade life and no more burnt edges.. I believe this to be because I like cutting at a faster pace and with the less aggressive blades I tend to "push" through too hard thus creating heat and heat really kills blade life. I would imagine blades "could" stretch if they are getting hot.. This may not be what's happening in your case.. but it was what was happening in mine.. I never knew this until I switched to the Pegas blades.. but I can make a FD blade last a really long time too IF I just slow it down and concentrate on just letting the blade do the work.. The aggressiveness of the Pegas doesn't make me "push" through so the blade is just doing it's cutting..

Pretty sure they're just renamed / rebranded Flying Dutchman blades.