kmmcrafts

The patterns are made by Rick Longabough , There are several scroll saw pattern books by him and Karen.. I'm sure it's in one of his books but which one I don't know.. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/400-full-size-mini-clock-patterns_rick-longabaugh/1537348/#edition=2762767&idiq=18839796

I wouldn't know where to send you to get that pattern now days.. I purchased it back in 2007 - 8 I believe as the designers were retiring ( if I remember correctly ) and they ran a sale with all their 2000 or more patterns.. I purchased the whole batch of their patterns from I think Cherrytree.com or something like that.. I'm pretty sure it's out there for sale but I can't help with that.. Maybe someone else will chime in with where it's available now..

He is a wealth of knowledge for sure.. Thanks JT for the detailed description of your finishing process..

Any issues with top coating over Danish oil with lacquer? I much rather use lacquer too.. but top coating over the oil base with solvent base is a big no no in the automotive world so I've never attempted it.. I know you mentioned water base so that is probably okay over the Danish oil.. I have all the spray equipment but I never did big enough batches where i would top coat to be worth the effort to dig out the spray equipment and the clean-up process is painful for just a dozen or so projects at a time.. I recently bought a couple cans of water base in the spray cans.. don't know if I got a bad batch or what but the spray nozzle was just spitting the stuff out and actually ruined my project.. Never again with that.. It was Varathane Brand.. I have used the water based poly in the blue spray can and it has always worked pretty well so long as you shake it up good and also have the can at a good temp.. To cold out and it does the same thing as the other stuff I was just talking about..Probably the water to cold, LOL.. but the other stuff was back in the summer so cold wasn't an issue..

Yeah Danish oil is my go too for finishing.. sometimes I'll top coat with poly too but not too often. They do have 3 different formulas for it.. some is quite thick and the others are a bit thin ( watery ).. I like the thicker stuff best but they all work good.. but the thicker one give off more of a rich sheen look to it.. Kind of think the thicker one has a higher oil content in it than the others.. but it may be the same mix other than just reduced down more with tinners or whatever driers they add to it.

I need a larger drying rack, lol . This is a makeshift thing setting on the floor is spill over because this all wouldn’t fit on my drying rack. Lol. I likely won’t ever be needing one as this is not a common large order. But anyway they’re all done and dipped in Danish oil. Currently drying, probably package them up Sunday and have them in the mail Monday morning. Was a good order to do that didn’t really take as long as I had figured. Doing one off of the clocks does take longer than going production style and mass producing them.

I also like the round over edges.. was always going to buy a router to do them but still haven't done it.. I do sand the edges and sort of take off the sharp edges but I never did get a router for doing this.. Guess instead of a sander maybe I should think about getting a router.. I'm halfway there because I have the round over bit.. just nothing to put it in,

Yeah I have a Mac Mop.. I was thinking more of a small detail sander that'd get some minor shaping in tighter areas.. or maybe I just need a smaller mop sander.. I think I have the 6" one.. as it doesn't get in some of the tighter spots and they really don't do great for shaping etc.. However now that you mention the mouse sander, I actually forgot I have one, LOL.. I guess that shows how much I use it.. maybe I don't really need a sander like that. The large clock order I was sanding the outer profile of the clock and my belt sander is too aggressive and a pain to swap to a finer paper.. the R/O sander works good but not in the tighter spots as you get down close to the clock feet area.. I usually just sand these areas by hand and maybe will continue with that.. But being I have so many to make I was thinking that maybe some sort of small detail sander would have sped up the process.. they're done now and the likelihood of getting another order like that again is probably rare.. LOL

Thinking about a new detail sander.. what one do you use / like? I have 1/4 sheet sanders and Random orbital sanders but I think a small detail sander would be handy to use for some projects.

I already had most of the blanks needed to do this that was scroll sawn.. Actually had them all but a couple of the engravings didn't turn out the greatest so I scrolled 4 more.. glad this job was a quick easy one and done with already. I keep a stack of blanks ready to laser for a few of my ornaments styles that get personalization request frequently..

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..