kmmcrafts

I believe the Excalibur stock tensioner is supposed to be lubed with a non petroleum grease.. Pretty sure I read that somewhere and I'm also pretty sure most folks don't do it.. I have swapped out my stock system to the Pegas.. I'm not certain that the Pegas is to be greased or not, however I had a slight squeak when moving my lever after having it for a month or so.. I sprayed this stuff on the moving parts of the lever and it worked sooo much easier and smoother.. I have always just sprayed it about every month ever since and with 500 hours or so on the saw and have never had to replace those common worn / broke parts.. I use this dry lube on a whole lot of things like even my lawn mower wheels.. the mower pushes so easy it's not believable LOL.. so I use it on the cables and most anything with moving parts.. Car door hinges and latches etc.. stuff is amazing. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Blaster-9-3-oz-Premium-Silicone-Garage-Door-Lubricant-Spray-16-GDL/202532761?g_store=&source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&pla&mtc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D25T-025_031_GARAGE_AUTO-NA-Multi-NA-PMAX-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-Automotive&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D25T-025_031_GARAGE_AUTO-NA-Multi-NA-PMAX-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-Automotive-71700000113075003--&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrMKmBhCJARIsAHuEAPRgAF_NUkr6VkX4CUL-nTFZSiWthCJxpLDtxpK83if6IJd81wtTXlQaAoLHEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Can't imagine life without internet and my friends at the village.. It really wasn't that long ago either.. how'd we all get by without the internet, LOL

I'm all for books if that's what works best for you.. but everything you would want to know and many easy patterns right here on the scrollsaw village for free.. Steve Good has a lot of good info on his Blog as well as his youtube channel..I guess what I'm saying is books cost money when just doing some searching online will get all the same info and possibly more. But I realize that some folks would rather read a book than look online, and that's okay too. Most important is just have fun with it.

I use old plastic coffee can or old mayo jar to put old blades utility knife blades etc. in and when it gets full screw the top on and put it in the trash and start on a new can / jar, LOL..

I have all that has already been mentioned but to add to the list I have a pair of side cutters ( dikes ) to cut the ends of the blades off that are too long. It doesn't matter on the EX type saws but it does on the Hawk and Hegner saws.. Unfortunately Pegas blades are not all the same length, many times they have a thin pointy end on top or bottom and sometimes both ends that I need to cut off for the Hawk.. If I don't cut them off then I have to adjust my blade tension for every blade since no two "pegas" blades are the same length. I end up cutting them to the right length instead of messing constantly with my tension on the saw.

Like I've always said, those labels are made with an adhesive that is not meant to come back off.. you don't want labels falling off packages and having lost mail..They're made with different adhesive.. I would try it on some scrap wood before you have hours into a project only to ruin it trying to remove a label.. That said, I do on occasion remove labels from boxes that I might be able to reuse by heating it with a hair dryer and it peels right off a box..

I'd say it's not a bad batch of blades IF, you're only experiencing it on the Hegner and not on the King.. More like a picky saw needing a more precise tension.. in other words a nice way to say user error .. No worries though most of us have been there.. some of us twice.. ie I learned to saw on easy to use ( tensioning ) saws.. then I had to re-learn on the Hawk saws again.. I've seen on other forums, and probably even did this myself back in the day complaining how Hawk and Hegners are crap saws because I didn't know how to use it correctly.. been so bad with others that they've sold their saws to go back to a DeWalt.. LOL... It took me a good maybe year of switching back and forth from the DeWalt or Excalibur to the Hawk before it finally clicked what was finally right. I'm now thankful I am not a person to give up easily LOL.. Love these saws now.. however a EX type saw will always have a spot in my shop too as I like to use that different style cutting from time to time..

I've always been going to try the mineral spirits method. If it works then I wouldn't need to buy shelf liner.. but then would need to buy mineral spirits.. as I don't use it for anything else so that's partly why I haven't tried it, lol

Can deduct the subscription on your business taxes. No different than a magazine subscription..

I've been doing the labels now for about 10 years.. They stick better than the spray glues do as they are meant to not fall off a package.. so I still use the shelf liner. Probably the biggest improvement and time saver for me was switching from the blue tape to shelf liner.. The labels vrs spray glue isn't really a huge time saver so much as it is just less mess of the over spray of the glue.. It is nice I suppose to go straight from the printer to just peeling and sticking it on your blank. The shelf liner comes off mostly in one piece and very quick compared to peeling off those little pieces of tape. If you do both the labels and the shelf liner you just saved yourself a whole lot of time for another project.

I'm right there with you Ray.. I've been on the scroll saw sites a bit longer than you and I've met and lost contact with a lot of people over the years due to sites disappearing and the folks on them split off to other sites with different user names and or just stayed off scroll sawing sites. To me it's totally worth helping support the village to help prevent something like that from happening again. 20 years ago it was Yahoo & MSN groups and then they ( MSN and Yahoo ) closed down the groups etc.. Many of the folks went to the Magazine site however they had to upgrade their site and had many issues doing that so the site was down for a good 6 weeks or more.. and they lost all the username stuff so people had to re-join.. that site hasn't been the same since. Used to be hoppin with topics etc. The $5 a month to me is better than paying a subscription to the magazine that I also dropped because they can't seem to lay out the patterns in them in a easy user friendly way.. yeah the stories are nice to read but you can't actually interact with the people in a magazine either.. I easily could get my $5 a month value in the patterns we have here too.

I break more blades on my Hawk / Hegner saws than I do / did on any other saw... they are just very picky about tension. The reason I believe is how long those arms are compared to the 3- 4 inch arms on a King. I have the 26" Hawks and those arms must be 30" or more long.. that blade takes a lot more stress on those long arms than they do on those short arms of a King. I've said it before but I almost gave up on my learning curve of the Hawk saws.. I couldn't for the life of me get it to stop breaking blades.. they are just that picky. Now I rarely break blades unless I'm running them too dull too long.. When I got my Henger I slid right into the seat with no blade breakage.. My experience between the Hawk and Hegner is the Hegner is way more forgiving on the blades.. maybe because of the shorter arms of my 18" Hegner vrs. the long arms of the 26" Hawks. I use both FD and Pegas blades along with a few other brands.. Yes the Pegas do break easier than the others.. The sizes of the Pegas run a bit smaller too.. ( ie a #5 Pegas is like half way between a #3 and #5 of a Flying Dutchman ) Many times on the very small blades I'll run a size larger than I normally would with a FD, Olsen etc. especially with the spirals.. I normally run a 2/0 in FD, but if I use a Pegas I jump to a #1. I like the Pegas spirals but for the most part since I have a couple gross of FD I just use those no more than I use spirals these days.

They are awesome blades and last a long time, However there are no reverse teeth so they do leave the fuzzies etc. I only use them on certain thick wood applications but I know some exclusively use them.. for me they are too pricey and too much sanding for a everyday blade. I find the Pegas are just about as sharp / aggressive so I may never buy super sharps again for what I cut. I only got them to try.. they are sharp and last a while longer but not sure the price of them makes it worth it over the Pegas MGT blade. https://www.pswood.com/super-sharps-scroll-saw-blades/

AWE! cute little kitten, It very well could be the cat.. I had cats all my life but back in 2012 I almost died do to a breathing problem.. doctors couldn't figure out what was going on with me and by the time I'd get to the ER my symptoms were clearing up.. They thought I might of had some weird virus thing going on, back of my throat was red like strep or something.. maybe I was the first one with Covid .. Thankfully my wife is a RN and actually does like me sort of because without her I'd likely not be here today. Long story short through a lot of testing and whatnot since I've kind of always had "mild" allergies my wife decided to set me up with an appointment to see what I was allergic too. Turns out.. the cat was the biggest culprit to what I had going on.. Doctor prescribed a allergy med and my issues went mostly away. They told me I didn't really need to get rid of the cat but when she's gone it might be a good idea to not get another one. I love cats, my daughter took the cat with her when she moved to college so the only time I had to take my meds is if I was going to visit her.. Also as of around the age of 45ish I was never allergic to poison ivy.. played in the woods most my life and my father was a logger and I used to roam around the woods sometimes while he worked.. he was never allergic to it either.. I used to remove poison ivy for family / friends because i was never allergic.. boy that really sucks now because if I just look at it I get it ..

Very nice design and great job cutting, I made some trivets last spring and never have put them up on my online shops to move them out of my inventory, LOL As for the walnut look.. I think it looks like walnut if I zoom into the photo. I'm thinking this is one of the lighter shades of walnut and not the "dark" black walnut that many are accustom to. For those that do not know walnut has many shades of colors depending on where the board was cut from in the log.. when working at the lumber mill years ago it's not uncommon at all to see walnut that is almost white looking maybe similar to poplar.. and there is about every shade from that light color right on down to that rich dark walnut that many of us are more familiar with.

I think for the most part, I'm going to just do them all in blue like the Michigan one.

I agree with Larry on this.. but as he said, a "good" vacuum with hepa filter is going to be quite pricey. I wonder though, I have one of these inline exhaust booster fans hooked up to my laser machine to remove smoke better. It is very quiet and moves quite a lot of air. They have a charcoal canister filter so you don't have to vent it to the outside, though I do not have one I just vent out a window for now.. But I wonder if hooking something like this to a scroll saw would work for that fine dust? This that I have I just use a flexible like dryer vent.. a person could put the suction hose right new the scroll saw at table height.. I'm pretty sure it'd move enough air but I don't know how it'd do with actually filtering the air since I do not have the filter part of this set up..however even just to have it suck the dust and aim it down to the box fan with filter on that.. Might be something to experiment with. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193530603124?hash=item2d0f52a674:g:fTsAAOSwQOxgwy4X&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8DEnLX%2FBM6MyF6%2BqfB0lhIGVxGYPVNy294O4ZkYjEjEpDJqadX9fE7BJ9Bth0llWY1CwHt8TkENGCBvd7Xh36Ff85lwxj6Vh0WKH%2BsD7hv%2BTDeYyjAl%2Bt87in72KQulphPDTF62W7Azjvzq%2BSRmfnBhqOK8lug8nr7SpzE57I1mHvIIDRsjt9u6waQCbFMQ3xvyZb8ynzyICURFprLvOnstkX9Lbuu9w1GqP6wf7P6C%2Bzz2tewdYI1EJDAs%2BAmW8FhUvNW6j6GRt1z0ipYmNOVvzizYCOO3uxbUhTM%2BWXzFcvMo%2BMn6cCUUKMNfMWQ3usw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABFBM5qv1vrJi https://www.ebay.com/itm/193530603124?hash=item2d0f52a674:g:fTsAAOSwQOxgwy4X&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8DEnLX%2FBM6MyF6%2BqfB0lhIGVxGYPVNy294O4ZkYjEjEpDJqadX9fE7BJ9Bth0llWY1CwHt8TkENGCBvd7Xh36Ff85lwxj6Vh0WKH%2BsD7hv%2BTDeYyjAl%2Bt87in72KQulphPDTF62W7Azjvzq%2BSRmfnBhqOK8lug8nr7SpzE57I1mHvIIDRsjt9u6waQCbFMQ3xvyZb8ynzyICURFprLvOnstkX9Lbuu9w1GqP6wf7P6C%2Bzz2tewdYI1EJDAs%2BAmW8FhUvNW6j6GRt1z0ipYmNOVvzizYCOO3uxbUhTM%2BWXzFcvMo%2BMn6cCUUKMNfMWQ3usw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABFBM5qv1vrJi

I haven't tried it but I think you can remove the screws that hold the metal plate on where the hose connects to and turn it so it comes out the other side and screw it back on.. I think that was on the EX 21 like that? I know the DeWalt was as I did change it on that.. mostly by accident when i had it apart and didn't pay close attention to it when I put it back on, LOL..

My box fan with a furnace filter does way better than my ceiling mounted air filtration system.. putting it on the floor about 2 - 3 foot from the saw on the side that the air puffer blows the dust towards seems to pull a lot of the dust "down" toward the ground instead of sucking it up to the ceiling and hopefully getting into the filtration system. I also do have the Seyco scroll saw dust collector..it seems to work pretty decent. but the box fan is quieter than any of them and also moves more air.

So I did something a little different. I engraved lines on the backer so I could do two different colors. Not 100% sure I like it or not. My wife said I need to dry brush some brown into the green area and dry brush the blue like I did on the Michigan one in the photos above post where it’s not plain blue but has streaks of darker blue and white in it. I might give that a try later. Thoughts on this one?

Well, they all make the details of the cutting pop.. I've never been one to put colors behind a animal that wasn't more realistic.. those bright colors would be neat behind a car / motorcycle cutting.. This looks like it's cut from walnut and so once finished the wood probably going to darken up a lot.. As they are right now I like the blue.. however I think that gold color once the walnut has it's finish on it might look pretty neat.

I'm with Dan on this.. I use the same #3 blade to cut out the outline of a puzzle as I use to cut the actual pieces. I know some use a hand held jigsaw to rough out.... Me I like the little extra wood to hold onto when cutting puzzles out.. you get down to the last couple pieces and it doesn't leave much to hold onto. so when I cut puzzles I drill holes for the inside cuts and also one for the outline and then I just cut the pieces out of the larger block of wood. While I do not like cutting on a really large block / blank.. I don't mind something like a 8 x 10 ish size blank. Typically will lay out a large 6 foot board of puzzles to cut and will use the bandsaw or sometimes just a chop saw to cut the length down to manageable sizes like shown in the video of me cutting out a puzzle. https://www.facebook.com/KevsKrafts/videos/801478010278251

I agree with you on that.. I'm not sure some of the other colors would give the details of the ornament that pop.. yet be soft on the eyes to look at. I might have to just paint a few backers and see how other colors might look. I'm kind of thinking the blue is going to be the top choice though.

Yes they was engraved and cut on the laser... Though I might go through and edit the designs for scrolling.. I just wouldn't be able to do the engraved part.. I could edit the names of the states and would be able to cut that out easy enough.. just the engraving around the edge is a bit small to cut with the scroll saw.

Yes, I tried searching for a list of state colors.. I did find some states do have colors but many I guess do not or it's not listed.. I have designs for all states and even some provinces from other countries.. so I'll probably be doing at least all the states..