kmmcrafts

Some might be to do with what servers the email has to go through? I don't know but I can say that 15 years ago my friend sent me an email and I never responded.. so he mentioned it while we were on the phone.. turns out I never received any email from him.. that is until 10 years later.. so email can take a tour of the world just the same as USPS I guess.. I have no clue how that email took 10 years to be delivered but they are not always instant like many people think coming from someone that does a lot of emailing with customers etc.. Heck I have two emails.. well.. maybe more than that but I have sent myself emails of photos etc.. and in some cases it has taken 2 days for that to actually come through.. most times it's only minutes but there have been a few times where it has taken a day or two..

I always made the puzzles mostly from 3/4 Poplar but have made them out of many types of hardwoods too. IF you really want a challenging cut try one from 7/8" Hickory.. Don't ask how I figured that one out, and of coarse I used one of the bigger patterns on this one too, I think it was the cabover semi or the bigrig semi pattern..

I do so many custom one off custom orders etc. of usually small items that it’s not even close to being worth using a spray gun just to spray one or two ornament sized projects. I do use the spray gun on production runs where I lay out several projects at once. I’ve been buying the watco brand lacquer in spray cans by the case online at max warehouse and so far it’s been way cheaper than anywhere else. This reminds me that I need to order some more. Usually order a few cases but really only use a case or two per year and then buy the quarts locally for the spray gun. So many of the finishes have changed up their formulas and I just haven’t been overly impressed with them. I bought some water based deft and instead of spraying out the can it just spit and bubbled etc. I used to like the blue / teal colored cans of the water based poly Uralic but that too started spraying poorly. That’s when I moved over to the lacquer. I like quick drying finishes much better than the slower drying oil / solvent based finishes.

When I first started making these I was using superglue to glue the wood circle to the plastic badge reel... They hold good but someone dropped there badge and the circle part broke off.. SO I started using E6000 and I like the hold but the glue is really kinda stinky for a few days and very slow at drying / setting up.. Then I got the idea of being able to change the wood piece.. I really like the self adhesive stuff I bought as it's strong but it is also hard to remove the piece too.. Nice to be able to just peel and stick that tape, as the E6000 glue is really stringy and can be a mess if not careful plus the dry time etc. I'm going to try cutting a much smaller piece of this tape and see if it might be easier to remove the piece if there is less surface area to be Velcroed. Just thought maybe someone here may know of a better product to use. I'm also been thinking in dots or small circles if they had the stuff like I have in "dots".. I don't know how this will work but something similar to this. Dots. The issue I see with the dots linked above is they're two part.. Male & Female and I could need more of the one than the other and would need to pay attention to what one is stuck to what part.. The tape stuff that comes off hard that I have sticks to itself so there is no wrong way to stick them. So that is a plus. Just they come off so hard, LOL.. But I'm going to do some experimenting with smaller pieces.

This is why I was trying to stay away from magnets.. especially since wife works in healthcare and around this types of equipment etc.. They have special badge reels they sell for the MRI and other imaging departments that have no metal in them etc. Lots of professions have to wear these.. I know many teachers do around my area anyway..

The good old days.. now there is no guard.. just a computer that scans a barcode and opens the door.. also believe this is how they clock in now too. I have sold a few on etsy but most sales have been with her coworkers.. I've done several hundred in sales just with them.. Everything they can think of to put on their badge.. from engraving pictures of their kids to their dog etc.. Done some campers on them.. I have some for about every holiday that I've done so far too.. Almost everyday she comes home request with someone wanting something. For instance Friday she came home and someone wanted a Pomeranian dog.. so not knowing what colors of wood and styles she wanted I made about 5 different ones and my wife texted pictures now she wants all 5 of them, .. Selling for $15 each.. bulk blank reels are about $0.25 each and so far I've made most of these from scraps in between the ornaments I cut..

I started making I.D. badge reels back in November and boy has it gone wild for sales.. I got the idea since my wife and her co-workers all seem to want a different badge reel for all the different seasons / holidays etc.. that maybe gluing magnets etc.. to the reels and the wood so they could use the same badge and just change the wood pieces out to whatever themed one they wanted.. I have not tried magnets yet as the badge reels I use have a plastic body so I would have to glue metal to one of the pieces and the magnet to the other.. Then I run across this 3M like plastic Velcro self adhesive tape.. It works great BUT it's some really heavy duty stuff.. I barely can get the pieces to separate, LOL.. a screwdriver or something to sort of pry it up helps but then I'm worried about them breaking things just trying to change the piece out. Wife says no to normal cloth type Velcro as she is worried they'll come off too easy if they get caught on something etc. Anyone know if they have a lighter duty stuff similar to the 3M tape I bought? Or have any other suggestion.. Just looking for some ideas that I can maybe try or at least look into. Link is the 3M stuff I bought, it says heavy duty but so far in my searches all of them say that.. The badge reels are only like 1-1/8 inch in diameter so there's not a lot of surface area. I cut the tape down to a 1 inch square.. thinking I might try making them 1/2" squares so there is less surface to grip so strong might help. https://www.ebay.com/itm/167112766455

The switch I believe is fine.. the issue is the solder came apart on one of the wires that connects to the switch.. IF I wiggle the wire around the speed control seems to work.. I don't have a solder iron but my son does so I'm just going to have him solder the wire back on.. It currently only has one strand of wire connecting it.. and Yes.. I've replaced these switches before on one of the older Hawk scroll saws I have. Back then the part was $3 but now I see they're nearly $10 by the time I pay shipping.. Still beats buying the part from Seyco at $55 plus shipping.. But anyway.. will try to solder first and if it still has issues then I'll buy a new switch. For those that can't solder you can buy them with wires already soldered on and could probably use a crimp on style butt connectors to connect it to your existing plug.. They seem to be around the same price with the wires as they are without.. I'll just solder the switch but thought that might be an option for those that can't solder.

In the automotive repair sector they “ claim “ you should not solder connections because of vibration as solder doesn’t flex and over time the solder will get very small hairline cracks and as you say cause heat and stress on electrical systems. These days with onboard computer systems in cars makes for a really bad situation with soldered connections. If you watch videos or have one of these style saws many of them that plastic piece where the switches are mounted really shakes on some of these saws. Can’t be good for these soldered connections on the switches. There are a lot of people out there that repair / restore car dash lights and gauges because the solder on the circuit board of the dash gets hairline cracks and cause issues. My son had to resolder his digital dash cluster on his 1984 Nissan 300ZX because of hairline cracks in the solder of the circuit board. Looked fine with the naked eye but under magnifying glass could see tiny cracks. Really only had to heat up and slightly melt the solder. Anyway this makes me wonder about all the other Excalibur type saws that I see where people are having speed surging issues etc. and need to replace the $55 switch. Some have also had to replace the circuit board as well, probably fried it from poor connection and got hot from the switch. lol If you have speed surging issues you should stop running it and if you’re able to solder maybe resolder these connections on the switch. Might save you from spending a lot money.

Well duh! Looking at the wires on the other end of the plug that goes to the circuit board just now and I see there is only two wires there so I assume the red wire isn’t even connected to anything. And looking more closely at the pigtail on the switch end I see it looks like the red wire is cut right flush with the sheathing. Assuming they bought the pigtail premade and it came with three wires but they only needed two.

Before I stopped scrolling two years ago my Excalibur speed started acting up. I toyed around some with it and fount the mounting nut to mount the dial ( pot switch ) was loose so I blew some air around it and then tightened up the nut which seemed to make it work. Haven’t used the saw much since other than just a quick cut of something that my laser didn’t cut all the way through. Other day while trying to cut out the candle holder ( post in the bragging section ) the saw was mostly stuck on the lowest speed but if I wiggled the dial around I could saw one handed and hold the switch it would work. Was hopeful that it wasn’t the circuit board but once I found holding the switch and it made changes I was certain it was just the switch. I never looked to closely at this switch and always thought it was a part of the circuit board and was only sold as a controller and board together. This morning I looked on Seyco for the parts and found they do sell just the switch with wire pigtail. Figured before I order any parts I’d take it apart and inspect it. Plus I wasn’t about to pay $55+ shipping for a $5 switch that I can solder to my pigtail plug. Upon inspection I found that there are three wire pins on the switch but only two wires connected. On the plug end there are three pins and wires so is one missing? Also found that on the black wire at the switch is really loose and only has one or two strands of wire even soldered which is making me think this is my problem and maybe no parts needed. I’m really curious what the red wire is doing since it’s not connected to anything on the switch end but is connected on the plug end. Maybe this could be a problem? I’m going to take this to my son to have him solder it for me as he is way better at soldering than I am and try it. I’m going to see if I can see how many wires are on the Seyco parts in the pictures. I read somewhere about some of the China made saws had only two wires where the replacement had three but it worked fine anyway so maybe I don’t need that red wire. I’m far from understanding any electrical stuff like this but maybe someone knows why there are some two wire switches and some are three?

It is red oak and you're right it will bleed like this. I put about 3 coats of shellac on it before painting the red in hopes of sealing it so it wouldn't bleed so badly. When I make CNC carved signs and they want it made from oak.. I seal it up with 3 coats and then sand it down smooth and then spray 3 more coats so the grain is sealed up very well. Sometimes even then you end up with some bleeding but usually minimal and usually can be sanded out. This here isn't really visible even with my glasses on but the camera sure picked it up.. Maybe time to get my eyes checked again, .. I have several more of these 2 x 2 pieces and many are made from Cherry and other hardwoods.. however the oak ones are the only ones no currently being used as stickers for stacked up lumber that I have sitting around.. Guess I better get to work making things to use up that lumber so I can get to those Cherry ones..

I haven't scrolled much at all over the last 2 years.. This morning I started a simple project but quickly learned that this is slow as watching paint dry so I ended up finishing the cutout with the bandsaw.. LOL.. I really don't have the best blade of choice on hand for cutting 2" thick Oak. These were stickers from a bundle of lumber I purchased several years ago.. I kept them around thinking I'd collect enough of them to make a glue up of a nice heavy cutting board but that never did pan out.. I've almost tossed them in the firepit a few times over the years but today I found a use for one of them. LOL.. I have several of these 2 x 2 blocks that were in bundles of lumber I've bought and these where in between the layers for air flow around the stacks of lumber. EDIT: I put several coats of shellac on these before painting the red and in the photos I can see it still bled some in the grain.. To be fair I didn't see that without my glasses on, .. All good as I'm placing this on my night stand so it's not like I'm gifting it to someone..

The laser users use this stuff a lot because it stays flat better than plywood and many times it's maybe cheaper depending on where you get it and what you get. That said I hate that stuff for my laser and would much rather deal with the slight warpage of my BB plywood. Fairly simple to just make / use some pushpins to hold the plywood down flat onto the lasers table. Anyway, MakerFlow is one source I purchased some sample panels from.. They have good both sides in many different species.. I ordered from KJP from the link that Barb posted above but they're out of Canada and it took nearly 2 months to receive my order due to setting in customs. That said I read the other day they have a better shipping solution for their USA customers. I do not know what that is though.. I liked the plywood they offered much better than that of Makerflow. The "TruFlat" stuff I purchased had way too thin of a veneer on it and then also the Walnut was not even Walnut, it looked as though it was painted to resemble Walnut but the other TruFlat pieces appeared more like the actual species and may have been painted or whatever too but the Walnut just doesn't look correct at all in my opinion. Other than if you need good both sides and the price I prefer the 5/32 project panels from Home Depot.. I think they are not HDF though.. and I also don't think the plywood from KJP was HDF either unless you buy the TruFlat from them maybe? Truflat is definitely different core than the others.. https://makerflo.com/search?q=plywood&options[prefix]=last

I use my cell phone and tape it to the cheap menards / harbor freight style magnifier light when I make videos for YouTube.. Not sure how the magnifier lens affects the cell phone but I used to have many people comment on how they liked my videos showing a good close up of the cutting process.. back then most people were using some sort of cell phone clamp and the view would not be a direct view of what you were cutting but rather a side view or some other indirect view that never really showed the cut line / blade etc. Anyway for me it was much harder to cut since my cell phone was small and I was always used to the larger magnifier glass. But I did okay with it and made a few videos of me cutting projects out. I don't do a lot of posting on youtube but if anyone wants to check it out.. there might be some videos where the view if off to the side as I did experiment with a phone holder that had a flexible arm.. but most are just done by setting my phone on top of my magnifier light. I don't know if this link will go to my channel or not.. It might be just a link to my youtube dashboard or whatever so may not work. Can always just look up KevsKrafts on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@kevskrafts1519

If it runs quiet and fairly smooth it probably doesn't need any rebuild. I'd just run it and see how it runs.. The switch could just have dust built up in it and maybe blowing it out with a air compressor or a can of air will make it work again. Usually if you have a bad bearing or two it'll run loud and have quite a bit of vibration.

I may be wrong but I think you have to change both top and bottom for the Jet otherwise there was a alignment issues? I thought I read that somewhere? Edit to add: Maybe this was to remove the round barrel style clamps of the lower arm? I know a lot of people do not like those clamps. They are the same clamp as the early Hawks had and either people loved them or hated them on the Hawks and I think it's the same love / hate for the Jet saws. So maybe people were wanting to replace that with the Pegas and keep the Jet upper clamp.

I often wondered about the clamping power. I know there is adjustments to make it clamp more or less and I always figured maybe more clamping power because there is more surface area for clamping.. but maybe not as you had mentioned. Interesting to see some users perspective on it. Maybe I don't want to buy a Jet for my next saw.. heck.. no more than I cut anymore I'll likely not wear out the saws I have.

I don't know much about the Jet clamps other than I feel like I would like them better than the Pegas. I like the idea of it anyway. I have toyed with the one on the showroom floor at my local lumber supplier store. BUT I have read online about jamming issues and some other problems with that upper clamp too so maybe the idea is good but functionality isn't? I've always thought to myself if I ever buy another saw of this style to replace my Excalibur the Jet 18" is the one I would go with. I say the 18" because the distance between the blade and edge of table on the 18 is about and inch + more than it is on the 22 inch saw.. not much distance on those 22's I'm not really aware of any others on this forum that have one of those newer Jet saws. You might get more responses on one of the FaceBook groups.

I do both depending upon the project.. that said I mostly bottom feed and only top feed when I'm working on a very large project that makes it easier to top feed.. which isn't that often. I learned to saw on a saw that only allowed bottom feeding so it's a habit to do that way.. but when big projects come I top feed just because it's easier then.

If I had this issue I don't think I would "glue" a bigger knob onto the thumb screw but rather make a tool to use for the knob. Rather than use the bigger round screws I would use the style that has wing grips.. Hope I'm making sense with the terminology , LOL. A larger knob glued on is added weight and maybe vibration to the saw having that extra weight out on the end of the arms may also be more wear on the saw. You could just make a larger handle / tool that would slip over the wing style knob to make it much easier and being a tool you slide over it you could make it as big as you need. Another option is to just replace the screw with a square head screw or any head type and use a wrench. I was thinking a square head bolt because then maybe ( if the correct size head ) you could use a clock winding wrench like Hegners use. Just remember whatever you decide to try and do to help.. anything larger is going to be putting more torque on that small screw.. don't over tighten and ruin your blade chucks.

Welcome to the village! I think the preferred upgrades might be subjective to what the user is planning to use it for. Myself.... I would have a hard time having to reach to the back of the saw to release / tension the blade so an important upgrade to me would be to get the up front tension release.. others are okay with the tension lever being at the back of the saw. Another for me would be the quick clamp upper blade holder.. Some of the smaller and old saws I'm not sure if they have a option for some of these upgrades.. You got a good deal About 8-10 years ago at an estate sale I had the option to buy 3 of these saws.. but they were the small and quite old 14 inch saws, they were $60 each but I passed on them as I was a bit tight on money at the time. While there I knew one of the family so they gave me a big box of blades. After getting home I found the bottom of the box had several Hegner parts including several blade clamps.. Almost sold them on eBay but never got around to putting up a listing. Then a few years later at another estate sale guy had a very nice Hegner but was missing blade clamps. He lived out of state and was selling entire woodwork shop full of tool very cheap as he had only a few days off work to get things taken care of and get his dads house on the market. Since saw was missing parts he said if I didn't take the saw with me he was putting it in the dumpster. He already had a lot of good tools in the dumpster so I took the saw and when I got home I realized I still had those free blade clamps. LOL Funny how that all worked out. The one I got is a newer model 18" that come with the upgrades from the manufacturer so I'm glad waited for the right deal, LOL They are one of the best saws on the market and I consider any of them under a couple hundred dollars that are in working order to be a great deal. I still prefer my Hawk scroll saws but these are very nice saws too.

I have not only a large selection of blades that I've bought over the years, but I also have bought and been given many used saws over the years that also came with blades.. I will say there are names of blade manufactures that I've never heard of or even seen mention of. I should have wrote down those names because I no longer have most of the ones I never used as I gave many blades to Kevin ( AmazingKevin ). I sent him a couple boxes full of blades and then he got sick and last I knew he wasn't doing any scrolling anymore... so now maybe someone else has those blades, LOL. Not to change subject but anyone seen or heard from him? Last I knew he was going into a rehab place to try regain strength after having got very sick with Covid. Back to the blades.. The worst blade brand I ever used was that Vermont American. I bought and tried about every brand and most configurations of those brands. Some Olsen blades are my go to for certain projects and at one point Flying Dutchman was my go to for many years but then I settled on Pegas about 10 years ago. I also like some of the SuperSharps. There were quite a few names out there that were nothing more than rebranded Flying Dutchman that I found that out the hard way by ordering them.. which was kind of a disappointment once I got them and figured that out but at the same time I liked Flying Dutchman blades so at least they got used and wasn't one of those that I bought and didn't like that ended up in that junk drawer, LOL Now you all know, not only did I try all the different blades.. How about trying all the different scroll saw brands and styles, that's another whole can of worms there that I went through.. settled on the Hawk but like many others for certain project types and each saw has its good and bad thing. LOL.. I think I've cut on most all the different brand and models of saws from back in the day except the Eclipse.. never got to even see one in person but there were sure talked about being built like a tank.. Never see mention of these anymore.

Yeah I'm not sure when they became a Pegas dealer but I learned of it not too long ago by looking up something on the site to answer another question..

Some saws have a insert that goes into the end of the thumb screw and it has a O-ring on it to help hold it in place. The insert just friction fits inside a hole in the end of the thumb screw and when you end up with a worn screw or issues with it holding the blade you can just replace the tip / insert rather than replace the whole thumb screw. Over time they get a groove worn in them.. not so much with the ones that have the insert as the insert will spin and not clamp the blade in the exact same spot.. Here is a link to the parts I'm speaking of. You can see the end of the screws have the insert and then you can buy just those inserts and replace when needed. On my Hawk scroll saw I have to sand the ends of the thumb screw to flatten them as they get worn a lot faster than the ones that have the insert in my Excalibur.. You have to be careful trying to flatten the ends because if you sand them at any slight angle and get them uneven then they'll never clamp a blade good and tight again. I made a sanding jig from a piece of scrap wood and drilled a hole in the wood just tight enough to be able to screw the thumb screw in and screw it in just enough so the end of the screw just barely protrudes through the back and then flip it over and sand the tips with on my belt sander. You could just use a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface too which is probably the better way to do it as if you mess up holding it flat on the belt sander it'll ruin the flatness very quickly, LOL. https://seyco.com/product/qkm-06-set-of-2-round-knobs-metric/ https://seyco.com/product/quick-clamp-renewal-kit/