kmmcrafts

I never could understand the theory of the swivel not spinning creating this hockey stick because many scroll saws use thumb screws that do not have the swivels.. Hawk is a great example of that.. never had swivels and never had this problem unless the set screw gets backed out enough to not clamp the blade properly.. I'm not saying this isn't the case but I am saying many saws don't have the swivel and do not have this problem.. so is it really the swivel or some other issue? I'm not sure if the Bauer has the little swivel tips or not.. My China made Excalibur came without the swivels.. when I finally had to change the screws I purchased ones with the swivels.. For what it's worth I never got the "hockey stick" with the non- swivel screws on that saw either..

Not sure if this is the problem you are having here but when I had that famous hockey stick blade end like that it was because the set screw on the other side of the thumb screw had moved outward creating a slight hole so to speak so the blade is getting the opportunity to bend. The set screw should protrude through the hole slightly or at least be flush. Some say you should adjust the screw so it clamps the blade to where the blade side rest against the side of the slot in the blade chuck. I'm not sure that it really matters just so long as the top and bottom are positioned the same way.. as you don't want the top one to be pushed all the way to the right and the bottom one all the way to the left as then your blade would be on an angle. I'm not sure how accurate they need to be as I used to just eyeball it but the last few times I've made adjustments I used a real thin feeler gauge to be sure they both are exactly in the right spot. Just insert the feeler gauge in the slot and adjust the thumb screw until it somewhat clamps onto the feeler gauge and then remove the gauge and turn in the set screw until it is against the thumb screw. TIP: use a little blue colored thread locker (Loc-tite) so the set screw won't move easily. If you don't every time you clamp a blade that set screw will likely turn a little each time and before you know it you're bending blades again and have to readjust it yet again.

Maybe enough people complained about the whole copyright / trademark of the names so they took it down.. I got in trouble with etsy for these signs and they removed my listings. I guess I can't use the names of the different military branches. I always thought you could use the names but not the logos etc. and also thought I should be safe since the designers were making / selling the patterns but I now know they just design.. and are not perfect at knowing all the rules.. No idea but I'm not making them anymore. I let Sheila and Keith know what happen and mentioned maybe they should mention possible copywrite / trademark to those selling in the listings but they didn't change anything and listings stayed on for several years after.. I didn't know they was gone from the site.. so maybe they finally got in trouble or too many people complained to them about it. I just took a look and they don't have a lot of things they used to and now it's pretty generic in their military section.. Maybe could message them for the pattern.

The one in my photo is from Sheila Landry / Keith Fenton .. I bought the set but they sell the individual ones too.

One thing that is hard to do is cut a backer the exact same size unless you stack cut them at the same time so I always took a small washer and lay the project on the backer and put the washer down next to it and you place your pencil / pen in the hole of the washer and trace around the outer edge. This way you get a perfect slightly larger and more rounded edges for the backer and not have to try to cut it exact and glue exactly lined up. When I was doing a lot of work that required backers I would use like a wax paper or similar and spread a thin layer of wood glue out on it then I could do a production line of gluing.. dip the project ( back side ) into the glue.. this gets glue on most of the whole backer in one quick and easy step.. then just place it onto the backer and grab the next one to glue. A cheap plastic cutting board works well to spread the glue out onto too and then when you're done you can just wash the glue off.

I'm sure others would have a different method of what they would do than me but, what I would do is add a backer from a different species of wood for contrast.. many of my projects made from oak or maple would have a walnut backer.. I would glue the backer first and then apply your finish.. Linseed oil would make the grain of those two types of wood really pop.. however I prefer Danish oil as it has a small amount of poly in it with added driers to help it dry out quicker. The U.S.M.C in the picture is red oak with walnut backer. I do prefer the look of maple or birch with walnut backer better. If you do go the stained wood route I would use E6000 glue instead of wood glue as the wood glue works best on unfinished wood.

Merry Christmas Friends!

Might be a possibility if I were mass producing these all the same size and shape.. many of the small parts are a 1 off type thing where I would be wasting material to make a jig. This whole small earrings and things started from trying to use up all the small parts of a sheet of plywood. This photo shows that I'm making these from what otherwise would have been scraps from making ornaments. I normally was burning these scraps in the burn barrel or campfires.

Yeah I agree with the hardwood. I also feel like Poplar is sometimes too bland but some of it has some good color tones. Poplar also does break easier. I know there are people that can get decent looking results from stains but most do not look good in my opinion.

I never gave it much thought to use plywood. I used to make a lot of the car and tractor puzzles that Scott ( Harvey's Patterns ) sells.. I specifically had issues with the front tires on the tractors breaking off either when shrink wrapping them or at some point in shipping or maybe even in my storage bins waiting to be sold.. I quit making them partly because of that but boy were they good sellers.. Never had much issues with the car ones but those tractors were always breaking.

Hmm, I originally was thinking if I could use my mop sander it'd be nice but I guess I didn't think about taping to a board like that.. even though I did finally figure out to tape them to the workbench, LOL.. I might give this a try the next time I make a batch.

I thought the same thing but I was looking at it on my phone and didn't really zoom in on it.

Looks like it’s only offered in 1/2 or 3/4 as far as I can tell. Something to keep in mind though.

Beautiful box JT!! For some of these pieces are quite fragile I don’t want or need tape that is too sticky. I already broke two of the nes shown but no one will know because I broke the other one to match so they still look the same. They broke just pulling them off of the painters tape. Though this tape is getting old and seems to be more sticky than it was when new. What color tape is less tacky? I don’t need it super sticky.

I may have already solved my issue but thought I’d post anyway to see what you guys have done with small parts sanding. I started making some jewelry and other small pieces. What started as a small gift for my wife has turned into making everyone she knows things too, lol. I made my wife a matching set of earrings and a badge real for her work. Now I’ve made about 20 more. I don’t have pictures but it was just a snowman engraved on a 1.5 inch circle cutout and her name engraved in it too. Then snowman earrings and painted details to match. Now they are talking about all the different themes for the holidays and seasons etc that I’m going to have to make. Oh boy what did I do.. So first I used my multi tool with detail sander on it. Upside down and hold the small pieces with my fingers but keep sanding my nails off. lol The parts are so small and light that they just won’t stay under the sanders. I’ve used my 1/4 sheet sander, r/o sander sends them across the shop. The multi tool was the only one that worked but now I have very short nails and no fingerprints. What I did come up with was taping painters tape down to the bench sticky side up and stick the parts on the tape and my 1/4 sheet sander so far seems to be working well. Any other suggestions from those more experienced folks out there? Here is a photo of some I made today. Was going to put a quarter by them for size reference but all I have is a penny as I’m not very rich. Actually have two pennies but didn’t want anyone to think I was flexing or showing off. Okay so first photo has the penny but didn’t show any badge reels so I added a few more pics to show a little more of what I’m dealing with.

Sorry to hear about that. I’ve been hearing a lot about the quality of bbply and many having issues lately. Nothing more frustrating than getting about finished and having a issue like this.

I've got several cutting boards to make and we are also redoing some rooms in the house so I've also been making trim out of some of this lumber I have. There is so much of it that I will barely put a dent in it.. I too will try to make some things out of it to help reduce the stacks. I hate to burn it but much of it is what wouldn't pass the lumber grade inspectors as they have to be knot and split free and at least I think it's 6ft long but it might be 8ft. I can't remember.. so much of the stuff I have is more smaller stuff that is perfect for scroll saw and other small projects like cutting boards etc.. I'd drag the stuff home saving it from the wood chipper only to stop doing so much woodwork now and now I'm stuck with it in my way. It's pretty tough to sell rough cut wood like this unless you hook up with other crafters etc.. I look forward to seeing your photos of the stuff you make.

Yeah, I can see why, LOL.. Only two times I bought wood online.. one was a dealer on eBay several years ago as he sold specialty thin wood 1/32 up to 1/4.. I think the eBay seller name had something like John Deere something.. anyway I wanted some real thin wood to make some inlay on some necklace pendants .. still have a bunch of the pieces in the box that I never used. Lots of purple heart, yellow heart and some others. Second time was because of the Covid lockdowns and I needed BBply so I ordered from Cherokee.. I was very happy with the wood for both of these orders.. almost just started ordering my ply because it was already cut down to 12 x 12 but then many times I want a 16 x 20 piece or something and you're somewhat limited or pay big for shipping.. I have a local source not too far that has the 5 x 5 full sheets and have them cut in half for easier handling when I cut it down further. Kinda dumb for me to buy wood when right next door is a sawmill business owned by my uncle and then my brother also owns a sawmill business that is 8 mile away.. I do buy a fair amount still.. just because if I go to the mills I end up bringing everything they're going to throw into the chipper because it's too good.. especially if it's a more specialty wood that is usually pricey like Walnut, curly maple and well you know stuff that if you had to go buy it would be expensive.. I gave a member here just about a whole truckload of walnut.. have about 6 more truckloads in my loft of walnut and a bunch of curly and spalted maple..

I've been toying with shipping cost through the three main shippers I use as of late. So far I am finding that UPS and FedEx is a lot cheaper to ship than USPS if you have larger sized boxes to ship out.. ie I had a 12 x 12 x 8 box the other day and USPS wanted ( my discounted cost through Amazon ) 18.** and UPS was like $12 and FedEx was just pennies under UPS price.. I also had a larger box to fit a 16 x 20 framed portrait in.. USPS wanted $63 UPS was $25 and FedEx was $22.. I did have it packaged in quite a lot bigger box with lots of padding.. Ended up cutting box down quite a lot and got the shipping cost down to $15 through USPS.. Anytime you get anything very large no matter the weight USPS gets really pricey.. But they're much cheaper when it comes to small packages under one pound. I have a boatload of wood and have considered selling it online.. Shipping kills the deal for most even at my discounted cost.. It basically cost more to ship the wood for me than most can buy from these suppliers including their price and shipping.. I'm not going to mail out free wood to people so campfires are enjoyable with it. LOL Not big enough business to get larger discounts like many of these bigger known wood suppliers so I'm stuck burning campfires with a lot of it now.. and have given some to locals. Selling it on Marketplace is a joke unfortunately so I'll enjoy smores and a campfire, LOL

I have seen that too.. but still it's sometimes hard to know how much strength they have and many folks deal with arteritis and may "look like" they are struggling with making it tight.. But I agree it sure looks like they're putting way too much torque on the screws but who knows what the actual torque is. Most every used saw I have purchased I have had to address the blade chucks because of over tightening the blades.

I seen a seller on Etsy a few years back that sold puzzles and they were all made from 3/4 BBply. I would think it'd be more stable and also ( back then ) cheaper than buying lumber.. You could get a full 5 x 5 sheet for $25 and I would think quite a few puzzles could be made from a full sheet compared to a $25 board. The downside in my opinion would be the plywood really goes through the blades faster. The other downside is, I'm not sure of the safety factor if kids were to play and put in their mouths etc.. Not sure if the glues in it would be toxic or not.

I bought a box of blades from an estate sale a few years ago. The guy had 3 Hegner saws there.. after getting home and digging through the box to see what I actually got I found several blade clamps for those Hegners.. Took them back to the sale but someone already bought the Hegner saws.. I probably should have got one since they were selling them for $80 each.. anyway, I found two clamps that had the screw threaded in and broken off.. really someone was tightening them so tight to snap the bolts / screws off.. BUT yes you are correct.. be pretty difficult to spread those apart.. well, maybe because I would have never thought someone would break the screws off either.. that's some torque on those as they're not the smallest screws..

The Hawks and Hegners both are a lot more fussy with the tension.. and either people hate them or love them, LOL.. That said, I'm sure you've already tried sanding the ends of the screws and set screw.. Lot's of people have trouble with the clamps and if you bought the saw used there is a possibility that the previous owner tightened the screw too tight a few too many times and spread the clamp apart. Whenever I watch others saw on YouTube to me almost every single scroll sawer on there looks like they are really clamping down on the blade way too much.. I don't know how much gripping power they have in their hands but man most of them at least "look like" they're just cranking that thing down and it doesn't need to be that crazy tight.. good way to ruin a clamp for sure on any saw. There used to be a person that made retrofit blade clamps for a lot of saw models where you could put the Delta Quickset II blade clamps on other saws.. Delta by far made the best clamp I've ever seen but unfortunately they are no longer sold and neither are the parts. Someone should take that design and replicate it or very similar.. they required no tools and only had a lever to flip over and had a much larger clamping surface than these tiny thumb screws that most everyone seems to over tighten. Anyway, I would guess maybe the upper clamp is bad is why you're having trouble keeping the blade in it when turning on the saw..

The issue I ran into when looking into making my own sleeves was the cost wasn't worth the effort.. I have a small benchtop metal lathe to make them on but sourcing the right type of material and the time and effort ( for me at the time ) was just not worth it.. Now if I was more into making things on the lathe rather than sitting at the scroll saw making inventory to sell at the time.. I may have found more value into doing them and researched more for the source of correct material etc. so I guess I just found more value in buying the sleeves. Now that all said... some of the sleeves are odd sized and are hard to come by especially for the Excalibur as they have some of them as a oddball size.. however I found a source through Jet scroll saw parts where they sell these sleeves.. IF you look in the excalibur parts list they only offer the whole assembly with all bearings and sleeves etc.. which by the way is probably the better way to rebuild these anyway as when measuring the bearings and sleeves there is definitely some tolerance changes between the new and old bearing sleeves even though they really didn't look too worn.. This could be the lack of quality of parts the factory assembled them with in the first place. Certainly tightened up the slop in the saw by changing out the whole assembly when I rebuilt it the second time.. First time rebuild was just mostly cleaning and replacing visibly worn parts so mainly just the larger two bearings and the larger sleeve at the back of the saw.. This one seem to be the one to get the most wear in my experiences..

Is it just the photo backwards or is your accessory arm on the opposite side as most of the other Hawks. When facing the front of most Hawks the accessory arm is usually on the right hand side. I know they can be mounted on either side maybe for right or left handed folks or just preference but I've only seen a couple of saws have it on the left side. This looks like a good fix for holding down the arm.. the older saws with the lower blade chucks behind the angle mechanism really weren't designed in a way to top feed.. however I was always able to do it on all the Hawks I've owned without any hold down. My new saw has the hold down much like the G4 saws but I've never used it.. I normally bottom feed but on certain larger projects I do top feed so just depends on the projects.