kmmcrafts

Like that ornament, I did one similar for my brother but had a 5th wheel trailer and their favorite park instead of their names. The laser lines do help a lot with paint bleeding. That is how I do mine..

You and me both.. I could probably take them in to the scrap metal recyclers and get enough out of them to buy another saw,

Extra blade holders is a big plus, also not having extras when shopping for a saw brings up a good bargaining point.. I've showed sellers the price of new extra ones and mentioned how it affects the saws price.. If looking at a saw that has just one holder and they asking $300 and then finding another saw that has 5 holders and the same asking price.. Many times you can get $50 - 100 knocked off the price when bringing these up to the seller. Most sellers are from people that know nothing about the saw.. was dads old saw and he past away and we see they sell new ones for X so this is how we ask for X.. educate them and many times you can get a better deal. My first Hawk I bought had only one holder and it had a huge blade in it.. not even sure how it fit into the hole in the holder, LOL.. I didn't know much about Hawks at the time and I had read that you had to have different sized holders for different sized blades.. I mixed up what I read on Hegners as they are sort of that way.. anyway I bargained with them showing the blade I brought with me and the blade they had in the saw.. said I couldn't even try the saw out because those blade holders won't work for my blades and that I'd have to buy $150 worth of holders so I could even use the saw.. Got him down from $250 - 100 on price.. then I realized I could actually use the holder that they had after I got home, LOL.. I guess it got me a better deal but it wasn't my intention to use that bargaining method both me and the seller was naive of the saw.. LOL Was a good thing though because after getting the saw and realizing how much was really wrong with it I ended up having to spend a good $250 to get parts and extra holders to make it work right and user friendly for me.

I like Millwabs best because it's not singling out any particular machine user. A lot of different believes on the CNC and Laser machines and many scroll sawers portray them as a inferior machine or something.. I find just as much fun and get the same gratification from the projects I make with the machines as I do with the scroll saw. Scroll sawers can and do " production work " as well.. at least I do.. stack cutting is running production and a "good" sawer can out produce a single laser or CNC machine.. From a hobby standpoint I would rather have and use a scroll saw than a CNC/Laser.. as a business I like the ability to be able to use all three machines as they all do "different" products.. I think on some projects the charred edges gives the project more contrast and actually looks better than the scrolled piece. Just a matter of ones opinion I know.. I've seen scrollers staining and painting edges on some projects to achieve that charred look too. As for customers.. yeah some are shocked when they realize you made something freehand cutting.. that said I have never had any customer really care how a item was made.. they like the item and want to buy it without a care in the world how it was made really.. Most all my lasered ornaments are hand painted with details so a fair amount of "hands-on" still for me and the products I offer.. and I still get that "Wow" factor from the hand painted portion sample photos of my hand painted ornaments below. The machines are able to enhance and make a project better than just a scroll saw as in the ornaments sample below I add words around the ornament with the laser.. These ornaments can and have been made on the scroll saw too but you just can't achieve the added touches with those words or personalizing them or the details by using just a scroll saw. I offered these last year as scroll sawn ones.. sold a few but then this year added the words and details with the laser and a few customers that bought last year loved the details so much they bought the same ornament and discarded the old one.. Not sure if anyone noticed I've not been on the village lately but I've been swamped with laser work doing many of my ornaments with the added touches and personalizations.. laser been running dang near 17 hours a day and was easy to have one of my kids watch over it while I did some other things.. This is good for my business standpoint and I get a great deal of satisfaction from making exactly what the customers want.. It's not just a production mode and like printing a paper that it's made out to be by some.. I also get a great deal of satisfaction from designing a pattern.. much like the designers do here for your scroll sawn patterns.. so that in itself is gratifying to do and then set up the machine and watch the project come to life so there again there is more gratification to a CNC/Laser made items than what it's made out to be.. for me anyway.. some of you have never run one of these machines and you have no idea if you'd get that satisfaction from it or not.. same with designing and making your own patterns.. most don't do it because they don't know how to do it.. if they tried and accomplish a pattern they'd get some gratification from that just the same. Most CNC/Laser guys can't go out today and buy a scroll saw and start efficiently making things tomorrow to sell, as some of the signs posted above implies.. as is with the scroll saw guys can't go out and buy a CNC/Laser and efficiently start making things to sell tomorrow.. they both take a level of experience to do.. Having all three machines opens up a whole new opportunity for my business.. As Milwabs sign says.. I have heart and sole into making the customers dream project come to life whether that is from the CNC/Laser/Scroll saw.. my satisfactions comes from working with the customer to see what I can do for "them"... maybe that's why I thrive in what I do..

I assume you have the round blade chucks like this? https://stores.bushtonhawkstore.com/lower-barrel-style-blade-holder/ If so then this is the only replacement that I see on the site and it's showing a plastic one in the picture. I bought my replacement about 6 years ago and it's still working fine.. so even if you had to replace the plastic one every couple years the price for the part is cheap enough.. https://stores.bushtonhawkstore.com/lower-barrel-style-blade-holder/

Not really aware of an upgrade.. the plastic ones are kind of pliable when new but they get brittle as they age. Someone mentioned a while back that they are made of spring steel now but when I bought one it was plastic. I'm sure it'd be fairly easy to make a metal one of some sort.. It's just to hold the blade chuck from taking off like a rocket when a blade breaks.. usually you end up on your hands and knees looking for the blade chuck, lol

I use two pair of needle nose pliers and use one pair close to the teeth and then use the other pair on the tip of the blade to "untwist" the ends

My first Hawk did the same thing.. but worked fine for 4 years after and probably still working for the new owner.. I just took the cover off the control box and blew some compressed air around.. there was a fair amount of dust that made its way inside that box on mine.. might try that..

I'm thinking the saw is from the 80's.. RBI as well as Bushton used to offer refurbishing and or trade ins and would refurbish or update a saw.. someone likely didn't like the 3 speed and up graded to a VS.. The fasco motors as I understand it had a issue with something in the VS controller or wiring which would cause power surges to the motor and eventually burning up the VS controller or motor itself.. they used to offer a motor upgrade to the new style motor that they currently use but I've heard they no longer are offering that?

To answer the question about vibration... The design of these saws makes the long arms move front to back rather than a big massive arm like on a Hawk or Hegner which moves up and down. So that being said the only portion moving up/down is the very front part of the rocker arms. I have no personal experience with this large of a saw but I would think with only that short arm movement that the vibration wouldn't be any different than that of the EX-16 you have. If you have the room and the saw is in good condition I'd say that price is a steel.. since most of the EX-30's I've seen have always been listed for around $600 + or -

@meflick Thank you, that may be some help when I finally get started on this project. Thankfully they asked me well in advance, LOL The person on that blog did message me also and said they found the plans and put them up on the blog post, said if I had any questions feel free to ask so that was very nice. Hope to get started on this maybe late January..

Yeah as Bob said, You don't know what you're missing until you've had a much newer more user friendly saw.. I started out with a old two speed delta.. I could never go back and use that today and be happy with it.

Don't know if it'd work for your situation, but you could try to use some spray glue on the back side of some cut strips of sandpaper and stick the two strips to each side of a scroll saw blade and mount in the saw.. if you need the edges rounded some you might leave the blade just a little loose in the saw and it may flex just enough to take the edge off the project. This had worked for a project I was doing once.. but probably really depends on the project at hand.

@jbrowning Sorry to hear about the eye injury.. Hoping it's healing up well. @OCtoolguy Those reindeer are cute, I'm not sure about making anything from hard maple though, Are you sure you're wanting to try that for real, LOL @preprius I'd make a white elephant, @oldhudson We did get slammed with around 12" of snow but 2 days later it went back into the 50's and melted. Today just happen to go back to cold and very windy.. no snow though, I still need to put my snow removal equipment on my tractors.. @BadBob I could like those temps but that humidity though.. I'm not sure about that.LOL @Oldmansbike That is a beautiful box!! I've been really busy myself but been checking in every morning and evening but having seen a lot of activity happening. Finally today got caught up on some orders.. and hoping to work on some daughter-do's ( same as honey-do's but from my daughter, LOL ) she is always having me make something and usually last minute. Two years ago she handed me a picture and asked for a portrait that she wanted to give her boyfriends mom for Christmas.. and I got the picture on Christmas eve, LOL.. I managed to make it happen. This year I've got to make her a laser engrave cutting board. My laser is too small for the size she is wanting it to be but I have a laser attachment that came with my CNC router.. however I've never even tried it so this might be interesting experiment, LOL. Then just yesterday she informed me I was making a portrait for her boyfriends new truck he just got.. but they want it made from pine and 2ft long.. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that one in time but she says if not his birthday is in Feb.. LOL

How cold is cold? Just took this photo of my small weather station thing. 28F outside 45F in my shop with my pellet stove running on low. 71F in the house and I’m about to go outside to cool off a little or put the fire out.

One of the early made saws, guessing from the mid 1990's.. Good saws, but parts might be an issue. If it runs and works, might take it down and service the bearings.. not a lot else goes wrong with these I don't think..

Seems like since Thanksgiving the activity here has hit the brakes... OH, I know now.. Still waiting in the checkout line for those Black Friday deals.. and those that made it through the line got home but they can't show their new tool purchases yet because it's for Christmas..

Typically the Cyber Monday sale is just from 12am - 11:59PM Monday only sale.. doesn't mean it won't spill over a couple more days but typically is just a sale for Monday only.. As for the Jet saw.. I've already mentioned this but.. I think it's at the lowest price you'll see it as we had discussed before.. I don't know how long that special will last on HD and Amazon but not many companies offer more than $150 off regular priced.. That 18" saw normally sells for $860 ish + shipping.. I don't think you're going to find it any cheaper than the $710 with free shipping unless you find a used one.. I haven't bought one.. keep thinking about it but really don't "Need" it either.. I already spent a fortune on laptops for my CNC and Laser.. Got tired of only having 1 laptop for both machines and one machine is set up in the loft upstairs and the other in the garage.. Hard drive getting really noisy on it so I bought 2 laptops.. Now I won't have to keep setting up machines every time I need to use them.. and will be able to run both at the same time as needed. Though stepping away from the laser isn't going to happen.. but can step away from CNC for a few..

Yeah me too, it's call the battery in my car.. LOL.. I done it with the battery for years.. think I learned that one back in middle school..

Thank you Ray, Happy Thanksgiving to you as well and all the villagers

Good to hear it's up and running again. Tip for those screws is a magnetic screw driver or just place a piece of painters tape on the bottom of the saw to stop them from falling to the ground and then having to do a search & rescue, LOL..

A good color printer, and a stack of self adhesive full sheet shipping labels so we can print all those wonderful patterns that those fabulous designers make for us... OR a case of spray adhesive if that is your method. Utility knife and blades? Pin nailer for nailing stacks together. Wood glue to glue all those broken pieces back in. The best gift is a full subscription to Scroll Saw Village so you can also access the Groups.. and support the best site online..

Since on the subject of Jet saws and new / used saws.. I found a Jet 22" saw on eBay that looks lightly used. $450 is what they have on it.. It says it's in Midlothian Virginia..

I get it now! my wife put you guys up to saying you have to use the used dryer sheet so I'll finally do the laundry... Tricky but I'm a bit smarter than that and am not falling for it.

I almost said the same thing in my post.. I totally agree.. But someone out there might want to by more than just that saw so it is a deal for them I suppose..