kmmcrafts

I guess I'd have to ask exactly what are you trying to achieve? Smoother surface? Thinner boards? I was all for getting a drum sander until I researched and learned that you really can't go real thin with those either.. unless you tape or fasten it to another board.. at least that was my understanding.. Now days with the CNC and making other things besides scroll work.. Like, I wouldn't run a end grain cutting board through the planer.. but going through the drum sander would work well.. Or if I need to do a large glue up and the finished glue up wouldn't fit through the planer then a open end drum sander would be handy..

Might be more of a matter of them "saying" they can't get it rather than they can't actually get it.. The prices of the stuff has went way up due to the fact that most of it comes from Russia and they aren't really importing it.. plus before the war they had some wild fires that was preventing them from getting much logging done to source the raw materials.. so the stuff is kind of scarce.. and pricey.. I think if they "really" wanted it they could find it but they likely aren't interested in paying the high price of it.. probably not a huge seller for them so they're waiting it out a while.. I'm just guessing.. My local supplier is kind of doing this.. when they get enough people interested in it they will order a batch of it because they know they won't have to sit on it long.. Paying those high prices and then sitting on a few pallets of it for a year or so they could get burned once production picks up and prices come down.. they could get burned on profits..

Each saw has a different cutting style depending on saw type and brand and also how the saw is set-up.. For example the Excalibur type saws with the short arms at the front of the saw has a more "rocking" motion on the blade, where as a Hawk or Hegner type saw has a more straight up down motion.. I can move from my Hawk to my Excalibur cutting on the same piece using the same blade and the Excalibur is more aggressive and cuts through the wood faster.. even though I have the saw adjusted to get the least amount of blade movement at the table height.. So, that said.. I find that the FD-UR to be a less aggressive cutting blade and I don't care to use them at all on my Hawk.. Only use Pegas blades on the Hawk.. and use either one on the Excalibur depending on what I'm cutting.. Anyway, my point is.. this is another reason why it's important to try sample packs.. getting advice on what blade to use can vary widely just from saw set-up..

White oak is a bit tougher than red oak... most all the stuff I cut I use either a #3 or #5 Pegas MGT blade... That said, I don't do much real thin cutting unless I'm "stack cutting" 1/8" pieces that I tape 4-5 of them together so then it's actually cutting 1/2 - 5/8".. Not a big fan of cutting anything more than 3/4" myself.. the thicker wood you cut the slower the cutting goes.. I like to cut fast, pretty much run my saw full speed.. I probably learned to like cutting fast from the beginning as I started out doing portrait cuts from 1/8" material ( hardwood until I learned about Baltic Birch ) and I also started out not knowing about stack cutting.. Cutting 1 piece of 1/8" hardwood goes pretty fast, and that is how I learned to scroll saw, so cutting 3/4" etc. seems like watching paint dry for me.. LOL Many folks took my liking of fast cutting was because I'm in a rush to "make money" and that's not it at all for me.. If I cut slow then the customer pays more, I'm still getting my money.. LOL.. I go fast because that's how I like to cut, not because I'm racing a clock.

Yeah, I don't know if the prices are comparable or not from the other places that had been mentioned.. I will say I was very impressed with the quality. All the ply was very smooth, pieces were very flat ( very important for using in the laser machine ). It was actually better quality than the stuff I get locally.. I think locally the storage is out in a out building where it's not climate controlled and if the stack has been there for some time it seems as though the grain gets grainier if that makes any sense, LOL I always have to sand my ply that I get locally but these pieces from Cherokee was really smooth already. Maybe the ply from other places is like Cherokee too I don't know.. I've only bought it from my local supplier other than the one time from Cherokee a couple years ago.

I think Cherokee is cheaper than Ocooch by the time you pay the shipping fee.. I buy mine locally but during the lockdowns 2 years ago I ordered from Cherokee and I got very good quality ply.. There prices include shipping so don't be sticker shocked with the prices.. They send me my wood and it was on my porch within 3-4 days.. I haven't price checked them since early spring this year but at that time they was cheaper than Ocooch once shipping was calculated. It's always tempting for me to just order online because by the time I take a few hours out of the day to run to my local source and then I still have to break the 5' x 5' sheet down to blanks.. It probably works out close to the same with the wear on the table saw and blades etc. So I always check prices before buying.. just have a hard time not buying local and supporting my local shop..

Seems like there was a discussion about him on one of the FB pages and something was mentioned about him being busy with something personal or? but I don't follow along too much with any of the FB pages so I could be wrong on that. He has some awesome patterns that I have saved to cut one day, LOL.. My issue is cutting portrait style patterns.. love cutting them, just they don't sell all that well for me..

The rare breeds are the ones I sell most of.. I have some of the more popular breeds and rarely sell one, probably because hundreds of others selling the same ones much lower priced.. I think when people start making these they go after the patterns of what they think are the most popular breeds.. which is what everyone is making, LOL

I have blade storage tubes that I keep at the saw and only put a dozen or two in the tube at a time then keep the rest of them in the package they came in. Before putting them in the tube or unwrapping the wire from them I spray both ends with a quick shot of brake parts cleaner.. that removes to oil from the blades.. just be sure to use them in a timely manor or you may end up with them rusting, partly why I only keep a few in the storage tubes at a time and why i leave the others in the packages. I rarely "sand" the blades but have done it.. seems like the brake parts cleaner does the trick quite well for me so I don't have to take time to sand the ends.. I happen to work on cars enough that I have a case or two of brake parts cleaner spray cans around.. If you don't normally have it around the shop then rough up the ends as Ray mentioned..

There was a person on here some time ago that drilled the ends of the Hawk thumb screws to accept the Excalibur inserts.. so there is that option as well.. those tips rotate on the Excaliburs because they have a fixed blade chuck head.. Hawk chucks can swivel back and forth so they're not necessarily needed..

Nope, LOL.. I have a Excalibur and three Hawk scroll saws and the Hawks are SAE and the Excalibur is metric... Been there tried that.. that being said though.. if they are dressed good on the Hawk.. I find you don't have to clamp them down with much force and less force helps them last much longer. If you get bent ends of the blade.. you have a few issues to look at.. first being is the end of the bolt completely flat, second is the set screw on the opposite side screwed in far enough.. and the third thing is.. are you clamping with too much force. I bought some new thumb screws from Hawk ( Bushton MFG) and you'd think they'd dress the ends flat.. I specifically bought from them thinking they'd be dressed flat.. Instead they sold me the same thing I'd get at a local hardware store at 1/3 the price, LOL.. I made my own tool just out of a piece of wood scrap to dress the screws on my power sander.. Just drill a hole the size so the screws will thread into the wood.. make sure you start them in straight.. screw them in until they just barely protrude the back side.. then have at it with the power sander or belt sander.. even just laying a piece of paper on the bench and hand sand it.. they'll get a nice flat smooth clamping edge.. Use some blue loc-tite thread locker on the set screw so it stays put. I like to use a feeler gauge to set set screw into the blade chucks.. this way both top and bottom set screws position the blade in the exact same position.. I pick whatever feeler gauge and place it in the slot where the blade goes and turn the set screw in until it slightly touches the feeler gauge.. might take some practice to get the right size feeler gauge so you can have enough space for the blade and get the thumb screw to go in as well. Hope that make some sense.

Actually there are adults building with legos on there and getting paid. What's to say once you get some fame and following people don't follow whatever "other" interest he moves onto next. To be quite honest it's not super hard to make videos that interest people.. I do videos on TikTok and Clapper of just putting together the wood dog puzzles that I make.. start the video with just all the pieces laid out and put it together must interest people because I get paid for those videos plus is advertises what I make and sell and I get lots of request from them.. The pay isn't like going to make me rich but a extra $50 a month from each site is a extra bit of spending money. I haven't tried to get paid from FB or Instagram... actually didn't try getting paid from the others either but one of my followers suggested setting up payments and try it. They won't cut a check until you get a $100 balance so I'm not really paid every month. and sometimes I don't make it for 3 months.. who cares as I said, I'm not doing that for the money.. If I were I'd be posting up several videos a day rather than just a few here and there.. been slacking for the last 4-6 months as I'm busy doing car builds.. which soon can also make me money off those accounts to help fund the build, LOL You can literally make money just documenting things you do everyday.. it's a real reality show that you record and put on these sites.. I guess that entertains people interested in that niche. Watching people build legos isn't my thing.. but car builds and similar things can grab my attention.. Who needs cable tv etc. when there is Youtube and many sites like it that are real ordinary people doing real things and you can search to watch whatever you like when ever you like.. Cable TV and Hollywood could fall off the face of the earth someday over just ordinary people doing their own thing.

Welcome to the village, glad to hear you beat the cancer and getting into the scroll saw side of woodwork. I've been scroll sawing since around 2005 and I still ask questions. Scroll sawing has sooo many different types of projects but not so much always the project types but even material types.. then there is always "other" aspects to discuss such as finishing etc.. To answer your question about plywood.. when using thin stock plywood is more stable.. also sometimes hard to source large enough solid hardwood thin pieces for cutting large pictures such as maybe 16 x 20 inch etc.. unless you do a glue up etc.. gluing thin boards can be challenging and you'd need a big planer to plane down a glue up.. plywood fills that gap easily but I think the primary reason is the stability. Most use Baltic Birch as it is a really solid strong plywood with no voids etc. Denny has sample packs. I'll post a link to them, posting links helps his sight get higher rank in google searches so anytime one ask.. I mention him but I also try to put a link as they build traffic to a site much better and faster. https://www.artcraftersonline.com/search-results?q=sample+pack

If you or anyone cannot solder in a new one Seyco sells a replacement with the cord and plug in on it so it's just plug and play. But that said you'll need to take more of the saw apart to access the plug end of it to the circuit board.

Two things I would like in my next printer is 1) a color printer and 2) dual paper trays.. one tray for regular paper and a second tray for my full sheet shipping labels to print my patterns on.. right now I have to open up the paper tray for every time I print a pattern.. I no longer print my shipping labels with my big printer though so the second thing would be a nice feature but not as necessary as it once was.. LOL. I bought a small dedicated label printer a Dymo 450XL.. had it for about 3-4 years now and would be lost without that thing. It's a thermal printer so no ink to fuss with.. You do have to buy special rolls of the labels but there are aftermarket on eBay that work well and less than half the branded ones. If I only made small stuff (ie ornaments and keychains etc) I could almost do without a printer.. I have at times printed my patterns on the little 4 x 6 self stick labels from that little Dymo printer, LOL

My last printer was a Epson large format printer, can't remember the model. It did "okay" for printing.. my biggest complaint about it was if it set for more than a few days the print head had to go through the "cleaning" process to work correctly and of coarse I wouldn't know it until I printed my paper and only half of it printed so not only waste ink but paper too, LOL.. Then it'd use a crap ton of ink to "purge" / clean the print head... My current printer is a Brother HL-L2390DW.. It's just a cheapy laser printer that is only black and white.. I do a fair amount of printing with printing receipts for my orders I get and also patterns etc.. easily $200 a year in ink for my old printer. This current one I blew through the toner ink whatever it's called for laser printers fairly quick and I was a bit concerned about it not being much if any cheaper thank my inkjet printer was.. but once I replaced the one that it came with.. I've been on this first replacement for a long time and it showing I have only used up about 50% of it.. I'll be upgrading it to a color laser printer for sure, I thought I could do without the colors but forgot about how I like to print the outline lines red for my patterns.. so my biggest complaint is that it's not a color printer and my second complaint is that it's not a large format.. while I didn't use the larger format papers often it sure was handy to have with my old printer.

I'd be more apt. to buy a lightly used Excalibur in the $3 - 500 range locally and buy Pegas clamps. At least that way I'm able to "try" before I buy.. same warranty less investment.

I'm amazed they offer a 2 year on a new saw but nothing on the refurb.. I think I'd stay away from it. The way it's worded to me is "out of warranty" meaning older than 2 years since it was sold? I'm not sure but I feel it is a bit pricey if it's "out of warranty" and they don't want to stand behind the product that had been repaired, even if it was just a 30 30 - 60 days etc..

We had some strong storms last week roll through, I got a small limb come down that I still need to clean up.. power was out for about 3.5 days. Thankfully I have a generator so life wasn't disturbed a whole lot. I normally wouldn't run the generator all day but since my wife, my youngest son, and myself work here from home I ran it during the daytime hours but shut it down shortly after dinner and clean-up was done. Then of coarse, I have to get up before the wife and get it fired up so she can get her coffee before she has to actually talk to people for work, LOL. This later part of last week and up until Tuesday this week it's supposed to be humid, not necessarily "hot" at mid to upper 80's even low 90's but this 80 - 98% humidity is for someone besides the human race. We get some summer days with higher humidity sometimes but I don't ever remember getting such high humidity that my shop floor is actually wet and sweating.. maybe that is my sweat, LOL.. I really haven't done much more than I have too outside the last few days, Got several orders that I've been putting off until "hopefully" a better day but looks like tomorrow I'm going to have to work.. like to put it off another day but then I'll be cutting it too close to the deadlines..

Probably about half of my tools were bought as refurbished. I've had great luck with them. IF I was in the market for a Pegas I wouldn't be scared of no warranty because anytime I've had a tool that has failed under warranty I just fixed it myself anyway.. The one time I did have a tool repaired under warranty it was put back together wrong and didn't work right until I took it apart and corrected it anyway and I was without the tool for like 7-8 weeks so why take the fuss of them having it for weeks and messing up something else anyway.. I guess some folks get lucky with it. The lower price point I dive in thinking I may have to buy parts and do a repair just as I would with any used tool purchase, the point of buying at a low enough price that you may end up putting some money in it and hope to still have save some money off original cost. A new motor is probably the most expensive part.. I'm guessing about $300 for one.. don't hear of a lot of motor issues with them but it does happen. IF I were buying a new Pegas I'd go with that refub and chance it that I'm saving $180 or whatever it is.. I've had my Excalibur apart several times.. not a lot to these saws in my opinion other than the electronics can be pricey but easy to change. My issue with the no warranty is if it's failed to be checked out good and I get a some that don't work at all.. I take the no warranty as in not returnable.. so if I was to buy it and right off the bat out of the box it don't work.. then what? I feel like they should have a short warrantee period and stand behind the product at least for a 30 day period. If it's not going to be stood behind at all then it should be sold as used and at a used price.. like.. $400 - 600 ish at most.. According to Bearwood's email back to me if it just had a scratch or a stripped bolt that was corrected.. why won't they stand behind the product just the same as a new one?

I do agree that a refurb with no warranty should have a lower price but that isn't what I meant by $200 cheaper.. the original price for a "new saw" is $940.. the refurb is $748 almost $200 cheaper than a new saw.

I like the "Morning Star" brand black bean burgers from the grocery store.. they're pretty good.. not something that really taste like a real burger but they're good, slightly spicy..

Bearwood just now emailed back.. this is copied from the email: Hi Kevin! These are saws that would have had a small defect IE stripped threads on a screw, scratches on the table, and other small defects that were fixed by the technicians at Grobet USA with work directly with the manufacture. Please let me know if you have any other questions! Shelby

Much braver than I am, LOL.. My son and daughter, actually my wife too.. tried that ( I think it's called ) impossible burger from Burger King.. they said you really couldn't tell that it wasn't a regular Whopper.. I've thought about trying it a few times now.. I'd just be mad if I went out to eat and didn't get my satisfaction of it being the real whopper, LOL

Maybe you mis-understood, They are $200 cheaper than the new price that they had the "new" saw listed for.. or maybe you meant $450 cheaper instead of $200 cheaper.. hmm maybe I mis-understood your comment.. either way I think you are corrct about it being something Bearwood is doing as any manufacture refurbished tools I've ever seen come with the same warranty or some are like 6 month instead of a year etc.. and as far as I can tell these have no warranty.. I sent Bearwood an email inquiring about where the refurbs come from and "who" is doing the refurb. I have just got home and haven't checked my email yet..