kmmcrafts

I have the same saw.. that saw was the start of my journey. My father bought the saw brand new around 1988. That started his retirement hobby and he sold at crafts fairs around the area. He wore the saw out and rebuilt it two times.. then the third time he had a hard time finding parts so he upgraded to a Delta 40-540? I think was the model.. basically the same saw but variable speed. The old 2 speed sat under his work bench for several years. One day while visiting him I seen the saw sitting there and asked if I could borrow it and try to make something from it. He said you can have it, but it's pretty worn out.. works but needs new bearing sleeves and pins etc. I ended up using it as is for a few projects and then completely rebuilt it sourcing my parts online finding OEM parts from various sources. That was back in about 2006.. I still have the saw but don't really use it.. Good saws and the quickset blade clamps are the best.. too bad other manufactures can't come up with something like that..

Thanks John, apparently I just didn't use the right search terms when doing my search...

Thank you Brenda.. I might be able to work with that one.. seems if I search for bowling Christmas ornament pattern I get bowls and baskets instead of bowling, LOL

I may have to customize a laser design into a scroll saw design.. seems to be a few of them for laser works but scroll sawing them would have some of the items in the scene as floaters and they'd fall out of the scene, LOL.. Just thought I'd ask as maybe someone already customized one.. or had something. I'll have to take a look both here and Steve's patterns.. Thanks for the searching efforts.

Anyone know of any Bowling themed or Disc / Frisbee Golf themed ornament patterns? I know Sue Mey has a lot of different themed ornaments but I don't see anything there..

One in the top of the photo was the bottom layer of the stack.. next one down was top and bottom one was middle layer.. what prize do I win, LOL

They put all this stuff in there so they can confuse us.. then wait for the forums to be flooded with questions of confusion and eat their popcorn LOL

I wonder if it has something to do with cleaning the lens.. as with any of this cheap china made stuff they might as well not offer any instructions, lol.. Nothing mentioned about cleaning it but I can't imagine it'd stay clean.. heat and smoke rise and usually finds it way up to the focal lens.. have to be really careful what you clean them with.. very fine scratches will greatly distort the power output and will affect the quality of burn you get. I use rubbing alcohol and Q-tips ( don't press hard on the Q-tip just let it lightly rub the lens.) to clean mine but not all lenses are created equal.. I had some that the RA melted it, LOL even though that was what was recommended to clean the one set I had.. I just assumed it was safe for all of them, LOL.. Some folks use lens cleaning wipes intended for cameras I think.. and I've seen mention of cleaning with glasses wipes.. Maybe the same as camera wipes? I don't know.

Nice work! I've also been working on ornaments for a few weeks now.. been looking for some new designs to cut too.

After watching Steve goods review on these I don't think cutting with one would be practical at all.. especially if you have a scroll saw, He did 7 passes on that little square he cut out.. A Co2 laser of at least 40W is what I'd say is the minimum I'd want to use for doing cutting.. When cutting as your cut get's a bit deeper your focus distance is changed so say at the top level of the piece is exact focus.. after going half way through say 1/8" BB ply your focus is off or has less cutting power.. Also something to think about is as that focus goes deeper into the wood the focal dot is getting bigger so you may not be cutting a true 90.. I don't notice this too much with 1/8" ply but when cutting 1/4" or more I can start to see the bevel on the edges..

Anything in the manual about maintenance? I'm wondering if you need to clean the lens from time to time? I'm not familiar with these diode laser types. But on the K40 Co2 laser I have the smoke will rise up and get on the focus lens after some hours of use.. Unless I run the air assist then it can be quite a few hours before they get dirty. These don't appear to have air assist and not really sure it's needed on one of these? I only use it on mine for cutting.. just engraving isn't needed

Nicely done, I like the different stripes of wood species you have there.. go well together. I've been wanting to try this sometime, I have a scrap piece of glue up from making a lazy susan and a pattern from Steve Good all on it. Got side tracked with a order for something else and lately my spare time going to a project car..

Instead of buying the grid mat thingy I'd probably just mount the laser to your board and burn your own grid using the laser.. this way it'll be square to what the laser will do.. Maybe they're built really well and squared up good but if not then burning the grid into your board / mount then the grid would always be square to the laser. As for doing taller projects.. could you build a mount on each side of the machine with slots so you can just slide it up and re-tighten the mounting bolts.. or have various holes throughout the mount uprights.. Hope you understand what I'm trying to say, LOL.. Maybe you could use a metal ruler cut slot in the middle for mounting.. that way the ruler would indicate you have both sides at the same height? Just throwing some ideas..

Once you get a good "focus" burn.. measure the distance from the piece to the laser and write it down.. then every piece you want to burn set the distance to you piece to the laser head.. Ever played with a magnifying glass out in the sun to set papers etc. on fire as a kid.. you get just the right distance and you can hone in that dot to be a small dot.. the smaller the dot the more concentrated the power / heat of it is.. the better and more crisp your burn will be..

Yeah, I mounted the magnet recess or flush.. Mine were 1/4" thick and just the waist area of making those ornaments..

Congrats on the new toy, I'll be interested in seeing what you think of it once you get your feet wet. I love my laser as it's just another tool to play around with in the shop and it does things my scroll saw or no other tool can do. Post your progress and updates in the Laser groups.. many die hard scroll sawers will slap your hand for getting a new tool like that and posting it here, LOL

Some years ago I made frig. magnets out of the scraps of these tree ornaments. They sold way better than the actual ornaments did, LOL in fact I still have a lot of the tree ornaments but not a single magnet. I used those little magnets Bob talked about. Broke a couple of them just trying to get the magnet off the cookie sheet I displayed them on at the shows, LOL

I think Scott ( Iggy ) uses a small laser for engraving names on his key / leash holders he makes.. He bought one some years ago and for the life of me I cannot think of the name / brand of it be I'm pretty sure he's still using it to this day. I've not messed with the smaller table top type lasers.. I know they're not very powerful but the time it takes isn't much of a concern to those in the hobby and just engraving a small name / logo etc. While some folks would set it up and go do some other work.. you don't want to leave these unattended... after all they're burning wood.. something goes wrong and the laser stops moving it's not very long for a fire to start. I recommend anyone using these to have a fire extinguisher handy.

Seems to be from my experience with it so far.

August will be 3 years on the blue thread locker stuff and it still stays pretty good does move a 1/16 turn every month or so now.. but this is 350 hours run time.. probably 6-10 years for a average scroll sawer, LOL... didn't have to buy thread lock as I keep it around for the set screws that go into the blade clamps as the locking jam nut doesn't seem to stay where I put it so I tossed the jam nut in the junk drawer and use the thread lock .. I know you have to take the saw apart to do that and it's about a 1 hour job to take just the adjustment rod apart and apply the thread locker to it and re-assemble it.. about a half day you can take the whole saw apart and re-grease the bearings etc. so that seems like a better deal to check the saw all over good. Honestly now that I've had the saw apart a couple times.. thinking I could do the threads on the rod and toss it back together is 30 minutes.. first time I was just being careful and taking my time. Again, rubber bands work too.. for some people anyway, LOL and also cheap or free.. I just feel the thread lock is a more permanent or longer lasting option. at the end of the day you have to do what works for you though.. I can tell you I was so frustrated with how bad mine got to be I was ready to weld it solid, LOL.. Kinda glad I was calmed down when I actually made the repair..

Yeah, as you raise the upper arm it takes tension off the threads of the shaft and the threaded block.. if you drop it down hard that is hammering those threads so to speak and in the same spot because you don't turn them. eventually those threads take enough beating to sort of wear them down.. then it spins easier as time goes on. Thread locker will sort of hold them tight again for a few years but it'll come back again. That's a good time to take the saw apart and grease it etc.. and add thread locker to it again. Buying new shaft and threaded block is also an option but as I said.. it just comes back again and a bottle of thread locker is much cheaper and useful on the set screws and other things too. Actually believe the thread locker has lasted longer than just replacing them, LOL

Maybe how it got moved but with these saws it very common for the threads to get worn and have that turn on it's own from vibration of the saw when lifting / lowering the upper arm.. then as they get worn more it'll move from just the very minimal vibration of the saw running.. so just be aware of it.. If you have one with a line / mark on the knob take note of it's position and see if it is moving.. when the issue first starts happening it's very confusing as to what's going on..

Really depends on the ornament design and how I made it, LOL.. I use both Danish oil and or the water base poly.. I like lacquer too as it dries very fast.. But I do have issues with the strong smell from lacquer so I don't use that very often.. If I need fast dry and having to spray inside the shop then it's water base poly. If it's a nice day and I can take my spraying outside then it's lacquer. LOL

I've been using it myself now for a while.. good quality stuff and comes in Birch, Cherry, Maple, and Walnut.. most times the Cherry and Walnut are sold out so I have not used either of those. Doesn't come in 1/8 that I've seen but the 5/32 is pretty darn close match to the 3mm BBply that I also use. I've not seen it in full sheets yet.. only the project panels from Home Depot. I haven't bought BBply in quite some time but the last time I did it was a lot cheaper than this Purebond stuff. Years ago on another forum there was a guy using this stuff to make jigsaw puzzles out of in place of the 1/4" BB that everyone else was using so I bought some of the 1/4" back then.. I believe it was back when it first came out? Probably around 2007 ish. There was a big discussion about it as it was advertised and made with formaldehyde free glues.. People that work with the other plys a lot sometimes get sick from the formaldehyde or something and so this purebond came out with the non-toxic glues to make their ply from.. I don't see a lot of talk about this anymore so I'm not sure if that was a advertising scheme for them or what? Anyway, it's good stuff and I bought some not long ago and made these portraits from it. seems very solid good stuff.. was still more $$ than the BB ply back this last spring when I placed my orders. These were made from the Maple purebond panels..

Sounds like you're going to have to buy a welder and start welding two blade together to get the length blade you need.. Okay so seriously here is what you need to do. First take a tape measure and with the upper arm in the down as low as it'll go position measure the distance between the arm and the table top at the back of the saw and then at the front of the saw.. They're supposed to be parallel so you need to turn the knob at the back of the saw and bring that upper arm down until it's the same distance and both ends of the arm. This is a common issue with these as they get older as the threads get worn in the threaded shaft and in the threaded block that it threads into. My saw started doing this and then got real bad.. just cutting for one small cutout the blade tension would change during the cut and I'd have to adjust it so I took the saw apart and added blue colored loc-tite to the threads and I haven't had any issues since then. A lot of folks just wrap a rubber band around it in some way to hold the thing enough. There is a few topics out there on this issue.. one of which I did on taking it apart and doing the loc-tite fix and then there are some on how to wrap the rubber band around it to hold it from moving.