kmmcrafts

Do you remove the clamps to change to new blades? My new 3 year old Hawk BM-26 has the metal clips.. they work as they was new BUT, I don't remove the clamps when putting new blades in. The old saws you had to remove them to change blades.. This new saw you don't really have to. But I do understand doing it that way since that is how you've been doing it for 30 years..

Yeah still getting orders for Christmas ornaments. This one the customer sent me a clip art image of a BMX bike rider and asked if I could make an ornament. I thought it might be cool to put the image into a bike sprocket shape so this is how that came out. Cut from 1/8 BBply with a #3 Pegas blade. These measure about 3.75 inch diameter.

If it falls off the saw then this piece here is worn out and needs replaced.. Or it's completely missing. https://stores.bushtonhawkstore.com/barrel-style-blade-holder-clip/ These plastic clips get weak over time and don't hold the clamp in place as it should. The newer saws have upgraded the "plastic" part to a spring steel one.. If you're decent with forming metal you probably could make a metal holder that maybe last much longer. They are cheap enough buy a couple and have one on hand, as the expensive part of ordering one is the shipping.. wait till you need other parts or order some blades or something too..

This saw here in somewhat the general same geographic area is the same vintage as the one you are looking at.. This saw has the round clamps as I mentioned. Has been rebuilt with new upgraded front upper tension and clamping system. Upgraded flexible air blower.. clean looking saw that someone put some money into to keep it nice. Has the older motor on it.. This is just like a saw that I sold another member here a couple months back. With the work and the upgrades this saw is actually not a bad deal for a old saw.. Some may say too much.. but boy there just isn't much that wears out on these old saws.. so this $500 saw would last just as long as the brand new one of these same models that cost $1450 https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1356988461381679/?ref=search&referral_code=marketplace_search&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3Acfa17f72-7bec-49d6-a10f-2b7c17239ddd

That's a pretty old saw judging by the air blower tube. I'm guessing it has the round barrel clamps which nothing wrong with that and nothing wrong with a very old saw other than the price.. also as others have mentioned, the pile of sawdust around it does show it works.. but really one should clean up the items they're selling and honestly I think you're way farther ahead to wait it out for a better one.. Or wait and watch to see if the price gets lowered on this one. $200 would be max. on this saw if it worked good and seemed to be is decent condition and that's being a bit generous LOL and assuming not much wear on it.

I've bought a lot of stuff over the years from these folks. Not sure if anyone here deals with them at all or not but this was in a newsletter email to me.. just thought I'd pass it along

Those are very nice! Have yet to try the compound cut ornaments.

If you find one let me know.. I have the Seyco dust collection for scroll saws.. it works "okay" but lacks collecting from the top. Even though the stock dust port also collects from below the table my experience is that works better than the Seyco one.. but it maybe the powerful shop vac I have as it does vacuum the work piece down too. I couldn't deal with the loud shop vac, even from across the shop. Thought about getting the Festool or Fein vac. but I'm not sure how loud one is on the higher power.. and not sure if the lower power would be enough. The Seyco system does help an awful lot.. but still get dust in my lap from spinning the wood on the table. I think the powerful vacuum I have is sucking the dust even off the top of the workpiece once I get a couple fret holes cut out, LOL as there isn't much left after cutting for several hours.

Just cut the stingray a few weeks ago.. and it's a challenging cut.. the detail in the wheels and side pipes take a bit of time and patients.. fun one to do as I like the challenging cuts but just wanted to give you a heads up that it's a bit of a challenge.

If I'm not mistaken the puzzle patterns they sell are done by Harvey Byler.. same ones that Iggy ( Scott ) sells on his site for less money and they are digital download.. You might want to look at https://woodcraftbyscott.com/collections/scroll-saw-patterns

Menards doesn't have the florescent one that I use anymore.. I just looked and they now only offer a LED one.. I put LED tubes in mine once the Florescent went bad. I like the idea of having the flip up lens cover.. If you have a window in your shop be sure the magnifier isn't going to catch any of the sun. I came into my shop after lunch one day to finish a project I had been working on.. my saw sits by a window and the sun was catching the light and the focal point of a bean was hitting thankfully just my saw table but it was so hot I couldn't touch the table.. had I had my wood project setting up there it'd probably been on fire.. I now just had a old box blocking the window.. the flip lens cover would be nice though..so long as you get into habit to use it when not in the shop.. LOL Good luck with whatever you decide.

And what exactly is the purpose of top coating over danish oil? It has poly mixed in with it so there is a bit of sealer / protection with it.. I'm talking specifically for puzzles like shown in the photo. How do you do proper coverage with a top coat inside the cutouts? Inside and outside of each piece. inside the puzzle tabs ( female & male portions ) sanding these areas alone for a second coat would be pretty tedious to say the least.. mind you, you have to make it practical so you can keep it a practical price for a customer.. Yes there are a range of customers that'd pay $200+ for this puzzle with the nice topcoat finish on it.. There is also a lot of money to be made by making these practical and lower priced for a kid to play with them. Doubting anyone would make much money selling these at $200 +each. Doubting after a year of kids playing with them the top coat would still look great.. if one can ever get it to look great on all surfaces. I would love to see a video of you spraying the cutouts in the wheels on this and getting even coverage throughout those cutouts from front to back without distorting or flooding the main surface... I've got 37 years of automotive finishing experience and 15 of those was specifically restoring classic show cars.. I'd rather see a even applied oil dipped finish than a nice looking coat of finish on the flat surface with lots of rough looking over spray half sprayed half way in the cutouts.. pretty tough job to spray all the edges of each piece on all sides.. If you lay them down and spray the front and sides.. the back isn't getting any finish? if you flip it over after the front and sides etc. to spray the back then you're getting over spray on it somewhere of those edges... Like I said.. pretty tough job to practically top coat these puzzles and do a professional job of it.. it's in the details as you mentioned.. or lack there of.. that makes me say there is not fretwork out there that has good even coverage on ALL surface's.. Now.. that said I'm sure it looks great to a lot of people.. and as I have mentioned in one of the previous replies.. I have that trained eye to spot those bad spray coverages. etc.. and to me.. they don't look good.. I just can't bring myself to spray a top coat on fretwork from thick stock.. Now.. thin stock is a bit different... easier to get a even spray on like 1/8" portrait cuts etc..

I agree 100% but also this is dependent on the project at hand too.. I can't see trying to apply several coats of finish to a puzzle or Christmas ornaments that have a lot of detailed fret cutouts.. where you cannot really "sand inside the fret cutouts" to do a "proper" multi coat finishing.. This is 100% why I refuse to use topcoats on fretwork pieces.. Trying to finish puzzle pieces with a top coat is pointless and would be a royal pain to do "all" the edges of each piece.. Those projects in order to keep production flowing smoothly need that quick finish.. Now if you're talking bandsaw boxes, signs etc. where you're working with flat smooth surfaces then yes a nice lacquer finish done properly enhances the piece drastically over just a quick dip in oil and send it out.. I do the better finishing when it's practical.. That said, for me.. I mostly make and sell ornaments, puzzles and desk clocks in which is mostly fretwork. To me a top coat on anything fretwork looks terrible if it has cutouts with the different grain patterns ( ie end grain and face grain ) as end, edge grains soak up a lot of top coat.. in doing the spraying it's almost impossible to get "good " coverage on all edges without getting it all over the face surface as well.. so you get a nice looking face surface but then looking closely the cutouts are lacking good coverage. Just an example as to why I prefer Danish oils.. because they do enhance the wood grain on all surfaces.. quick and easy but still produces a nice finished product that doesn't bottleneck production. Like I said.. larger flat surfaces.. top coating would be better than just a quick dipping and sending it.

Well considering how "I" try to streamline things myself, and considering I have the spraying equipment and don't use it was my thought process..

Save your money, LOL.. If you really need to use the saw for a sander glue strips of sandpaper a old saw blade or in some cases some saws clamps open up enough to allow you to fit a fingernail file / sanding boards in.. OH, and the sanding blades for the scroll saw.. won't fit in the Hawk.. unless there is a new style out that I haven't seen. You're better off with spindle sanders, belt sanders, sanding mops etc. IMO.

Yep, Been doing it this way since about 2007, LOL.. I started out with just foam sanding blocks of various grits.. was at a dollar tree one day and seen the anti slip shelf liners in a roll.. bought one to try it and like you say.. saves a ton of time.. and am able to use the random orbit sander on them. I don't have a sanding board per say.. but I just roll out the liner on my work bench.. usually double it up. The stuff from the dollar store is cheap and smaller bumps / grips ( for a lack of better wording LOL ) I think the more pricey stuff would probably work better... I've just never run across it and the wife keeps bringing those dollar store rolls home to line the drawers.. somehow she misplaces it and gets more rolls.. Don't tell her they're misplaced in the shop..

That's how I do finishing IF I am top coating.. most my items just get Danish Oil without a top coat so I don't do this much.. and hate having to take the time to do it when I need too.. That being said.. I don't see Iggy wanting to sand raised grain of plain poly finish.. but I also don't see him wanting to finish twice ( ie dip in danish oil and then wait 2-3 days and then spray poly).. Also don't see him OR the neighbors liking the lacquer spray finish either... So I say it's going to be interesting what he does.. But I also don't know the output of the sprayer he's looking to use.. nor do I know the level of spraying he'll be doing in a batch.. or how many days a week he'll be spraying.. Being in production mode like he is ( me too at a level ) I see him wanting to streamline this to be as simple as can be possible.. I may be wrong but I see him going back to spray cans how he's been doing it.. They are quick, easy to grab and go at it.. when the cans empty throw it out.. I don't see him liking the hassle of cleaning the sprayer up now and then or stopping to mix up more finish to fill the gun up.. There is extra steps to having spray equipment.. just grabbing a can and spraying is where I see him.. yeah it's more expensive to use spray cans but sometimes convenience is worth paying for.. As I said before.. It'll be interesting to see how this works out for him..

I think Shellac is very sensitive to humidity.. Scott being only a couple blocks from the ocean might effect his results with it.. Lacquer is also sensitive but can add retarder to it to help.. But it's very flammable and strong smell.. so much so that if you have close neighbors could be an issue depending on how much you're spraying at a time etc. For his location and what he's doing.. I'd think the water based poly might be the best solution however I'm not sure he's up to the task of sanding the raised grain before applying the second coat.. I think he may need to consider "trying" the suggested finishes in spray cans to see how he likes them.. I'm not sure how much output or nozzle sizes of the sprayer that he's looking to buy but I can say that the spray guns I have will spray about as much as 4 spray cans spraying at once so the volume would be much more over spray going into the air.. I'll be interested in hearing how this works out for him and what his choice of spray is going to be..

You are a bronze supporter.. you have to upgrade to silver or gold in order to get access to the cnc / laser group.

You should join up, I think there will be some interesting projects.

You can read a little about it here in this link.. it's from the SSV news section.. I believe you have to be a certain level of supporter ( maybe silver? ) to access the cnc / laser forum. It's just getting started so not much there yet.. and I've been busy with orders etc. so I won't be doing much there until after the holidays probably..

I video recorded the laser cutting this.. I'll try posting it over in the "new laser section" once I get a break from the orders and can mess with uploading. The laser cut this out in about 4 minutes.. or at least the video is 4:20.. but the ending could be cut from the video so I think it was about 4 minutes..

Do you have a air compressor Scott? I think if I was going to experiment with spray equipment I'd go with a small cheap set-up before spending bigger money on something that may not work well for your needs. Harbor Freight has some real cheap HVLP spray guns ( like $14 cheap ) If you have a compressor I'd experiment with something like that to see of spraying bulk quantity's of product is going to work for you..

Okay, I ended up needing to size it down to fit into my gift boxes that I put my ornaments in. In doing that the details was way too small for scrolling. So I cut it on the laser. Even the first one broke on the laser when knocking the cutouts out of it. But I did get it to work. Thanks again for making this design for me.

The water base poly doesn't change the color tone to the wood like the oil base does.. however you seem to like the mineral oil poping the grain colors so you might be better off with shellac? Tom is correct in the fact that water based finishes might raise the grain some. Another thing to think about is humidity.. being right next to the ocean.. that could affect the lacquer.. I know it's a big factor with auto lacquer based paints and clears.. I would assume the same for wood finish as well?