kmmcrafts

We used to go mainly to one campground and camp seasonal every year / summers when the kids was little.. but we haven't been for probably 5 years now as just been too busy with getting kids moved into college and now out of college.. It's just been too busy to go, keep saying maybe next year... then things happen and we don't. Keep talking about selling the 30ft Prowler 5th wheel.. down sizing to a smaller 5th wheel with a slide out. Old Dodge is also starting to show its age too. At some point closer to retirement we've thought about buying a new truck and trailer.. I'm just not sure it's something I want to do.. I don't see us going full time.. also talked about buying a second home in the south and being snowbirds for part of the year. I'm kinda setting myself up for that.. since I have 4 scroll saws and dang near two of everything.. enough to make another shop at my second home, lol. Got several years yet to decide so who knows.. camping might be illegal by then.. unless they get some electric trucks and some clean burning campfires, LOL Had a motorhome before we had kids and outgrew it as it was just a small 20ft outfit.. we liked that for certain things and we like the 5th wheel for certain things.

I did that for a while but it really makes a mess.. even outside... you'll make a large pile of sawdust / chips in no time.. I got to where I put a wheelbarrow where the majority of the chips land and that saved raking / sweeping so much clean-up.. I suggest at a minimum to get a shop vac with a dust / chip separator.. You'll fill up a small trash can or even the wheelbarrow in just a short time..

Congrats to getting a new Hawk!! The issue with buying a used Hawk is.. you don't see too many BM series.. especially in the 20" saw.. and I don't think they ever made a G4 in a 20" saw so you'd be stuck with a Ultra saw or older which lack many of the new and much more user friendly features that those older saws don't have and can't upgrade to. Those older saws are nice saws.. but the newest BM series outperforms those older saws by a long shot.. I wish they made a smaller saw like a 16".. I'd be ordering one today if they had such a thing.. Also glad you had a positive experience so far.. I hope they continue with that.. Some of their older issues was a couple employees not really doing their job.. Now that they are gone and some new help has been hired.. they've been better..

@BadBob Only time I've had any issues with residual from the shelf liner is when I've had a project setting a period of time.. then it even came off kind of hard. Most all the time I apply the liner I'm cutting the project the same day or next day and peeling the liner back off within 2-3 days at most.. Temps make a difference too.. If I put the stuff on and it gets the sun shining through the window and heats it up.. then when I peel it off in cooler temps.. it's like the heat melted the glue into the wood grain.. Happens from time to time but not very often for me.. Your climate in your area or your shop getting hot during the day etc. might make the issue worst.

I know some folks say there is less vibration with the Pegas chuck heads.. I never noticed that myself.. maybe it does on some saws that are not perfectly tuned? I'm not sure.. They are a little more user friendly.. BUT.. Not so much so as to go rush out to spend another $100.. Now, if you have the cash and want a spare back-up set.. buy them but keep the old parts as a back-up plan for when you need to order parts for the Pegas heads.. Yes they have parts that wear out besides the screws..

I think once you read through the manual and make all the necessary adjustments it'll run a lot smoother.. Unless you did measure the distance from the table to the upper arm at the front and back and adjust the back knob until it is parallel to the table? Another adjustment after that is done is to loosen the motor bolts and adjust the aggressiveness of the cut.. if it's set to cut on a more aggressive cut it does ( at least mine did ) seem to have a bit more vibration.. If you've already did all this... then it maybe needed to be mounted down better.. Mine ran really bad straight out of the box.. but once I played around with tuning it and getting things really dialed in.. I think it'd run okay without clamped down.. Not great, just okay as in doable in a pinch kinda thing.. Straight out the box it would have fell off the table if I wasn't watching it, LOL

To my knowledge they no longer sell saws from their website.. You have to call to order one, they run batches of them ( I think ).. I just talked to them a couple weeks ago about buying a new 20" saw and they said it might be a while before they run a batch of those.. as the 26" is the most popular one. Customer service has improved a great deal but still not perfect, LOL Parts from the website is now updated so if something is out of stock they don't have a add to shopping cart option if it's out of stock.. so you cannot buy parts and be charged while waiting several months for the part. That said... it's still several months if they are in fact out of stock.. BUT they seem to be "trying" to keep an inventory of parts now... where I don't think they used to do that. I personally wouldn't hesitate to buy another saw from them.. just know up front that it may take some time for parts and to receive a new saw. As for ordering stocked items from the website... I've ordered blades from them and some saw parts early spring and again just a couple weeks ago I purchased some thumb screws and blades.. in both cases my orders came in the mail within 3-4 days.. I suggest anyone buying / owning a Hawk saw to stock up on normal wear parts.. otherwise you could be waiting a month or more for parts that they don't have in stock.. I normally do this with my other brands of saws anyway so I'm not waiting on the mail to deliver my parts.. kinda smart for a small craft business to not have down time waiting on parts.. so my Excalibur and other saws have parts on hand that are normal wear items.. ie blade screws / chucks and tension cam and set screws etc..

@BadBob You could buy a small sample of labels and see how it goes.. or just keep using paper and evaluate how much of the full paper you use and see if it would be worth buying the full sheet labels or not.. The thing is "Yes" you may waist a portion of a full sheet but don't forget that you also waist a regular sheet of paper too when doing a small item.. and you also taking an extra step in having to spray the paper and wait for it to get tacky to stick it etc.. to me the less mess and the ability to just go peel and stick it alone is worth something. The labels aren't as cheap as paper and the spray.. I just calculate it into my prices.. If I was just a weekend scroll sawer then I might have a different opinion on that.. For those occasional small projects or very large that don't fit on a full sheet.. I still keep the spray around and use it.. Just not very often.. maybe a can every year or so. FYI: I do still use the shelf liner or tape.. The labels stick pretty good to bare wood and hard to get it back off. I've not tried using mineral spirits to remove them though.. if you're one that does the spray direct to wood and then the mineral spirits.. I assume it probably would work for the labels too.. but I haven't done that to know for sure.. maybe someone else can elaborate on that.

Man, I'd love to have that.. but I'd need a new scroll saw too that can do 125ft projects.. Imagine those projects

Not sure on the newer Rigid planers but the older ones are the same one as the Ryobi that I have.. I'd say they're pretty good planers.. I use mine a lot.. as in every board that comes through my shop has went through the planer.. Where I get my lumber 3/4" is actual 7/8" so many times I resaw and get a 5/8 and a 3/16 out of it, even if I need just a 3/4" I plane it down to that. @Wichman I often wondered about the Bauer from Harbor Freight they look pretty solid and the price of the knives is good... I've read reviews and they all have been pretty good on it..

Back in 2008 we was on a small vacation and the girls wanted to go to the outlet mall.. there was a tool outlet in this mall and they talked me into going. I browsed that store for most of the time those girls shopped. I ran across a refurbished ryobi 13" planer for $100 I couldn't believe my eyes. I asked two different store workers if that was the correct price and both assured me it was. I figured if it lasted the 6 month or so that it was actually warrantied for I'd get my use out of it. Well, I'm still using it.. never did anything to it other than change the knives several times.. Lots of people rave the DeWalt ones.. I had planed to buy a DW once this ryobi stopped.. but that hasn't happen yet. Now days they have the helical head ones and many times I wish I had one that was more like 15" so when the ryobi does die.. I'm not sure I'll go with a DW now... Might depend on my budget at the time the ryobi quits.. I'm not sure where in Michigan you are and I can think of the name of the town where that outlet mall was.. but we was staying in a waterpark hotel just up the road from Bronners Christmas store.. the outlet mall wasn't too far from there.. Probably not even there anymore but might be worth looking.

You can order any size you want.. If you have a large format printer you can get them in 11 x 17 like I used to do.. However after doing so I rarely use them and now I no longer have the large format printer, LOL.. But yes there is a website where you can order standard sizes or custom made sizes..

@BadBob Not very often.. I do so much production cutting that I will go into inkscape and layout a full sheet if possible.. for instance if I've got one of those ornament patterns that has only one ornament in the center of the page.. I go into inscape and copy and paste them so there are as many of them on the sheet as possible.. I have a file cabinet that I store excess patterns that aren't needed to cut yet.. however for the most part I just cut a full sheet of them at a time since I typically stock 30 ish of each ornament style anyway. There are instances where some items are too large to make two onto a sheet but small enough that something else could be printed on them.. I end up being wasteful in that case but it's not many of the things I make that fit like that. Animal puzzles come to mind as some that are in that bracket.. but many of the car puzzles are able to layout two of them per sheet.. I feel like at the end of the day.. I'm not wasting too much of the labels considering most things I'm able to combine many to a sheet. Some things if they're close in size to be two on a sheet but just slightly too big, I'll resize them just enough to make it two on a sheet. Anyway.. you kinda get the idea of what I do.. It'd be hard for a non production cutting person to take advantage of these like I do without putting in a lot of effort to layout each time they need to cut.. for me.. I know I'm going to be selling / cutting more so it works quite well for me.

I've used a lot of different brands of spray adhesives over the years.. and my conclusion is.. they all seem to work pretty well so long as you follow the directions on the can.. A couple brands I used at first I just used as any other spray glue but it said to spray liberally and then let it set for a few minutes before adhering. Worked well once I read the directions, LOL.. I'm currently using a can of the big orange colored can of Grizzly brand. Seems to work well and sprays like a spray paint can would.. Some have said this glue sucks.. I find it works well so long as you shake the can up good.. it has the balls in it to mix it up.. sometimes it takes quite a lot of shaking to get the ball to even start moving.. anyway.. as I said.. most all of them I've tried work as intended.. I rarely use the stuff because I mostly use shipping labels.. but large projects that prints on more than one paper or has to be pieced together.. I use the spray..

Congrats on the new saw.. You'll like the saw I'm sure.. I agree with Don.. The Pegas chucks are nice, but I'm not sure I'd throw away the original set just to replace with the pegas.. use it as is and then a year or so down the road when you start having issues with blade chucks replace with the Pegas..

Welcome to the village!!! Also... Thank you for serving Look forward to seeing some of your projects..

I just tried to join too but all I got was a spinning circle.. so I don't know if it went through or not.. They probably was reading my mind on the thoughts I had from Rays post.. I'm just trying to figure out the last two words of his reply..

Boy, I really messed up posting those links..

Jinxed myself, went to the HD site to maybe order a pack of these to try and because I posted the link you guys bought it all.. Guess I could buy the walnut pack.. I find dark colored wood for laser engraving and even scroll sawing detailed stuff that the darkness doesn't show up the details as well... Maybe if I put a light color behind it.. but the light color is sold out.. See if I help you all out with links again,

Might want to consider the vibration aspect from both machines without a stand... I've read on the FB groups of folks talking about the bad vibration the Hegner has if it's not bolted down to a good heavy stand.. I can attest to that with the Hawks as well.. they're terrible if they aren't bolted down good and the stand planted to the level floor good too. However, I have ran my Excalibur and DeWalts just on a bench.. not even clamped down.. just sitting there.. Yes there was vibration but you wouldn't even be able to use a Hawk and from what I've read Hegner too without it clamped at a minimum.. I'm going to assume the Pegas is going to be about the same as the EX and DW since they are basically the same build. Just a thought. If you're looking for a small footprint check out the King 16" saw.. basically the same saws as the EX but smaller IF I was looking for a small footprint saw to haul in my travel trailer.. I'd not even consider anything but a DW, EX, King, or Pegas etc. specifically for that reason. Unless of coarse I had a nice camper / toy hauler where I bolted some equipment down to the floor in the toy hauler area.. Also look at the Jet saw.. LLJohnson has or had when I was there both the 18" and 22" on the showroom floor.. They are bottom feed only saws though if that matters to you. I like the 18" over the 22" as the 18 has more table area in front of the blade..

Might depend on which model Hegner he gets... and whether he plans to get the stand or not.. Not a huge difference in footprint when you're talking without stand and talking about a 18" plus sized Hegner.. The 14" is only a single speed if I'm not mistaken? That difference isn't much when considering the difference between a 18" and a 21.. Price difference is big though..

I get the rolls at the Dollar Tree.. It's what I've been using for 12 years. I have never cut it down.. I just fold it up into the size I need which gives a bit more padding.

According to the selling sites in the descriptions the Pegas weighs in at 65lbs.

I'm on several laser groups and forums.. never once seen mention of this stuff.. I'll keep quiet on it as those laser boy go through some ply.. Only wood I see mention on those laser sites is BB ply.. and most use the 1/8" .. Those guys buy the stuff by the skid.. I might buy a package of this stuff and try it in my laser.. If it don't work well then I can at least scroll it.

Sorry about that, I won't post any links in the future to help keep prices down,