Jim Finn

I agree that you never know what will sell well. When I started, I made a bunch of decorative and functional fireplace bellows that I think are very cool, unique, and would sell well. In ten years I have only sold about six. There is just not a market for them. I had the same results making 24" long cedar trunks. I guess I sold about twenty of them in ten years. I then started making small boxes with left over cedar scraps from making the trunks and wow! they just took off. I started to decorate them and now do inlays in the hinged lids. I have sold well over 2000 of the boxes and only six bellows. I had similar weak sales with intarsia. Producing a wide variety of things, just a few of each, is the way to go. You will find out what folks want. I have sold some sports logos and a lot of military initials. U S M C sells best here. .

As to the angle for drilling the starter hole this is what I do: I have a Dremel type tool mounted in a Dremel drill press attachment tilted at about 6° using a 1/16" drill bit. I drill that starter hole touching the line of the image, and just inside the image or letter. The reason for the difference in the drill angle and the saw angle is because my drill bit is a lot bigger than my #5 blade is.

I had to put Loctite on this nut also. I did that and then sold the darn thing and bought a Hegner. That was many years ago. Hegner still plugging along.

I Like your display. It should work well for you. I have done a lot of shows and have tried many different displays over the past eight years. I find that putting your tables on the back of our space, "Inviting shoppers to come in" did not work for me. What I have noticed is that folks will not walk into your space to view your produce. They will just walk on by and may just glance at your whole display. When some folks do come into this space with the tables at the back they block the view of other shoppers of your product. This is especially true if you have only one ten foot space. I have had people just stand inside this space and visit with each other and not even look at my product , all the while blocking others from seeing my display. I put my tables to the front and ends like you have in your photo, only I rent two spaces and have a twenty foot long display plus ten feet on each end where possible. I have tried putting cloth covers on my tables but wind flips the cloth up over the top edge of the table covering some of the displayed product. I no longer use them. I just store my empty boxes under the tables. Yes, they can be viewed from the front, if you stand back a bit, but folks do not seem to care.. To sell more, your product has to be viewed by more people, so all this is no small concern.

Hey Kevin.... I nicked the back of my pinky in my table saw a few weeks back myself. Only did it once though. Took a dozen stitches but is fine now. Like me, you likely did it while doing repeated cuts,

I have a 1988 Jet Scroll saw that is very light and small. It is a 15" saw. I bought a battery and an inverter to run it, that I used at my street sales. It worked well but I have found folks show little interest in watching me saw. Also, I work these shows alone and If am sawing I cannot sell well. I no longer take it with me. It did give me something to do while waiting for folks to come by my table.

My experience with business cards is that it took three years of giving out cards before I got any additional sales form them. I have been selling for nine years now and find that they finally do kick in. I had a sale the past two Saturdays and found the toys that sold best were the dinosaurs. Not puzzles, just simple toys. Kids sure do like dinosaurs. I sold eight of them during these two sales at farmers markets. More than other toys I offered.

Twelve years ago I bought a HF POS. It died so I sent it back. They sent me another and the speed controller went out. Trashed it. Few years later friends talked my into a DeWalt. That cut great but also died after 20 months. I then found the most expensive scroll saw I could find, a Hegner Polymax-3. (2008) I still have that saw plus other used saws. Hegner saved me from quitting scrolling altogether. I use my scroll saw almost every day. I spend about 35 hours a week in my shop. Life is good!

I have tried # 7 and #9 blades myself and found them to be slow cutting also. I went back to #5 polar and still like them. Skip tooth olsens worked no better than Polar #5 but are OK.

Blade selection depends on what you are cutting and personal preference. I cut only 3/4" to 2" thick wood and like a #5 blade. I have used blades from Flying Dutchman and Olsen's . Both work well for me. Fretwork will require different blades I guess. I do not do fretwork....yet

I would just open it in "paint' and resize and resize until I get what I need. I do this all the time. I do it 10% at a time to start.

I use FD Polar #5 for compond cutting.

I do a lot of inlay work and it is similar to what you are doing. The whole clockwise couter clockwise thing comfuses me. I just remember to keep the image or letter to the right of my blade. That is, with the table tilted down on the left. Like has been mentioned. Trial and error will teach you a lot.

I just modified a clip art image.

I made this toy horse of poplar. Moveable legs are 3/8" thick, body is 1" thick. Overall dimensions are: 6.5" tall and 7.5" long

This is what I have been working on the past few days. I plan to sell a few but I made them mostly to give to local childrens hospitals and to the Salvation Army. Eight large 8" and one small 5". Made of poplar and pine. Golf tees pivots on the larger ones and wheel pegs on smaller. Still working on more of these. (small ones) I cannot sell my other stuff as fast as I make them so I make toys, to give away, when I am caught up on making items I offer for sale.

I also sell at a farmers market. My first this year starts this Sat. I go there every Sat. June- Sept. I have been doing this for nine years now. My pricing is about the same as yours. Hard to sell more expensive stuff at a farmers market. Business cards are a long term investment. I put them out, and folks took them, for about three years before any of them got me some work. I did get three $500 custom orders that way. Nice product you offer!

The only issue I had with the DeWalt that I had, and the one my firend had, is that they are not durable. Cut fine but do not stand up to heavy use. My friend replaced his motor five times in five years before tossing it. Mine lasted less than two years.

This issue may be the reason Hegner clamps just pinch the blade by flexing the blade holder. The screw never contacts the blade on their holder. I also use my scroll saw a lot, most every day.

I agree a planer will not fix warping or cupping. I regularly run 8" boards through my DeWalt planer with no problems but seldom thinner than 3/8" .

It might be the speed controller that is the problem, no?.

I have two window units in my 300 square foot shop. One in the window and one through the wall. Works well for me in this high desert where it is over 100° often.

I had put one of Hegner's quickclamps on the lower arm of my Hegner and one on the upper arm, to make it a top feeder but I am too used to being a bottom feeder so I took it off and put it on my old 15"Jet.

I have two Hegners and a 15" Jet scroll saw. I use one as much as the other. My Jet is still going strong and it was made in 1988. I have changed out the blade clamps to Hegner clamps. Mine has an induction motor and is single speed. I did not know that Jet scroll saws were still being made.

I worked in construction my whole life and we always said...."It is not a mistake unless you have to ask someone else to correct it" Not a mistake if you correct it yourself. We all live and learn...if we are paying attention, that is. I like those wooden hinges!