Iguanadon

Hey Ray, it'll be one solid piece and I'll screw the hooks in and have the holes for the mounting screws pre-drilled and countersunk. Ready to hang.

I have a big 3-day event next week and I'm going to display a new item. I just cut this one and will take orders if folks are interested. All breeds available of course. Non-puzzle version of the dog, all one solid piece. I'll include wall anchors and screws. 4 hook key/leash holder. Pictures and a snapshot of the original Boston Terrier puzzle. I'll charge $40. I charge $25 for the puzzles.

Very nice!

OK, yep, I definitely miss making these kids puzzles. Taking my time, I just laid out 14 on a six foot board and cut them, all in under 90 minutes. 10 per hour basically. I could spend a casual Saturday or Sunday and make 50 of them and keep a stockpile without any trouble.

The simple dinosaur puzzles are what I started with for my grand-daughter and I also made and gave away dozens of them and then I came across Harvey's artwork and fell in love with his puzzles. I kept making the simple puzzles as well for 2 years but stopped last year mostly due to time constraints. I'm still squeezed on time, but I feel I really need to have them at events.

Hey Gang, long time no post. I hope everyone is doing well. 4 or 5 weeks into my season and I've decided I'm going to bring back the kids puzzles into my inventory for events. I'm getting more potential customers that mention they're interested in one of my puzzles for younger children and being the honest, good hearted person that I am, I talk them out of it since my signature puzzles are somewhat delicate in nature and aren't meant for "tiny hands" as I put it. In the past I pointed them over to a series of dinosaur and other simplistic puzzles made of pine that I used to make and display. But I chose to do away with them last year and it was working out OK, but this year seems to be costing me more than I anticipated. Plus I'm hearing more often "Oh I love your work, I have 2 at home already!" Not that I'm completely saturated here considering the tens of thousands of tourists each summer, but I definitely have a number of local households that already have a puzzle or two on the shelves. Also, I'm going to make one of these non-puzzle dogs as a wall mounted key/leash holder and take it to my next major event and get some feedback on it to see if it's something I should broaden myself into. Iggy

Agreed, the Hegner is a great saw, but like the Hawk, it's not aggressive at all and that's fine, they have their purpose. I already use the Pegas Modified Geometry blades which I have found to be the most aggressive (and best cutting).

Yes, there is a way to do that, however when I tried the full range it didn't make a whole lot of difference. Again, it's pretty minor, but something that's a big deal to me.

Hey Bill, Overall it's a fine saw... It's smooth, it hasn't given me any issues, although I'm having blade slippage issues in the top clamp that I can't quite figure out, but that's nothing serious. My only minor issue is that it isn't quite as aggressive as the DW and for 99% of folks that's not a problem. Folks who know me know that I love the DW due to the fact that it cuts very aggressively and I have simply gotten accustomed to that and when I cut on a slower saw it's like coming up on a small town and having to drive 35mph after crusing along at 75mph for hours.

My local weekly market usually begins Memorial Weekend but this year the town decided to start it up 2 weeks early, which we all thought was a good idea. Tourists aren't heavy yet, but we figured the locals would enjoy getting out. Week 1 (May 11) was good, not great, but this past Saturday (May 18) was my worst outing at this event in the 3 years I've been doing it. There were several other events happening on the island drawing crowds (nothing arts & crafts related, just beach type stuff) and I knew it would be slow, just not THAT slow. LOL No complaints at all with Memorial weekend coming up, things will get back to normal. The manager of the event is a friend of mine and we chatted mid-way through the day Saturday and he said that nobody was doing well so he'll recommend that they go back to the old schedule next year. Iggy

Thanks for sharing Bob. I'll chime in also if folks don't mind. I've been happy with the Pegas saw. I "like it", but I don't necessarily "love it". The big factor will be how long it lasts before I wear it out, so time will tell. I won't be heartbroken if I have to go back to using DW's again. Attached are photos showing my very basic dust collection but it works great, capturing at least 90-95% of all dust from bottom and top and it connects to my Dust Deputy then to a small shop-vac. I had some clear tubing laying around, standard waterline for a fridge icemaker. The light is from one of my DW's. I had to make a small support clip for it in order to get it to extend far enough beyond the front of the blade so as not to cast shadows. Iggy

I'm envious of you for sure Kevin. Unfortunately we've grown accustomed to the income from the day job and of course the benefits (health care primarily)... Even with the puzzles and the tourist map/guide business I can't walk away. The map/guide business has allowed Mrs. Iggy the luxury of quitting her job, so at least one member of the family is enjoying the carefree life.

Market season kicked off Easter weekend. As previously reported, the first day was a rainout for me and did well the 2nd day. Two more events since then Event 1 - 56 puzzles sold (about the same as last year for day 2) Event 2 - 69 puzzles sold (11 short compared to last year) Event 3 (yesterday) - 39 puzzles sold (8 short compared to last year) My weekly market starts up next week and I'll do it every Saturday that it isn't raining. It's only 5 hours (8am to 1pm) and I average 22 puzzles each week. Next big event is week of July 4th, three days long, sold 132 last year. Now for my possible issue... My day job decided to give me a promotion last week and I'm afraid it'll affect some of my puzzle cutting time. We'll see. If I have to give up some of my weekly markets in order to ensure adequate inventory for the big events, that's what I'll do. Iggy

Ah, ok, water/rain leaks. Got it. Hoping that doesn't become an issue, but at least I have the solar array mounted on my garage so damage would be minimal as opposed to on the main house.

Hey Jim, the 1.21 gigawatts and DeLoreon was a joke referring to the movie "Back To The Future" Our average kWh per month the past 2 1/2 years is 1355. Here's information about the panels and the warranty is 30 years I believe... https://www.powerhome.com/how-long-solar-panels-last-lifespan/ Not sure what you mean by "leaks"... solar panels produce energy which is fed into the power company meter and into our home.

This is a write-up I just did for Facebook to share with folks in our town interested in our solar system. ===================== Anybody have a DeLorean? I’m about to crank out 1.21 gigawatts of power! OK, not quite, but our solar panel system is officially on-line. We signed the paperwork on Feb 28 and in just under 2 months we are fully operational. If you decide to do this, be patient, you have to deal with county and town inspectors and the power company. It’ll be a couple of months before I have any data to share. As to the process, the company we went with did a very nice job. Do your own homework and due diligence, but Power Home Solar (PHS) is one you should definitely check out if you decide to look into things. Installation was a 1 day engagement, literally took the team just 5 hours to install and wire the system. I am not an expert and I will try to answer any questions if I can but no guarantees I’ll know and I’ll simply say I don’t know. Remember, everyone’s home and needs and requirements will vary so you can’t necessarily base things on our experience. To provide our vital statistics… We’ve been in this house for 2 ½ years and during that time our electric bill has averaged $165 per month. We have 2 heat pumps to heat and cool downstairs and upstairs a total of 2,000 sqft. Duke Progress Energy does not “buy” excess power generated. You do receive “credits” which expire on a 30 day rolling basis. So, PHS sizes the system so that it will generate approximately 70% of your monthly need so that you don’t overproduce and therefore waste money on too big of a system with no return on that money. For us that was 16 panels. You can always add more panels if you’d like in the future. PHS also checks and adds to your insulation in the attic spaces and they provide and install a Nest thermostat (personally I’m not overly impressed by it, but most folks seem to love them). Some folks ask about battery storage of the created power. Our salesman said they are very pricey and not worth it. But again, that’s something you may be interested in and pursuing. Of course everyone wants to know about cost… It’s pricey and PHS arranges for financing at a very reasonable loan rate for a 20 year loan. If you don’t want to spread it out that long, you can pre-pay on the loan or pay in full at any time. If you pay in full, the expected “break even” point is 8-10 years based on how much less you pay in electric. Again, this will vary based on your typical electric bill. There is currently a tax credit for solar in place that is valid at least thru 2019, not sure about beyond, which I took into account when talking about the break even point. The system does add value to your home if you plan on selling, which we don’t, but nice to know. I did notify my home owners insurance company along with a photo so they’d have a record of it and my current coverage was sufficient. Any questions, fire away, I’ll try to answer. I’ll update again in a couple of months as I get my electric bills.

After much Google searching and site visiting... found the easiest and cheapest solution at Walmart. Went and picked two up to test out and I think these will work great. 36Lx16Wx8H It looks a bit cluttered but it's not. Couldn't quite do just two rows length wise so I have multiple "rows" all in alphabetical order. No more tubs full that have to be emptied at the event and sorted and then repacked at the end of the day. These are going to be great. Yes, they have lids. The picture of the puzzles on the blue tarp is what I had to do at my mega-events which was a huge pain in the neck. Now I can just have multiple new flat bins and not have to touch them until I need one.

Nope, I was thinking something similar. As long as I don't make them too big, weight shouldn't be an issue, but I do want/need to keep them as light as possible for carrying and transporting. Hopefully the link JT provided will have something just the right size in plastic.

Excellent, thank you JT, that will definitely get me looking in the right direction now.

That could be interesting. The mathematical algorythm would be quite interesting taking into account expected rainfall for the next 8 months in the Mayberry Beach area. Rain (and Hurricane Florence) ruined a great year that was in motion.

LOL, good idea, I guess I'll buy new beach chairs on a regular basis. Of course I'd like to find a similar shape and size in plastic, but so far no luck after an initial search but I'll keep hunting.

Just a random tidbit that may help someone... Keep your eyes and braincells open to new possible ways to transport items to events. For 3 years I've simply packed my duplicate puzzles in bin(s). Depending on the size of event, one bin up to three bins. The bins of course are great for hauling but then at the events I had to unpack them and organize them in a way to be able to find what I need quickly as I'm selling. Just a nuisance having to unpack, then re-pack at the end of the day. Now comes the random tidbit... One of the great things about ordering stuff from Amazon constantly is a wide variety of sized boxes. LOL I recently ordered a couple of items that came in these long boxes and as I was packing for my event yesterday I realized they are perfectly sized and shaped for my puzzles. I'm now able to pack the duplicates in the box(es) in order alphabetically and can find what I want very quickly without having to unpack and lay them out. This is going to be great (yes I'm easily pleased LOL). I reinforced the under side of the boxes with duct tape. I hope they will survive at least this year. 2 photos of new and 1 photo of old transport in bins and boxes. Iggy

They are shrink wrap bags and only requires a heat gun or high heat hair dryer. I did a quick video showing the simple process. I buy the bags from Amazon when I can find them 9x12 or slightly larger.

You're correct, the ones on the tables are for display, but I sell those also if I don't have duplicates on-hand. In addition to the 130 unique dogs/animals that I display, I take anywhere from 80-200 duplicates depending on the event. The dupicates are shrink wrapped and ready to hand out.

Had my first event, was supposed to be 2 days (Friday and Saturday) but a threat of storms and wind Friday caused me to err on the side of caution and I didn't attend day 1. I arrived bright and early this morning for day 2 and set up. Beautiful weather, huge crowd but mostly just lookers. Had a good day selling 56 puzzles in just 6 hours. I had a goal of 100 for the 2 days, so I'm happy with 56 for 1 day. My biggest 1 day event is next Saturday. Sold 95 each of the last 2 years so of course that's the goal for this year. EDIT - The last 2 years at my best 1 day event I was still selling the raw kids puzzles at half the price of my signature puzzles. Now that I don't sell them, I need to sell 80 signature puzzles this year to hit the same amount of $$$ as the past 2 years at the upcoming event. And the fun begins! Iggy