Iguanadon

Another puzzle zombie in the making!!! :-) 3/4" poplar, I use #3 blade (Olson Mach Speed) I know others who cut the same puzzles use #5. Anything smaller than a #3 and the blade flexes and you'll have issues with the pieces sliding in and out from both sides.

No kidding, I was going back and forth between my Hawk with Pegas blades and my DeWalt with Olson blades and it was REALLY screwing me up. LOL Pegas blades cut amazingly "straight" (90 degrees)

Basically, don't try to get the blade/saw to cut in what YOU think is a straight line, let the blade/saw dictate what a straight line is. As soon as you stop trying to go exactly 90 degrees to the blade, you'll be fine. My DeWalt with Olson blades is probably about 15 degrees "crooked". Once you learn what "straight" actually is, you'll get used to it.

I love every minute of it... I have a new routine now... Day 1 - Cut outline of 20 puzzles laid out on a 6' board and do the internal cuts on 10 of them Day 2 - Cut the 10 from prior day into puzzle pieces, then do the internal cuts on the other 10 Day 3 - Cut the 10 from prior day into puzzle pieces, then lay out the 20 patterns on a new 6' board Repeat... Getting 20 done every 3 days, keeps a nice flow going. Any day I have some extra time, I get a jump on the next day activities. Each day is less than 2 hours of cutting time, unless I choose to spend more time if I have it. Here are the 20 I cut the outlines of today, half of them have the internal cuts done.

First major event at the end of March in nearby Southport... Mermaids done and I have Harvey drawing up the flying pelican and the sea turtle to also say Southport. See which one proves to be the most popular.

I jokingly complained to Mrs. Iggy yesterday... "Dang, I'm tired of sweating in the shop, I wish winter would come back." We hit 74 degrees yesterday.

I just finished shrinkwrapping last weeks production... I got almost no cutting done the past 4 days as I focused on getting the pattern area on my website completely re-done. Hopefully I'll get some cutting done this weekend.

I'm with ya Len, I prefer the puzzles and the fact that they're "unique". That's all I'll offer at events. I'll only be doing the non-puzzles for gift shops.

I'm glad to see you're having fun this week also Kevin. LOL I only have 160 to go in adding my watermark to patterns... Zoo animals and Non-Puzzles... all the others are done...

I appreciate the ideas... I tried another app that disables right clicks, but guess what the work around is... Snap a photo of your screen with your phone, download the picture, past it into Word, print it and boom, you have a perfect pattern. LOL Now you understand my dilemma trying to find the best way to do it. And this is what I'm going with... https://www.woodcraftbyscott.com/collections/scroll-saw-patterns/products/puzzle-patterns-dogs-a-k?variant=2187441930255 That's what folks will see, get an idea of what it looks like, then when they order, they get a clean version emailed to them automatically. I'm done now, I've spent way too much time on this, and now I have to spend several days adding the watermark to 425 patterns. :-) Who wants something to do this weekend? LOL

Thanks, yep, using digital downloads. The delivery of the patterns isn't the issue. I'm trying to display/show each pattern for buyers so they can see what it looks like, but it can't be in a format that they can simply right click and SAVE AS and snatch it for free.

Nice... how did you snag that image of the Afghan? It's from WTB?

This may be my solution....

Thanks, I was actually chatting with Charles earlier and had him playing around with one of the patterns to try to skew it, watermark it, etc. He was helpful and I'm still brainstorming with him.

Here is what Wooden Teddy Bears look like... http://www.woodenteddybearonline.com/x/product.php?productid=1093&cat=&page=1

In a perfect world I'd love to use photos of cut versions for them, just as in the puzzle section of my site where I sell the puzzles... But I have over 400 patterns now and I've only cut about 250 of them. I can't cut the others just for the purpose of snapping a photo, I simply don't have the time unfortunately.

LOL, that's the idea Ray, otherwise anyone could simply do a SAVE AS and use them at no charge. By being blurred, you at least get an idea of what it looks like, just as Wooden Teddy Bear does. If you click the drop down and look at the AFGHAN that's the alternative solution, but... could that be copied and used as a pattern? That's what I'm asking for feedback on.

Since posting this, based on input and suggestions I came to my decision, you can see it at the bottom. Thanks everyone! Iggy

I appreciate the in depth thoughts and response. What I have to count on is that visitors realize they can see the puzzles in the puzzle categories for 75% of the patterns right there on my site. I'm simply showing what the pattern will look like for the animals in the pattern categories, particularly for the 25% that I haven't cut and show on my site. I could link/display the exact same puzzle image for the items that I do have photos of, but then it would be a mix of puzzle images and images of patterns. I'll have to take a look at what you're referring to as far as fake puzzle images. Considering that before I started this 2 days ago, there was nothing but a single spot to order patterns and you had to type in the animal/breed without seeing anything at all other than the puzzles I have cut and show. It's certainly a work in progress.

I'm having Harvey modify my Carolina Beach and Kure Beach custom puzzles to non-puzzle format and I'll make a bunch of them strictly for retail stores. I'll continue making and selling the puzzle versions only at all events as that's my "thing". I actually don't like making the non-puzzle versions... way too many inside cuts. The Carolina Beach Sea Turtle is over 20 inside cuts... but it was much easier to paint the BEACH base with it being one piece instead of 7. So, it's a trade-off. I plan on gluing the animal to the base so it is a single piece. If there are 3 Carolina Beach sea turtles on the shelf and someone likes the shade of blue from one and the wood grain of the turtle on another they might try to swap and they won't lineup right since they're "hand cut" and not exactly the same.

Not critial at all, glad you asked. WTB has a tiny image of what looks like a cut puzzle. It can't be copied, so it can't be enlarged or anything. I didn't have that capability, nor do I have the time to cut all of the animals I have patterns for. Covering up a portion of the pattern was my solution. I made sure to leave the head and the first letter visible, and the legs or other features so people could get a rough idea of what the animal would look like. For the majority of them, they can see the actual puzzle that I've cut on my site.

As I've always been into puzzles, that's what I chose to cut and sell the past 18 months. I've tried putting them in shops/stores but they haven't done well and that's because they need to be shrinkwrapped as the stores of course don't want to have pieces of wood getting scattered around. But what happens is people don't grasp the concept of them being puzzles since they can't handle them, take them apart, etc. and sales have always sucked versus when I sell them at craft events and everyone can handle them and I can make my pitch. I finally had a brainstorm... I'm slow sometimes... What about doing them as non-puzzles and they can be displayed unwrapped and ready to go. I cut 2 of them today and will be showing them to my "focus group" (friends) and get their feed back. One of them is a shopowner that has some of my puzzles on display (2 of them unwrapped). This may be a new avenue to go down and be able to put them in various gift shops here in town. We'll see... Maybe it's my sales pitch that actually sells them. ;-) Iggy

241 done... only the dogs left to go... 140 of them... Tomorrow... or Friday...

What kind of puzzles? Actual puzzle puzzle or animal puzzle? I can speak about animal puzzle... I use the 3 step method 1) Outline 2) inside and relief cuts 3) individual puzzle pieces (letters)

Further proof why SSV is the best online community... Don and Rob, thanks for suggesting Gimp, I can do steps 1-5 all in there... It's saving me multiple steps and once I figure out the little nuances of the tool I'll be able to get the remaining 300+ images done much quicker.