Iguanadon

Don't give it a second thought man, no way you could have known and as they say... shit happens and I'm very used to it happening to me. ;-) I greatly appreciate all of the information, ideas and recommendations you've made as I've worked on the beast. It really seems to be close to running right at this point.

There's way too much history to recap, but I wanted to let those that have been following the saga know that I finally got up the nerve to try using the Hawk again after @kmmcrafts and others provided some feedback and ideas about my issues with vibration and blade wobble. I just finished cutting 5 outlines of puzzle animals and the saw worked well. No blade wobble, virtually no vibration... I'm not getting overly excited yet as I need to cut actual puzzle pieces, but things look very promising. I'd been so disgusted with things that I hadn't touched the Hawk in a few weeks. If I'd still had the box that it came in, I'd have shipped it back weeks ago. So, maybe this is an omen and I end up a happy Hawk user. We'll see, but I wanted to let everyone know I'm still trying to get it to work out. If I feel brave tomorrow, I'll cut some complete puzzles. Iggy

Yep, they're great. Amazon has them in various sizes as well. With and without casters. https://www.amazon.com/Seville-Classics-5-Tier-UltraZinc-Shelving/dp/B00CL9204C/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1507059500&sr=8-5&keywords=metal+shelving

If you've never seen the movie "Best In Show", you need to, it's HILARIOUS... Comedy/spoof of the dog show circuit. One of our favorite flicks. I could see myself traveling the circuit. LOL!

I have an event coming up the weekend after next, first time doing it... a dog show, here in my county. It's something like the 72nd annual event and I had no idea what to expect... Well, I just saw the "ring assignments"... It appears that there are about 560 dogs entering twice (both Saturday and then Sunday). And the list of about 112 different breeds participating is mind boggling. I take 63 breeds of dog puzzles with me normally and I'm going to have to expand that to try to cover as many as I can. There are several listed that I don't have patterns for, and some I've never even heard of. LOL This is going to be a wild one... http://www.hanoverkennelclub.net/2017_show_schedule_and_ring_assignments

And by the way, while Friday night at this event was a total waste, it's not that I'm disappointed in a bad show overall this weekend, I'm simply saying I can stick close to home with my weekly farmers market and be happier than traveling 90 minutes each way to sell only a few more puzzles than I average at my farmers market. No reason to stray far away when I don't have to.

Very cute, and a great little item. Folks like "cute" and "cheap". I like it.

Nice Kevin, I looked at the one you linked to and then saw these which could work very well for me. Thanks https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017XQ88FC/ref=pd_luc_rh_bxgy_02_03_t_img_lh?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Len, you always crack me up... I do have the boxes labeled on the side, but when they're stacked 5 or 6 high and the one I need is on the bottom, I have to unstack and then restack them. I have no trouble knowing where the items are that I need, I just need easier access to them.

Good thought Randy. I get such great responses to my puzzles and I sell enough to keep me busy week to week restocking after each event. Once sales start dwindling, I'll look at venturing into other items. But right now, I'm happy overall. I've sold 1400 puzzles in 16 months (12 months of actual selling time). I have a pretty good little niche, I literally hear a couple dozen times a day "I've never seen anything like these!" Once I flood the market I'll look at branching out. And keeping in mind, I truly enjoy making them and it's very relaxing to me as I cut them. Every 30 minutes I have a finished product, and my personality needs that immediate gratification.

I agree, but they'll have to be proven, solid, mega-events. No more small town "festivals". I live at the beach, I prefer having new potential customers coming to me. ;-)

A couple more complete pictures of the setup with the new ornaments...

So, I'm home from my latest 2 day event... and I'm exhausted and burnt out... And I've come to the decision and conclusion that unless an event is here in my town (on the island), or is in Southport, NC or in Cary, NC... I'm simply not going to bother. I've experimented and tried various "festivals" and events and they just aren't worth the extra time, energy, effort and travel. Two weeks ago was a Summer Harvest event 45 minutes from home. Two days long. I did the first day and didn't do the 2nd day. Mediocre sales. 38 puzzles This weekend was a wine festival event almost 90 minutes from home. 1 1/2 days long. Friday night SUCKED (4 puzzles) and today, even with absolutely perfect weather, had mediocre sales. 33 puzzles. Both of those weekends, I could have done my local farmers market 4 blocks from my house and done my average 26 puzzles in just 5 hours and been home by 2pm. It runs from Memorial Day weekend thru the first week of October each year. It's been a trial and error, learning experience in my first 16 months of selling. I wanted to try various venues and see what the best shows are. But these random festivals, etc just aren't worth it and quite honestly the clientele tend to think my price is a bit high. I'm better off with tourists and mega-events. I'm not whining or complaining... I'm just worn out. LOL I've pushed myself and worked hard at this and it's catching up to me. I still have a full schedule thru early December, but no more long distance "festivals". I know I'm fortunate to live in a tourist area and I need to simply capitalize on that and ride the wave as they say. P.S. the new little ornaments did quite well today, I sold 7 of them and I went with a price of $7 each at this event, but I think I can get $10 everywhere else. (I counted 3 ornaments as equaling 1 puzzle in my tally. When I charge $10, I'll count 2 ornaments as equaling 1 puzzle)

Weather was very nice. Overcast, but no threat of rain. Another thing was once it got dark... it was dark in the vendor area. I'll be glad to be back during daylight tomorrow and it should be much better.

NC Muscadine Festival... Friday evening and all day Saturday. Saturday had better be damn good, cuz Friday night SUCKED! :-) http://www.ncmuscadinefestival.com/ Gates opened at 5pm, I sold my first puzzle at 5:15... good start... but there just wasn't a crowd there at all tonight. Supposed to run til 9pm, but at 8pm I shut down for the evening. I'll head back in the morning for the 10am starting time and hope that the beautiful, perfect weather brings the crowd in. Sold 4 puzzles this evening. Tomorrow had better make up for tonight or I'll be scratching this event off my list for future years. Can't win 'em all.

I have the boxes labeled, but then they're all stacked on top of each other and I'm constantly having to unstack and restack to get to the ones I need at any particular moment.

I just came across this and immediately thought this might be my solution for organizing my stockpile of puzzles. During the off-season and in anticipation of big events, I cut tons of extras of my popular items but have just kept them in a giant box, or in some smaller boxes mixed together, having to sort thru them constantly. This may be an ideal way to organize them and have easy access to them. If not this exact thing, something similar. https://www.amazon.com/Whitmor-Hanging-Shoe-Shelves-Section/dp/B00KQ2E666/ref=sr_1_15?s=storageorganization&ie=UTF8&qid=1506696875&sr=1-15&keywords=closet+shoe+organizer

Lookin' good Roly. Hard to believe that Christmas season is upon us.

Hey Frank, they're simply Harvey's patterns shrunk down to 60%.

In advance of a 2 day event, Friday evening and all day Saturday, I'm putting strings through the holes I drilled in the ornaments that @Sam777 cut for me. I look forward to displaying them for the first time. Fingers crossed, see how it goes. New event/venue, so I have no idea what to expect. It's a wine festival. Drunk people shopping, I figure it was a good risk. ;-) They turned out fantastic.

Hi Nancy, Ruffling feathers now and again is good for blood flow. You're always welcome here. And you hit the nail on the head in everything you said, but especially when you said "To me, that's different than if someone simply wanted an animal that wasn't currently available, but would be suitable for anyone. In that case, I would think they would expect that the designer would add it to his inventory. They are simply paying a premium to get it before he got around to drawing it for general use....if he ever did for that animal." I've had a couple of requests for breeds of dog that Harvey hadn't already drawn. The customer paid the $20 fee and Harvey absolutely added it to his inventory as I would expect him to. The ones I recently custom ordered for myself, the PIG and the COW that say BBQ... I paid $20 each for those and I expect him to make them available if anyone were to want them. I paid to have something made that wasn't available based on my specific need. If someone else likes it and wants it, great. I'm glad they saw it, liked it and wanted it and it was now available. My 2 cents. Iggy

Nothing is ever simple any more, especially on the internet. LOL That's fine, I just smile and continue along my way.

I'm beginning to not like you too much Jim... LOL!

Duke has shown his fabulous version of the fairies, and here are my plain, unpainted, boring versions. There are 3 new patterns from Harvey, but these two were a big enough pain in the ass to cut, I may not even do the third one, it looks even more tedious. But they are beautiful. Harvey does nice work.

There is a site that does sell some of Harvey's old, original patterns in groups of 10 or so. It's some site that he first worked with about 2004 but he rarely sees any type of payment from them. Most of those patterns he has updated or re-drawn.