Iguanadon

Just saw this one yesterday...

A successful test. I gave one of the little paint kits to my daughter and asked her to try it out with our 4 year old grand-daughter. Wren had a blast and the colors turned out better than I thought they would. I just ordered additional kits and brushes to offer for sale at future events. I'm paying my daughter right now to paint the kids dinos for me as she is saving up for a trip with a friend. After the trip I'm going to stop selling them painted and simply sell them unpainted with the little paint sets. I have my daughter painting one of the Triceratops using each of the 6 main colors in the paint set, one color for each puzzle piece which I'll put on display to show how well they work.

Well crap... not looking good for my show this Saturday. What was looking like maybe a scattered shower is now looking like a possible all day rain event... The one day out of the next 10 that is rainy. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes. I'll check the radar Saturday morning and make a determination of whether to go or not. Obviously my wood animals do not like rain, not to mention the vastly diminished crowd that would attend.

We have a great community here, don't we? I'm coming up on my 1 year anniversary of making the animal puzzles and in one month will mark 1 year that I started selling them. Without SSV I would have flopped on my face. I hope I'm able to give back even a fraction of what I learned. Are you saying I talk a lot? ;-)

Love the sign Tony, great work.

Very nice work Joe. Keep 'em comin'.

One of the many reasons I enjoy my hobby is the array of animals that I get to make. Sure, they're all still animal puzzles, but this is a great example of the mix that I make on a weekly basis as I restock after an event. Dogs, wild animals, farm animals, and even 3 custom dogs with their names in the body that were ordered. The rest of this week is going to be spent making my new Carolina Beach and Kure Beach sea critters to be unveiled at my event on May 20th. My next event is this Saturday the 13th, one that I didn't realize I'd been accepted to until I received my vendor package via email this past Saturday morning. The weather forecast is looking a bit iffy with some possible rain showers, but it won't be a total rain-out, so we'll see how it goes. Iggy

Ah yes, the ol' blade questions... Always interesting. Here's a great reference sheet that may be useful. http://ep.yimg.com/ty/cdn/yhst-16765698503918/2015-scrollchart.pdf Otherwise... it all depends on what type of work you're doing... what type of wood, how thick, how intricate, etc, etc, etc. By all means, feel free to ask questions. The easiest is if you see someone showing a piece of their work, ask them what blade(s) they used and you'll get a good idea of what to use in specific circumstances. Iggy

Thanks Freddy, I appreciate it. I've put a decent amount of thought and work into my overall layout, including building the 3 large display stands as well as the smaller ones to showcase 1 to 4 items. We'll see if my display is truly stellar as my show coming up on May 20th includes a prize for best display by an artist. ;-)

FYI - Vistaprint is having a sale... 50% off business cards and 40% off everything else thru May 16th. Use code SALE40. I just ordered 1,000 cards for $20. Reminder, always choose the cheapest shipping method, they always ship out within a couple of days. Whatcha think? Iggy

Outstanding work. I'm glad I clicked on it. Based on the title, I was a little afraid to... "just my junk"... modern slang almost scared me off as I was afraid of what I'd see pictures of... :-D

Nice work. I use #3 blade (Olsen Mach Speed) and I cut mine from Poplar, not that it matters.

Tony, your cardboard backers are nice, and as long as you have cardboard handy and the time to present your items that way, great. If however you're looking for an easier way, I use these shrink wrap bags and a heat gun (or hair dryer) to package my puzzles. Quick and easy and I put one of my cards inside each package. Just a suggestion. I'm also able to do it at events in which I have access to electricity. http://a.co/5dq278f Iggy

It's Crayola paint. That should keep parents happy. ;-) I'll report back after the grand-Iglet test and I'll take 5 sets with me to my event next Saturday and can report if any sold.

Someone commented on one of my posts recently with an idea of offering paint kits to go along with the unpainted dinosaurs I sell. I've searched and looked and can't find who suggested it, I want to be sure to give credit where credit is due. Speak up if it was you as it was a very good idea the more I thought about it. So, I peeked around on Amazon and found these little sets... http://a.co/3W9PuXd If I buy them in bulk, along with brushes in bulk, my cost would be less than $3.00 for a "kit" that I would offer for $5.00 I currently sell the painted dino's for $15 and unpainted for $10. If someone buys an unpainted one and a kit, they're still spending $15, but they have a paint kit they can use for other things. Whatcha think? I've ordered a couple that I'm going to give to my grand-daughter along with an unpainted dino and have her paint it and see how it goes. Iggy

I just told my wife about the surprise event and she asked "Are you going to do it? You were just talking yesterday about being worried about being stocked up in time for the event on the 20th???!!!" I'll figure it out. :-)

Well... I'm in. Saturday May 13 the Carolina Strawberry Festival, 100 vendors strong. I figured when I hadn't received a confirmation email by yesterday that they realized their error and had dropped me from the real vendor list. But lo and behold I wake up this morning to an email with my vendor pass in it. Too funny. Well now I have to really get some cutting done now that I have an extra show to do and I have a big one coming up the following Saturday. You'll find Iggy in booth 308. http://nebula.wsimg.com/441c3b1d4352a9648eac19a3b4a014ef?AccessKeyId=188B66AF66E7F801F0F1&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

Yep, 6 gallon Shop-Vac, this one. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Shop-Vac-6-Gallon-3-Peak-HP-Shop-Vacuum/50159051 I had the manual and pulled up the website, filled out the online form and they emailed me the next day letting me know they'd send me a new motor. I was very pleased. Good service.

Just got an email that the replacement motor for my Shop-Vac is on the way, it'll be here Tuesday. In the meantime I hooked up a small shop-vac I had sitting around to my Dust Deputy and it's actually working pretty well. Here is my setup. I cut inside the plastic "room" and I have all of this sitting outside of it so it doesn't collect dust. The hose from the Dust Deputy runs into my cutting room and I have it strapped to the underside of my saw, under the little hole the blade goes thru and it sucks at least 80% of the sawdust. It's fantastic.

Very nice Tony. The wife and I are big supporters of various dog rescues, etc. If you'd like the pattern for this puzzle, let me know and I'll email it to you. It's one of my top sellers.

Ugh, my ShopVac died a couple of days ago... as in burning smell, smoke in the air... I use it in conjunction with a Dust Deputy and it works GREAT. I didn't realize how much dust it was truly sucking up until I don't have it. Now I leave my cutting area and I'm covered head to toe with fine dust. Fortunately it was a heavy duty one with a good warranty and I emailed them yesterday. They replied today to let me know they're shipping me a replacement motor. Very cool. They didn't even ask for a receipt. Thank goodness since I didn't have it. I just bought it back in October. I have it hooked up to my foot pedal so that it comes on and off with my saw. I had wondered if that would be stressful on the motor and I guess the answer is yes. But, oh well, it works great and it'll be worth the money if I have to replace the vac every so often. Just another cost of doing business.

Thanks everyone. It was an absolute blast and I love watching the kids have such a great time. The teachers idea was absolutely brilliant. The dino's are what I started scrolling, making them for my grand-daughter and you could say they're the cornerstone of the Iggy empire now as I broadened my puzzle making to everything you guys see me cutting today. The patterns for the dino's can be found in this book, I don't have permission to sell those. Definitely my best investment as I sell quite a few of them at every event. https://www.amazon.com/Making-Wooden-Dinosaur-Toys-Puzzles/dp/1565238907/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1565238907&pd_rd_r=DRN4W6NYMH64G6PSY4CX&pd_rd_w=c5tkE&pd_rd_wg=OzFBj&psc=1&refRID=DRN4W6NYMH64G6PSY4CX

A year ago in April, I donated about 40 of my kids dinosaur puzzles to the local elementary school. One of the teachers called a week later asking what other species I could cut. Reason she asked is that she was going to have a "dinosaur dig" in which her 1st graders would act as paleontologists and dig up "fossils" and my puzzles would be perfect for it. I was amazed at the idea, I thought it was fabulous. I gladly made her 4 specific puzzles and a couple of weeks later she had her dig. I even went and spoke to the class and showed them an actual fossil I owned thanks to a paleontologist friend of mine. Well, today was Dinosaur Dig 2017, I was invited to attend again and what a fun time it was for me. Oh, and the kids too. :-) Just a real quick overview... This is a 1st grade class with about 25 children. There are 4 tables, each table has a bucket of sand with dinosaur "bones" buried in it. The children have tools that a paleontologist would use at a dig site and they begin to unearth fossils. They then have to clean them off, assemble them and then identify which species they found. Then in their log book they answer questions specific for that species. After they all finish, the bones are re-buried, the kids rotate to a new table and do it again until they've dug up all 4 species and written about them. I am so thrilled that my silly little puzzles have a practical and educational use. I look forward to supplying more "fossils" for years to come. Iggy

Modified pattern... the last "A" in Carolina bothered me... New and previous version... and a closeup of the new version.

FYI, I didn't like the last 'A' in CAROLINA as it was drawn, so I just modified the pattern and will cut the new version tomorrow.