Iguanadon

Thanks for the input. I had my contractor quote me a price to build a wall to separate my entire shop area from the 2 car bays... I didn't want to go that route, but I have a feeling I'll have to do it. I knew there was a bunch of dust in my shed, but it was amazing how it spread everywhere, covering everything... I simply can't have that occur in the garage.

Closed on the new house Friday and started moving the workshop Saturday. Big step up for Iggy from a hotbox oven (garden shed) to a sizable area in a 2 1/2 car garage. My biggest concern is dust... after seeing how much dust was on EVERYTHING in the shed it really reinforced the need to do everything I can so as not to make a total mess in the garage. So, step one was creating a "cutting area" and I did this by setting my saw up in a corner and hanging plastic around it. This achieves two things actually... it gets rather hot in the garage and this way I can run my portable AC in the enclosed area and keep myself cool while also containing the dust. Last night I ordered a Dust Deputy from Amazon and look forward to setting it up to hopefully suck in a large portion of the dust created from cutting 35-40 of my animal puzzles each week. Here's a snapshot of the enclosure I quickly setup as an initial test yesterday. I call it my Dexter Kill Room. Today's chore was moving everything from the shed into the garage. (The new house is only 3 blocks from the old house). We move in officially this coming Friday after a crew builds a fence for the dogs and paints the interior of the house for us. Any ideas or thoughts are appreciated. Iggy

Here you go, just to totally confuse you even more. I personally like Olson blades. The PGT's are the best but they don't make them in a #3 so I use the Mach Speed. As already mentioned, it's a personal preference and since they're so inexpensive you can try out several varieties until you find what you like best. http://ep.yimg.com/ty/cdn/yhst-16765698503918/2015-scrollchart.pdf

Very nice. I look at intricate items like that and think "There's no way in the world I'd have the patience to finish that."

No magic, I use the bags 8"x11" purchased from Amazon. I have access to power at the farmers market and use a heat gun. I'm about to purchase this so that I will be sure to have power at any and all venues that I'm scheduled to work in the coming months. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EIAADG/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Thanks everyone. I posted this for 2 reasons... to share what I've learned as I've geared up doing these puzzles and to hear suggestions, recommendations and ideas from our village. I'm excited about trying to dip the pieces into mineral oil instead of brushing it on. I'll try that in a couple of weeks after we move into a new house next week. Keep the suggestions coming if anyone sees anywhere that I could improve my process.

Excellent question... transporting was a bit of a challenge at first. I tried standing each one in a box and lining them up like soldiers... but because of the varying body shapes, parts would fall off into the bottom and I had quite a mess and a real big puzzle jumble. Then I came up with this idea, see picture... large plastic tub with "layers" using rigid cardboard as stacking dividers. No more problems. I even had the tub fall over one time and I was amazed there were no broken pieces and everything stayed where it was. Thanks for the info about the oil based finishes... I'd love to be able to dunk the pieces instead of brushing on the oil. I'll definitely give that a try in the near future.

Thanks Rob. With the repositionable adhesive, don't you have to use something to clean/remove the adhesive after removing the pattern? By using the shelf liner paper and gluing the pattern to that, I don't have any residue to remove/clean. Thanks for the idea of the small compressor. I'll look into those... after I use the 12 cans of compressed air I just bought. LOL

Along the same lines as Mr. Ford, one of my favorite books growing up was "Cheaper By The Dozen" A great, fun, true story about an efficiency expert with 12 children. My favorite saying is "If you have a difficult task, give it to a lazy person, they will find an easier way." I'm the ultimate lazy person. ;-)

Yes, only cutting one at a time due to thickness of wood and using a #3 blade. Stacking wouldn't work in this case. I sell them for $25 each and I donate $5 of that to a dog rescue that my wife and I are members of. I live in a beach/vacation town so I have the luxury of having a fresh, new batch of customers every week.

Thanks hawkeye. The butcher block oil I use is mineral oil based. I'd be afraid to "soak" the pieces in mineral oil (or anything else) for fear of absorbing too much, swelling and then not allowing the puzzle pieces to slide together and apart. It's something I could certainly test though and if it works, it would definitely be a big time saver. Thanks for the idea.

Hi, I'm Iggy and as a relative newbie I thought I'd share my process for making my animal puzzles since I've seen some folks recently talking about them and showing what they've been making. My current sales outlet is a weekly farmers market on Saturday's for five hours. I average selling 26 pieces each week and since this is only a hobby for me along with my full time job I've worked at becoming efficient in my cutting process to ensure I can restock for the following Saturday. I will spend the winter months stockpiling my top 12-15 selling items so that I won't be in this situation next year having to restock everything I sell on a weekly basis. So, here are my steps with corresponding photos. 1) Do a dry layout on the board doing my best to have minimal waste by aligning the various body shapes. I snap a picture with my phone, remove the patterns, adhere my clear shelf liner paper on the board and spray adhesive on the entire surface. Using the picture I took, I duplicate the layout, sticking the patterns in place. 2) I then cut the long board into manageable pieces usually with 3 or 4 animals in each piece. 3) I then cut the outline of each animal and stack 'em up. 4) Next is to drill holes in each animal as needed for eyes, closed loop letters, etc 5) And then it's time to start cutting each one into their puzzle pieces. I use compressed cans of air to blow the sawdust out of the fine detail cuts after removing the pattern. 6) After I've cut 20 of them I dip each one in the mineral oil fully assembled and lay them out on a drying rack to sit for a couple of days to soak in. 7) Tada! finished product. I display them, then when I sell a piece, I shrinkwrap it on the spot for the customer. When I first got started with these puzzles 3 months ago, each one took me an hour from beginning to end. I now have it down to 30 minutes each and that's probably about as efficient as I can get it as I don't want to rush through them. I enjoy cutting them and want to continue enjoying it. And you'll notice there is no mention of sanding or filing, I don't need to do either of those things. List of materials used: - Harvey Byler patterns purchased thru Wooden Teddy Bear (I now sell Harvey's patterns, so if you see a puzzle on my website, I have the pattern and can sell it to you for $2.50 each and I email them out right away at no extra cost) - 12" wide poplar - Duck Brand Peel N' Stick Laminate Adhesive Shelf Liner - 3M General Purpose 45 adhesive spray - #3 Mach Speed Olson blades - UltraSource Food Grade Mineral Oil (from Amazon, by the gallon) Total cost of materials for each puzzle is around $2.50 Anyway, not sure if this will be of interest to many of you, but I figured I'd toss it out here. Iggy (the pictures didn't upload in the correct order, but you'll get the idea) (Updated 4/4/17 with new oiling process I use)

Good question, I'm not really sure how many puzzles I get out of each bottle of conditioner but it's a lot... 50-60 or more. The good thing about the poplar soaking up finishes is that in this case you want it to soak up the oil and it continues to look good.

I brush on a coat on all surfaces of each piece with a small brush. I usually sit and oil 10 of them at a time and then I let them sit overnight which allows most of the oil to soak in and saves time and effort wiping off excess. Here's the oil I use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KSV38NC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 And these small brushes: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006Z83W4M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Let me know if any other questions, I'm happy to offer my processes as I've tried various things over the past 3 months. Iggy

Nice work Nathan. My 2 cents... I use poplar and a butcher block mineral oil finish and that's it and I really like how they look. The oil brings out the wood color and grain. You can see mine at the link below in my signature.

I personally prefer Olson, the Precision Ground #5 are excellent. I wish they made a PG #3 but since they don't. so I use the Mach #3 and I buy them by the gross.

I'm counting down, 2 weeks from tomorrow til we close on the new workshop, I mean the new house... I can't wait to get setup and start buying new toys to fill all the space I'll have.

I'm still a newbie, Country Girl. I started cutting the dog puzzles 2 months ago and as luck would have it I live 3 blocks from a weekly farmers market that has local artists set up tents and sell on Saturdays from 8am to 1pm. And I'm in a tourist beach town so it's a whole new batch of potential customers every week. I've done much better than I expected, averaging 23 items each Saturday. My worst was 14 and my best was 35 so far in the 7 weeks I've done it. I am meeting fellow vendors and am learning about other events in the area and I'm signing up for them as I hear about them. Other than that, I have a Facebook page (see link in my signature below). This is all just a hobby for me. I work full time (from home).

I had a similar issue with 1/8" pirate flags I was cutting in black walnut. I finally found these... they work very well. I pre-drill small holes in order to insert the clips. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XHO6PU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I wish I was that artistic. The patterns are by Harvey Byler and his animal puzzle patterns can be purchased from Wooden Teddy Bear http://www.woodenteddybearonline.com/ (look under PATTERNS and PUZZLES) Interesting story actually... He's Amish and lives in Ohio... Long story short, I'm now in communication with him and he made me a couple of custom patterns last week that I requested as well as supplying the musical instrument patterns and he has offered his expertise so that I can now offer my customers the option of having their dog's name in the body rather than the breed. He's going to charge me $20 for each one that I'll pass to the customer without any additional upcharge from me. Mr. Byler will make the pattern, mail it to me and I'll cut it. I made these 2 yesterday as soon as I received the patterns. Pepper the Poodle... http://screencast.com/t/vo9iUnmqNtrb Joey the Cattle Dog... http://screencast.com/t/7mhKIeMT

Thanks everyone. I look forward to the festival. Even if I don't sell much I get 2 days of music. ;-)

I had previously mentioned that I've signed up to do a Seafood, Jazz and Blues Festival in October and was looking for special items for that event. I was able to find these patterns, done by the same gentleman who does all of the animals that I normally do. I'll have my usual set-up, but simply adding these items. I have one more to do, a Fiddle. The saxophone was a royal pain in the rump... Not difficult, just more detailed than most things I do... I'll be charging a premium price for that one. The festival is also a full 2 day event which will be a new experience for me. So far I've only done my local farmers market which is 5 hours every Saturday.

Outstanding work and rightfully honored.

I'm cheap and because I use so much of it, instead of using blue painters tape, I use this... common shelf paper, then spray adhesive to adhere the pattern to it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AS9NC6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Nice work Todd. See my facebook page link below, I do animal puzzles and sell them at a local farmers market. I charge $25 and $5 of that goes to a dog rescue that my wife and I are members of, so in essence, I sell for $20. Mine are made from Poplar with a butcher block oil finish. There is a woman on Etsy that sells them and only charges $12.49. She uses plywood, just like you do. I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have. Iggy