[vaderknightrider]

I cleaned mine out to get rid of all the dust <cough cough>, checked the batteries to see if it still works (yippee), and now I'm ready to start carving.

Bring on the pumpkins!!!

[Pumpkingrower]

Just got my first power saw we will see how it works. I know the pure volume of my plans this year made me invest the $7.88, that is alot of cutting and I know my hands get tired just transferring stencils. If I don't like it I know my kids have already started taking numbers to see who gets to use it first.

[Flak]

I got my saw. Can't wait to try it, I'm having so much fun just holding down the button and staring at the saw

[rosesrunred]

I used the Hallowen Works saw from kmart. I was scared to use it on the pattern at first but it actually cut very well along the pattern and it was much easier than sawing by hand. i didnt put the power on for small areas i did that by hand.

[Patti]

I tried the PM power saw today. It's OK on the long lines but I found that it really didn't speed things up. It bogged down quite a bit on the really hard pumpkins.

I can cut faster with a good, sharp saw.

On the other hand, the lines I did use it for came out nice and clean with little pumpkin shreding on the inside. (Probably regional but I have the stringiest pumpkins ever this year)

I'll probably just use it for long lines to save my hands, but I would say it's worth the 8.00 or so that it cost.

[Kittie]

I dont know if anyone else got the poker with their saw, but I bought a model from this year and it came with a poker attachment and holy cow does that work awesome!! The only problem we had is since we did 26 pumpkins, the poker is dull now.

[belli]

I dont know if anyone else got the poker with their saw, but I bought a model from this year and it came with a poker attachment and holy cow does that work awesome!! The only problem we had is since we did 26 pumpkins, the poker is dull now.

Since I still use the poking method to transfer my patterns, I purchased the PM battery operated Saw/Poker. It is kind of scary at first and if you aren't careful, you can get out of line. I also found that it is better on large areas. The pattern I carved had some letters at the bottom and I didn't even want to attempt using the fast poker on that section. For the straight lines or larger sections of patterns, it works great. After poking 15+ patterns in a day, my hand gets tired so I plan on using this tool for certain sections of patterns that I plan on carving this year.

I purchased the tool with a 40% off coupon so I figured it was worth a try. Here are the photos:







I don't plan on lighting this pumpkin, just did it for the results. My mom is planning on using it as a planter so I am going to cover the inside of the pumpkin with wax paper so the pattern is noticeable. It's a Michael's brand small pumpkin, not the smallest size but the next size up. I used the versa tool to carve out the pattern.

Since I tested the tool on a foam pumpkin, we'll see how it works on the real pumpkins that I'll be carving just before Halloween.

[Kittie]

I have used it with the poker. The tips get dull after about 5 pumpkins.

[Kittie]

The power poker works like a mini jackhammer, and it really does work well, even around curved lines, but it dulls out way to fast for me.

[belli]

I tired the saw/poker tool last year too. I was too afraid to try it on the letters but it worked on the straight lines. I guess once you get used to how the tool works, you can attempt the harder pattersn that have move curves etc.

[Kittie]

My husband wants to try to modify it this year and use a pin head or something that we can replace easier then the poker. We went through all of our pokers! hehehe

[vaderknightrider]

I haven't picked up the power poker yet and already I'm trying to come up with different ideas to modify the plastic poker. Instead of the plastic, I'm thinking of just getting rid of it and having some kind of metal holder that will hold a small nail or a thumbtack. But I do agree that any kind of metallic point will work well. I've got several of the plastic pokers and they are all dulled from use.

[pumpkinnut]

The power poker works great and even better when you take a saw tip and grind it down to the same lenth as the plastic poker. I did all my pumpkin patterns this year with one poker I made the saw blade very sharp, so it was almost like using a tattoing needle . If you let your pumpkin sit a few days the lines will raise up on the pumpkin. but make sure that the poker is not to long if you let your pumpkins sit a few days some of my pumpkins sat for over 2 weeks poked and ready to carve.