Hapless

I have an EX30 - I'm a total beginner but read loads of reviews and finally went with the Excaliber and I am absolutely delighted with it. Low vibration - easy blade change - tensioning etc. If I have a small gripe I would have liked a rounded blade change nut rather than the plastic wingnut type but I guess you could change this fairly easily. I find that with prolonged use my fingers get a bit sore locking and unlocking the blade. I find the tilting head excellent and the angle guage pretty accurate as well. I am still learning how to get the best out of this machine but so far I do not regret getting this one bit and have already turned out some great stuff with it. Would advise getting a footpedal and the stand to go with this - its a very heavy piece of kit if moving it around a bench etc. 5 stars from me !!

Hi Richard - thats brilliant - thx so much for the info - will get straight on to them !!

Thanks again for all the advice! will certainly try all of the methods given here - oh and I have put some pictures in an album - very amateur work but my first attempts.!!

Hi Dick - I live between Hannover and Hildesheim if that helps !! and thanks for the welocme - appreciated

Hi Everyone - and thank you vry much for the welcome. So much good advice already and some questions to answer!! I prefer using normal blades not spirals but got a load with the saw so was going to use them for something. I moved to Germany as my wife is German and I prefer it to Spain or some of the other "brit hotspots" no offence to cousins in Aus etc!! I have various projects on the go but dont get a lot of time just at the moment as I am spending most of my days trying to get my house sorted. I do speak abit of German and its getting better every day - can hold a basic conversation and order beer which is very important. I will post some pics of stuff I am doing/done but I am really interested in clocks and intricate designs including compound cutting (being an ex aircraft engineer in HM Forces I like difficult stuff) I have browsed the patterns directory and couldnt see any compound ones in there?? Maybe I'm going blind as well as infirm. Thanks for the links to purchase blades - I take it they are posted from US - do I have to pay additional taxes on these on arrival - does anyone know? Once again - thanks for the warm welcome.

Hi All, My name is Mark - originally from England and have just settled down in Germany - retired due to an injury whilst serving as a Police officer in UK I decided I needed a hobby that I could easily cope with and found that scollsaw work was just the ticket so I went out and researched the net for advice. Eventually settled on an Excaliber EX30 which I am very very pleased with. I have turned out some reasonable items so far and have loads of patterns still to do. I do have a problem sourcing wood boards here for a decent price so all my stuff at the moment is done with plywood. I have done a few chess pieces with compound cutting and they turned out great even though they were only in pine scraps that I had left over from a project. I am so glad that I found this forum - it is packed with great things and I am still searching about the various areas. A couple things I would like to ask is 1. Does anyone know where I can get Flying Dutchman blades here in Germany 2. Why do I keep breaking so many spiral blades - normally when applying tension to the smaller ones even thought the tension adjuster is just about off on the saw!! Any tips appreciated!!