Hello from Minnesota

[Kevtron]

Hello I am new to scrolling. What peek my interest was watching videos on YouTube of intarsia and wooden toy making. I have been on a mission to equip a hobby shop in my garage for something to occupy my time and keep me busy during retirement. I plan on retiring in 4 years at the age of 60. The goal has been to put together equipment that gives me a broad range of capability without spending a fortune. I have been buying equipment second hand mostly older equipment in good shape and built well for reasonable prices and some outright steals. For example my table saw I purchased last fall is a Delta X5 contractors saw with Biesemeyer fence for $100 of of Craig’s List. It needed a little clean up but in the end a great saw. That leads me into my latest purchase and this community. I recently purchased my first scroll saw a green Excalibur EX21. It looked like it was sitting in a barn or garage for awhile. The owner said it was his grandmothers and he inherited it. He built his winning pinewood derby car with it when he was younger with his grandmother. He is not interested anymore and has no use for it. He wanted $150 for it but after I drove 2 hrs to his place it didn’t run. We thought it was the fuse but didn’t have a spare and the local hardware store was closed. I decided to take a chance and offed him a $100. When I got it home I tested the fuse and it was good. I was concerned then the motor was bad however I disconnected it and connected it to my Ryobi 18v battery and it ran smoothly. So now we are looking at the control board. I removed the electronics from the saw so I could work on it on the bench. The control board was getting the 120v coming in but no DC voltage out to the motor. The control board didn’t have any burn marks or obvious failed parts. I turned my attention to the potentiometer that controls the speed. When I measured the full resistance across the end terminals it was 18.5K ohms a good value   I then checked resistance from the end terminals to the wiper and it was unusable in the 3-4M ohm range. That was the likely culprit. I sprayed some electronics cleaner into the potentiometer and rotated back and forth then rechecked perfectly operational. I connected back to the control board and now I was getting output voltage to the motor. I reassembled the electronics into the saw and now it was operating smoothly. What a relief a little more clean up and I think I got a nice scroll saw for my money and time. 

Here are the before and after photos. What do you think? How did I do? Do you have any tips, insights or other things I should know about this saw?

I hope it works out to be a good saw for me.

[Dak0ta52]

Welcome to the Village from North Carolina.

[Scrappile]

Welcome to the forum.  Those old green Excaliburs were what started it for that type of saw.  If you need parts or info, check with Seyco.com.  they carry parts and are very willing to help.

[jerry walters]

Welcome from Colorado.

[daveww1]

welcome to the village

[Wichman]

Welcome to the village from SE Idaho 

[Denny Knappen]

Welcome to the Village Forum from Tennessee.  My second saw was the EX21, but it was the black and gold 30th edition.  I still have it and it runs great.  My saw at ArtCrafters is the Pegas 21" Scroll Saw.

[Dan]

Welcome to the Village from Ohio!

[rjweb]

Welcome from Texas, RJ

[Scrolling Steve]

Welcome aboard, glad to have you join the family of scrollers!

[AUTOMILE]

Welcome from Ohio!

[OCtoolguy]

Welcome from California. You got a great deal on a great saw. Take it apart and service all the bearings before using it too much. I guarantee the grease in them has dried up. Then buy a set of Pegas blade clamps. They are the best. I have them on both of my saws. Keep an eye on the switch and speed control for dust as you have already discovered. Never lift the saw by it's upper arm and make sure the arm is parallel with the table. You can get a reprint of the manual online. Maybe even here in our library. Show us your work as you go along. We love watching folks progress in the hobby. Do a lot of reading here. You won't find a better source of info. 

Edited 1 hour ago by OCtoolguy