kmmcrafts

From my experience and what I've seen from other members both here and elsewhere.. the main issue inside the back part is usually that larger bearing in that pivot rod.. That said though.. The whole saw has to come apart to get that out and inspect it good, so might as well clean / grease and replace what is needed. I hated to use that old sleeve on my new bearing but.. I figure as it sets the saw really doesn't owe me anything. I got my money out of it before the first tear down and regrease job. I knew then it wasn't going to last long as both bearings and sleeves was bad.. The worst was that big bearing.. sleeve was worn some but the bearing was toasted.. Since I had to pull it completely apart I did inspect the bearings / grease and all looked real good.. Just that darn 1/32" shorter sleeve ( may have been a little more than that much as I didn't have my glasses on and didn't use any calipers or anything.. Like to have but I was really just wanting to get it back together as my dinner was almost ready, LOL Eventually I'm going to order a Pegas ( I think ) or a used ( real ) Excalibur or Hegner if a deal pops up.

Well, after getting caught up on my orders I took a better look at the EX-21 and found the issue to not be a bad bearing or sleeve, but rather a mistake on my part during the rebuild last fall. Turns out there is a difference in the length of the sleeve, not by much but enough that the sleeve wasn't getting pinched together enough to tighten it all down good. I ended up having to use my original sleeve, luckily it wasn't too bad of shape. That would be one more difference in the China made saw too then.. Kind of baffles me how it ran good like that for as many hours as I run the thing.. I didn't run it much after putting it all back together and tuned again.. but what little I did run it, it ran really well again so.. Yay..

I need to haul my trailer load of scrap in.. should take my van on a one way drive to it's final destination too, LOL Problem is I don't have a replacement for it yet. Been a great van, too bad the rust has taken its toll on it. Bought it 12 years ago for $2800 to haul the family around, now the kids are grown I don't really need a minivan anymore but I may end up buying another.. Nice to be able to fold the seats down into the floor and haul 4 x 8 sheets of ply or 10ft. boards etc.. and not have any of it get wet if it's raining or snowing. Dang my old Dodge pick-up can't even haul as much as the box is only a 6.5 ft box. Now days trucks with a 8 ft. bed are hard to find. Anyway the old van.. never did anything to it other than normal maintenance. Pushing 300,000 miles.. I've put 150,000 on it myself. Maybe if scrap is high enough I could get another van,

Not sure how Lawson does it but I use a clear drying wood glue and mix the sawdust into the glue.. stir it up good and keep adding more sawdust until you get the desired consistency.. I've never bought or used actual wood fillers.. When I saw I will take some of the sawdust and store it in the same test tubes I keep my saw blades in.. mark it for whatever type of wood it is..

The bearing can easily be changed.. The issue is you cannot buy the oddball sized sleeve insert. I have a press and have pressed the bearings out / in when taking the saw apart a couple years ago to do a clean-up / grease job. I found a worn bearing ( same one ) and sleeve back then.. and I tried sourcing bearings which I was able to find.. but the sleeve insert is oddball sized.. So I just cleaned / greased it and ran it until it broke. LOL.. Then bought everything new except the electronics and replaced it all last fall. Yeah I have a neighbor / good friend who is a supervisor for a local machine shop.. I can get him to make the sleeve.. I just honestly don't have much respect for the saw at this point. I picked it up in late Nov. 2017.. didn't set it up Feb. 2018. I've had this saw apart 3 times in this amount of time.. Not sure if I got a bad lemon and then another bad lemon in replacement parts or these saws are just not make to work very long, LOL.. The complete rebuild last fall cost me over $300 in parts.. Not doing that again for a 6-8 months use.. LOL.. I do throw a lot of work at these saws though so maybe that's just the life expectancy of them.. I honestly don't NEED the saw anyway.. I do like using it though.. I do have 3 Hawks that hardly ever give me any trouble. I may order a Pegas as they supposedly upgraded this particular bearing to a heavier duty larger one. I'll keep this saw around for some parts.. or strip the good parts and send it to the scrap pile..

I don't think you understood what I was referring to with the roll pin, or else I'm mis-understanding your question. I was talking about the roll pin in the blade holder / clamp in the picture below.. They started with a roll pin but found the pin can bend when too much tension is applied or just being tensioned a lot over the years.. This is now made with a solid steel pin. I think you was referring to the pin that holds the nose assembly on? There should be a little play in that as you don't want it binding etc. and I believe this is still a roll pin on the new saw.. I'd have to look at mine to be sure of that though..

The blade clamps are different from the Ultra to the new BM series but the BM series shares the same clamp as the G4 Hawks.. They are pretty close to the same but they rounded off the corners on the G4 / BM series.. This is the Ultra lower blade holder: http://stores.bushtonhawkstore.com/lower-ultra-blade-holders/ And this is the G4 / BM series.. note the rounded corners. http://stores.bushtonhawkstore.com/g4-blade-holders/ I think the G4 / BM series is also slightly wider.. The Ultra ones fit in the BM as I've tried that.. but the BM ones don't fit into the Ultra. Also note that the early Ultra blade clamps pin that goes through are not a solid steel pin and they can and do get bent sometimes.. They no longer make them with the hollow ( roll pin ) because of the failure of them bending.

Yes, I've seen many different solutions to hold that lever in the locked position.. Watching craigslist and other online market places for used equipment I've seen people use springs, cable ties, etc. etc. Thing is.. when shopping for a saw you have to realize this isn't right and that you eventually going to have a larger problem. Yet many of those people still asking $400+ for a saw like that.. And yeah it can be repaired with the upgrade kit.. so long as you don't get carried away trying to press that roll pin out and you do have a high risk of damaging the arm if you don't use actual roll pin punch set to press that pin out.. Good idea to soak it down a few days ahead of time with some penetrating oil. Don't know if Bushton still makes arms for those older saws or not.. But, I personally would have to consider this in the purchasing price of any Hawk saw.. It's not really a part that wears out very often.. even if you do not ever oil it... and maybe that's why the roll pin can be a bugger to get out.. likely been in there for many years..

Here is some pictures. This photo is the upgrade kit on my old 220VS Another view of the update kit on the 220VS View of the underside of the upgrade kit on the 220VS and the set screw This is a shot of my 226VS Ultra View of the oil hole on the 226 Ultra. This hole allows you to get oil onto the cam and set screw.. The old 220VS doesn't have this hole. I used grease on it during assembly to prolong the life of the cam & set screw.. even so.. Once the upgrade kit is installed it's just removing the set screw and pulling the lever out.. change the cam and put it back together.. The original style I would have to press that roll pin out and change the whole assembly.. This is where I get resistance.. the lever won't actually go freely down to the arm This is a shot of the set screw on the underside of the arm on the 226 Ultra.. Here is a video of me locking and unlocking tension on the 226 Ultra. There is no blade in the saw... This is how it should "lock" the tension correctly.

I'll try to explain this: The end of the longer piece (number 5 ) circled and marked with a number 1 is the set screw. Number 2 is the tension cam.. just a round piece of steel with a hole off centered and a set screw to clamp it to the handle ( number 3). That cam sets in the spot where number 1 is on the longer piece. As the cam wears it only wears out the cam and the set screw.. The old style has no set screw and actually wears the end of that long piece (number 5) out and then you have to change the whole thing. The update allows you to just change the cam and set screw. Then you don't risk damaging the saw arm trying to press that roll pin ( number 4 ) out to change the whole assembly.. as they can be a bugger to press out if they've been in there for years.. The set screw I'm taking about should be placed on the under side of the arm piece at the end where it pivots and should be pretty close to directly under where the cam lever ( number 3 ) goes through the arm. It's really small and hard to see as it's usually recessed in the small hole.. Being under side of the arm and such a small hole.. it's kind of hard to see.

The updated kit has the hole on the bottom of it.. the set screw is on that longer piece in the kit. It's not actually on the saw arm.. it's on that nose / end piece that pivots up inside the arm.. I'll see if I can get a photo of mine after a while.

Well that is new to me, I thought they had this option on all the Ultras and even some before the Ultras came out.. Guess I'm wrong on that thought, LOL My Ultra has the older style nose and clamping system but it has the hole and the set screw.. but when that wears out I'm going to do the upgrade one like my new BM-226 has.. I did this on my old 220VS and love it. Here is the link to the upgrade, http://stores.bushtonhawkstore.com/upper-blade-holder-bracket-conversion-kit/ Reading the the description it says for the Ultra saws so I guess maybe they all didn't have the set screw and oil hole. Anyway this is the newest style they have on the new saws like my BM-226.. and it works on the older saws as well.. this was the fix for my tension issues on my 1993 220VS. I don't think they even offer that old of style anymore in parts. What will happen when that gets worn bad is.. you won't be able to keep tension on the blade.. and the lever will push down against the arm but when you let go of it it'll pop back up some.. especially when running.. It should lock down right against the arm and stay. My 220VS was worn so bad that they had a rubber band to hold the lever down.. you can run it that way once it gets to that point though you need to upgrade to the new one.

I bet you have the set screw.. I'm pretty sure the pre ultra saws had them.. I could be wrong though.. The set screw is really small and hard to see. It is also recessed into the arm a little and you need a very small allen wrench to turn it. I'll try to remember to take some photos of it tomorrow and of how the tension lever is to be adjusted etc. If you don't have the set screw you're probably getting close to needing a new tension cam then.. I had to replace the one on my 1993 old hawk with the round barrel style lower clamp.. I upgraded to the new style so I can replace just the cam rather than changing the whole assembly. The upgrade cost like $50 but well worth it and it has the set screw adjuster too. Yes my ultra has the same 4 spacer looking bearings. If you take the arm off you'll see that one side of the bearing is open and you can see the ball bearings inside it. I'm not certain I should have greased mine but that is what I did.. plus I also do put a drop or two of oil on those areas about every 25 hours run time.. The bearings in the pitman arm are sealed bearings and do not require grease.. only throw them out and get new ones when they go bad.. In the past I used to carefully pry out the oil seal and you can pump a little grease in them with a needle grease fitting on a grease gun.. I don't recommend this if you've never done it unless the bearing is going bad and you're just trying to prolong some more live from it. Those bearings are only around $5-6 anyway.

My 1998 Ultra doesn't have sealed bearings either as I've had it apart. Well they might be considered sealed but they are actually cage bearings. All metal and they are down recessed in so it'd be hard for dust to get in them.. so maybe that is why they are called sealed? Anyway I took mine out.. dry as a bone.. Not sure it was the right thing to do but I put a high end synthetic grease on them. There should be a couple drops of oil placed on the wedge at the back of the saw.. and there should be a small hole on the top of the upper arm to put a drop of oil in that lubes up the tension cam and lever. The older saws don't have the access hole for oiling the tension cam.. Also a good idea to adjust the tension cam set screw if needed at every 25 hours of use during the oiling maintenance. The tension lever ( without a blade in it ) should have some resistance when flipping it back to the tensioning position before it reaches to where it would touch the arm.. That should start getting some resistance about 1/8 - 1/4 inch above where the lever would meet the arm.. Hope that makes sense.. If not I'll do a short video to show it and where the set screw is.. Real small screw on the underside of the upper arm.. should be almost under where the lever goes into the arm.. If that isn't adjusted to have some resistance then it can make you break blades or loose tension. The wedge at the back of the saw should have a fairly sharp point to it where it rest on the arm as well, If that gets rounded over it will also make the tension flex and can cause blade breakage issues.

You got that right, I've worked the crap out of that new Hawk I bought a few years ago.. Actually serviced it today with it's few drops of oil in the recommended spots and that is why I was running the Excalibur today.. I like the oil to set on the saw for a few hours before running it, otherwise it flings oil all over the place, LOL so I let it set for a few hours and then wipe off any excess oil before running it. Waxed the table etc.. good to go for another 25 hours or so before needing oiled again.. no signs of any wear on that saw yet.

Yes it's the new China made one.. However late last summer I bought all new everything inside the saw from Seyco ( the original EX parts ) short of the motor and electronics all mechanical parts was changed to the older EX parts..

It's the larger needle bearing with the sleeve. I haven't taken it completely down to see what is really worn. I just pulled the covers off and seen a lot of slop in that one pivot point, I'll likely pull it apart and check out the sleeve.. can't get just the sleeve as that is the one I needed the last time.. well all of them was worn but that one was shot.. the others could have went a few more hours. Anyway yeah if it's just the bearing I'll replace just the bearing.

Hawk did do several different arm configurations.. They first did the hollowed out arms to lighten up the saw and hopefully not have vibration from doing this.. They found out it weaken the arms though.. This is a photo from google.. the arms are hollowed out in several locations throughout the length of the arm.. The new saws are hollowed out on both sides but not with holes going clear through the arm but more of a I beam shape ( second photo taken from Bushton's website shows the I beam style. ).

Well, running the saw today and it started knocking pretty good.. Took it apart and the big main bearing in the rocker assembly at the back.. Seems like it should have lasted longer than it did.. I just rebuilt it late last summer.. Though I did have nearing 250 hours on it.. maybe that's the life expectancy of these. I kinda suspect a poor made bearing from the start as the other bearings are nice and tight still.. Ray at Seyco mentioned to me on the phone years ago that those bearing assemblies are sort of hit & miss for good bearing quality.. Either case.. I'm not repairing it again.. It's kind of a shame that one cannot buy the oddball sized bearing sleeves and bearings from a good source with quality bearings.. I did that with my old DeWalt I had and that saw ran for a lot of hours after that without issue..

I first started on the magazine site back in 2004-5.. before that was the MSN groups and Yahoo clubs. My favorite was the MSN groups back in the day.. Then they shut the groups down so I was a more regular on the Magazine site for a few years.. Then run across the free4allscrollsawpatterns site and was active there until they closed down. With all the movement and shutting down of clubs / groups etc.. we've lost a lot of awesome designers.. also some of them stopped designing because of theft or folks not giving credit to the designers. I remember a day when you could post a photo and ask for a pattern.. within a few hours you would have 4-5 patterns to choose from.. Sure miss those days.. They also did pattern challenges where they'd post a photo and the designers would do patterns and then there'd be a vote on the patterns.. The group was fairly large and most times every pattern was cut eventually..

I haven't purchased any lumber yet this year. Late last year ( Between Christmas and New Years ) I purchased 120bdf of Poplar and 20 sheets of 3mm BBply 5x5 sheets. I can't remember how much the Poplar was now.. but the BBply had gone up from the previous time I purchased it which was just under $13 a sheet.. the new price was just under $16 a sheet. I don't make a lot of large projects from BBply ( mostly ornaments ) so those 20 sheets should last me until this fall.. hoping prices stabilize some by then.. I had planned to purchase some 1" 5x5 BBply to use on my CNC for signs.. However when I went to look up the pricing the website from my local supplier says "Call for pricing" this tells me they have been raising the prices.. I got busy with other things and the CNC is pretty much idle the last few weeks so I'm thinking about gluing up several panels myself from a large amount of sun faded stained Maple that I have.. the wood is nice wood but looks horrible for most pieces unless it's a rustic piece or something.. Most my CNC stuff is sealed and painted so for the most part the wood doesn't have to be pretty, LOL I got that Maple ( probably 200 bdf. ) given to me and I thought maybe I'd get lucky and could plane it down to some good wood.. as it's 1-1/2 inch thick.. but it seems to be stained pretty much all the way through.

Those guest could be members as well, just not logged in.. You're considered guest until you're logged in. For many folks there is no reason to log in unless you want to comment on a post OR look in those certain post where you have to be a member to see them. For the most part.. I think everything is open to guest other than if they want to open up a photo. Not sure if you can view the bragging section logged out or not. I do know you can't view the photos / patterns in the pattern request section unless you log in.. but you can read the text I think..

Welcome to the Village, I use Johnson paste wax for my saws but I've found that the Hawk tables don't seem to need waxed as often as the old DeWalt I had did.. Also my Excalibur has a painted table top and that also doesn't need waxed as often as the old steel table of my DW. I still wax them about once a month or so.. but the old DW needed it at least every week.. sometimes more.. I wouldn't worry about any of the marks on the table just be sure it's clean and waxed.. don't use a car type wax.. They can cause some reactions to some of your wood finishes..

I became a member back in 2010 but was never really active until maybe 2015 ish.. Back in those days my go to site was the free4allscrollsawpatterns website but the owner shut it down. I think a lot of the members here come for the free pattern library and some sections of the site aren't available unless you sign up.. many might sign up just to lurk at what topics are in those few sections that aren't available unless you sign up / in.. I haven't been quite as active on here because of busy business, ( Covid seems to have made people do more online shopping ) trying to learn more about the CNC & laser... and just personal everyday things going on. for instance the Jeep I fixed up and painted 3 years ago for my daughter got hit setting in the parking lot last winter.. was still drivable so she kept driving it until she graduated collage. Now that I have it here at home to do those repairs while looking it over I find it has a blown head gasket as well. So now she's driving my Jeep until I get all these repairs done. Will start pulling the engine apart in the next couple days. I'm on most all the FB groups that pertain to scroll work but I don't participate much at all.. A few of those groups are really active.. I just don't like the way those groups work.. I can have some interest in a topic and go back a day later and can't find it.. then if I do comment or post a message I find it annoying to get all the notifications.. Yeah I know I can turn that stuff off etc.. I just find it clunky to use..

Thank you all for the nice comments, was a really fun project to make. My son emailed the teacher a link to my YouTube page and he said he has to show the construction shop teacher those videos to get his reaction.. I could see them wanting me to do a demonstration for the class, Hahaha.. what does one use a scroll saw for in building houses though.. LOL