kmmcrafts

That’s my whole point JT, many of these saws (DeWalt asan example) out of the box too aggressive for fine detail work. Many guys back in the day were drilling holes and modified Dewalt saws voiding warranty etc trying to make it a usable saw for the type of project they were working on. My Dewalt was aggressive as well but not as bad as some others I’ve seen and I was able to cope with it. Having had a saw that is adjustable is an option that I personally look for in a saw. Some saws are built well enough ( Hawk and Hegner ) where they have the blade going fairly straight up and down. You start getting into these other mid level saws it’s a feature worth having. Once set to a position that works for your style of cutting / projects you no longer need to adjust it. Having an adjustment is a plus. Not really a must have but surely nice to have.

You don't happen to want to make another trip to Michigan do you? I have a huge stockpile of Walnut lumber I need out of my way.. It's not high grade stuff as it didn't pass grade inspections at my brothers sawmill due to a knot in the middle or split in it etc.. They reject anything that doesn't have a good 6 or 8 ft section in it.. but there are many good sections in it for a bowl, clock, puzzle etc.. or? whatever you want to make.. perfect stuff for cutting boards and small craft projects where you can work around those bad areas. I cut most of it down to 6 - 7 ish foot for my storage area. It's all rough cut and about 1" thick various widths.. most being at least 6" wide. I have 4 stacks of it about 3 ft tall stacks.. like to have at least one stack disappear. LOL.. I've already got rid of a couple stacks to my daughters boyfriend.. At my brothers mill yesterday and he asked me if I want some more as he has about a few hundred Bdft more he needs out of his way, LOL.. He just burns it in his outdoor boiler or it goes into his wood chipper or turned into sawdust depending on his demand at the time. so I've already passed on it and said I don't need anymore walnut for a couple years, LOL.. but if he gets Maple, Cherry, or Poplar I'll take it, LOL I just burned about 150bdft. of spalted maple because it doesn't work well for scrolled projects that I make.. I saved it from his wood burner and it sat in my shop for 10 years and I finally put it in my wood burner a couple months ago. Tried selling it first.. but nobody even sent a inquiry about it.. I put the walnut on marketplace but most want to come get just a couple boards.. then they want to dig through the pile and leave a big mess.. I'll burn that too before I deal with that kind of stuff again.. now see why my brother doesn't mess with this stuff. If you're interested send me a message.

You know, used to be when something was made by a certain brand that company made the entire machine, but these days there are part makers and then there are assemblers. Really makes one wonder on these saws.. are the link arms and such all produced by the same manufacture and just purchased by a company to assemble all the components? I would almost argue the fact that most all these saws have the same made guts in them short of the frame and then painted and stickered to be whatever brand name the order came in from. The biggest differences I've seen on these are the blade chucks, the tilting mechanism is different on some of them, and some have the adjustable motor for adjusting the aggressiveness of the cutting.. My China made Excalibur when I rebuilt it I used all the parts from Seyco for the Seyco / Excalibur saw.. I really seen no difference in the parts other than the frame tubing on one saw was a different size.. but my China made saw is basically a Pegas or EX whatever brand you want to label it. The bearings in the original saw when new lasted about 250 hours use... The new parts I put in 2 years ago from Seyco has been 300 hours now and starting to be clunky knocky so it's getting ready for another rebuild.. I'm torn if I want to put money in it because I'm also starting to get the electrical hunting for the speed and on these I don't think it's a simple pot switch its more of a circuit board replacement.. and I'm not sure it's worth putting a few hundred into it or send it to a landfill once I strip off the pegas clamps and other useful parts. My point is.. I believe these saws are basically all the same.. choose your features and price range and roll with it. My biggest drawback on the HF saw is that you cannot turn / adjust the motor to change how aggressive it cuts.. same for the DeWalt.. Makes one wonder, can one possibly take a slotted motor mount ring off a EX type saw and mount it to a HF or DeWalt saw? Maybe.. Now could one of these companies ask the part makers for cheaper quality bearings etc. and cheapen the saw build.. Probably.. can one order parts for a different saw to get the better quality bearings? Well that is what I did with the Excalibur.. so if you're mechanical incline.. you likely could build whatever brand saw fancies you.. but are those parts really any different? Ray at Seyco has told me those parts are hit or miss on quality.. some folks get years out of the bearings and some not very long at all.. Is it bearing quality? Hard use of the machine? Environment of the saw such as damp location, heated shop, or cold shop, etc etc.. My point is enjoy saving money on whatever budget saw you choose..

Yeah that's how it was when I went to look at it.. hard to see up on the top shelf and zip tied down. I imagine it is tied down not so much as theft but some idiot would probably spin it around and drop it off the top shelf onto their toe or something and then as sue happy as people are and insurance companies are these days there would be a lawsuit. It's not like the old days when people had some common sense. LOL On the flip side, They have a great return policy.. or at least mine does.. Buy it, look it over and return it, LOL.

Talk about a big blade, this blade is about 1/8 or so thick kerf and about 8” wide. Little too big a blade for your standard bandsaw, lol Stopped in at my brothers sawmill and he was talking about how he broke a blade and the thing folded all up and the back edge stuck into this big chunk of wood. When he breaks a blade it soundS like a cannon went off.

Might want to make sure the olive oil won't go rancid and make your finish go from a safe finish to a toxic one. I'm on some cutting board forums and many of the topics are about using specific oils because of some oils will turn rancid and become toxic.. this is why most cutting boards say to treat with mineral oil.. I'm no expert on this, just passing on what I've read on other forums..

Bought mine off eBay.. I have one of the digital ones but I don't care for the fact that every 1/10 is 6 minutes.. and if you're in between digits you could be just a few seconds from going to the next 1/10 but not know it.. Plus they ( at least mine ) don't have a way to change the battery so you toss it in the landfill when it dies. So I prefer the analog style. I bought a short cheap extension cord and cut the end off to crimp the spade connectors to it.. then a three way plug that I plug into my foot switch so then it powers the saw, seyco dust collector, and the hour meter. So it all runs off the foot switch. Most any hour meter like for a generator etc. will work. This is like I use but if I were to do over again I might go with the round one.. as they should be mounted in a electrical box or enclosure and I think it'd be easier to cut a round hole to mount it than the rectangle hole since I have hole saws but not ones for a rectangle, lol https://www.ebay.com/itm/296134624082?_skw=hour+meter&itmmeta=01JD26ZVXEQKKS0D3EAH4WR8DD&hash=item44f2ffc352:g:mj4AAOSwCvJjT56d&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKn80mRA1ONtRZ5BH3rCMsO3KNhsbwZMbPO4aoU%2BX%2BiM63%2FOEM3PRrYQFU7LVSUFnX0AG7%2B91339mb7AckWPbrGpXtvIM0PE36zng43BfFRxhnAJIPs03a6k3mxUbpUoRkI4R4%2FOSMQwhy5a3vIUjJHaPaE40D5UD6BJqRWXYrIznpzoB9XlcE1QkY%2FL%2Fgnq%2BGWMRiusNeBaZkJ6ESIyn7NEmpN44FHY46Tgvx9U%2F4x4Appc2wd4zBouEg11z2fF5Pn4WRVZT6pJTqg3U5VNfHB%2FwGzQg20rdDLIL64qS9rflg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_q-_8boZA

Yeah that was Scott ( Iggy).. and yes he just bought a new saw every year.. I like the parallel link arm saws for many projects I do so I kind of understand why he runs the DeWalts like he does.. The parts to rebuild one ( if replacing all the bearings ) is about half the cost of another saw.. so I get why he does it.. as there is no real down time other than removing one off the stand and putting the new one on the stand. Parallel link saws cut a little more aggressive so cutting the puzzles goes a bit quicker, as many as he sells a year those few minutes add up in time I suppose. I've timed myself cutting the same project on both the Hawk and the Excalibur and it's not much difference maybe a couple minutes.. The EX is a little faster.. but harder to do more precise and intricate stuff. It'd be a tough call as to what saw I'd keep if I was just doing it for hobby fun.. as I like them both for various things so having both is what I do.. and I'll probably always have both style saws. My next one might be that Grizzly.. or the Jet when they run a sale it's not much more than the DeWalt or Grizzly. I have a hard time seeing a Pegas and some of those others being $1000 when others come out of the same factory and are much less money. Pegas do have better clamps but they aren't worth $300+ for the saw just for the clamps when I can buy just the clamps for any of these saws.

Well that is why I always try to push folks to look for a good used high end saw for the same or less money.. there is only about 4-6 bearings in a hawk or Hegner.. and pretty much a standard sized ones that can be had at a local hardware type store.. and then there is like 20 of them on a parallel link arm saw like the Excalibur and those style of saws.. and those are oddball sized that for me anyway, I've had to special order them.. Lot's more pivot points and a tiny bit of slop in each pivot point creates a lot of slop out at the blade end.. This is why I have 2 Hawks a Hegner and a Excalibur.. the EX does have a few reason why I keep it around because of the style of cutting they give.. and that the saw tilts rather than the table for angle cutting. What limited projects I do cut on the EX I still wear it out about every 2-3 years..

Basically yes, that's about what I get from these saws.. Though I'm using them more for commercial use.. and even then it's really quite tough to get 5 hours on a saw in one day..actually kinda tough to get 5-7 hours on a saw in a week. too many things you do that doesn't reflect actual sawing.. the hour meters are hooked up to the saw foot switch so this is actual saw runtime not just setting at the saw time.. You'd be amazed at how much saw time and shop time are different.. You spend a lot of time prepping projects and sanding, drilling, finishing etc. I wish I could remember what project it was I did that took me like 10 hours to cut but the saw time was only 1.5 hours.. I think it was this leopard but I'm not certain now.. This was a long time ago that I timed this out like that.. I don't usually time how long a project takes to cut.. rarely pay any attention to the hour meter honestly.. When I first put them on yes I did do some comparing times.. I was amazed that even though I was in the shop all week that I only had really put like 3 hours on the saws hour meter all week, LOL. It's a huge difference in times.. and now that I know this I always do a bit of a inside giggle when someone post that they saw 8 hours a day and their saw last 2-3 years.. I'll bet the saw is around that 250-300 ish hour mark.. not whatever it would be if it were actually 8 hours a day for 2-3 years, that'd be a lot of hours.. even for a Hawk in my mind.

Mooville and Hudsonville is my brands.. the Mooville farm where they have the cows and where they process the milk and ice cream is just up the road from us so we can get it fresh from the source.. and they are hormone free cattle and don't add all the garbage to it that most places do..

A lot goes into cure times too besides what is said on a can of finish.. such as temperature and humidity levels etc.. I'm sure you know all that.. just pointing that out to anyone else that may not..

I did a video on this a few years ago on my blog about how to make your own mineral oil and beeswax.. Have to make sure you don't heat up too hot or you'll have a fire going.. Here in the USA you can buy this at some of the local woodcrafts type stores already made up.. though a small container is pricey and making it is easy. I'm sure there is probably other videos on this topic on YouTube.. https://www.kevskrafts.com/blog

The Seyco is a much better saw than the Dewalt... for instance, the Seyco upper arm lifts up out of the way when changing blades and feeding blades.. DeWalt does too but you have to hold the arm up with one hand while trying to feed balde with other and or get a device to hold the arm up while you feed the blade through a hole with both hands. The Seyco are you lift up and it'll stay up on it's own until you pull it back down. The Seyco you can rotate the motor via slots and screws which will adjust the blade position for a more or less agressive of a cut.. DeWalt some of the others do not have that option...Seyco has great customer service and Ray or Mike will walk you through repair diagnostics etc right over the phone with you. Rarely any customer support from other brands.. Other than Hawk and Hegner.. Pegas and Jet have decent customer support depending on who you contact. Anyway between the Seyco and the DeWalt.. Seyco hands down is the better option.. Look at the price of a brand new Seyco.. https://seyco.com/product/seyco-st-21-swing-tilt-scroll-saw-allow-1-week-for-shipping/ it's higher priced because it has better features etc.. in the land of scroll saws you really do kinda get what you pay for when looking at new saws.. this is why I always suggest looking at quality used.. That 1998 Hawk I have brand new back in 98 was $1200.. My new one back in 2018 was over $1700.. Bushton Manufacturing recently raised the prices and those BM series Hawk saws now are close to $2000 now I think, not cheap saws but they're made more for commercial type use and they have a lot of the bells and whistles so to speak that the entree and mid level saws lack. Maybe some others will chime in on the two saws as well.. Everyone has a bit of different opinions of various saws.. This is my take on the two. Since you're new to the scroll saw world it might be good to look up some various brand and reviews from real users on YouTube, many of the YouTube videos will show how to change blades and other useful tips and tricks. Steve Good has quite a few saw reviews on his blog.. just do a search for steve good scroll saw blog.. tons of info and also many many free project patterns etc.

DeWalt saws are currently on sale too so that is something to consider.. $399.99.. if scroll sawing isn't for you... used ones sell for that price fairly easy.. They really are the best bang for the buck when getting into the hobby because of the resale if sawing isn't for you.. just another thought. https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-20-in-Variable-Speed-Scroll-Saw-DW788/203070202?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&srsltid=AfmBOoqN2RuidgdaC1fuGs1MPk3yBwNUm7-gKBr8rRJnqevk-kLlXYKI4Io Do you have any family or friends that use Facebook that'd send the seller your info or collect info from seller for you? Just do note that I believe it's against FB terms of use to ask for phone numbers and other personal info.. they want you to communicate through FB for deals in case a deal goes sour they have all the info between the two parties if messages are done on the platform..

That Seyco saw is about an 1:30 minutes southwest from me I think. That would be my saw of choice too honestly.. Never know he may meet up halfway or something too.. Both saws are made in the same factory but there are differences.. The Seyco has a larger table top but the King in my opinion has a better angle rack and pinion set up.. South Haven is a bit closer to you I think too. Either way they're both great saws.

Well, yes it does matter where it was made.. I wish it was made in the USA but it's not and I knew that.. wasn't going to argue about where it's made... my point was it's the same saw as a Jet.. I've used both the 18" and 22" Jet scroll saws and they have a unique upper blade clamping system with no thumb screws or anything to mess with.. The lower clamp is none other than a round barrel clamp exact same deal RBI Hawk used in the early saws which I've also used.. The upper clamp you just slide the blade into the slot and put the tension lever over.. it tensions and clamps at the same time with the one lever.. pretty neat set up.. Good quality saw.. and if one doesn't like that round clamp or the upper one you can put the Pegas chucks on it and have the same as all those other saws in a different color.. Way better saw than the HF China made saw or the newer China made Excalibur. My reason for knowing it was the same saw is Jet has a patent on that upper blade chuck mechanism.. or maybe it has ran out of the patent timeline.. but since it is identical other than color I would think they wouldn't go through with all the tooling etc.. to exactly copy Jets saw especially when there was a patent on the clamp.

I don't care where it's made, it's the same saw as the Jet 22" saw which is a dam good saw.. Jet seems to be the only one nowadays that sell individual parts so if a bearing goes bad you don't have to buy the whole link arm assembly for over $130.. you can just buy a $10 bearing to replace the bad one..This saw design had one set of bearings in the inside of the saws that take a lot of the beating and that one is always the culprit in my experience.. while the others may be getting some slop.. they could go for another round or two especially if you regreased while it's apart for the bad bearing.. My complaint of the 22" is the short distance of table support in front of the blade.. The 18" saw would be my choice.. The Grizzly saw comes out of the same factory with a much larger table and much better price.. That is where I would get my next saw from if I was looking to buy this style of saw new. It seems to have the adjustable slotted motor mount where you adjust the blade aggression and it has that huge table..

Was just at HF and they finally had the saw on display.. Pretty impressive looking saw.. I do think the frame and some of the structure was thinner lighter metal and there was more plastic cover maybe than what the "other" similar saws have.. The table was huge and pretty impressive to be honest and was actually thicker steel than my Ex table.. Probably where all the weight of this saw come in from as the rest of it looked thinner and cheaper in my opinion.. either case it's still a hard to beat price and looks to be of good enough quality for the price..

Well, in the link it said: I'll go out on a limb and say that saw is made in the same Taiwan factory that the Jet, King, Pegas, Grizzly, and etc are made.. This looks just exactly like a rebranded Jet to me.. https://www.woodcraft.com/products/jet-22-variable-speed-scroll-saw-with-foot-switch-1-ph-120v-jwss-22b?variant=43401545580682&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAouG5BhDBARIsAOc08RTmkC-4lxo_oaLCraV9ERdfFXdtZF9Zg8fS4eRs6FAsvrGHg7cxKBoaAmcREALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds I'm not knocking the quality, just merely pointing out that I have strong doubts this is actually made in the USA.. The Jet saw has proven to be a good saw as is those others have also.. your money buy what you want but you're getting basically the same saw as most of these other brands. Each have slightly different tables and dust port etc but the guts of the saw is they same thing in my believe.. While buying this is supporting a local USA business.. but then again.. Buy Pegas from Denny and your doing the same so there is that bag of worms too..

If you don't mind my asking, how fast are you running the Hawk when cutting when the motor gets hot? I believe this is the saw I sold you? I mainly cut puzzles from 3/4" wood with that saw.. I never had any issue with the motor getting hot.. that said I never purposely checked it either. It does have the motor on it that had issue with burning up due to something with the Variable speed controller if memory serves me correct. I did a couple times have issue with the variable speed jumping around but I solved it by taking the cover off and blowing out the dust.. Always blew the dust out of the motor vents too as they get quite a lot of dust in the motor fan. If you look on the left side of the saw you can see the motor is big and the air vents on the end cap of the motor.. Maybe blow some air in there and around the motor.. IF you're running it really slow then maybe it's not creating enough air flow? I've always ran it at almost full speed.. But again, that was a problematic motor on those saws so maybe it's just coming to the end of its life.. I hope not.. Loved that saw and kind always kicked myself for selling after it was gone, LOL

You might want to take a look at the newer Grizzly saw as grizzly has their Christmas sale going on right now.. It's basically the same as a Pegas, King, Excalibur type saw with a bigger table etc. Someone in another post said it's made in the same place as those others as well but that is only what I've read and have no hard evidence of it so I'd check on that first.. https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-21-variable-speed-scroll-saw-with-foot-pedal/g0969

There is usually good deals on there all the time.. There are a few Hawks and Hegners too but they're the older Hawks with the junk motor issues and the Hegners are the old ones without the up front tension levers.. Both are priced higher than what I'd sell mine for so it wasn't really worth mentioning them, LOL.. It's really hard to find a good deal on a Hegner in my area that has the newer features.. everyone asking $400+ for the old ones and most are the single speed.. I probably really could get a better price for mine if I were to sell it. A million Hawks in my area but the majority are the old ones with the round clamps and the ones with motor issues.. most are also priced 300 - 500 for those old ones so when you find a deal in that range for a Ultra or newer in this area it's a bargain

Grizzly always runs a long holiday sale on many items.. There has been a lot of talk about the Harbor Freight saw which is cheaper but it also lacks some of the nice options such as dust collection port and the ability to adjust the blade aggression with the slotted motor mount. This also has a much larger table than the EX Pegas type saws.. Really nice price for what you get with this saw in my opinion.. There was talk about this saw a few months ago and it was said that these are made in the same place as the Pegas, King, and Seyco saws so it's probably much better than the China made Excalibur.. I don't care for the color but I do like the price and a can of paint can make it look good too, LOL.. about $400 cheaper than the Pegas, King, and Seyco saws and a bigger table.. https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-21-variable-speed-scroll-saw-with-foot-pedal/g0969

Yeah, I seen this a while back when searching for something else.. I've never heard of the brand.. but it looks to me like a rebranded Jet 22" saw... OR a possible Chinese knock off.. I'd be curious where it's made.. IF rebranded Jet then this is a good deal as I believe the 22" Jet runs around $1000 or $1100.. I personally don't like the 22" Jet model because of the very little table surface in front of the blade.. However I have considered the 18" Jet as it has around 4" in front of the blade.. if memory serves right I think the 22" only has 3 inch in front of the blade.