kmmcrafts

Never gave it much thought about the frequency changing with different sized blades.. I've always just read that it should give a hi C note.. But that note couldn't possibly be made with a big ol hacksaw type blade.. I've never used anything larger than a #7 and that's really rare for me to use that big of one.. also don't use much smaller than a #1 either. Anyway, this means whoever says it should have a C note.. is only partly right

Why? that's just dumb.. Sorry I just had to since you said someone would and I wanted to be the first I remember someone posting about using one some years ago and you guessed right.. many asked why and that's stupid or overkill etc etc.. Anyway, I think I've read many different times that a proper tensioned blade should be about a "C" note... whatever that is supposed to be.. Like you, I don't have the music talent or the ears for that either. My older brothers stole all of that from the younger of the siblings as two of my brothers play in bands and actually have some music published through a recording company.. Guess they are good at it.. I wouldn't know since they've stole all the ear talents from us younger siblings NOW, with that said.. couldn't one play some music from a scroll saw.. you have the ( what's it called? Reverb bar? ) tension lever to change the tune of a single string ( blade in this case ).. I would say someone would have a lot of talent if they could play a song using a scroll saw and blade tension lever only. LOL I might suggest this to my talented brothers,

Little late to the party here, was going to tell you if you need help getting it out of the box you could mail it to me, I'll get it out of the box for you. Congrats on the new saw, I hope you get many years of enjoyment from it and many completed projects.

Great saw!! They are awesome saws once you get the blade tensioning down.. That is probably the most complicated part of the Hawk and Hegners.. My first was a Hawk and I was ready to throw it into a trash can at one point, LOL But as Paul said, then something clicked and I haven't looked back.. I love my Hawks.. I Like the Hegner but my biggest issue with the Hegner is the small table, and yes you can fab a larger top but since I have two of the biggest Hawks with nice tables I just use those for the larger works and the Hegner gets used for smaller pieces. I didn't have any issues with blades breaking but most of my tensioning skills came from learning it on the Hawks. They are way more fussy with tension than the Excaliburs and like saws.. I like using my Excalibur too for certain projects.. guess I could get by with just a Hawk but it is nice to be reassured of how nice of a saw it is when I go to trying to cut on the Excalibur, LOL.. You forget how nice it is to have a spring loaded upper arm instead of having to "lift it up" etc.. Same thing when I went from DeWalt to Excalibur.. the DW has to have something to hold the arm up once raise... great saws too but just not the Cadillac saw like the Hawks and Hegners are..

Great saws.. I have a 1998 serial 109*** so I'm thinking this is early 2000's model. While these run around $1700 for the latest newest model this older version I wouldn't think is worth $700.. I got mine back in 2016 from a older person that bought it new in 1998 and was still in the sealed box.. ( unfortunately he had a medical condition after he had ordered it and just never was able to put it to use ) I got a heck of a deal for $400 as to my surprise when I opened up the boxes it turned out it had a magnifier light several ( 10+ ) blade holders and several pattern books blades etc.. I would have paid that $700 or maybe a little more for mine being brand new but too many used ones floating around in the $3 - 500 range.. Lots of folks on Facebook groups etc. would say this is a decent deal and it may be in certain locations but many reference the $1700 price of the new model, however the new model while it looks just like these older ones have been redesigned and are a much nicer saw.. Many think it's the same thing and it's not, I know because I bought a brand new one in 2018.. If I thought I could get $500 - 700 from mine I'd probably sell it.. I didn't use it much after I got the new one so it only has 100 hours on the hour meter. In my mind a good deal on this saw would be $300 or less.. If you was really wanting this particular older style and needing a saw maybe $500 at best.. That's just my opinion and the prices are typically a ( the most I'd pay ).. Really would depend on in person inspection etc..

I have many heros... way too many to post here, LOL This one is my top pick though so i'll just post the one.

Something else is kinda interesting with the hour meters is: I can cut two of the same projects coming from the same board using the same brand /make of blade on two separate saws and one saw it takes less time than the other.. Blade life from one saw to the other is also a difference. As James said it's just a neat little gadget to have to toy around with and it's not like it cost a lot of money to set up your own timer.. I don't really see a reason to post your cut times.. just go buy you a clock or hour meter and time your own stuff.. You can get some interesting useless data from it besides just saw maintenance.. Also showed me how long my dust collection vacuum runs / lasted before the first vacuum burned up, LOL.. We'll see if the next one last around the same amount of time, then I can know when to expect another one to fail. Kinda like having a odometer on your car, you have an idea of how long your tires last or other things.. check your gas mileage ( blade life LOL ). I am kinda a data geek I suppose, I wish everything came standard with hour meters on them.. just gives an idea of usage or how much wear something has..

Really just for curiosity sake.. If you're a business and wanting to keep track of time this isn't the the way to do it since actual cutting time vrs. overall time is really minimal.. Like I said, I can set at the saw for 40 hours a week but actual saw run time is likely around 10 -15 hours.. This is really dependant on the type of project at had too of course as fretwork takes more time changing to different holes than just cutting outlines or whatever.. I find that cutting the anilam puzzles actually puts on more hours on the saw than say cutting a portrait or trivet etc.. as there are a lot of just cutting the pieces inches to a puzzle without stopping to switch to the next hole doing fretwork. As I said I did it more for saw maintenance, and it's kind of neat to understand approximately how long a mid-range type saw will last before having issues.. My experience for DW and Excalibur type saws it's going to be around 300 ish hours.. Buy a Hawk or Hegner and I'm not sure the hour meter will last that long..

If I did that then this is how my shop walls would look.. many times I start on a project to "restock" a sold item and another order comes in for a sold out item so I have to make the sold out item to get it to the customer quickly.. I change all my sold out items to a "made to order" until I get around to restocking it.. so many times I get a project started and it might take me 3-4 weeks just to get back at it again.. many times I get a order for it before it's done restocked again even though I started it a few weeks prior, LOL..

This as far as I know has always been the case.. MWS has always been a little cheaper than WTB even though WTB bought out MWS and they are the same in one now.. they seem to operate as two separate entities. As for sales tax.. it is my understanding that sellers do not have to collect and report sales tax to only their own state "unless" they are selling a certain amount of $$ in said particular state. For instance I sell on etsy and etsy being a large business is required collect and report it on my behalf.. however my own website doesn't necessarily have to charge sales tax because I'm nowhere near the ( I think it's ) 10,000 per particular state in sales to have them make me collect and remit.. Etsy and those larger sites do a lot of business transactions in each state and they are the payment processor so they are required to.. I may be wrong on all this and someone may know more about this.. It's just what I remember being told when they started making sellers / marketplaces collect for states other than your own state. Just because it wasn't collected from the seller doesn't mean you're not supposed to report it yourself under the use tax I think is where that's at.. tax forms used to have a question line to report it similar to "if you purchased items out of state but had it delivered to your state" etc..people weren't reporting it and more and more online business going on the states were missing out and wanted their share, LOL..

Since I was headed out the door earlier I'll finish my reply, LOL. I have quite a variety of blades I've gathered over the years.. I use for the most part Pegas blades.. there are certain projects that I use Flying Dutchman and or Olsen blades... I get my Pegas blades from Denny.. Do not care for Bearwood at all and try to not use them if I don't have too, but that's just a personal thing that I have my reasons why. FD blades I get from Mikesworkshop.. sure miss Mike as his customer service and experience would outdo any other seller to date past or present.. he would send free of charge a 2 blade sample of any blade he sold for you to try. Olsen blade I currently just buy packs at the box stores since my use is minimal now days, and the sellers I used to get them from are no longer there or the one is just very poor customer service so I stopped ordering from them. I also use Super Sharps from PSwood.. they are awesome blades for certain types of projects and are pricey blades so I limit my usage of them if possible. For a time I ordered my blades from Bushton MFG. because they sold Flying Dutchman, Olsen,, and Pegas and were cheaper than anyone else for a while but last time I needed blades they was out of stock on all the ones I needed.. Thinking maybe they was getting out of the business of blade sales possible as they was never out of stock and some of the styles / sizes was completely gone from the site.

Under the resources tab at the top you'll see "suppliers" There is a long list..

Yeah I kind of figured that but figured I'd reply about the vibration from a stand that isn't set properly to the floor it is setting on. Over the years I have bought many used saws and even parts saws from cheap Harbor Freight style brands all the way up to the most recent Hegner that was given to me just to tinker with and or to rebuild / restore just to give it another life and make someone a good saw when I sell it. I can't tell you how many saws I went to "look / test" and a quality saw would dang near vibrate across the floor.. My first Hawk they was asking $350 for but when I went to look at it they had the saw bolted to a big piece of warped plywood and was in a shed with a wood and also very warped floor.. The saw vibrated horrible, I didn't know whether to buy it or not since I never had any experience with one of them but I had seen how they was supposed to be top of the line. I talked to seller about how smooth it should be and I thought there was something wrong with it. Seller not knowing either as it was his father's who had past a few years prior. He ended up saying if I want it I could take it for $100.. Brought it home and removed that warped plywood planform they had it bolted to and set it up on my concrete floor it ran quite a lot smoother.. That saw there really taught me how important having the stands legs planted to the floor good is just as important as having the blade square to the table or any other tune-up for a saw. I know a lot of folks make wood stands but as much as wood breathes and moves I don't see how they can be vibration free at all speeds.. Get a real humid day and the wood expands a little.. I'm assuming the shear weight of the wood stand helps a lot with it all, I've never had a wood stand and I know a lot of folks use them that are happy with them so they must work. Same thing goes for stand that people put wheels on.. I don't see how they can keep them from vibrating. I've had a saw with wheels and tried my best to get the wheels planted to the shop floor good.. I never could get it to be nice and smooth running.

I think all saws have this issue, but that being said.. if you're on a 4 legged stand it's really hard to get all 4 legs planted onto the floor with exact even pressure so there is no rocking movement at all.. The smoothest saw I ever had was my DeWalt that had the 3 leg stand.. The Hegner is really smooth too with that 3 leg stand. I find with the 4 legged stands it's best to loosen the bolts to the stand and wiggle it around to get it settled into the permanent spot and then tighten the stand back up.. This helps a ton with those harmonic speeds to keep vibration and sound to a minimum. Last week I built a shelf inside the stand legs of my Hawk BM-26 and used some 1/8 thick aluminum angle cut to size and bolted into the already stamped holes in the stand. One of the Hawks I used to have that I bought used came with a shelf like I built. Those aluminum angle pieces I added stiffened up that stand a lot and it's running smoother than I've ever been able to get it. I'm surprised or maybe not, LOL that Hawk doesn't have some bracing on the lower part of the stands to stiffen it up, I mean the holes are there for it but the two new saws I've bought never came with any bracing. I always thought that first saw that had the shelf was a factory shelf option.. as i see similar on other saws on marketplace etc.. I don't see any shelf kit or anything from Hawk so maybe it was at one time.. either way, I'll be adding the shelf to the other Hawk soon to if nothing else it stiffens up the stand a lot. Every other saw stand I've seen / had has braces on the lower portion of the stand.. I never gave it much though I guess until I seen the difference in performance just by add that shelf brackets.

Okay, I re-read your post and that makes sense.. I thought you was saying to plug the clock and saw etc into the power switch and when done sawing shut off the strip but you're saying to power the strip to the foot switch. Took me a minute to understand that concept for some reason, LOL..

I have this hour meter on my Excalibur.. it has two resettable hour meters and one that isn't so it keeps track of total time. I didn't care for it for the purpose of keeping track of project times because for one, it doesn't show minutes it just has a 1/10 scale.. but 1/10 of an hour is 6 minutes and being digital you can't really tell if it's like half way between numbers or if 10 more seconds might change to the next 1/10.. at least with my analog ones I can see just how far that 1/10 digit is so to get at least a close estimate.. 6 minutes off on that digital one can add up a lot of time if your off at each start or finish of a project. https://www.ebay.com/itm/293600942454?epid=18041883585&hash=item445bfad976:g:KSgAAOSw6tte1wrS&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4L2KGJprcVZhk6M3evug%2FCZbr%2BxeeWEkqaFjRVnLHk4G02%2BiQleIZ9ICtGRrf%2BzOpiWCeLyB4vx%2FdtNiar8Iid8CUzTp3NcrLxDAmJa%2BwXGJaCIyH9pkBNptjIWuI7%2FWmIuq2qp%2F3BhaBJd%2FULWZ5U%2B%2FMcir2cS2txS4Wl%2FnCEMws%2BXE0LEkTfHA%2BD9lRZp4IBJQGXwU%2B81%2FeTWmfKNgEXEpqthaAI%2Buada0FIDfn57W5iXsBDH8NsAm%2B2PuTZxvzl146J0%2FafYGjRhDUl4uLPvQU10vfHaa5gtLoQU7sWnc|tkp%3ABFBMuq7Kt6Ri The first time I had issues with bearing noise the saw had 175 hours.. I took it apart and just cleaned and repacked grease in the bearings to buy me some time. I reset the first mode to track how long before I get a problem which was only about 30 hours.. then I rebuilt the entire saw which had just over 200 hours on it at that time.. I reset the 2nd mode for that rebuild. The saw now has just over 500 hours on the meter.. starting to get some slop in those bearings again but not making too much noise yet. I probably should pull it apart and just do a clean and regrease so I don't have to buy a whole link arm assembly again but, I kinda want to push it just to see how many hours I get from it, LOL.. The new Hawk I bought has just under 500 hours.. no parts have been needed yet, I oil the spots it tells me to in the manual every 15 - 20 hours and about every other time I take the wedge off and inspect it for wear.. It's getting a slight rounded edge on it but have yet to sand the wedge to make the point nice and true like it was new. The Hawk Ultra only has about 130 hours on it.. and that new to me Hegner has 2 hours on it just from playing around with it when I first got it. I stopped using it because I need a dust collection set-up on it because the factory bellows works well but the blower hose is molded into the saws upper arm and aims the dust right toward me.. Not one of their brighter ideas in my mind but the rest of the machine seems well built. Once I get the new system I bought set up on it I'll run it more.. Anyway, I prefer the analog meters.. that digital one also has a battery to make it work.. which is not replaceable so once that battery dies the meter is trash.. no battery to deal with on the analog one so it'll last forever.. Believe the digital one was guaranteed to last 5 years.. I put it on my saw in 2017 when I first got that EX.. actually might have been last 2016.. anyway it is still working well..

I started out with a small 9 or 10" ? Ryobi bandsaw that I picked up at a garage sale real cheap. Thought it was a pile of junk until I actually bought a quality blade.. I put a small wood slicer blade on and used it to resaw some 4" wide by 3/4 thick boards down to thin 1/4" to make ornaments with. It was a lot better saw than I was expecting it to be.. A quality blade will make any saw that much nicer, LOL

Three way plug is how I have mine set up.. I have the foot switch plugged into the saw, vacuum, and a hour meter.. Steve Good did a video some years ago on how to wire up a clock and or hour meter and reviewed a couple different hour meters. Word of warning, you'll really surprise yourself on how you can spend all day in the shop and only put on a couple actual saw run time hours.. this is why I say people really way undercharge for their work.. There is A LOT of time switching from one hole to the next or just prepping the wood, attaching patterns sanding and finishing that people seem to just overlook because they set at the saw for 6 hours and those other task seem minimal time.. but setting at the saw for doing fretwork you'll find that a 6-8 hour session will only net a couple "saw run time hours if that much" . Turning on a power strip is a neat idea.. I would just forget to turn it on or off so maybe wire it up to the shop light switch or better yet just get a time clock if you're wondering how much total time you spend on a project.. I didn't put hour meters on my saws really to keep track of project times.. I was more doing it for saw maintenance but thought it'd help me with project times too but like I said, actual project time is way different than "saw run time" It is fun at first just keeping track of what's going on with cutting time etc. but a real eye opener when I could be in the shop cutting for 40 - 50 hours a week and only putting 10 - 12 hours on my hour meter, LOL

The best you can get for coasters is epoxy but it isn't cheap... Spar urethane would be a second choice for me. I have a set of coasters I made years ago for my brother and I just used regular polyurethane on them. They still look good. I used satin I think gloss might show up water rings more.. I think I sprayed a lot of coats on them too.. like instead of the usual I did like 6-8 coats to make sure they was sealed up good.

Me too, I live on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere woods with farms all around that are cutting hay etc. The cleanest air we get is in the winter when the air is also frozen and hurts to breath, LOL

Thanks for showing this info. I had posted on several social sites to my followers about the box fan / furnace filter if the smoke from those fires was bothering them. Not everyone has central air to run where the air is going through a furnace filter and I thought running a box fan with a allergen filter could be a cheap alternative to help clean the air in their homes. As for my shop, I have a dust collection system on my Excalibur and working on building system for the other saws. That being said, all my systems are not quality vacuum systems and the Seyco Scroll Saw Dust system is a big culprit to blowing some of that dust right back into the shop.. so I have at the moment stopped using it.. While it is cleaning up the air / floor etc of the larger dust it is also spewing the very fine stuff throughout the shop in the air, I run a box fan filter and a ceiling mounted Grizzly air filter but these two still do not catch all of it. Though it's better than nothing at all or is it? Would that fine dust get blown all through the whole shop like it does if I didn't have the vacuum spewing it out the exhaust? I have been wanting to get a quality vacuum made for this with a hepa filter such as a Festool or Fein and now that I have seen the results of these cheaper vacuums spewing it back into the air getting one of the "good" vacuums is on my top priority list for the next tool. I posted in the thread about the 3D dust port about the collection system is only as good as the vacuum / extractor. That all being said, even with dust collection running etc, I still wear a dust mask.. might not be an issue so much for someone in the shop for only a hour a day but I'm hours a day every day so I wear one of these https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/elipse-p100-dust-mask.aspx Even though I don't really see a big dust mess in the air or in the shop I do get a lot of real fine dust stuck in the filter of the mask and have to change the filter monthly. I might have to invest into one of those testers. Never knew there was such a thing.

This might help.. I wasn't sure what saw you have but I thought I seen somewhere you had a Pegas style saw.. If so this might help.. Unfortunately some of these newer saws don't really have a variable tension like the older versions did.. which in turn is a confusing struggle for newbies.. I hope you find something useful from this.

Are you using spiral blades or flat / straight blades.. I've broke spirals before but I don't really recall ever breaking a flat blade.. I'd say tension is the issue if you're talking about a real small blade but you mentioned a #2. Did you mean 2/0? I'm asking specifics because any #2 blade shouldn't break very easy and especially when just applying tension. The only time I did break some blades of this size was due to a bad batch of blades slipping past quality control.. a note to my supplier turned out to be a known issue with many complaints and replacement blades were mailed to me.. SO with that said it can be a blade quality issue and nothing to do with the saw or its user.. I have seen this with both Flying Dutchman and Pegas blades from time to time over the 20 ish years I've been scrolling..

Might cost a little more but I avoid the spray adhesive by using full sheet shipping labels.. It's convenient to print, peel, and stick... Not sure how many years I used the labels to mail my products before the light bulb went off to print the patterns on them too.. but it was a while, .. I built a brand new shop in 2012 and didn't want the over spray of that spray glue all over my newly painted concrete floor or all over the walls etc.. so somewhere around that time is when that light lit up.. duh.. LOL.. I still use spray glue for those designs that do not fit on one sheet but that is rare for the projects I make typically fit one sheet easily. I also make use of the full sheet if there is room I'll edit patterns to fill a full sheet.. most times for what I do I can get at least two projects on one sheet of paper.. ornaments are typically 6 per sheet. Anyway, it works for me.. your situation may be different and the spray might be a better option. I sure don't miss fussing with clogged nozzles and having sticky fingers every day.. Edit to add: If you buy in bulk off eBay or Amazon they aren't too much money compared to the small packages of them at the box stores.. Also of you regularly do larger projects and have a large format printer then you can buy full sheet adhesive papers in the 11 x 17 size or pretty much any size.. I did that back when I had a large format printer.. Google will help find where to get those from.

I asked this a few years back and Weld Bond was what I was directed to at that time.. I used it a few times and so far seems to be doing the job fine. It was just light work to hold a painted backer to a cutting that hangs on the wall so there isn't much if any stress to the pieces I did with the Weld Bond.