kmmcrafts

I think it looks great as it is frame and all.. It's funny how people have so many various opinions on our craft projects. I have made some things that I didn't care for and my wife would be like " you're going to try to sell that!?? " LOL apparently she didn't like it either.. Funny thing is I have a handful of items that neither of us really liked and they are some of my best sellers, LOL.. On the flip side, I have showed patterns to her that I was thinking about cutting to get her opinion.. and many of these we didn't really like the pattern but the finished piece was wonderful. Just the opposite sometimes happens where we love the pattern but the cutting is less desirable. As for showing work in progress.. I have sold way more pieces showing photos and short video clips of works in progress and sometimes I sell the piece before it's even finished.. and I've gotten many custom orders from showing works in progress.. so for me.. showing my progress has been beneficial..

I thought maybe you bought a CNC until I read the description.. That's really cool...

I think all parts are available for this model.. The one that the parts are no longer available are the ones that have the tension lever like a DeWalt. This saw new would have been about $1200 if memory is correct. You can look on Seyco and see they have parts for the EX-30.. I would think the Pegas 30" saw would also share the same parts. Not sure if shop space is tight for you but this thing will take up a larger spot.. The factory stand for this is bigger than the ones for the EX-16 & EX-21.. I would think this is a "okay price " for the condition with all the goodies.. that magnifier light looks like one of the higher priced LED's? Certainly a upgrade to the old Hawk you have.. Shows a lot of blade storage tubes.. mentions a dust collection but not sure if a vacuum is included.. If so I'd say this could be a good deal. On a side note: Every used saw I've bought that mentioned several blades go with it.. when I go look they end up being blades bigger than my bandsaw blade and of no use to me, LOL.. But this one shows a lot of different storage tubes so there is bound to be a few you'd use. EDIT: somewhere on this site there is a chart with a timeline of the various colors etc of the Excalibur saws.. It shows the timeline of when they moved production out of Canada etc.. That might give you a better idea of age of the saw..

Very nicely done!! Clocks are a lot of fun to make and are a functional piece of art.. Can be custom themed to match any person's interest.. So you also wake up in the night with a bright light idea.. at least you remember yours when you wake up in the morning? sometimes when the idea is so good i have to get up and make myself a note..

You are welcome, Thank you

Funny you bring this up.. I get friends and family that know I work with wood ( note I didn't say a woodworker ) and they always asking if I can make a kitchen table or a dresser or some other oddball thing.. While I work with wood as in creating scrolled art? The term "art" is loosely used here but I definitely have no idea how to make a table, bench or cabinet and those types of things.. Mostly only use a scroll saw to do my creations and many times don't even know how to use that on some of the oddball request I get. LOL

Could almost put some LED lights inside to make it double as a nightlight, LOL..

Well, why didn't I think of that, LOL.. Probably because I don't use a router much, only have a small palm router but that would probably work.. If not then like Ray suggested to just cut it and sandwich the plexi in. I was thinking if I added plexiglass that the torso would end up being wider than the rest of the project as I used 3 layers and glued it all together. Sandwiching 1/8" plexi in there would allow me to "cut away" pretty close to the thickness of the plexi.. Hmmm.. Might have to think this over if I'll add the plexi or not. I just see it being hard to clean back in that cavity once everything it glued all together etc. Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions.. now to decide what I want to do.

I might be able to sort of cut to the exact shape as the opening and glue it in. Would be a lot of shaping to get exact fit but yeah I could do that, not sure how I would fasten it that way though. Here is some pictures of the torso and what I’ve got going on with it. Maybe someone has a better idea. My wife says I need to just leave it open as is as she said she thought it’d look better that way. But if I can find a great way to cover this to keep dust out I may not listen to her. I’ll just say I didn’t hear her. That’ll probably get me another appointment to the hearing doctor again.

You are welcome, Thank you

I'm thinking about attaching plexiglass to the front of this project to keep dust out but not sure how to go about attaching the plexiglass? My original intention was to use a pendulum in this but with the size the finished project is coming out to be I don't think it'll work, so I made a wood pendulum and will glue it on the back side of the front piece so it'll set back about 3/4".. Thought maybe sealing that area off so during dusting / cleaning someone won't break off the wood pendulum. If I was to glue the plexiglass I don't really want to glue to show.. Other thought is to re-do the torso and not have the hollowed out spot for the pendulum and just glue my wood Pendulum to the front.. Thoughts or suggestions?

Can't remember what the retainer thing looks like on the Jet saw.. maybe it's a better option and can be adapted to the Hawk.. Though it may be too small as the Jet clamps are very slightly smaller than the Hawk ones.

@meflick I haven't actually made the arms yet, what you see is here is the shoulders. I used 1" round dowel rod and then used different size Forestner drill bits to create the spiral look. Honestly I haven't measured the overall size of this so a rough guess is maybe 10 - 12 inch tall? I'm probably way off on that guess as I'm sometimes bad at these guesses. I'll measure it next time I tape things back together for test fitting pieces. I didn't change any dimensions from the pattern from the source, just printed and started piecing things together. The shortest pendulum I could find was 5" if I remember correctly and I'm not sure what the diameter of the larger part is but the inside of the area where it's hollowed out isn't very large and most pendulums I've seen have a fairly large diameter which I didn't think would look right and wouldn't allow it to swing very well so I scraped that idea and just cut a wood one and did a 3" clock insert instead. I've never made a pendulum clock so I wasn't to sure of myself on how it'd all work. The clocks I've seen for them are just the clock movement / motor and you buy / make a face and install the hands etc. onto it. It does take a special motor for use with the pendulum and they are not cheap ( in my opinion ). Just the pendulum was around $20 if I remember correct.. plus the special motor was like another $15 -20.. which is another reason I didn't try any harder than I did to make it work. The pendulum clocks and parts etc can be bought at most of the online clock parts sources.. I shopped my main go to sites like clockparts.com, klockit.com, woodworkingparts.com, bearwood etc.. I don't remember who had the better deals now. To do over again I might have hollowed out some of the parts.. I cut the torso and the head etc from I think it was 3/4" walnut and they are three layers I glued together so it's pretty heavy.. going to cost me a fortune to ship it to FL. LOL The head only has the front piece hollowed out for the clock insert. I think I'm going to take a forestner bit and drill through it a decent size hole because I set the clock in there and it's hard to grab onto it to pull it out to change a battery or set time etc.. To do over, I might have cut through all of them and maybe make a magnetic back door piece to remove to get easier access to the clock. Maybe I'll post some more detailed pictures of the pieces / parts of it to give an idea what I did. Kinda funny but the clock looked pretty nifty with just the feet and everything except the torso as I just dry fitted it with the lower section and then the clock on top.. Looked like some high end executive clock or something kinda fancy looking.. might have to make some like that, LOL

Yes, exactly! This is why I struggle to answer those common questions of "what blade to use" and also " what size blade do I need " ... Even with my Excalibur blade adjustment adjusted to the most straight up / down as possible it's still more aggressive than a Hawk.. I used to use the same blade size but switch to a FD-UR on one saw and a Pegas MGT on the other and the cutting speed / style was very close to the same, LOL. Pegas blade on the Hawk and a FD on the EX. Anyway, this is why I always answer those common questions with... "buy sample packs in various sizes, styles, and brands and find the blade that works for you.. I've seen people mention they use a number 1 blade on 3/4" stock.. for me and the saw set up I have that would be like watching paint dry..

Still working on this piece little by little in between orders etc. I need to get on the ball and finish it up. Not quite certain how I'm going to make the arms and I might redo the hair. I have some other trim type pieces to go on it too. My original plan was to use a swinging pendulum type clock.. however the size of this wouldn't allow me to fit a pendulum in it.. so I think I'm going to just saw one out of wood and maybe paint it gold and glue it in there.. Or possibly cut one from some thin brass sheet.. since I've never cut brass, LOL.. but we'll see. This is a shot of it just taped together and test fitting things before I start gluing.

I agree with Paul, That said, a lot of folks just have a curiosity of how others do something too because they're looking for tips, suggestions and a general consensus of what blade or size blade etc. one uses. There are so many blade options and for a beginner it's a lot of money to buy every blade out there when they likely will end up not using a good number of them when they find that one or two blade styles & sizes they will find that works for them. There are so many different materials and project styles, and even saw set-ups that create a different result in what a individual is trying to accomplish. For instance I have be working on a project and switch from my Hawk saw to my Excalibur or the other Hawk or Hegner and each saw has a different aggressiveness of cutting with the exact same blade cutting on the exact same board / project.. Now to answer the question at hand.. "I" use both spiral and straight blades depending on the projects at hand.. I "think" where a lot of folks go wrong with using them is they are used to "pushing too hard" or feeding to fast through the cut.. a spiral blade will follow the path of least resistance and solid wood has a wide variety of denseness throughout the same piece of wood.. you will find the hard and soft spots very quickly using spiral blades. When you push a blade too hard you can also create a bow in the blade and easily find those softer spots and send you off course.. The spiral does leave a rougher cut edge.. especially if you're pushing to hard and also especially if your saw is set up to cut more aggressively. I find using a smaller blade size than I would with a straight blade helps a lot with both smoothening the edges and also control of the blade or rather the piece since we don't control the blade ( other than speed ). I rarely use spirals on solid wood, usually use them on BBply.. but I do use them for veining fine details on thick solid wood. and the biggest spiral blade I use is a #1 and that is not often to use that large of one. Go to size is a 2/0..

IF you can get the DeWalt on sale I would buy it over the WEN for the simple fact of resale value if you decide to ever sell it. DeWalts seem to hold their value way better than most any other saw on the market.

If you do much angle cutting I'd definitely look at the King over the DeWalt.. The ability to adjust the blade cut aggression is also a nice feature on the King. I had a DeWalt and also have a Excalibur ( basic same saw as the King ). I liked the large table of the Dewalt, if you use the factory style stands.. I also like the Dewalt better.. but as I said if angle cutting then i'd go with King.. Both awesome saws really..

Yeah it takes a long time to get used to these with the barrel clamps.. I used to have to bend down and many times get off my stool so I could see what I was doing but eventually got it without getting up or even looking.. That was after several months of using only that saw as a primary saw over a slow business time... at the time if I had a rush order or something I had the DeWalt which was my primary saw for several years. The Hegner is a lot like the Hawk and I think that is why my learning curve went pretty smooth.. I broke the first few blades but now I rarely break them on that saw. I'm not sure if the Hegner needs a new retainer or if that's how they are but not one time did the blade clamp stay in the saw when I did break those few blades..

I feed the blade up through the slot in the table, then angle it toward the front of the saw and use the holder to press downward on the plastic retainer enough to slip it into the spot and rotate the blade back into position.. not sure if any of that made sense to you.. but I tried... I'm sure there are many different methods to use but that is always what worked for me if memory serves me correct.. I haven't owned the saw for a couple years now and the new hawk you don't need to remove the holders typically.. When the plastic retainer was new I would have to use two hands sometimes as it was a little stiff to bend down that far for enough clearance for the blade holder to fit in there. I'd use left hand to press down on the retainer while placing the barrel in on the right hand side.

Wonder if Hawk used different sized blade clamps at some point.. There are other brand saws that used that same style of barrel clamp.. in fact the new Jet brand saws use barrel clamps but they don't use the brass sleeve... The metal portion is slightly smaller than the Hawk ones.. when Rocky (Les ) had his Hawks he bought the Jet clamps as they are way cheaper than the Hawk ones. I believe he was one of those that made a metal retainer and I also remember JT saying he made a metal retainer.. Bushton would probably know if the older saws had a different size clamp.. When I first got my new retainer it was very tight to get a new blade clamp in place.. was always a little scared I would break the cheap plastic retainer.. they do fit pretty tight. I used to bend down on the front of it enough to slide the barrel in place. I don't think a Hegner one would work on the Hawk.. Heck, the Hegner one won't even work on the Hegner.. every blade I broke when first learning / using the saw sent the clamp flying somewhere and I never did find one of them that I think went under the workbench.. Doesn't seem like it'd be all that hard to make a retainer from some spring steel.. One could probably shape it around the clamp to get the shape of the plastic one but out of metal..

I don't believe they ever made a metal one.. Even the Ultras had a plastic one and someone suggested to them to make them from spring steel and they finally did it starting with the G4 saw starting around 2005.. now they make steel ones for the "Ultra" but not for the round clamp saws.. I know lots of folks mention on the forums over the years about the cheap plastic ones getting weak and breaking etc. and they just make their own from metal..

I kind of agree with Larry and Bob, Although I've never had my hands on a multi-tool the tool body looks like it's long and would be awkward to hold onto.. I think I mentioned previously that I find ways to hold the piece being sanded rather than the tool.. If you got a bench vice pinch the 1/4 sheet sander in that then hold the piece being sanded.. fine sanding can also be done with finger nail board sanders etc.. too.. Again, I've not used a multi tool but I find way better sanding control by having the sander be stationary.. Sanding mops and mac mops do an awesome job.. Before I had some of these tools I just used my drill press as Larry mentioned.. No Drill Press? got a bench vise? clamp a hand drill in that.. Glue sandpaper to old dull scroll saw blades and use the scroll saw to sand tight areas.. and if you have a 1/4 sheet sander then cut up the used clamped 1/4 sheet paper from the ends where it's unused. The saw only has ( depending on saw ) 3/4 inch blade stroke so you don't need to cover the whole blade in sandpaper..

First off I guess I was under the impression that you didn't have a clip in the first place and why I suggested to get one.. If you had the metal one it was more likely homemade and probably the better one of the two as plastic gets old and brittle over time and either looses it's holding power or just breaks.. When I got my first Hawk with the round clamps and it never even had one on it when I got the saw.. well actually it did but it was just the end part where it screws to the saw arm. LOL. It would fly out of that new one once in a very great while but usually the holder slowed the force down so much that the blade holder would still be on top of the saw. Three year later it started getting weak and was allowing it to escape more and more often. I always wanted to make a metal one like is on my newer saws but sold the saw before I got to that point. I believe I mentioned something about making a metal one.. maybe you made the metal one you have?

Well I would still need a blower or vacuum to clear off the sawdust from my workpiece to see where my lines are, My Hegner doesn't have a line-loc line on it to aim it off to the side. This was a big complaint on my first "old Hawk" saw I had as it just had that clear air hose that aimed toward the front of the saw, was the first upgrade I did on that saw was to buy the line-loc upgrade kit from bushton, LOL. I probably can buy the stuff to update it for the Hegner too but I want to toy around with a homemade collector set up instead of having the blower.. May still need a blower but I just wanted to tinker around with it.. not like I don't have another saw to use until I get time to mess around with the Hegner and dust collection and find what will work best for me. I haven't been working a whole lot in the shop because I'm working on a new website store build.. I have 600 items to list on the new site and approximately 5-7 photos to edit for each listing item.. doing this in this damp, wet snowy, rainy cold, kinda blah weather that we are having transitioning from winter to spring. Maybe by the time I get the new store ready to launch it'll be sunny and warm though the shop has heat.. my issue is I'm a outside kind of person if it's nice out.. and I've wanted to build this new site for a few years but holiday time is too busy to build a site and after that it's bookkeeping / taxes and summer is playing around / building up inventory.. so this time of year is perfect to get things set up for the new store. LOL..