kmmcrafts

Sorry to hear about that. I’ve been hearing a lot about the quality of bbply and many having issues lately. Nothing more frustrating than getting about finished and having a issue like this.

I've got several cutting boards to make and we are also redoing some rooms in the house so I've also been making trim out of some of this lumber I have. There is so much of it that I will barely put a dent in it.. I too will try to make some things out of it to help reduce the stacks. I hate to burn it but much of it is what wouldn't pass the lumber grade inspectors as they have to be knot and split free and at least I think it's 6ft long but it might be 8ft. I can't remember.. so much of the stuff I have is more smaller stuff that is perfect for scroll saw and other small projects like cutting boards etc.. I'd drag the stuff home saving it from the wood chipper only to stop doing so much woodwork now and now I'm stuck with it in my way. It's pretty tough to sell rough cut wood like this unless you hook up with other crafters etc.. I look forward to seeing your photos of the stuff you make.

Yeah, I can see why, LOL.. Only two times I bought wood online.. one was a dealer on eBay several years ago as he sold specialty thin wood 1/32 up to 1/4.. I think the eBay seller name had something like John Deere something.. anyway I wanted some real thin wood to make some inlay on some necklace pendants .. still have a bunch of the pieces in the box that I never used. Lots of purple heart, yellow heart and some others. Second time was because of the Covid lockdowns and I needed BBply so I ordered from Cherokee.. I was very happy with the wood for both of these orders.. almost just started ordering my ply because it was already cut down to 12 x 12 but then many times I want a 16 x 20 piece or something and you're somewhat limited or pay big for shipping.. I have a local source not too far that has the 5 x 5 full sheets and have them cut in half for easier handling when I cut it down further. Kinda dumb for me to buy wood when right next door is a sawmill business owned by my uncle and then my brother also owns a sawmill business that is 8 mile away.. I do buy a fair amount still.. just because if I go to the mills I end up bringing everything they're going to throw into the chipper because it's too good.. especially if it's a more specialty wood that is usually pricey like Walnut, curly maple and well you know stuff that if you had to go buy it would be expensive.. I gave a member here just about a whole truckload of walnut.. have about 6 more truckloads in my loft of walnut and a bunch of curly and spalted maple..

I've been toying with shipping cost through the three main shippers I use as of late. So far I am finding that UPS and FedEx is a lot cheaper to ship than USPS if you have larger sized boxes to ship out.. ie I had a 12 x 12 x 8 box the other day and USPS wanted ( my discounted cost through Amazon ) 18.** and UPS was like $12 and FedEx was just pennies under UPS price.. I also had a larger box to fit a 16 x 20 framed portrait in.. USPS wanted $63 UPS was $25 and FedEx was $22.. I did have it packaged in quite a lot bigger box with lots of padding.. Ended up cutting box down quite a lot and got the shipping cost down to $15 through USPS.. Anytime you get anything very large no matter the weight USPS gets really pricey.. But they're much cheaper when it comes to small packages under one pound. I have a boatload of wood and have considered selling it online.. Shipping kills the deal for most even at my discounted cost.. It basically cost more to ship the wood for me than most can buy from these suppliers including their price and shipping.. I'm not going to mail out free wood to people so campfires are enjoyable with it. LOL Not big enough business to get larger discounts like many of these bigger known wood suppliers so I'm stuck burning campfires with a lot of it now.. and have given some to locals. Selling it on Marketplace is a joke unfortunately so I'll enjoy smores and a campfire, LOL

I have seen that too.. but still it's sometimes hard to know how much strength they have and many folks deal with arteritis and may "look like" they are struggling with making it tight.. But I agree it sure looks like they're putting way too much torque on the screws but who knows what the actual torque is. Most every used saw I have purchased I have had to address the blade chucks because of over tightening the blades.

I seen a seller on Etsy a few years back that sold puzzles and they were all made from 3/4 BBply. I would think it'd be more stable and also ( back then ) cheaper than buying lumber.. You could get a full 5 x 5 sheet for $25 and I would think quite a few puzzles could be made from a full sheet compared to a $25 board. The downside in my opinion would be the plywood really goes through the blades faster. The other downside is, I'm not sure of the safety factor if kids were to play and put in their mouths etc.. Not sure if the glues in it would be toxic or not.

I bought a box of blades from an estate sale a few years ago. The guy had 3 Hegner saws there.. after getting home and digging through the box to see what I actually got I found several blade clamps for those Hegners.. Took them back to the sale but someone already bought the Hegner saws.. I probably should have got one since they were selling them for $80 each.. anyway, I found two clamps that had the screw threaded in and broken off.. really someone was tightening them so tight to snap the bolts / screws off.. BUT yes you are correct.. be pretty difficult to spread those apart.. well, maybe because I would have never thought someone would break the screws off either.. that's some torque on those as they're not the smallest screws..

The Hawks and Hegners both are a lot more fussy with the tension.. and either people hate them or love them, LOL.. That said, I'm sure you've already tried sanding the ends of the screws and set screw.. Lot's of people have trouble with the clamps and if you bought the saw used there is a possibility that the previous owner tightened the screw too tight a few too many times and spread the clamp apart. Whenever I watch others saw on YouTube to me almost every single scroll sawer on there looks like they are really clamping down on the blade way too much.. I don't know how much gripping power they have in their hands but man most of them at least "look like" they're just cranking that thing down and it doesn't need to be that crazy tight.. good way to ruin a clamp for sure on any saw. There used to be a person that made retrofit blade clamps for a lot of saw models where you could put the Delta Quickset II blade clamps on other saws.. Delta by far made the best clamp I've ever seen but unfortunately they are no longer sold and neither are the parts. Someone should take that design and replicate it or very similar.. they required no tools and only had a lever to flip over and had a much larger clamping surface than these tiny thumb screws that most everyone seems to over tighten. Anyway, I would guess maybe the upper clamp is bad is why you're having trouble keeping the blade in it when turning on the saw..

The issue I ran into when looking into making my own sleeves was the cost wasn't worth the effort.. I have a small benchtop metal lathe to make them on but sourcing the right type of material and the time and effort ( for me at the time ) was just not worth it.. Now if I was more into making things on the lathe rather than sitting at the scroll saw making inventory to sell at the time.. I may have found more value into doing them and researched more for the source of correct material etc. so I guess I just found more value in buying the sleeves. Now that all said... some of the sleeves are odd sized and are hard to come by especially for the Excalibur as they have some of them as a oddball size.. however I found a source through Jet scroll saw parts where they sell these sleeves.. IF you look in the excalibur parts list they only offer the whole assembly with all bearings and sleeves etc.. which by the way is probably the better way to rebuild these anyway as when measuring the bearings and sleeves there is definitely some tolerance changes between the new and old bearing sleeves even though they really didn't look too worn.. This could be the lack of quality of parts the factory assembled them with in the first place. Certainly tightened up the slop in the saw by changing out the whole assembly when I rebuilt it the second time.. First time rebuild was just mostly cleaning and replacing visibly worn parts so mainly just the larger two bearings and the larger sleeve at the back of the saw.. This one seem to be the one to get the most wear in my experiences..

Is it just the photo backwards or is your accessory arm on the opposite side as most of the other Hawks. When facing the front of most Hawks the accessory arm is usually on the right hand side. I know they can be mounted on either side maybe for right or left handed folks or just preference but I've only seen a couple of saws have it on the left side. This looks like a good fix for holding down the arm.. the older saws with the lower blade chucks behind the angle mechanism really weren't designed in a way to top feed.. however I was always able to do it on all the Hawks I've owned without any hold down. My new saw has the hold down much like the G4 saws but I've never used it.. I normally bottom feed but on certain larger projects I do top feed so just depends on the projects.

That is typically what I start my search for since that is the file format that my laser and CNC require. IF I can't find something there then I go back to clipart, stencil, coloring page etc.. I tend to find more "free stuff" by searching stencil or coloring page.. I think a lot of those free clipart sites are gone and probably because of the craze of everyone now using 3D printers, cnc's, cricut's and lasers.. Thanks for the suggestion though

I usually get the same thing from Pinterest.. though I haven't tried it recently.. but the clipart there is usually linked to a etsy shop or somewhere that wants money for it. Many people just use the photos from pinterest but that is really steeling when you actually trace the source of the original image so I don't really like doing that if I happen to make something that I end up putting online for sale I like to actually have a legal trail that I have the right to use that image.. anybody can copy and paste most any image online but it's not always the right thing to do.. There used to be some real genuine free clipart.. but now days people have even gone to those sites and then sell them, LOL

Yes Jim, I've ran into that as well. I don't mind paying for clipart for the most part but there are instances where I find a piece of clipart I like and it says free.. then you click trough several pages and while the clipart itself might be free there is a monthly fee for the website in order to download it. And yes the monthly fee isn't a bad price if I were to be using and downloading a bunch of clipart every month.. I look for certain clipart maybe 2-3 times a year, lol

I've been looking for winter themed clipart that is royalty free and without having to jump through hoops of all sorts.. I get that it cost money to make clipart and maintain a site for it etc.. but there used to be tons of sites you could download free clipart.. in my search today I click on free sites only to get to a page that you have to subscribe in order to download the clipart.. doesn't seem very free to me and very deceiving to send you on a click bate goose hunt only to get to the last page where it says you have to subscribe to the site. Are there sites out there that have decent really free clipart or am I dreaming that there used to be some sites like this? Google used to be a friend that found you things you actually searched for.. now it is dominated by click bate false free searches and it's very frustrating to say the least. It seems all search engines on most all the internet is this way now days.. go to etsy and search for a specific ornament and you get all sorts of clipart when you're actually looking for a ornament.. No wonder everyone's sales have dropped off.. they've messed up the search engines everywhere. Okay rant over I guess, LOL.. Now, where are the clipart sites that actually have free clipart if anyone knows of anything?

I'd like to see your woodstove fan set-up.. One of the reasons I haven't hooked up some sort of vac is the noise.. I have a big furnace blower that I run in the summer for a fan.. called a squirrel cage blower is what I've known them as.. but that thing is quiet.. a smaller version piped up as a suction vac would be a awesome type of dust collector.. I like how the Hegner blower is built into the arm as it's out of the way compared to those flex hoses that you constantly have to adjust but a big reason I don't use my Hegner is because it blows it "at you" LOL.. so on one hand it's a nice idea but whoever designed that has never set at a saw and used it for any length of time, LOL ..

The part is a CV axle boot.. I don't know what size you would need or for what model car.. most of them are around the same size. I thought I read somewhere that one for a ATV quad or? was a perfect fit.. either way they're made of rubber and will out last the one that Hegner sells and as a bonus it's cheaper, LOL

I always wondered what they make the bellows out of that makes them go bad so often.. What do I mean by that? Well dang near every Hegner needs a new bellows... Yet I have yet seen any Hawks that need a new bellows nor have I heard or seen anyone mention needing it replaced.. I see Hawk offers a replacement so they probably do go bad.. I might have to compare the sizes of these from my Hawk to the Hegner.. Maybe worth buying one for a Hawk and putting it on the Hegner since they're about half as much for the Hawk and don't seem to go bad either..

That looks like a really clean well taken care of saw. I'd say it's priced in the ballpark value.. maybe slightly on the high side but it is the bigger saw and very clean looking so yeah.. If it has some extra blade clamps or any extras that'd be a plus. In my area I see most of the smaller saws going for $400 - 600 for this in my opinion for my area would be priced about right. Are there better bargain saws out there? yeah but usually far and few between when it comes to these higher end saws.. and when they pop up they're gone quick. It does say the bellows needs replaced, but it seems most of them I see needs new one.

Yeah that front tension doesn't make the saw any less quality.. my point was that most times the ones with the front tension are priced at or around that price.. and seems to be plenty around here so I would by the one with the tension up front rather than one without provided they're in the same ballpark price.. I mean why spend the same money and have to put the newer arm kit on to move the tension to the front as I believe the kit to move it to the front is over $200 the last I checked.. So for me since I would rather have that up front I'm not paying $700 and then ad another $200 when there are other used saws out there in my area that already have it up front and usually in this price range or less.. I get what you're saying though from a standpoint of buying a new saw verse the used one at less than half the price.. Yes the stand and other additional things can change the value too.. mine came with a stand but it looks rough compared to the saw.. saw looks new but the stand hardly has any paint on it and rusty.. something I want to clean up and paint but haven't got around to it yet. Prefer to use my Hawk anyway..

It's hard to say for sure if it's a decent price or not without knowing more details. With the date range being before they had the up front tension lever and quick clamp etc.. I'd say it's not worth it unless it was the bigger industrial model.. can't remember what the model name was now but they were a bigger saw with even a heavier motor than the others.. I don't think they make that saw anymore but it was around $2000 way back when I got into the hobby.. so if it is one of these.. OR it had been upgraded to the upfront tension release and other goodies it could be worth that. The upgrades for the old saws to make them with the more modern goodies cost quite a lot.. like a few hundred dollars so IF those upgrades had been done.. he's probably not too far off from the value.. But not worth it to "me" anyway if those upgrades haven't been done because you can go out and get a newer model that had the updated options from the factory for around that price as well so that would be a no for me.. so again.. really depends on what he has and the condition. I got my 2002 multimax 18 free but it was missing blade chucks and I couldn't even try it.. plus the guy had to clean out the estate in a short time and sell the home because he lived out of state and took time off to get stuff cleaned out.. he was going to toss it in the dumpster if I didn't take it. He had already had some table saws and stuff loaded in the dumpster, LOL.. sad but I understand were he was coming from too.. he didn't want it and needed to clean house and had no time to mess with it.

I didn't know the prices of these but I do agree... way better deal to buy the larger easier to use saw... I'm not sure what the price is on the HF model but I'm thinking it was in that price range and they have always been good at honoring their warranty and returns were always very easy.. at least in my local store.. so I'd think the HF saw would be the better deal .. Best bang for your buck saw from a reselling point of view is the DeWalt.. those things seem to bring 80-90% of the price they were when new.. many times you could sell them for only 50 - 100 less than the new one.. I remember paying $350 for mine with stand and light.. sold the light a couple years later as I never put it on the saw and someone local was wanting one, so I sold it for $25.. ran the saw for 8 years and sold it for $300, LOL.. You can't even get close to the new price with a Hawk or Hegner, or most any other saw for that matter.. but those DW's sure bring a good resell value that you just can't beat. That was the deciding factor I had when I pulled the trigger on mine.. I wanted the Delta P20 that big cast iron monster of a saw but honestly glad I never went that route.. great saw but shortly after I made my choice Delta stopped making then and not long after that parts were obsolete.. With all these cheap saws on the market I still say the DeWalt is really the best entree level saw to buy because of the name, resale, and quality is not bad for the money.. yeah bit more than these saws but you always can get most of your money back if you don't like the hobby..

I didn't really watch the video but I have seen the saw online somewhere so not in person. I will give credit to some of these entrée level saws as the design is similar to most of the others on the market and most " if tuned properly " are fairly smooth running saws.. not like the old day entrée level saws where they'd vibrate the whole bench across the shop floor.. and used to have to have a hex wrench to change blades.. so while the user experience is probably better than back in the day saws.. So hopefully a new person to the hobby doesn't have that bad experience that chases them away from the hobby. I do for the most part agree with everything JT said though... but on the other hand I get that a newbie doesn't want to go spend several hundred more on what most of us would consider a good starter saw.. I've been there myself.. and for the most part I did give up for several years after my first sawing experience but then tried another saw that was only marginally better, .. But sometimes we have to go through the school of hard knocks to figure it all out.. I'd say most that have started with a cheap old saw from back in the day probably did the same.. Thankfully many of us recognized the tool quality from the get go and found something better so we could improve and enjoy the hobby.

One thing about doing long cuts that used to help me was making sure I have a brand new blade at the start of these longer cuts. For me going straight was more about me wanting to "go faster" because of the longer straight cuts.. even circle cuts like ornaments is tough to do if there is not big details to do you kinda get bored and impatient and end up pushing the wood too much which will cause the blade to flex and wander. Most times I start a longer cut with a new blade even if the one you had been using wasn't that old or dull yet.. I also used to speed up the saw.. Now if you're having the opposite trouble where you feel it's going too fast for your comfort maybe a dull blade and slower speed is what will work for you. Some types of wood is real difficult because the blade will follow the path of least resistance so if there is a softer spot the blade will try to take that path into that soft area.

Excelisor was also considered a good Excalibur replacement when General International shut down... and they came up with the same saw with several different brand names.. I suppose it's possible that these are still great well made saws but I find that hard to believe with the low price point they went backwards to. Pegas came out the gate strong and took over the market.. Maybe these other brands were forced to lower the prices? Don't know but you can't find a new Excalibur named saw now.. The King and others have changed up the design from a 21" saw to a new 22" saw and lowered the prices considerably.. Also making a squeeze on these brands is the cheaper Rikon and Harbor Freight models.. These all look like the same saw now days and I suspect they are, with just different colors and names.

I noticed the 16" price too.. I'll also note that the 16 looks to be made just like the Excalibur with the dust port holes in the table and the power switch and speed control is like the Pegas and others but not on the 22" saw it's altogether different. .. The 22" appears to have a larger table kinda like the Harbor Freight saw.. and I don't see any dust port. I would bet the 16" is the older version as that was always the price of the smaller saw.. Like I said.. prices don't just go backwards like that.. they have changed manufactures is my guess.. Also looking at the zoomed in photo I see it has the arm lock button at the back of the saw much like the Harbor Freight saw.. Looks like the same saw as the HF saw other than color.. Look close at the Rikon too.. It's not the old King saw that came out back around 2017 that was the same as a Excalibur for sure... not at that price it's not anyway. I would say it's a HF saw with King stickers and color.. Might as well go to HF and get it a little cheaper if you're going that route. At least HF you can return it.. as they have a pretty good return policy..