kmmcrafts

I didn't know King made a 22" saw like this. Last I knew they had a 21" that replaced the Excalibur back during when the Excalibur went to be made in the China factory.. This King is way cheaper than it used to be.. I really have to wonder if they sold the King name to that China company. You can't seem to find a new Excalibur anymore like you used to.. The word got around that they were junk after China started making them.. I would almost bet that they now have the King name.. Hopefully they're made better than the Excalibur was. Just a couple years ago the 21" King was priced right there with the Pegas and others.. now they're somehow only in the $500 - 600 price range and on sale for $450.. seems a bit sketchy to me considering they were nearly $1000 just a couple years ago.. prices aren't going down like that.. more like going up.. so if I were a betting man I'd say this is a China knockoff.. I see it also comes with free stand, LOL.. Too good to be true deal there if it's not made in that China factory.

I recommend the stand that is made for the saw.. That said, I've seen some real nice homebuilt stands with fancy drawer storage etc. too.. A lot of people like to have a slight angle so the saw is tilted forward some.. I have the factory stand and have the back legs higher than the front legs for a bit of an angle.. seems I don't have to hunch over so much then.. you may want to toy around with different angles etc to see what you like best.

They have all went up.. maybe tariffs but everything went up about 2-3 years ago.. Hawk raised the price of the saw by $200 or 300 I don't remember now but I know the 20 inch saw is now what the 26 inch was and now I think the 26" is around $1700 - 1800 plus like $150 - 200 shipping. I got mine back in 2017-18 with extras for just under $1700.. The Pegas used to be just shy of $800 when they first come out then they raised it to a little over 800 for a couple years and then around 2021 -22 they jumped to over a $1000 almost $1100.. and well over that if you want a stand etc..

I'm not on the up and up for Hegner but I think this is the only dealer in the US... https://www.advmachinery.com/collections/hegner-scroll-saws?srsltid=AfmBOor9iuzBmlGPO8J7cRth5iAUMWd_R83ONWx8-ig7MBl_8aeZsPB2

I'm not bashing any body's favorite brand saw but it has always made me wonder why a company would get enough returns on a saw to be able to offer "Refurbished" at a cheaper price. https://www.bearwood.com/product8582.html?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20528065358&gbraid=0AAAAADgW79BzjoAVifjkwzD1y4Jcdj4sW&gclid=CjwKCAiA_orJBhBNEiwABkdmjFCIrvFVjvoJuvzLqAkvuo13srOKkaytLPy_hfzqaXLHAEP8yFNesxoCkM4QAvD_BwE#8582 This somewhat throws a red flag to me.. Pegas came out strong with a lot of good reviews and good advertisement.. mostly from one of the guys that worked for the magazine site company and he later got a job with Grobet or whatever the name of the Pegas parent company is.. Lets just say.. I've never seen brand new refurb Hawks or Hegners out there offered from the companies.. Now they do refurb "older" saws and offer them from time to time. You have to consider they are selling these very close to the price of the Hawk / Hegners now days.. They used to be considerably less.. Supply and demand raised the price.. Prices of other like models have not gone up so much like the Pegas did.. I could see it if they were ready to go out of the box but we aren't seeing that with every one of them. Not to be negative about so many peoples favorite saw brand but to me they're just a overpriced Excalibur or Grizzly saw.. The grizzly saw is a good 200+ cheaper and basically the same saw in my opinion.. actually it has a couple features that in my opinion improve the design. However IF I were not mechanically inclined and wanted good customer service I would look at the Jet saw and swap out the clamps to the Pegas.. Jet from what I've seen and heard has wonderful customer service.. it's a big company and not some small independent dealer that might go out of business at anytime leaving you to find another small independent dealer to get parts and service etc. Again, I see Pegas saws as good saws but I also see enough iffy situations and refurbs offered that it send me a red flag.. There are tons of positive reviews from users etc.. and obviously more than bad reviews.. Maybe they need to look at their quality control because it is a great saw.. I just don't see the high dollar price of a saw that is said to be a premium brand.. seems like the quality control is slipping on their job and or they know about issues but whoever over sees QC is overriding the issues they bring up and sending them out anyway.. I've noticed this a lot since Covid with almost every business. This is basically the same saw made in the same facility as the Pegas.. The blade chucks are different but the main workings of the saw is the same thing.. https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-21-variable-speed-scroll-saw-with-foot-pedal/g0969?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22439918094&gbraid=0AAAAAC0Fba1_p7kK3pecR2zRH-pJvjH1X&gclid=CjwKCAiA_orJBhBNEiwABkdmjB0Vwa2-9-jqBAmqETUdP26Jt_Qz8CCS06PXFV9tZs73hbAT4i9PVhoCD7EQAvD_BwE

My saw did the same thing new out of the box.. Mine is not a Pegas but is a Excalibur so same design.. I had to rotate my motor so far I had to remove the motor bolts completely and rotate to a different set of slots 3 times before I got it where it ran smooth like it should. I think they just slap these together at the factory and never test run them.. IF that motor and the linkage arms are binding at any one of the pivot points it won't run smooth throughout all the speed range of the speed dial.. You should be able to stand a Nickle on edge and turn saw on and run it through all the speeds and the Nickle shouldn't fall over... IF it's tuned properly and no factory defects. It took me a good couple days of tinkering with the saw to get it working like it should.. JT is correct, You shouldn't have to be doing these types of things to a brand new saw... I get it with the one I bought because it was a cheap China made knockoff and I didn't know that when I purchased it.. but once I did a little tinkering with it.. it's been a great saw.. Not a saw at the level of my Hawk or Hegner but still been a good saw.. I would have thought the Pegas would have been tested and inspected before it left the factory but maybe not.. Good luck.. P.S. IF you moved that arm and it improved or changed I'm betting the motor is just that far out of alignment.. because changing the arm changes the angles of the linkages and bearings etc inside the saw.. You want to start with having the arm at the same distance to the table top at both the front and the back of the arm.. Then mess with rotating the motor..

Welcome to the Village, I've written up the tuning process several times on here and it's quite a lot of typing.. Basically I would start with making sure the upper arm is parallel to the table and adjust as needed with the knob on top at the back of the saw. Then I would adjust the set screws in the blade chucks to make the blade in the same position in both bottom and top clamps.. I like to use feeler gauges to get the set screw to clamp at the same position. Then I would slightly loosen the motor bolts and put a small machinist square behind the blade and turn saw at lowest speed and run it while turning the motor. My saw needed to remove bolts and rotate to another set of slots to get it adjusted fully where it run the smoothest and least amount of forward / rearward movement of the blade. You want the blade to move as close to straight up and down at the table level. Doing these things helped my saw run so smooth you hardly know it's turned on.. Most of these things are listed in the manual of the saw.. they do say not to turn on the motor with the bolts loose and say to use a screwdriver to spin the motor shaft.. however I couldn't spin it good enough so I turn on the slowest setting and barely loosen it just enough to be able to rotate it. Spinning slow is hard to see the blade movement but running on low speed you see the movement perfectly and you can rotate while running to see which way to rotate to improve the movement.

Hawk and Hegner have closed end clamps.. That's why I suggested the big 30" Pegas / Excalibur.. Normally I'm all over the Hawk / Hegner saws for their quality.. Pegas/Excalibur are decent machines too though.. just not at the highest level. The design of the Pegas will also be a smoother running machine throughout the speed range, where as the Hawk / Hegner will have some harmonic balance vibration at certain speeds. Edit to add: I should also note that I'm talking about the older Excaliburs.. back before China took over the name and started making them cheap, LOL

Since you mentioned large pieces, I'd recommend a 30" Excalibur or Pegas saw.. they would be much better with any angle cutting too. Very smooth machines and you can easily adjust the how aggressive it cuts by rotating the motor.. That to me seems like it'd be important for this very detailed fine work.

Are you sanding before you attach a pattern? Where are you getting tear out? near drilling points, around the cutouts or just when peeling off the pattern. These questions might help pinpoint a problem.. I have noticed as my Baltic birch ply sits around and gets some different weather seasons cycled through it gets a bit of raised grain on the surface.. IF I don't pre-sand before applying the pattern then it'll tear off fibers of wood and sometimes are bigger pieces and cause chip out throughout the entire piece but especially bad near cut areas and or drilled areas.. This fall I started experimenting with sealing up the plywood as soon as I purchase it.. Not really knowing if it'll help or hinder I also used various finishes.. I've got Polycurlic, Lacquer, and Shellac on several of the pieces just to see how this impacts the plywood and the projects I make with it too.. Might be just the humidity of the Michigan weather but even if I sand a piece and get it ready for a project then get side tracked with a order of something else so set the sanded ply aside for a few weeks I'll have to lightly hit it again with the sander.. so hoping the pre -finishing will at least help with that. So far the sheets I've sanded and finished 5-6 weeks ago is still doing great.. one downside I see so far is I finished both sides and if it's a piece I need to glue a backer to.. well... the glued piece isn't holding all that great like it does with raw bare wood.. so I may have to consider only finishing the top side.

Same experience when I bought mine.. in fact Hope talked my ear off for 3 hours just about the saws, business, weather, camping and a few custom saws they made for full time RV'ers that wanted Bushton to custom make a mount on the side of the RV to mount the saw on.. So they try to accommodate each customers needs within reason, LOL.. Do you suppose any other saw company would do something like that? When I ordered my saw one of their machines went down and they had a real hard time getting the part to fix their machine.. so I ended up waiting 4 months to get my saw.. lots of people were saying they'd cancel the order etc. etc. but you just don't get this type of business every day and running a small business myself.. I get it.. things happen out of your control and most people these days will just be impatient and badmouth them for years for something that was out of their control.. It's a small family run business and you just don't see that much anymore.. partly because everyone orders something and expect it to be delivered the next day.. if it isn't then they'll go to another place that will deliver the next day.... to me it's a sad day when people rather get some China made junk because it's quicker than support a small USA company..

Everyone has their own preference and style of cutting they do.. I prefer to be able to have multiple blade sizes and configurations all loaded up and ready to use.. many projects I made would require veining that I would cut with a flat blade first and then go back over with a spiral blade.. I could easily swap blades on a single project without having to remove a blade from the clamps etc.. Properly set up and tuned saw shouldn't be tossing out the blade holder anyway.. if it is then there is a issue with the set-up of the saw or a faulty worn part.. The old Hawks with the round clamps was terrible with this and one reason people hated them.. but these saws are also 40 years old and well worn.. Nothing like the newer saws with the squared blade holders.. This is also something Hawk changed on the newer saws.. the blade chuck can just be left on the saw but can also be easily removed.. Can also top or bottom feed the blade on the newer saws.. I just keep them in the saw on the BM series.. One downside on this saw is it only came with the one set of blade holders so I can't have some all preloaded and ready like I can with the Ultra.. I have 10 extra holders that came with that saw.. IF I want extras for the BM series it's $20 each so I just have the one set.

Yes, having several saws has advantages if you have the space for them.. IF I were to do a lot of angle cutting I would not use a Hawk or Hegner.. I'd look at Pegas as they have the best angle mechanism and the saw tilts instead of the saw table... My Excalibur is also great for angle cuts and is very similar to the Pegas.. I just think Pegas went above and beyond with their angle mechanism.. My complaint on the Hegner is not a huge deal but I just hate the very small table they have.. I've not used mine a lot but it is a well built and solid saw to use.. I do love the small stand as it's narrow enough to sit at and sort of straddle the stand.. the Hawk stand is okay too but a bit wider and tall too.. need a tall chair and a block of wood to mount the foot switch too in order to reach it. The Excalibur stand is the worst of all of them.. no place to put your legs really.. The DeWalt stand was always comfortable too.. just the saw was always pretty aggressive cutting and hard to do fine detail cutting.

If it has the more squared style lower blade chuck/clamp then it's a Ultra or newer saw.. which are good saws for the most part.. The G4 and BM series saws have square type clamps too but they're slightly different and quite difficult to tell.. The thumb screws are smaller on the ultra while the newer models I think are larger and are 1/4 20 thread? Not sure the size on the ultra style.. the body of the clamp is also very slightly different.. just enough to not work in each model.. The G4 and newer saws the lower arm goes through the angle adjustment mechanism where the ultra is behind the angle plate so on the Ultra saws you have to reach around behind the angle adjuster to access the blade holder.. the newer saws it's right there in your lap almost LOL.. so is all the sawdust.. another win for the Ultra is that the sawdust will pile up on top of the saw stand behind the angle mechanism while the new saw is in your lap or on the floor.

You also rarely see any of the "newer" Hawks for sale either.. The G4 and the new BM series are hardly ever up for sale.. These would be 2005 and newer saws.. "some" G4's come up now and then.. and I think I've seen maybe 2 BM series for sale.. But the G4 I think were made from 2005 - 2010 ish and that is when the BM series came out after those G4's. I see way more 2002+ Hegners than I do Hawks for sale.. but that's not a lot of Hegners either, but way more common than the Hawk. Edit To Add: You also have to consider the fact that most of the Hawk and Hegners out there for sale were made before Excalibur, DeWalt types were even a thing yet.. Many of the ones you see for sale are from the 1980's and 90's

The BM-20 is a great saw but they're pricey.. I bought a new BM-26 back in 2018 and it's been a great saw.. I also have a 226VS Ultra model and I think that saw is actually a tougher built saw.. both are great but the 226 Ultra feels like a better built more solid saw than the BM-26. The plus to getting the Ultra is price and not much to go wrong with them.. Biggest wear points are the tension cam at the front of the upper arm and the wedge shape at the back of the upper arm.. Both parts are only around $20 - $50.. for the most part not much else goes wrong with these.. Probably could pick up a good used saw for less than $400 - $500 range.. Usually a lot of them for sale in that price range and many times less money than that.

If you have a very small shop then you might not want a Hawk scroll saw.. they're big and take up a large floor space with their 4 legged stand.. A Hegner looks like a toy with the small footprint their 3 legged stands take up.. Either are wonderful saws if you get the right optioned one as some of the older ones didn't have all the bells and whistles that the newer ones come with.. even though they look all the same until you really look closely and know what to look for... that is why we suggest showing us what saw you might be looking at.. The Hawks all look almost the same from the very first ones made to the ones they make today.. same goes for the Hegners.. there are only minor changes in appearance but knowing what to look for and getting the bells and whistles of the new ones will make the sawing experience much better..

You also have to consider the production numbers of the saws out there and also price points as to why so many are for sale.. Like there are probably more DeWalts out there than any other saw.. some enjoy them while others may have had one of those real aggressive cutting dewalts and realized the hobby wasn't for them.. if they had bought a better one they might not have left the hobby.. I believe there is probably 2-3 times more Hawks out there than Hegners.. Pricing plays a roll in that as well as dealers.. I'm not sure there are any dealers other than just 1 for Hegners.. but I believe Hawk had some tool dealers that sold the saws for them..

Happen to me when cutting some sort of exotic wood but I don't remember what it was now as that was years ago. I also had this with I think it was Cherry or Spalted Maple.. It was like the wood was very wet.. in fact so wet that there was moisture bubbling up right ahead of the blade.. it's like the sawdust was too heavy to blow around in the air and the blower only moves it a short distance..

I think Denny has the best solution for this issue.. That said I stopped getting the magazine years ago because I didn't like the way the patterns are on that huge sheet and like has already been mentioned you wrinkle it all up and then when you want to copy one from the other side it's all messed up with the winkles and doesn't copy well.. not to mention, I can never find the patterns I'm looking for and many times it's just much easier to buy the design online somewhere and have a digital file for it that's easy to categorize and find later.

BTW, IF harbor Frieght did carry the blades they'd probably be the crappy blades that all the hardware stores etc. have on their display racks.. Most blades you can buy at your local box stores are junk.. You need to buy one of three of these brands, Flying Dutchman, Olsen, or Pegas.. each brand has good blades but slightly different blade configurations and you have folks that are diehard brand loyal that will swear about the blades their brand offers.. I personally use all three brands for certain projects and I don't feel there is any certain brand that is "Best" just depends on the type of project and material and also your style of comfort level of cutting etc.. Best thing is to buy many samples from each brand and find what you like.. what you like today might change as you advance in your scrolling ability

Berry Basket! that's what I was trying to remember the name of, LOL.. I have several of them as I bought the whole set of their patterns when they retired and was giving a huge deal on the complete set of their patterns.. That said I think Cherry Tree has the rights to some of their designs? I don't remember now but someone is still selling some of those patterns.

Which saw do you have? There are different saws they made over the years and the upgraded blade holders are specific to the model saw you have.. Pegas blade holders for their 22" saw if you have the older saws then there is another place to get adapters for the blades.. so it makes a difference on what saw you have.

I'm not sure if Cherry Tree is still in business or not but I'm quite certain they had several patterns for music boxes..

Well, finally today the tracking shows it is moving out of the warehouse and expected to be delivered tomorrow... today marks the one month from the day I placed my order..