hotshot

Keep it up, it is going to be fun to see how you progress. --------Randy

Pretty Easy pattern offered by Ashola in one of the facebook pattern groups. This was cut in a Kennedy, but could have been scaled down to a quarter.

Bob, if you need to get more tension than what the lever gives you, I can help you on this, as I've had to do this many times. The trick is to press down on the arm a bit while tightening the blade in the clamp. This gives it a bit of tension, before using the lever, so that when you add the lever tension to it, you end up with more tension that what the lever alone provides. You might ask, "How do I press down on the arm, if I have one hand on the blade, and one on the clamp knob, well, I'm embarrassed to admit . . . . . I lean over and press it down with my chin . . . . yep . . . . . . did I admit that outloud? I learned this approach after I screwed up my "Blade Travel" setting by using the back knob. Now, I never touch that back knob. -----Randy

Wow, a happy end to my day. I needed that!

Ok, now I'm really Jealous . . . .

I may suck at it, but I love TIG welding. I have a cheap Lotus Tig/Stick/Plasma cutter combo that has worked very well for both Stick and Tig. If I ever upgrade to a dedicated TIG machine, I'll probably go with the very well regarded/and reasonably priced AHP Alpha-Tig. Have fun in your class, I'm jealous. -----Randy

On the Mac, it is Shift-Option-8

If you are doing double bevel inlay, the angle determines how far down the inlay piece will sit. So, I always do test cuts and adjust angle until the inlay sits flush. If your saw will allow you to jump to precise angles, you can make a note of your optimal settings, and get to the desired inlay setup much more quickly. Even then, I would still test cut to verify angle is spot on. If you are doing bowls, if your angle is off, the rings won't line up correctly. This is usually fixable with a lot of sanding, but it's better to have that angle right. If you are doing puzzles or puzzle boxes, you need that blade at exactly 90% or the pieces won't slide in and out freely. If the blade is not at 90% when you are cutting a narrow slice in a thick piece of wood, your blade could come out the side of your cut towards the bottom, or be thicker at the bottom, messing up your piece. In intricate 3D pieces (like chess pieces), this is very very important. That said, the angles other than 90% that I use would not be helped by the "stops." However, the Wixey is very valuable for those odd angles that have to be exact. Hope that helped -------Randy

I had that exact same thought. His EX is "Green" so it doesn't have the dust collection nor does his Seyco, but his Jet does have a similar-ish system, so he should have been somewhat familiar. Also, he has been to clubs and woodworking shows and such, so it seem surprising he hasn't seen the underside of the Newer Ex style saws as they have been on the market since that first Black "Anniversary" edition years ago. I guess he never looked.

I think to be happy with Bushton, you have to take a very relaxed attitude towards them. Just be patient, and it will come when it comes. One of our members visited them at their facility and mentioned they had zero motors on hand. I don't think they keep a lot of inventory of some parts. On other things like legs/stands and such, they inherited a large inventory from RBI, so they don't have to make those new yet. When I ordered my longer BM legs and extra clamps, those came very quickly. You have to remember, Scroll saws are only one of several Bushton products. I suspect it is a very small portion of their overall business. When I was talking to them, they mentioned how they had purchased another company and were now making some custom valve covers. When they do build saws, they probably build the saws in short production runs, so if that is so, your saw may be built on their next production run. To be fair, when I purchased my Green EX21 from Seyco, at that time, it took 3 like months as they had zero inventory and were waiting on the next production run and then shipment.

Right now, they are not attached. I have a few options for finishing this piece, haven't decided which way I'm going with them yet. If I decide to attach them like the original design, I would solder them together Jeweler style

Saw the recent Hummingbird pattern by Alex Fox and the idea of a stacked design on coins appealed to me, so I bought the pattern and set out to cut the three layers. I used an Eisenhower for the top, flattened bronze Costa Rica coin for the middle, and flattened Kennedy for the back. As you can see, the scale is very very small, so the little bronze outline from the middle layers isn't hardly even visible. So, I was a success in that I got it cut, but not so much in the final result. I do like the top layer by itself though.

Thanks all. 52 down, hopefully a few more to go.

Hey Brad, I think you must have misunderstood something I said. I didn't say anything critical of you at all and consider you a friend. I was just enjoying the memories of my first CW40 and the similar pcb370 saw that I learned on. I did create an "extra/dupe" post accidentally, and couldn't delete it, but that was nothing to do with you or any of your posts. Sorry if something I said came across differently than I intended.

The thing that intrigued me by the CW40 was the discovery that Rexon actually manufactured all these type of saws, but that same saw with slight variations was being sold by Porter Cable, Proxxon, Craftsman, Rexon itself as well as many others. I owned a CW40, had to return it and traded for virtually the same saw branded by Porter Cable. I owned three of these saws over the years, each branded differently. One of these was branded "Tradesman" as was almost identical to the CW40. I still have the pcb370 at my childhood home in Oklahoma. If you need a part, that same part should be available through PorterCable. Main difference between cw40/tradesman and pcb370ss/craftsman was that the pc/craftsman version had a tilt gauge on the table, which is actually in the way. But, the bottom blade clamp on these saws wasn't easily accessible.

hmmmm, created dupe post, why oh why can we not delete a post . . . now there is a suggestion

I would add, on the EX, a zero clearance insert. Now I'm using empty gift cards.

On EX/King style stands, that bar on the Stand is in the way of my legs. I would also like to see them ditch the dust collection mechanism, and re-design something better. All the manufacturers should shift to Pegas clamps standard. Ex needs a coating on the table that don't come off so easily. On the Hegner, would like to see a "good" top feed option with a quick Clamp type solution for the bottom,

Interestingly, if you are in the UK, Axminister is the main reseller of the Taiwan made EX type saw, and it ships with the Pegas clamps by default. https://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-trade-series-ex-21-scroll-saw-101772

Scott, I'm glad you are taking a deep breathe. My heart sunk a bit when I saw that you had ordered an EX. As curious as I am to see if General can finally ship a saw from the new Chinese factory that actually functions properly, I was very very very scared for you. The EX right now is very risky, and I've only heard horror stories on the Chinese produced models. General started shipping saws before they got the serious problems worked out on with their production, and burned some resellers. You would be safer buying any of the other EX styled brands as they are all made in the proven factory that once sold solid Excalibur's. Please count your lucky stars, and go with a Tawain made model.

How did I get my Hegner MultiMax 22V (current price on this model is $1800) with less than an hour of use? Well back in the 1980s, my mother liked the idea of my dad taking up scroll sawing/woodworking, and thought it would be a great hobby for him. She had big plans for stuff he could make . . . . . and researched the best saw she could buy. Of course my Dad had no knowledge of her plans, so she bought it for him without his knowledge. Of course, this was in the 80s, and Hegner wasn't near as costly back then, but it was still pricey. Dad didn't really embrace the whole scroll saw thing, so he only used it once to cut a piece of trim or something. But as a kid, I was not aware of this purchase, and didn't find out about it until much later, when I was already deep into the hobby. I had been scrolling for several years, then one Christmas over the break, I hauled my own scroll saw back to my parents house to do some cutting over the Holiday. Dad asked why I didn't just use the scroll saw in the Shed . . . . you can't imagine the shock of finding out my parent had a "Hegner" scroll saw all that time, and I had no knowledge of it. I was shocked. When I got it, it still had the original blade in it. That is how I got a 35 year old "new Hegner". As a side note, very very few saws from that time are still supported today. I guess my mom chose the right saw because very little has changed on that model since then, and the parts for the model being made today will still fit that saw. That is one thing that is cool about the Hegner. ---------Randy

I agree with Kevin on the Craigslist approach. At any given time, there will be no "deals" on craigslist, but the trick is to check every day, and be patient. You might also check eBay and facebook market. On craigslist and ebay, check the cities on every side of you, as the bigger the town/city, the better your chances. I have to admit, it's easier to be patient when you already have one great saw. My first great saw I bought new.

I would remove a "New" excalibur outright as I've not heard anything good about any excalibur saw coming out of the new manufacturing facility in China. There was some issues with parts availability after the Delta spin off, but I've not heard anything negative about them for a while, so I don't know. I own a King 16", and it is basically identical to the old Taiwan Excalibur, and it is pretty good. The Pegas Scrollsaw is coming to the U.S. market soon, with their clamps pre-installed, so that is a tempting option. Should be identical to King except for the clamps and a nice color scheme. I don't particularly like the new Jet clamps, but that is easy enough to switch to Pegas, you get an extra inch depth on the table, and the dust mechanism may be better if you like that. I would probably remove it anyway. The Jet company is large so should provide a good support mechanism. I don't care about the reverse teeth not engaging on the bottom as I could use FDUR which would work fine. The Pegas blades I use wouldn't be affected. Seyco should be on your short list as well as that company is very scroll saw focused, and have a long history of supporting what they sell. That said, you won't have any local support unless you live in Texas. I'm not a big fan of how table angle is adjusted on the Seyco and prefer the pinion of the original Excalibur type saws, but that is just me. I don't think dewalts/deltas are any worse now than they have been in recent years. If you are a production cutter, you can probably wear one out before the warranty is up. I'm not a production cutter, so so that would not be a concern for me. These saws are a pleasure to use. All that said, if you are looking for a bargain, Dewalt will be your best bet via craigslist, just test drive it before you buy it. If your lucky you might find a Taiwan made Excalibur, or any of these other saws on your list.

How thick of puzzles are you cutting? If you are doing traditional thin puzzles, you want a narrow kerf, so you will want to be using the Flying Dutchman puzzle blades. These are not reverse teeth, but they don't seems to splinter badly. You could always try Flying Dutchman FDUR blades which have reverse teeth mixed in all up and down the blade.