tgiro

Those are really neat gates. Maybe sometime, when I have time . . . .

They do make open ended gates, but the slide is a little longer. https://www.ptreeusa.com/dust_blastgates.html You'll note that the price is about double the cost of the regular gate. I haven't had any problems with mine so I just get the cheap ones & cut them off. I did think about making my own out of 1/2" ply, but the cost of the wood was just as great if not more than the cheap gates.

Looks good - and, if it works, Great! I looked at the Dust Stoppers. They looked to be little commercial version of Thien Filters, developed by Phil Thien, a number of years ago. I built one to fit a 39 gallon trash can as the first stage for my DC a few years ago. It took my filter bag changes from once a month down to once every 4 - 5 months. SInce the Filter is in the shop, I don't have to go outside, in the snow or rain, to empty it. I think you'll like the Dust Stopper.

I buy the cheap plastic gates all the time. Tennis balls work OK for the smaller diameter hoses, but my dust collector works on 5" and 4" piping to the major tools. The scroll saw, drill press and a couple of smaller sanders get the 2.5" hoses. To keep your gates from clogging, cut the ends of the gates. That way the gate pushes the sawdust right out the end of the gate and never blocks the gate. If the gate is getting a little sticky, some dry silicone spray does the trick.

Why are you pushing down on the knob? When I sat in a session with Ray Seymore, he had us pushing down on the top of the arms with our left hand, while our left thumb hooked under and held the blade in the clamp. Then we tighten the knob with the right hand. That provides a straight down gentle pressure (you don't have to jam it down). I can see how pushing down with the knob may provide some twist to the arms and throw something out of alignment over a period of time. I've had my EX-21 for 7 years. I've used Ray's method when I had the OEM clamps and after I installed the Pegas Clamps. while there is a little play in the arms with no tension, they work fine once I lock the blade in place.

Melanie, sign up for their email blasts. Yeah more spam, but they will have a sale for just about anything. Their recent St Patrick's day sale took 50% off of their turning blocks. I got ten 10"x3"x3" blocks for $10 each. Every now and then their panels will go on sail, too. I get most everything I need from the 10x3x3 blocks that I rarely order panels.

OK - First - I didn't color the wood. The wood is from some left over strips of SpectraPly blocks, that I had used on another project. SpectraPly comes from Cousineau Wood Products -- https://www.cwp-usa.com/collections/spectraply-blanks The process is called Bowl-from-a-Board. I made the board from the SpectraPly strips, then used my scroll saw to cut the rings out of it. The rings were about 5/8" thick and I cut at a 45 degree angle. When I was done shaping the bowl, the wall of the bowl was about 3/8" at the base - tapering out to 1/8" at the lip. The base and lip are made of maple. The lip ring was made using segmented ring methods. If you are patient, and have the right sanders, you can shape the bowl with just the sanders. I cheated and used my lathe to spin the bowl while I worked. See Carole Rothman's youtubes and articles on how to cut bowls with a scroll saw and shape them with sanders. Here is the only side picture I have. The bowl sold so I can't take any more.

Just love playing with rainbows - - -

A man & wife are looking at my intarsia at the craft show. Wife: "How do you cut the pieces, so they fit so tightly together?" Man: "He does that with a computer." Me: "No, Sir, I cut them with a scroll saw." Man: "That's impossible! No human can cut that precisely!" Me: "Ok" Sigh . . . .

I blew up the picture of the clamp to show the problem. That gap between the ends of the set screw and the other one is your problem. The ends of those screws should be flush with one another - no gaps. There can be two reasons for this. 1 - The screw ends are worn and need to be resurfaced or replaced. The easiest way is to take the screws out and take them to Lowes or HD and get new ones. 2 - The clamps has separated and will not let the screws line up flush. It looks like that clamp is a cast aluminum piece and that can happen when people over tighten screws. When one has the problems you are having, you tend to try and over tighten the screws. That causes the front part of the clamp to spread, which causes the screws to come together at an angle and you will never get a good clamp. I would try replacing or cleaning the screws first. To clean them - Take a piece of wood about 2" wide X 3" long and 1/4 - 3/8 " thick. Drill two 7/32" holes about an inch apart on the center line of the board. Screw your screws through the holes you made until the ends are just proud of the other side of the board. Lay a piece of 22 grit sand paper on a flat surface - grit side up. Put the board on the paper and slide it around until the ends of the screws are shiny with no marks or nicks. Take the screws out of the board and put them back in the saw and test to see if the gap is gone. If it is - you're back in business. If not - then you will have to check Sears Parts online to see if they still have that clamp available.

RIck Hutcheson has a bunch of old saws. He may know about your. His site is -- https://www.scrollsaws.com/

Kevin - is your adjustment going out of whack while you are cutting? If so, that is a bug and I echo other folks in saying give Ray Seymore a call. He knows more about Excalibur than International Machinery does. Contrary to some beliefs, the purpose of that knob is to set the upper arm parralel to the table. It isn't for adjusting tension. When there is no blade or the blade isn't locked, the knob will move freely. When the blade is locked, it should be hard to move that knob.

You're talking about the Carter Guides, which would replace the cool-block guide with bearings. And you're right - they are expensive, If I was doing it I would go with the bearing guides over cool-blocks every time. But I wasn't talking about that. I was recommending the stabilizer -- https://www.carterproducts.com/band-saw-products/band-saw-stabilizer The stabilizer literally lets you do scroll saw like cuts on a band saw. And it is much cheaper than a set of guides. Here is a bunch of youtubes about what the stabilizer is and what it does -- https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=carter+bandsaw+stabilizer+

I know Groff & Groff carries it, but I didn't see it on their website. They do cater to the scroll sawers though. You might give them a call. https://www.groffslumber.com/

As long as the wheel bearing are good and it tracks true, that's a good buy. You might want to see if Carter has a stabilizer to fit it.

If they follow true to form - you would receive a check for a few hundred over the cost of the item. "And would you kindly take the extra in cash and give it to the 'shipping agent' so he can use it for other pickups in route to the new address." You would, probably, find that the check is mailed to you from a different address than what she provides, and is drawn on a bank from some third location. Note that calls to that bank, even from your banks financial or security officers would result in the fact that that bank can not provide any information about the validity of personal or registered checks. When I sold my old Shopsmith - I had a guy, supposedly from Plano, TX, who tried the scam on me. He actually sent me a registered check, which came from Charleston, SC, written by a bank in St Paul, MN. My bank, tried to verify the check, but the bank it was supposedly written by was unable to verify the check number or account number (???). The check was for $1500 over the amount of my sale price. I was supposed to give that amount, in cash to the driver who would be picking up the machine. We were able to get the scammer to give us an address in Plano, which turned out to be an empty warehouse, according to the Plano police. And the return address on the FedEx envelope, that the check came in, was an empty lot. We considered going through with the check to see if we could catch the driver, but bank security said "No, don't do that." Processing the check would legally be considered fraud on my part. The bank security folks turned the whole mess over to the local police departments in Plano and Charleston. I haven't heard anything about it since.

We only have one Walmart within a twenty mile radius of us. Price wise, I've found that, for name brands, Walmart is the same, or maybe, a little less than other stores. When I was shopping for a TV for my daughter, I found a good one at Best Buy. When I checked Walmart, that same TV was the same price. I actually found a video game for my grandson cheaper at Gamestop than at the neighboring Walmart. The same goes for groceries - the prices of name brands are about the same as the local supermarkets. As far has hardware, tools, appliances, paints, etc - the local Lowes is highly competitive with Walmart.

My EX-21 does this all the time. My tension knob has the white line on it. Once I got the arm adjusted correctly, I put a piece of tape, with a line on it, on the saw to show where the white line should be. Once I start cutting, and not paying attention to it, the arm will start drifting. I finally cut a block of wood the correct dimensions for my arm being level. It helps to quickly bring the arm back to level.

Better take some thing along to make sure those dowels are the size they say they are. I have a couple of plastic pieces with different sizes of holes drilled through them. I take one of them along when I'm buying dowels from HD, Lowes, or Walmart. I found that most of their dowels are standard metric sizes - sort of close to imperial sizes. That's also why I have a complete set of metric brad points- drill bits as well as imperial.

The "nickle test" never impressed me. My saw (2012 vintage EX-21) would let me balance a nickle at high speed - but - as soon as you touch a piece of wood to the blade, the nickle will fly. 1. I never cut at the highest speed - I'm normally at the 75% - 90% range. 2. I have since set my table at a sloping angle to the front, so a nickle wouldn't balance any more anyway. All scroll saws vibrate - a few much less than others, but the real test is while you are cutting wood, not while it is just running with no cutting.

On an old Craftsman Drill Press, I was able to find a belt in the Lawn Mower belts at HD. Or take it to an auto supply store - they have gadgets that can measure a belt and might have your size.

Only on pens and small turned items - xmas ornaments, wine bottle toppers, kalaidiscopes, that sort of stuff. Since most of my scroll saw work is compound cut, 3-d, or intarsia, I never use it there - too much work & I don't always want shiny.

Ray - try this. Put your bit in the chuck and tighten it as best you can. Measure the length of the bit sticking out of the chuck and write that number down. Drill your piece. Whether it works or not, re-measure the length of the bit. If the bit is slipping in the chuck it will be a different length than when you first put it in. I know some drill chucks don't clamp down on most bits small than 1/16th". This may be the case with yours.

Rolf - Is that setup running off your dust collector or do you have a separate shop vac for it? The thing I have is running off the shop vac, but I open other ports because I'm afraid of hurting the shop vac with those little scroll saw ports.

From what I saw, with the exception of the dust collector and the angle setting pins, he described my old EX-21 to a "T". I bought my EX before GI brought out those features on the Excaliburs. It's a pretty saw, and if my old EX dies, it may be the one to consider. I wonder if Ray will sell and support these as well as his brand. The problem with the SeyCo is that it won't do much more than 30° angle and I need the full 45°.