OCtoolguy

OMG! What did I do now? Please advise if I said something wrong.

For some reason they all have that look. The stands all look like they've been drug behind a truck. I've had 3 of them and the stands all look bad. Left over from WW 2 tanks or something. But they are just bulletproof. My suggestion to you is stick with your Hawk. There's really nothing to be gained. They are so similar in how they operate.

But but but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Kevin, at $275, that's a steal. It's got all the latest stuff on it. The only thing that's not updated is the table. It's got the older small table but that's not a big deal. I'm asking $450 for the one I've got so that should give you some idea. If you have the money just laying around, I'd snatch it up and then sell one of your other saws. Too good a deal to pass up.

Knowledge is power. As I said, try to get a better price but condition means everything. It's a $500 saw new so go by that.

Congratulations on your NEW toy. I suggest you get in touch with Kevin and have him lead you through the set up of the stand. I know he has it wired and the stand is the main source of vibration on the Hawks. If you do it right, you will eliminate 99% of the shakes. He is the Hawk expert around here. @kmmcrafts

That's like asking how far is up. There is no answer. My Dewalt didn't look pretty but it ran and sounded ok. I really knew very little at the time. But after having it for a while, it started to have minor things going haywire. The tension rod started knocking but at the time, I didn't know what was making the noise. That's when I found scrollsaw.com and started reading all the "fix-its" for Dewalt saws. That's when I fixed the noise but it led me to the videos on how to disassemble and grease all the bearings. I was prepared to buy all the bearings and sleeves which would have been pretty pricey but after inspection I found no worn parts. I bought a can of synthetic grease and went to work. From that point on my saw hummed. I did all the fine tuning and adjusting that I could find to do. Then Pegas came out with their blade clamps that fit the Dewalt but I bought the set that was for the Pegas/Excalibur saws that had the tension lever incorporated. That allowed me to just set the tension with the Dewalt slider and apply/release the tension with the Pegas lever. That addition was probably the single best thing I did for my Dewalt. From that point on, there was almost zero vibration. I built a good stand for it and threw the tubular crappy stand away. That stand was the forerunner of the stand they have now. But, since I like to sit down it was too tall. Anyway, I guess my point is, if you can find a Dewalt for a price that you feel is in your range, and it runs quiet, I'd not be afraid of it. There are literally hundreds of thousands of those saws out there and I'd bet that very few have been scrapped. Sort of like Timex watches, if you do your part they will just keep on ticking. Availability is going to be the deciding factor I would think. Best of luck on what you decide. We are all here to help you. To edit: If you want a saw that is almost without maintenance, save your money and buy a Hegner Multimax 18. They will outlive you. Only two places on the saw that require oiling every few hours. And maybe a couple of drops of oil on the tension wedges every year or so. They are simplicity. The Hawks are very much the same way. And there are hundreds of them on the used market. At least around where I live. To edit once more: Tim, I did some digging and found that you are located in Indiana, love your area. Anyway, to my point, if you want to travel a bit, I know that there are a lot of used saws in Michigan because Kevin is always talking about them. He has a couple of used saws for sale too. You might connect with him and have him keep an eye out for something that would work for you. Just a suggestion. His name here is @kmmcrafts.

If the saw seems to run ok the China factor shouldn't be a problem. But I think $350 is a bit high. Depending on your location. Where I live they go for $175-300. I paid $250 with stand & light 7 years ago and it was a type 1.

My wife of 52 years could charm the shrink into saying I'm the one who is nuts. I've never won an argument. Ever!

I do recall that now Kevin. So sad.

Congrats on your new saw. They are great saws but do require maintenance. If you are not aware of their problems, this is the right place for advice. I strongly recommend that you go on youtube and search out Bob Brokaw's excellent videos on servicing the saw's many bearings. It's an afternoons job but well worth the time and effort. Many of these saws left the factory with little to no lubrication so they wear very quickly.

Damn! Dropping like flies. Stop it!

Yes, he was an old man in his ways but was really younger than 3 of my kids. I don't think I have ever met anybody who was as polite and respectful of others than Brad. Such a loss. I'm tired of losing my "sawdust family. Everybody, listen up, STAY WELL! DON'T DIE!

It seems he thought he had pneumonia but it was diagnosed as covid. Sad!

We have lost another "sawdust" brother. Brad Barnhart, Scrollsaw703 passed away a few days ago. I have no details but you can read more on Facebook. His son,, Cliff Ashton, has a page there.

Well, that looks pretty good to me. How can you improve on near perfection?

Well, here it is in all its glory. Hopefully my customer will be happy. I applied a light coating of Watco natural and let it sit for 3 days. I got lucky with some nice warm dry weather. I shot 2 coats of poly. I think its done.

It sounds like you are doing it right. Maybe send a PM to Travis and he can straighten out the problem. I've not gotten a "server error" message before.

Can you give us an idea of how you are trying to post pics? It's really easy if you select the "add files" link and then point to where the pic is.

If I can be of any help, let me know.

Maybe the picture file was too big. Try resizing it. My phone was taking all my pics in high res so I had problems too. Now I run them through Irfanview and change them. No more problems.

The lowest speed on mine is only good for the 1st 1/4".

I take it the Dremel is in the rearview mirror?

I have basically 2 of the same saws you have. I built my own roll-around stands for each one with self-contained vacuum dust control systems. I mounted them both directly to the plywood top. Both of my saws sit on foam shop flooring. The stuff advertised as anti-fatigue mat. I bought enough of the stuff at H/F to do the whole floor of my tiny shop. I get almost zero vibration out of any of my saw. My Hegner is not bolted down to the floor. It just sits on top of that same flooring. I do get a bit of vibration out of it way up in the RPM range but I very seldom got that fast.

Been there and done that. This last time around, it was something that I couldn't fix. I needed some way to test out the electronics. Turned out to be the motor controller. If I have known that, I could have saved the repair charge and about $100 on the cost of the part. Oh, and thanks for your input on the drill press. I found a chuck that will fit mine and it closes to zero. Now I just have to figure out if it's worth the $50.