Rolf

I would leave the Hawk table alone unless it has some burrs or anything else that may sang or cause drag. I periodically clean the table on my Hawk when I start to see black marks on the back of my projects. I wipe it down with acetone until the paper towels are clean. Then a coat of Johnson paste wax thoroughly buffed out. On a different note, my cast iron table saw had some stains (water) on it. I wet sanded the entire top 320 grit wet dry using WD40. Cleaned and waxed what a difference it made! The wood just glides over the surface.

Ben that is some very beautiful work.! When you say you cleaned the movement, is it mechanical? If so where did you get it. I have made several of John Nelson designed fretwork clocks for SSWWC. I enjoyed making them but none of that style of fretwork has ever nor will it hang in our house. Both my taste and my wife's lean more to the contemporary and modern. The ones that I did make were donated to our churches annual live auction where they did very well. Sadly the younger generation tends not to care for the traditional beauty of pieces like this.

I like your wood choices! Great design, who's pattern? Your fit between pieces is really good not so easy considering the woods that you used. To practice shaping I did a segmentation of a piece (in cheap pine) so I did not have to worry about fit. And then practiced shaping. That ended up with me installing a dust collection system.

You could also cut some T slots below the fretwork. depending on how thick the wood is.

The sewing tool will perforate your pattern and put pin holes in your wood. The only time I touch my original pattern is when I scan it. From there I can scale, edit (which I do frequently) and print as many copies as I need, especially when doing Intarsia.

Just for giggles More information than anyone could possibly want. the 20ft roll of stick and release paper is almost $2 per 8-1/2 x 11 sheet The Duck brand vinyl is 22 cents for an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet. The Xyron 9" x 40' refill is $28 on Amazon ( I get it cheaper with a coupon at Micheals.) ends up at 71 cents per 8-1/2 x11 sheet. The pattern printing cost would be the same for any method. My Xyron method is around $1 per sheet (8-5 x 11) . But what is nice I can us as short or as long a sheet as I want.

You would really trace a complex fretwork pattern? You have a lot more patience and precision than I have. I do that for wood burning projects with a stylus. To me I find that to be the most difficult part. I now do an acetone or heat transfer using a laser printout.

Probably because of the price. Regarding the Xyron I have Two machines the 5" and the 9", the newer machine takes both sizes so you would only need the the 9" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000E148DK/ref=dp_iou_view_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I would buy it from Micheals with a coupon. I still put the clear vinyl shelf paper down first. Then run my pattern through the Xyron, I use either non or removable, it doesn't mater as the removal is at the vinyl to wood. I always buy the refills when I have great coupons from Micheals, otherwise they are pricey. When I do intarsia I just stick the pattern directly to the wood, as it gets sanded off in the shaping process.

An interesting observation. I rarely use any spray adhesive, just my Xyron machine. The shelf liner is vinyl the spray glue has solvents. An interesting test would be to take a piece of the shelf paper and spray some of the adhesive directly on to it . See wjhat happens.

Only on the lathe. The spalted wood is really stunning. These pieces are spalted Birch.

From the picture it looks like there is some spalting going on. I would not go too detailed on those slices as the detail will be lost.

Congratulations! It is a bulletproof saw. Did you also get the stand?

Kevin I did not give the blade front back motion a thought. I do have my blade motion on the EX almost vertical. I will measure my Hawk and the EX when I get some play time. You make a good point about actual run time. When doing fretwork, Depending on the saw, the project may take several hours but the actual cutting only a portion of that. Some of you are probably wondering why this is even of any interest. I am a tinkerer, can't help it.

Newtowoodwork. As Kevin and the others have said I have an outlet strip connected to my footswitch with my timer and saw plugged into it. On my EX for tracking the actual runtime hours for maintenance purposes I put a hour meter (Amazon) in the line that goes to the motor. I mounted it in a pvc box attached to the saw table.

Rockytime Instead of a clock I have one of these connected, like you do. When not timing a project I keep track of the time on the blade. One thing I have learned is that my blades last longer on the EX than on my Hawk. My Olson 2/0R 28TPI gets dull in 15 min on the Hawk and about 25 on the EX. I think that the added stroke speed on the Hawk generates more heat causing the blade to dull faster. JMO Or the long arms of the Hawk put greater stress on the blades? Any thoughts? EX 400-1400 Hawk 30-1725

How did you fix it? Every Hegner I have used only goes Down and Up. Down and UP. Kevin I will have 450 hrs on the Hawk, but I didn't put a meter on it for the first few years. I only started tracking the time when I started the test cutting for FC in 2010. I have 35 hours on the EX 16 since I got it in Oct 2019. I have not been doing that much scrolling as my focus has been on my car. Also no fairs last year, so no need for inventory.

Ben 2008 Interesting that this discussion has come back to life. I just went through my 2005 Hawk G4 26 because it had a squeak, It seems I didn't put three spacers in the correct order on the pitman arm when I replaced it many years ago. Also put a bit of lithium grease on the upper bushing where it connects to the lower arm.

Since I added the dust collection to my saws instead of the blower I no longer wear a mask when cutting. I know the dust collection is effective because I can't even smell the the baltic birch anymore when I cut it. The HEPA filter in my Festool MIDI is great. I used to wear a half mask because I couldn't stand the smell. I also wear glasses so I am not that close to the magnifier.

Have you tried RainX

The woodworking shows have been declining every where. For many reasons. Cost to a vendor is the primary one. They have to pay for the space, travel, lodging, food etc. and their staff. They have to sell a lot to cover that. The exposure for them is great but what will the "frugal" wood worker do? Look , try then decide they will order it on line so that they don't have to schlep the stuff around all day. I always go with a crap load of cash and a credit card because I need that instant gratification. The show up in Saratoga NY was a great one but the last couple of times the Vendors had really dropped off. Their display of projects from the clubs is always worth the visit. Our own club puts on an annual show but we have pretty much stopped getting in vendors except for a few local tool and wood suppliers. Again it is too expensive to come to Long Island NY for a two day show. The only time I have seen all of the available scroll saw vendors at a show, was at the three Fox Chapel Open houses they had. Hawk, Excalibur, Seyco and Hegner were all represented. Dewalt was also represented at a booth from a local scrolling club. I think Ray at Seyco sold everything he brought, part of that was because the price was right. Selling a Hawk or a Hegner $1200 to $1400 saw is tough. Not many hobbyists have that resource. It was great to be able to try out each saw and see what features where absolutely necessary. Pegas did not exist yet. The best part was getting to meet so many folks that I have been chatting with in the forums. I was also honored to do presentations at all three shows.

Goat I have a Festool CT MIDI, I believe all of the Festool and Fein vacuums are setup with an outlet so that they come on when you start the tool that is plugged into it. My Festool claims 62 DB at 3 ft at the lowest speed. That is the level of normal conversation. I think the Fein is a bit cheaper, the one I looked at was not variable speed but had a sound level of 66 Db. One thing to note about theses "dust extractors" they are not very good for large shop cleanups. They all use a smaller hose, for shop cleanup you still need a shopvac.

I have my Festool vac setup to come on with the scroll saw, the speed is set to low, most of the noise is at the nozzles, not from the vacuum.

My jointer and planer are stand alone. The planer is on the Dewalt dedicated stand that is on wheels, so it lives in the corner until needed. The Jointer is a Jet 6" it is also on a wheeled base that has never worked very well and the jointer is very heavy. Most of my jointing is short pieces so I don't need to move it. most of my tools are on wheels except for my Nova DVR XP 16 lathe.

I just watched a video on this saw Looks like you bought yourself a nice tool. The one thing he pointed out was that the saw draws a lot of power and to make sure to use it on a 20 amp circuit and if using an extension cord it should be a 12 gauge. It has a really nice fence. I look forward to your review.

Scrappile, I have seen this many times and absolutely love it. And Clayton Boyers kinetic sculptures are another thing. The pendulum clock was the first ever clock that I built. I have always just jumped right in, if you have reasonable scrolling skills and some mechanical aptitude and yes patience. They are a piece of cake, "he says with a grin"