Rolf

Just did a Google search on Mag switches and came up with these. https://www.zoro.com/magswitch-fixturing-jig-60-lb-max-pull-steel-8100818/i/G3898437/feature-product?gclid=Cj0KCQjwgNXtBRC6ARIsAIPP7Rup7-RdWzb90S3DQJbqFD2hD41s7z6uL2MJ6vfK1Ydn-9GkrxO0TVAaAv_AEALw_wcB I think it is smaller than the ones I used but should be strong enough for what I did. 60 lb pull is a lot.

Kevin, I am very much flattered when someone is helped or uses any of my ideas. That is what these forums are about, I have learned a great deal from many of you. It would have been nice to have this access when I first started scrolling. For me to duplicate what I had on the Hawk for the Ex did not make sense to me and would not be cheap. I would be switching the vac back and forth anyway and moving the manifold literally takes a few seconds now. It takes me longer to plug the vacuum in. If there is a cheaper source I , I never found it. We have a raffle at each of our meetings and lucky for us we have member with a tool supply business. So he supplies the prizes and gets reimbursed, the left over money goes into the clubs kitty. A win for all. The club members also get a 10% discount from him. A mag switch was one of the choices at one meeting so I got it for $5, I liked it so much that I bought another for this project. They are very well made!

I just adapted my Hawk dust collection to the EX. When I made my Hawks system I used Mag Switches to hold it to the steel top of the Hawk. That allows me to remove it by just turning a couple of knobs.I mounted a steel strip to the top of my EX stand. Now I just put he collector on that strip and turn the knobs. My festool vac has an outlet that I plug my foot pedal into, the saw is plugged into the foot pedal. When I step on the pedal the saw starts along with the Vac. works great. Those yellow and black knobs are the mag switches. The knob at the back of machine has a white mark on it. It also has a lock nut under the Knob. It does not seem to drift. I will find out when I go into Christmas production.

Kevin , a blade tension ? on the EX I understand using the back knob to set the upper arm parallel to the table. Even if your blade, say 2/0, which is a heavily used blade by me, is too tight and you tweak the back know to relieve the tension. As soon as you release the blade and put it back in it will will be set back to the original too tight condition. And you would have to keep tweaking the back knob eventualy putting your upper arm out of adjustment. I say that because, from what I see the blade tension is set by the distance that the tension cam travels, and that never changes. Correct me if I am wrong.

DUH, I never thought to turn it around. This is the way the Delta was mounted with the third leg pointing back, so I just duplicated it. It was real easy to reverse it, so I did, that third leg sticks out a bit further and I am not sure I like it that way. By turning it around I ended up with a bit more of a shelf under the front saw. This is why I like these forums many minds with lots of ideas. Thanks to all of you. I have never seen anyone else put their finger behind the blade to hold down the work, It is one of the many reasons I bought the Hawk instead of the Hegner. That extra space under the arm also made bottom feeding easier. Which is a non issue on the EX as the arm can be raised easily with out additional gadgets to hold it up.

I took a couple of pictures of my Hawk and the EX, looking from then side. the block of wood is about 1.5 inches

I am not talking about the throat, it is 16". When I scroll thick wood such as compound cuts for better control I like to put my finger on top of the wood directly behind the blade. I will try to take a couple of pictures to clarify what I mean. Bill, Regarding the Pegas clamps they are made from a better grade of aluminum and the blade slot in the front is not very deep so it would be pretty much impossible to spread the clamps by over tightening them. This article gives a good description; http://scrollsawer.com/2018/09/07/product-review-pegas-blade-chuck-heads/

I have been wanting a more portable saw to take to shows and demonstrations. Through a series of events a 16" Excalibur with the Pegas clamps already installed came to my attention. For $275 I had to buy it. The saw was manufactured in Taiwan and with the exception of some table coating wear is in pristine condition. For those that know me know that I am a loyal proponent of Hawk having my G4 26 since 2005. The Hawk has paid for almost all of my tools in the workshop. Modified an old Delta SS350 stand with a piece of 3/4 ply and some left over Formica. The Ex is bolted to the plywood and I have three fixed studs on the stand to hold the plywood using Wing nuts for easy disassembly and transport. 1, Clamps I never liked the EX clamps, I am heavy handed and the probability of stripping the threads and or spreading the clamp arms on the stock Ex clamps was a real concern. The Pegas clamp upgrade is a significant improvement. Putting the blade in and clamping it is a breeze no fiddling. I do like the removable clamps that the Hawk uses. I usually have several pre-loaded when working on a project. 2. Table Vs blade tilt. This is the reason for me wanting an EX type of saw as a second saw. The fact that the table stays level while the arm / blade angle changes, makes inlays and any bevel cutting, scroll saw bowls come to mind, much more controllable. No fighting the tendency to push your wood downhill. 3. Front -back blade movement. The Hawk has the ability to adjust this to almost perfectly vertical, crucial for my fine fretwork. This EX has been adjusted to almost zero front back motion. I am not sure if that was from the factory or the prior owner. 4. Vibration, All saws have some in different speed areas. My Hawk has these massive long arms going up and down so there is some minimal vibration. This EX sitting on the same concrete floor has none worth mentioning. 5. Reliability, Time will tell, hard to beat the Hawk in that area. 6. Blade tension. Simple up front cam and you can tweak it at the back if needed. 7. Guards. I removed the bottom guard as it was in the way of the bottom blade clamp. 8. Dust collection. It does have the membrane and a 2 inch hose connection for a shop vac.That is not going to work for me way too noisy. I will probably set something up like what I have on my Hawk connected to the Festool vac. (much quieter) The only con I see is that the Hawk has a huge amount of room under the arm just behind the blade. I put my finger there when cutting 3d Compound cut work. The EX does not have that much room so for compound cuts I will have to change how I work. Overall impression. I am very pleased with what I have experienced so far. I am kicking into my Christmas ornament season so that will really show me the saws capability. I will also be cutting for two straight days at our clubs woodworking show Nov 9-10. This may be a bit premature but If I were in the market for a new saw, and based on Hawks current delivery delays I would probably buy the Pegas 21 inch saw. Why Pegas over the other similarly designed saws. The clamps, full 45 deg both left and right, rack and pinion adjustment with pinned main angles, and silly me I love the color. These are my opinions,

I would go for the Pegas. Seyco is an excellent saw with super support but some of the design changes did not make sense to me. Removing the rack and pinon adjustment, and the removable table surface. The big plus for me on the Pegas is the clamps. Just my opinion, don't beat me up.

I spent the day yesterday modifying my old Delta SS-350 stand to put the EX on. I did run a bit of scrap through it just to check for vibration stroke. I am looking forward to doing a real project. I have never used an EX for more than a couple of minutes, I did however use a Dewalt a couple of times and never liked their clamp assembly. I am really impressed with the Pegas clamp upgrade. What a beautiful and precise bit of engineering. I will cut some today, but my first impression from cutting the scrap yesterday was a very positive one. It is a dramatic change from having the 26" arms of my Hawk going up and down compared to the little stumps of the EX. The saw is already adjusted for a very vertical stroke. I will post a couple of pictures and a review in a new post later, I have already hijacked this thread enough. My apologies to Dennis for the hijack. I will add this getting back to the original posting. I would highly recommend looking for a used higher end saw. An inexpensive entry level saw will cut your projects depending of course on your skills. That said a better engineered saw (higher priced) eliminates many little frustrations and time fiddling with tension etc. and gives you more control so that your time is spent on your project not the saw.

Tony thanks again for the heads up on that 16 inch Excalibur. I got it last night. It is still in my Jeep as it was raining heavily when I got home. I have been wanting the 16 " for some time but did not want to spend $700 for a new saw. I now have max flexibility, The Hawk G4 26 (will always be my favorite saw) and for angle cuts and inlays the EX where the table stays level.

It ends up that the person selling the saw is a member of our club and he will bring it to our meeting Tuesday. I will probably buy it. I asked why he is selling it. He decided he wanted a 21" so he bought the Pegas 21inch. That is a great price with very low usage. I will just need a stand which is a non issue.

Tony I may have to check out that 16 Inch EX on LI I have sent the the guy a message. Any of you have a 16"? It would be a good travel saw for me. Getting my Hawk out of the basement is getting harder all the time.

Very nice! What saw did you buy?

I find a standard drill press doesn't spin fast enough for the tiny bits. The Dremel Chuck is cheap and works great, I gave up on collets years ago. I use a Micromark drill press for my tiny bits and buy them from amazon. For drilling wood I am not that critical.

I like it, looking forward to the finished result. I like doing segmentation and do some heavy shaping on some of it for greater impact and dimension. It is an excellent and economical way to practice shaping.

This is the No longer available Pozgai mod for the Hawk G4. Just a quick little cam action. I adjust the clamp so I start to feel resistance with about 1/8 inch to to go. The blade very rarely slips out.

http://www.pozsgaidesigns.com/ Woodmaster1 not sure what you saw but he no longer has the Delta quick clamps. He was using them to make the modification for the Hawk saws. I still have them on my Hawk. The problem with the Quick clamps was that people did not know how to use them and over tightened them causing the arms to bend. I occasionally find an old Delta at a yard sale. and scarf them up for parts. I did not find any this year.

Interesting thread! As far as rust getting into things, all it takes is an overnight cooling and high humidity heat the next day for a bit of condensation. Or a high humidity summer basement like I have. My electric bill for 2 months this summer was almost $600. between AC and 24 hrs a day dehumidifier in the basement. You pay one way or the other.

As the others have said, this really is more of a scrollsaw with a continuous blade. Not meant to do what other band saws do. If I were doing lots of band saw boxes or thicker (3/4 inch) maple toy puzzles I would have one.

I forgot that I have a Portercable version of this. It serves its purpose for the smaller jobs. where precision was not so important. I am not totally happy with my Portacable it does not fit my hand very well. It looks like the Worx design may be better. Please give us your evaluation after you have used it for a bit.

As the others have said it really depends on what kind of projects you do. My band saw gets constant use, I use a lot of thin material so re-sawing has saved me a small fortune.

Now we are really hijacking this thread! Have you seen what the Sunbeam Tigers are selling for now. I used to autocross this but after I installed differential #7 I gave it up. There was a trailerd race prepped Buggey that gave me fits. I love the Brit cars and motorcycles. TVR was imported in the late 60's by Jack Griffith on Long island and he stuffed a 289 into it and called it a Griffith. The TVR factory eventually built the Tuscan with one of the engine choices being the HI PO ford 289. in a car that weighs 1700 lbs.

Talk about hijacking a topic Sorry! The Car is a 1970 TVR Vixen one of approximately 180 in this series to be exported. I have owned it for 48 years. I purchased it when stationed in England, it was a year old. I have done I have done three restorations in all those years. The last body off in 1998. I do all of my own work except this time I had the body painted and the interior done professionally. I also completely rewired the car as the old wiring was failing. The motor is a 1.6 liter Ford (tweaked a bit). Soon to be tweaked some more. A couple pictures for your amusement. One gives you an idea of size the other was me making sure I still fit in the seat. Regarding scrolling Charles Dearing did a custom pattern of the car for me years ago I that I still need to cut.

I haven't had much shop time lately as I have been distracted by this project. Building a trailer mover so that I can move my boat into a difficult location behind a tree that has grown to the point where my Jeep will no longer fit. The trailer mover gave me a chance to do lots of TIG welding. Have to say I really enjoyed the mechanical distraction. I have a temporary jumper box attached for power, it will use my boat battery when in normal use. That is my other hobby behind it.