Rolf

I would replace the entire pitman arm with a new assembly you can then play with the old one. I get all of my hardware from McMaster Carr if I can't find it locally. https://www.mcmaster.com/#shoulder-screws/=19mxdp7 If I remember correctly there is a large bearing in the end of the motor that should be looked at also. The end with the aluminum block. On my G4 there is an electrical connector between the motor and the controller. So another approach to pulling out the motor is to press out the pin in the upper arm, top of the pitman arm. Then drop the motor with the Pittman still attached . You can then work on your bench to remove the Pittman from the motor. A strap wrench or something else can be used to hold the counter weight.

I had bought a new pitman arm at one of the last open houses form Hawk. Mine has been running flawlessly since 2005. I recently changed mine because of a slight tick. My lower bearing was fine, it was the small upper bushing that had worn out. I have the same block of aluminum on the end of the motor. What I did to keep things from spinning while removing the screw was to bring the pitman to the bottom of its stroke and I cut a small block of maple that just fit between the screw and the bottom of the saw so that the motor couldn't rotate while removing the screw. And as you have already discovered there is a set screw in the speed knob. I would take out the speed controller open it up and there should be a part number on the potentiometer that could order one from DigiKey. No need to buy a new controller.

Rockytime, how do you like the Woodtek lathe?

Yes even on all of my ornaments. Just my first name. Lucky for me it is short

I use a small ball tip on my Colewood burner, and yes I sign every thing.

Ray great deal! Was that at a yard sale ? I bought the Festool vac after my wife bought me the Festool Random RO for Christmas. Adapting it to my saw was an after thought. I used 3/4 pipe if someone builds it with 1" please let us know how that works for you. Regarding noise, I put a weight on my foot pedal so that the saw and vac were running then went upstairs to the room above my shop and I can't hear it at all. A good thing since that is where my wife reads etc. My vac is variable speed and I have it at it's lowest setting and it works well there. I have not seen the need for a bleeder. I have thought about putting a ball valve in the lower leg to increase the suction to the top. The saws blower is not used at all so there is nothing to blow the dust around. My next challenge is to see what I can do about my Makita Chop saw, as it is the worst dust contributor now even with my central system connected to it.

I have these wheels on my Hawk, that only touch the floor when you raise the front like what Spirithorse has. I have the factory handle up front that is very convenient for a trash bag.

What is the weight of the new BM 26? My old G4 is around 104 lbs and it doesn't move. There should be no need to bolt it down.

I am so happy that the saw is working out for you.!!!! I ran my old 2005 Hawk G4 through it's entire RPM range. It has one spot at around 6 on my dial (what that relates to in rpm is an unknown) where I get some vibration but not bad by any means. Regarding the removable blade clamps, that is one of my favorite features. When I go into ornament production mode I cut stacks of 6 1/16 baltic birch ply with a 2/0 R Olson. I toss the blade at the 15 minute cut time mark. So for efficiency I have a few blade clamps pre-loaded with my blade and just pop another in. I also have a few loaded with my most used blades. After 12 years of use popping the clamps in and out is automatic. The one thing that I did not like on the new BM Hawks that I got to try is the metal clip that holds the clamp in place. On the older Hawks it was plastic, better but I made my own using beryllium copper, it is very springy and tough.

Wayne that wind blown tree is beautiful as is all of the work pictured in these postings. We have a beautiful weekend, unseasonably warm, so we will be yard saleing. Unfortunately I have already pulled my boat for the seas0on courtesy of hurricane Jose. I just finished a couple more test cuts for SSWWC , I now desperately need to clean up my shop before I go into Christmas production. I am also scaling down a nativity design in the Feinschnitt magazine (German) I will be making a couple of these for sale. And I need to stir my "Velour" daily for another week. I hear all of the "HUH" what the ____ is that? It is a Beach plum liqueur, made with whole beach plums, brandy, sugar a cinnamon stick and a few cloves. My sampling of the stirring spoon is very promising.

The shop vacs are great but I would have to put mine in the next county or my wife would disown me. My workshop is right under our great room so noise is a real concern. That is the reason I have never really addressed the saw dust issue before. As I sit here writing this I am thinking that I may still put a noise suppression box over the Festool vac with a small fan in it for cooling.

Hotshot I will have a look and see where my numbers are that the saw is the least happy. Bpardue happy to see all is well in New saw land. Two new toys at once, I would go into sensory overload!

Hawkey I wonder about the fan blowing across the saw. It would seem to me that you are distributing the saw dust all over the shop that way, unless the other larger fan really has some massive flow. Has anyone considered connecting a 4" duct to one of these fans? It would be a quiet extractor assuming the fan wouldn't overhead from the restriction of flow. A good way to check that out is to have a spot light in the area with the rest of the lights off and you will see very quickly what is suspended in the air. We do our annual club show in a massive barn. When the sun comes through the window you get a really eye opening idea of how much fine dust we really do generate with our saws. Oldhudson is the duct on the side of the saw connected to a central dust collector? I was always happy with just a half mask (not paper) until I decided to do the extraction with the HEPA Festool vacuum. I can't stand the smell when I cut baltic birch ply, it really bothers me. I suspect it is the adhesive. I will find out when I go into ornament mode if this system works.

Pictures please. Are your cars fret work or intarsia?

I have never seen anything like that kind of blade motion. Have you sent this video to Hawk? My first instinct would be that the blade tension is changing through the stroke.

There should be absolutely no sideways motion, unless you have blade clamps that are set up differently with regards to centering the blade. I wish you were closer I would love to take a look at the saw, How did you make out with Irma?

Is the vibration across the entire range? Or just at certain speeds.? Even my old G4 (2005) has a couple of spots it is not happy with. Not having another Hawk to compare it to makes it difficult. I still wish I could have taken Nilus up on the deal he offered me at one of the open houses. Maybe then I would have been able to make some suggestions on the new BM series.

What dust collector are you using?

I think Bill did a great job of summing things up. Just make sure you spend enough time with a blade to adjust to the way it cuts. I remember my first cuts threw me for a bit as the blade did not cut straight like I expected it to. With some research I found out that most blades don't cut straight. so I learned to compensate.

Ray another suggestion would be to try and find other scrollers in your area. I was fortunate that a club had started up in my area not long before I started to scroll.

For the record there are no dumb questions Like Iggy and Jim said you will get a feel for your blades with time and experience. When I started scrolling ~12 years ago, I bought a bunch of different blades from most of the manufacturers. I tend to go with a smaller blade than most for the details and control that I need for what I cut. It is hard to leave brand names out of it because a 2/0 from say FD is a different animal from a 2/0 from Olson. I cut a lot of delicate detailed ornaments, stack cut 6 1/16 thick Finish birch ply. I use a 2/0 Olson 28 teeth/inch(TPI) revers tooth blade. It is easy to control and goes where I want it to without any delay when I turn the wood. The FD 2/0 blade has 15TPI, it cuts faster but flexes more in the turns. For 3/4 inch wood I like a #3 with 13 TPI depending on the hardness or type of wood. I may go to a #7 skip tooth with 10 TPI. The fewer the teeth the faster and more aggressive the cut. I don't like crown tooth blades. Most folks swear by their favorite brand because they have gotten used to how they cut. All blades need to be used for a while until you learn their quirks. Most have a bias for cutting to one side at an angle. The Olson PGT series cuts perfectly straight. The main thing is blade tension and practice, let the blade do the cutting. Do a straight cut and stop watching the blade catch up. Don't force the blade. A reference chart mentioned above. http://www2.woodcraft.com/PDF/Olson-scrollblade-chart.pdf

Mike used to sell them many years ago. According to him back then, they were too expensive to make and the tooling to make them was supposedly destroyed. They were a very smooth cutting blade but performed like a spiral. It was replaced by the FD New spiral line. I used them when I did things like this Volker Arnold design, the Frauen Kirche, (Womens Church) perfect uniform veining.

All too time consuming for me. Too much fussing . I simply use a pin nailer on the four corners for small projects. and for the larger ones a couple of pins in the waste areas. It takes a few seconds. I do it on an anvil and then go back and make sure no pins are sticking through, if so I tap them with a small hammer. I always sand the backs of the stack after drilling all of my holes.

I can't find the original post, but I thing Randy asked if I had a picture of one the round blades. They were discontinued many years ago. I still have a few. The pictures are not great but here they are.

The big hole fits a ring lamp mount perfectly. Hawk used to offer a water drip assembly for cutting glass etc I wonder if the tapped hole was for mounting that or another type of lamp. OOPS just saw that Scrollsaw703 just said the same thing.