Rolf

The saw that you are using with the spiral blade also makes a difference. especially when you are trying to sneak up on a small detail. If your saw has a very aggressive front to back motion it will be more difficult to control the cut than if you have an almost vertical stroke.

Ron, the double bevel method gives you exceptionally tight joints. Beautiful work.!

That seems like an awful lot of mass to put on the end of the arm. The saw must vibrate like crazy. I do like the idea. This is Pozgais web site and it is still active. http://pozsgaidesigns.com/ He used to provide the kits for adding the delta quick clamps to the Hawk's. Unfortunately the Delta clamps are no longer available.

I only use it on cutting boards.

Yes I have, the brown paper is a bit course and acts like a fine abrasive. I have not used it on fretwork.

I did some in the early seventies I made them as gifts for my family all were mountain scenes. They material was available back then from Constantines in the Bronx, NY. My sisters still have them. It is very enjoyable as you play with wood color, grain selection. It is beautiful on furniture tops. I now prefer intarsia as it adds another dimension.

Yes very early in my Hawk ownership. I was aggressively cutting some cheap 1/4 plywood pushing very hard, I had a finger in front of the blade when I hit a void. I had an Olson PGT5 blade in it and it did draw blood. Learned lots of lessons that day. Only once in 12 years, not bad. Those look like a nice project, are they your own design? How about a picture of one of these banjos?

Hawk G4-26 purchased new May 2005. I had a yard sale Dremel with the disc on the side, used maybe once. Then inherited my dad's Craftsman, I cut some gingerbread for my shed with it fell in love with scrolling Hated the saw, blade changes for fretwork was a royal pain. My wife bought me a Delta SS350 with stand at one of our clubs shows. Used it for about a year, a great saw with the best clamps ever. It was just too aggressive for the delicate stuff I was cutting. (still have it) I got to try a Hegner and an older Hawk at one of our club shows. I liked the room under the upper arm on the Hawk and then saw an add for the New G4 with the adjustable aggressiveness and its 26 inch throat. I like simple mechanical stuff. So the Hawk it was. It almost paid for itself my first Christmas with ornament sales, and has since paid for almost all of my workshop tools. I did put the Delta clamps on the top arm.

Nice deal ! What will you do with it? Foredom is a good solid brand and has been around for a long time. it will really depend on what you want to do with it. the max speed is 18000 rpm so you need to get a feel for the bit that you are using and how to control it. I have also purchased a Rampower 45 it runs at 45000 rpm the higher speed makes it a bit easier to control plus it is reversible, I will eventually add a Turbo carver that runs at 400,000 rpm for the real tiny details and piercing work. The Foredom has the beef for the heavier work great for details in power carving and Intarsia details.

You have no idea how happy it makes me that your Hawk issues have been resolved! But probably not as happy as you. Great looking puzzles.

Very impressive!

The image posted by Dennisy59 points to where my Hawk had a slight bit of play, enough to make slight noise. Dennisy59 Hicksville? do you know about our Long Island scrollsaw club? we meet in Smith town on the 3rd Thursday of the month 7pm in the Brush barn. We will start again in August. Several years ago I was asked to take a look at a very Old Hawk 16" saw for a local carver. It was making one heck of a racket. It did have a counterweight with a set screw to a flat on the shaft. It was very loose allowing the whole assembly to move around.. I went through the entire saw and tweaked it. It ran reasonably well after that, but had it been my first and only contact with the Hawk brand I probably would not have one. The newer ones are very different machines. I have yet to use a better saw than my G4 (2005)

First off Welcome! Noisy is a tough ? It will sound different from all other saws, but they are not whisper quiet. there should be no knocking sounds, but it has a significant bellows so it wheezes huffs and puffs like a geriatric. So we do need a bit more clarity on what type of noise. It would be really helpful if you can find another Hawk owner nearby so that you can make a comparison. My 12 year old G4 was sounding different to me and I carefully went through it looking for parts that had movement where they shouldn't. I found a tiny bit of play in the upper pitman arm bushing. I replaced the pitman arm and the saw is like new. It had a oilite bushing that I don't think I ever lubricated, hard to get at. My bad. First we need more information. Look up your serial number on the Hawk web site. http://www.hawkwoodworkingtools.com/WebsitePages/Scroll-Saw-Manuals.html We can then have a look at the manual for your saw. With the blade installed and properly tensioned, a nice "C" ping , does it still make noise through the full speed range. If you have a small blade and your tension is too low it may have a bit of a knock. Tension a bit more.

Like Sycamore67 said there are very few successful trade shows, hobby shows. It does take a huge effort to put one together. For those of us that were lucky enough to get to the Fox Chapel open houses saw the effort that they put into the show. It consumed their entire staff plus a small army of volunteers, for long periods of time plus the setup and at the end of the show make it all go away again. and in the mean time they still have to publish magazines and books. All three that I went to were very well attended and I even got to present, which was a really great way for me to meet many of you. Melanie, I am surprised that Ray did not have a saw for trial use. It could be that he only had the one and it was sold. At the Fox Chapel events he had a saw setup for use as dis Hawk, Hegner and PSwood. The local club also had saws like the Dewalt available for trial use. This made for a great time to check out all of the saws capabilities and drawbacks for someone looking to buy a new saw. How was the turnout at the event? How well was it advertised? If the turnout wasn't good the vendors will not come back. Our club Long Island woodworkers .org has an annual show, It is now primarily a showcase for our members work. With very few vendors most of which are local, wood and tool suppliers. Regarding vendors at any of the events they have to pay booth fees, travel expenses, lodging, food and salaries to whomever they bring. And then hope that the attendance and sales cover their investment. For many like the scroll saw manufacturers that is tough, but they need to be there to showcase their saws. Another problem most scrollers tend to be "frugal" Even the the annual show in Saratoga NY which has some of the most amazing work displayed by its members, has had fewer vendors the last couple of years. with no scrolling presentations. ( I didn't go this year so if am wrong someone please correct me) And when I have money in my pocket ready to buy lots of toys and there are non, it really bums me out.

I take pictures of all of my projects, I do keep a journal especially for my magazine work. I have to track the time spent and if it is a complex project any notes or changes that need to be made to the design. I send all those notes with the completed project to SSWWC for the final article.

Did you do a comparison between the two arms to see what the issue may be.? Keep us posted. Lots of crossed fingers and toes out here!

I was talking about softening the corners. I never worry about the cut edges as you say the cut is very smooth. I just wouldn't want some kid to get a splinter.

Great video, what camera did you use? I am surprised that you don't sand them at all. As a minimum I would do all of the edges with a 240 grit MAC mop. just for a better feel. The Mach 3 is one of my favorite blades.

Much to my surprise the HEPA for my Festool is only $66. And I only based on the Festool pricing on everything else.

For the volume of dust going through the PVC grounding is a non issue. Here is a very interesting read. http://www.thewoodnerd.com/articles/dustExplosion.html But the end decision is our own comfort level regarding what if.?

$75 really and it runs! WOW Pictures and a few more details on what vintage the saw is.

As usual some interesting discussions. Good points all around. And as I always say up front I am a loyal Hawk proponent. Having said that I am very glad Nilus is stepping up to take care of this but here are my concerns. If Nilus knew where to look then it is a problem that has surfaced before and if the lower arm has the ability to wiggle then something was not machined to spec or another part was undersized or possibly even wonky bearings. It is very easy to speculate on my part as I am not physically with the saw. But my point is that it doesn't matter who builds a saw but what does matter is that final QA , test run, wiggle test etc. before it goes to the customer. Small multitasking staff or not Hawk has to be very careful with this, our scrolling community is too small and well connected through social media. Iggy I am impressed with your willingness to work with Hawk I truly hope that in the end you have the awesome saw you certainly deserve and expected.

If you think Fein is expensive check out the Festool stuff.

I have not used a Fein vacuum but I have one of the early multi-master oscillating tools. That is amazing and has bailed me out many a time. They were the only one for years, now everyone is making them. Can you plug your tools into the Fein Vac so that it comes on with the tool? What model Fein? Just looked at the new Fein vac on line, it looks like a nice unit, I like the fact that it comes with some accessories. With the Festool everything is extra.

Charley I was talking about the normal aluminum oxide that you get on raw aluminum. And there are lots of different anodizing processes for aluminum that are as you said an electrical/chemical process, most will wear off. We anodized all of our optical components black. We also used a hard chroming process inside cylinders, it was thick and could be honed but tended to be brittle. Based on this youtube video I am now convinced that the table on my Hawk G4 was electro polished. I should do this to the small bumpers on my TVR.