Set up my EX-21 On A Excalibur Stand Today

[kmmcrafts]

I bought an actual Excalibur stand back in Dec. and now with being sort of caught up.. I went out today and swapped stands from the Harbor Freight stand I had that was too small and actually light weight compared to the actual EX stand.. I haven't cut anything on it yet as I had to come in and warm up.. but anyway I did plug it in and run it through the speed ranges.. very smooth running now..

I have a couple orders to cut so maybe I'll try it out.. Might have to play around with the adjustable legs.. I put them all at the highest level as my stool is a tall one.. I like a tilted saw too.. so I'm sure I'll be changing this up some before I get it all dialed in.. 

Now that there isn't much vibration.. I'm kinda excited to give it another try    

Edited January 14, 2018 by kmmcrafts

[Iguanadon]

I'm trying very hard not to let the minor vibration on my Hawk bother me... but it's not going well so far, I'm easily annoyed.  LOL

[kmmcrafts]

58 minutes ago, Iguanadon said:

I'm trying very hard not to let the minor vibration on my Hawk bother me... but it's not going well so far, I'm easily annoyed.  LOL

Yeah I know what you mean.. The smoothest running saw I have so far has been the DeWalt.. Both my Hawks run quite smooth.. except a couple speed spots where they have quite a bit of shaking... I have grown used to running them at the " sweet spot " but.. it's not at a ideal speed I would really like to run it at.. I'll have to do some test cuts on this new excalibur to see for sure but I don't think its as smooth as my 788 is either.. but very close.. might just be some fine tuning needed yet.. 

Kind of surprised at how the "rave" is on these other saws.. and so far.. I always go back to the 788 to cut.. some of it could be just my comfort zone.. I remember not really liking the 788 at first.. but that has been the main used saw type now for 10 years.. 

[amazingkevin]

8 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

I bought an actual Excalibur stand back in Dec. and now with being sort of caught up.. I went out today and swapped stands from the Harbor Freight stand I had that was too small and actually light weight compared to the actual EX stand.. I haven't cut anything on it yet as I had to come in and warm up.. but anyway I did plug it in and run it through the speed ranges.. very smooth running now..

I have a couple orders to cut so maybe I'll try it out.. Might have to play around with the adjustable legs.. I put them all at the highest level as my stool is a tall one.. I like a tilted saw too.. so I'm sure I'll be changing this up some before I get it all dialed in.. 

Now that there isn't much vibration.. I'm kinda excited to give it another try    

Keep that baby running !!!!!!!!!!Show us what you can do now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[meflick]

On 1/14/2018 at 6:40 PM, kmmcrafts said:

Yeah I know what you mean.. The smoothest running saw I have so far has been the DeWalt. . . .

Kind of surprised at how the "rave" is on these other saws.. and so far.. I always go back to the 788 to cut. . . 

Interesting isn't it to hear and see different people and their usage of different saws and preferences. I started with the Type 1 Dewalt that we had had for years when I "tried again" with the scroll saw not quite two years ago. After taking my class at JGR's studio and using an Excalibur I thought the Excalibur cut better and smoother then my Dewalt. So when Seyco had a used purple one pop up on their site, I jumped on it. It became my go to saw over the Dewalt. Used it for better part of a year. Then hubby bought me the new Seyco last May for a joint Mother's Day/ Birthday gift as a surprise (not because I was unhappy with what I had.) originally, in part because he bought the new saw I used the Seyco as my main go to saw because I really had been happy with my Excalibur. The Seyco is still my main saw I am using. The Excalibur is setup next to it, plugged in and useable. The Dewalt got unplugged and moved out of the shop. I just felt the Dewalt did not run as smoothly as the other two. Now, in defense of the Dewalt, I am not a technical person who wants to break things down and do repairs and I did think it probably needed some "love" there. Hubby could do it, but his time is a precious commodity so I had never asked him to do so. Maybe one of you repair minded experts might pass through and check it out sometime. 

[kmmcrafts]

13 minutes ago, meflick said:

Interesting isn't it to hear and see different people and their usage of different saws and preferences. I started with the Type 1 Dewalt that we had had for years when I "tried again" with the scroll saw not quite two years ago. After taking my class at JGR's studio and using an Excalibur I thought the Excalibur cut better and smoother then my Dewalt. So when Seyco had a used purple one pop up on their site, I jumped on it. It became my go to saw over the Dewalt. Used it for better part of a year. Then hubby bought me the new Seyco last May for a joint Mother's Day/ Birthday gift as a surprise (not because I was unhappy with what I had.) originally, in part because he bought the new saw I used the Seyco as my main go to saw because I really had been happy with my Excalibur. The Seyco is still my main saw I am using. The Excalibur is setup next to it, plugged in and useable. The Dewalt got unplugged and moved out of the shop. I just felt the Dewalt did not run as smoothly as the other two. Now, in defense of the Dewalt, I am not a technical person who wants to break things down and do repairs and I did think it probably needed some "love" there. Hubby could do it, but his time is a precious commodity so I had never asked him to do so. Maybe one of you repair minded experts might pass through and check it out sometime. 

Some of it for me is, I've used my DeWalt for 10 years.. have rebuilt and tweeked it to run as it now does.. I used higher end bearings and high grade synthetic grease.. I'm in the process of rebuilding my Hawks right just ordered some parts today for them both.. I won't rebuild the EX yet.. since it's brand new ( so was one of the Hawks but that's happens to be the one with two bad bearings too) until I actually give it a going through and tuning it.. then if I feel it can be improved upon I'll look into it.. I think once i get to using the EX.. I'll probably end up making that my main saw..  

[hotshot]

On 1/14/2018 at 5:40 PM, kmmcrafts said:

.......I'll have to do some test cuts on this new excalibur to see for sure but I don't think its as smooth as my 788 is either.. but very close..

My 788 is pretty smooth, not not as smooth as the Ex by any stretch.  The Ex can be tuned for minimal blade travel, and that can affect smoothness of that saw.  Have you done that yet?

------Randy

Edited January 16, 2018 by hotshot

[kmmcrafts]

11 minutes ago, hotshot said:

My 788 is pretty smooth, not not as smooth as the Ex by any stretch.  The Ex can be tuned for minimal blade travel, and that can affect smoothness of that saw.  Have you done that yet?

------Randy

No I haven't.. Temps too cold the last few days to do much out there.. It's supposed to warm up the next few days again.. so maybe I'll get a chance to tune / tweek it.. 

[hotshot]

14 minutes ago, kmmcrafts said:

No I haven't.. Temps too cold the last few days to do much out there.. It's supposed to warm up the next few days again.. so maybe I'll get a chance to tune / tweek it.. 

Here is how to do it in case you have never seen this done:

1.  Make the arm level with the table using the back knob (then never touch that back knob again (Smile) ). Just measure the arm distance to the table on both ends, or put a reference block under the arm, and move it along the saw under the arm until the gap remains the same.

2.  Loosen the screws around the motor with your Hex wrench

3.  Turn the speed all the way to slowest setting, then turn the saw on, and then rotate the motor, finding the sweet spot with the least movement

4. Tighten the motor back up and you are done.  You should not have to do this a lot.  Just remember, don't mess with that back knob.

ps:  It occurred to me that you might not like the minimal blade travel setting.  You can make the travel very very aggressive if you like that, or can make it minimal.  It's kind of cool that you can go back and forth between the two.  If you choose the more aggressive setting, make sure you have the blade moving forward on the down stroke.

Edited January 17, 2018 by hotshot