Questions on EX21

[Dave Monk]

Recieved my new EX last week. Would appreciate any input on issues.

The top arm will not raise and lower freely. I backed out the adjustment screw in the back all the way. Will it loosen with use?

The blade is not going perfectly straight up and down side to side. There is not enough adjustment in the blade clamps to compensate

Arms will not go past about 35 degrees in either direction. 

Do I need to be concerned about tightening the angle lock too much. If I don't get it good and tight I can move the back end of the saw.

I can not make any adjustment that the angle indexing pin will go into the hole.

 

The saw seems to be running smooth and cutting pretty good.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Wow hope you get this figured out. Sorry I do not use that saw so can not help. It was talked about in another thread how new saws and tools need tweaking when they are new and it is actually a shame that a saw comes out of a factory untested outside of plug it in and does it run. Not like these saws or any scrollsaw is that popular and in such demand. Again hope these are minor flaws that can be corrected. 

[kmmcrafts]

2 hours ago, Dave Monk said:

Recieved my new EX last week. Would appreciate any input on issues.

The top arm will not raise and lower freely. I backed out the adjustment screw in the back all the way. Will it loosen with use?

The blade is not going perfectly straight up and down side to side. There is not enough adjustment in the blade clamps to compensate

Arms will not go past about 35 degrees in either direction. 

Do I need to be concerned about tightening the angle lock too much. If I don't get it good and tight I can move the back end of the saw.

I can not make any adjustment that the angle indexing pin will go into the hole.

 

The saw seems to be running smooth and cutting pretty good.

My Ex-21 upper arm was real stiff working for the first 4-5 hours use.. Hated that at first as it didn't go up easy.. and also would take some effort to move it back down until a certain point then it would go easier and slam down.. but that all worked out with some time on the saw..

My saw had several loose screws / bolts where front arms connect to the long arms that go to the back of the saw.. check all those for being tight enough.. they don't need to be tight but not so loose they are about to fall out like mine was, LOL.. I've said it many times.. but I'll say it again.. I just wasn't impressed with the saw straight out of the box.. Love it now that I've tweaked and tuned it.. But.. there was all sorts of issues at first.. I don't expect a saw to be tuned right out of the box.. but I also don't expect one to be falling apart from loose bolts etc.. either.. 

Make sure your getting the blade tension good and tight.. This is an issue I had with mine.. and every time I changed to a different hole I had to fight with the blade tension lever and the clamping part too.. my upper tension mechanism didn't work very smooth ( those two pieces that slide together ) those two pieces kept hanging up... probably on a burr or something and it was trying to go crooked sometimes.. Best thing I did and to keep my sanity was to ditch those junk factory blade chucks and upgrade to the Pegas.. I was ready to throw the whole saw in the dumpster for a while there, LOL

Keep at it and it'll be running good and smooth.. Just getting the things set up, sorted out and tuned can be a headache sometimes.. I don't really know what to say about the blade not squaring up.. and also not sure about the angle thing.. I didn't have any issues there with mine.. gotta be something simple seems like.. Maybe someone else knows.. if not.. give Ray a call, I'm sure he can give some suggestions..

Edit to say.. Maybe look closely at the bolts up by the blade clamps etc... There is little washer / spacers that go between the bearing and the clamp itself ( I think ) and it could be possible that the washer didn't get pushed on to the end of the bearing sleeve correctly which would prevent the clamp to position correctly.. This could be why you are not able to move the set screws enough to get the blade to run square.. Just a idea..to check..

Edited December 29, 2018 by kmmcrafts

[Travis]

Mine got easier as I used it for awhile.  It should loosen up after a bit.

[ShadowB6]

Had to weak mine also and continually need to make very minor adjustments to keep the arm up when raised. I found that sometimes just a very minor turn on the adjustment screw is quite adequate. Don't give up on it as it is a real darn good saw once your used to it.

[OCtoolguy]

Dave, where did you purchase it? With that many problems, I might be tempted to return it and ask for another saw. If that is an option that is. Other than that, there is a logical answer to each of your problems. Thinking of all of them at once can be overwhelming. The arm raising and lowering is not a problem that I have had as I bought my say used. I did have to do some tweaking on the centering of the blade and also on the front to rear aggresiveness. That can be fixed by adjusting the motor as mentioned in other posts. You might do some lubing with dri-lube on the arm back at the pivot point. And as Kevin said, the best thing that you can do is to add the Pegas blade clamp set. That in itself will help immensely with any vibration problems. Good luck in your tuning and if you want to communicate directly with me, send me a PM. We can work out most everything I'm sure.