Hawk G4 Rebuilt and Ready to Scroll

[DRugerH]

Greetings all.    I just wanted to do a shout-out to Bushton Manufacturing. 

Last weekend, I answered a Craigslist ad for a Hawk G4 26" scroll saw, about 1-hour and 45-minutes away from my home.  I don't think the price was great, but it wasn't bad either, about 1/3 of a new one.  I offered a slightly lower number, and we met in the middle.   I drove out to pick up the saw from a very friendly guy who was selling it for his friend's widow.  Well, he didn't have much information, but the saw looks like it was in really great condition.  He said his friend was meticulous about maintaining and cleaning his machines, so I made sure it powered on, loaded  it in my truck, and drove the 1:45 home.  

After getting it into my shop and futzing with it for a while, I discovered that the saw was A LOT more worn out than expected.  The pitman arm was worn out by the lower blade arm, and rattled terribly.  The table tilt was broken and had a hard time keeping the table dead flat as there was some minor play in it, and the upper blade holder was cracked at the roll pin, and basically held on with tape.  So, the saw was not very usable, and really loud.  The saw was also missing the upper arm hold-down lever and blade guard.  Neither of which I was going to worry too much about.

Well, since I restore antique woodworking machinery, I decided I was going to fix it myself.  I called Bushton Manufacturing, and spoke to the very, very nice lady on the phone and gave her a list of parts I needed to make the machine functional again.  Bracing myself for a huge number, she gave me the total of something like $24.  In my disbelief, I had to ask her again, and it was true.  So... I ordered the missing parts, and the counter-weight, in case that was worn out too, but the total was still under $60, shipped.

Anyhow, I went ahead and ordered them.  She said a couple of the parts had to be manufactured, so there would be a delay in shipping those parts to me.   I asked her to just ship them in one box since I wanted to rebuild the saw in one sitting, and it would save them on shipping.  Well, 6-days later (today), I get all of the parts i needed and wanted. 

So, I went down to the shop and went to rebuilding the saw.   How such a great saw can be so simple is beyond me.  I had the entire saw rebuilt in under an hour. and now, the sucker works as good as new.  I made a snowflake on it, and I have to say, this is the best scroll saw I have ever used, and I own quite a few (7 of them for a boy's club, and two vintage machines I restored). 

Anyhow, I just wanted to give a shout-out (that's what it's still called, right?) to Bushton Manufacturing for their absolute top-notch customer service and their great products.

Thanks for putting up with me,
Dan

[old sarge]

Congrats on the old/new saw!

[OCtoolguy]

That's great news to hear. The Bushton reputation has taken a hard hit here and on other forums so the more you can publicize your experience in the different venues, the better for them. Much appreciated here, I'm sure.

Oh, congrats on your new machine. They truly are a working miracle in their simplicity. Once tuned and maintained, you should never have to worry about buying another saw.