looks like im going to be buying a new scroll saw

[Dragonkort]

Well it looks like im going to have to buy a new scroll saw....Im looking for a price range between 500 and 600 dollars.  any suggestions?

[Jim McDonald]

The quick answer is always to watch for Dewalt 788 to go on sale. 

[OCtoolguy]

3 hours ago, Dragonkort said:

Well it looks like im going to have to buy a new scroll saw....Im looking for a price range between 500 and 600 dollars.  any suggestions?

There are tons of used saws out there. Check with Jim Browning on here and maybe you can work out something on his last Hawk. He just sold one and has one left. He also has a Dewalt. There are so many good used saws where I ilve but I realize I'm in a highly congested area. Check C/L and see what might be near you. Also, look at Marketplace on Facebook. I bought a used Hegner for $40 a while back off Marketplace. For that money, if you have to go new, you should be able to find a Dewalt or Delta for under $600. Just don't get lured into buying a new Excalibur as they are all Chinese now. Good luck.

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by OCtoolguy

[OCtoolguy]

Where are you located?

 

[CharleyL]

Or keep watching the Want Ad posts for someone selling a lightly used saw of the brands that you find acceptable. Many people buy scroll saws and find that it just "isn't for them". I bought my DeWalt Type 1 saw this way for about half of what you are willing to spend. That was about 12 years ago. They said that they used it for about a month and then it collected dust after that, so time to sell.

I have run greased it and ran it until it needed bearings and rebuilt it, again with re-greasing, Now it is about time for new bearings and grease again.

Charley

 

 

[kmmcrafts]

What happen to your DeWalt? 

I will likely be selling a saw soon, but I'm unsure what one or how soon it'll be. It'll either be a Hawk 226VS or a Excalibur EX-21. If I remember correctly we in the same town.

[Dragonkort]

The old one i had just stoped working...not sure why  so spike went on facebook markit place and got me another DeWalt.  The guy bought it for his father in law but his father in law soon lost intrest in it so it was just sittinig...now i know why his father in law lost intrest for some reason this one wont take a 5  inch spiral scroll saw blade, i dont know if it would take the fret blades or not...spike can put 2 blades together and i can use it that way...but its not great for fretwork or smaller projects. if you fix scroll saws we have my old dewalt sitting in the gragre  if youd rather trade. the one in the wood shop now spike uses i dont know what blades he found to use in it, there rather big so he can use it for building stuff..(which would be good for me as when he uses mine i need him to take his blade out so i can put mine in lol his hand tight is a lot tighter then mine lol).it just dosnt work for what i use it for.  I would defently be interested in buying either one of the saws your planning to sell! I had cut out a lot of stuff to pratice my wood carving on before the dewalt died so iv been pratceing my carving but im nearing the end of those....still no rush as it takes time for me to finish a peace. And yes we live in the same town!!! Yea!!  you can email me with you phone  # and address or i can email you mine when your ready to sell one of the saws.  It will be nice to be able to do some scrolling again lol

[Dragonkort]

or spike said maybe you could look at the old one and see if you could fix it and how much it would cost....we're opened to what ever you want to do

 

[OCtoolguy]

There is no reason for a Dewalt to not accept 5 inch blades unless the arm is not coming down all the way. It may be that the tension lever is stuck and not releasing correctly. A simple fix if that's the case. 

[Jim McDonald]

Sounds like the clamps are sprung if double blade will work. Have Spike swap the clamps from your old saw if they were working properly.

Takes about 1/2 hour total, including pulling table to get to the bottom clamp and reinstalling. Maybe a bit longer.

[Dragonkort]

Thanks every one!  kmmcrafts, lives in the same village as we do, perhaps he could check the saws out, id gladly pay him. Spike knows a lot about a lot of different things but the scroll saw is not one of them. I dont think he had ever even heard of a scroll saw before he came here. lol me i just want a scroll saw that will work!! lol  at least now we have some options so hopefuly i'll have a useable scroll saw sometime before summer ends!  lol just waiting for kmmcrafts to get back to me and see what he wants to do. I dont want to inconvience him 

[NC Scroller]

Sounds like a clamp problem.  I would replace your Dewalt clamps with these.  If you or Spike can use a screwdriver you can replace them yourself.

90.301 Pegas Chuck Head Set for DeWalt & Delta | Pegas scroll saw (artcraftersonline.com)

 

Here is a video:

 

[kmmcrafts]

I can probably take a look at the saw for you, but it might be a while as I've got myself into a big major job of swapping a car frame from one car to another car. But maybe in 2-4 weeks I can get with you and take a look at what is going on.

Do the blades that are too short fit in the other saw? I half wonder two scenarios.. one being I wonder if you have a bad batch of blades. I bought a few blades a while back and some actually are defective and only measure about 4.5 inch instead of 5.. The other thing is.. I wonder if someone had the saw apart and cranked up the tension rod  too tight.. Lot's of people that develop a knocking sound see those YouTube videos that has you tighten the tension rod up some.. I've seen some people really crank them up to the point the arm won't come all the way down. But anyway, I'd suggest measuring the blades as a starting point.. 

Anyway, if we can get out of the cold and rain spell so I can actually get caught up on my projects I can probably swing by and take a look at those saws you have.  

[OCtoolguy]

On 4/8/2022 at 10:32 AM, Dragonkort said:

The old one i had just stoped working...not sure why  so spike went on facebook markit place and got me another DeWalt.  The guy bought it for his father in law but his father in law soon lost intrest in it so it was just sittinig...now i know why his father in law lost intrest for some reason this one wont take a 5  inch spiral scroll saw blade, i dont know if it would take the fret blades or not...spike can put 2 blades together and i can use it that way...but its not great for fretwork or smaller projects. if you fix scroll saws we have my old dewalt sitting in the gragre  if youd rather trade. the one in the wood shop now spike uses i dont know what blades he found to use in it, there rather big so he can use it for building stuff..(which would be good for me as when he uses mine i need him to take his blade out so i can put mine in lol his hand tight is a lot tighter then mine lol).it just dosnt work for what i use it for.  I would defently be interested in buying either one of the saws your planning to sell! I had cut out a lot of stuff to pratice my wood carving on before the dewalt died so iv been pratceing my carving but im nearing the end of those....still no rush as it takes time for me to finish a peace. And yes we live in the same town!!! Yea!!  you can email me with you phone  # and address or i can email you mine when your ready to sell one of the saws.  It will be nice to be able to do some scrolling again lol

I've read and re-read your post and I get from it that you can't seem to mount a 5 inch blade because it's not long enough of something to that effect. Can you possibly post some pics of what you're talking about. This topic has people thinking that you are saying that the clamp slot is too wide open and it must either be spread out or worn out or something like that. I understand you to say that you can't mount 5 inch blades which is what most all of the pinless blades are. I'm completely confused as to what your issue is. Pics would help a ton.

 

[Dragonkort]

Sounds good. I'll have spike read what N C scroller wrote and see if spike wants to take a look at the sight and then decide if he wants to take a look at it... He uses utube to check out how to do things with his tracker so maybe he can do the same with the scroll saw, either way waiting is not a problem. worse comes to worse and i get all the unfinished projects done I can always go to my sons house and borrow my grandsons scroll saw to cut out a few of things. lol iv always got things in different  stages of progress i can work on. It drives spike crazy when ever you have the time just let me know.  just watched the vido and yes that dosnt look hard at all, although im not sure how that effects the long arm from going down far enough so the blad wont be to short....lol but hey i dont have to understand. lol

[OCtoolguy]

2 minutes ago, Dragonkort said:

Sounds good. I'll have spike read what N C scroller wrote and see if spike wants to take a look at the sight and then decide if he wants to take a look at it... He uses utube to check out how to do things with his tracker so maybe he can do the same with the scroll saw, either way waiting is not a problem. worse comes to worse and i get all the unfinished projects done I can always go to my sons house and borrow my grandsons scroll saw to cut out a few of things. lol iv always got things in different  stages of progress i can work on. It drives spike crazy when ever you have the time just let me know.  just watched the vido and yes that dosnt look hard at all, although im not sure how that effects the long arm from going down far enough so the blad wont be to short....lol but hey i dont have to understand. lol

From what you are saying, I get the feeling that I understood your plight correctly. It does sound to me as though your upper arm is either stuck in an up position not coming down completely as it should. Make sure your tension slider is all the way off and then try raisng the arm and jiggling that tension lever and see if something comes loose. I think between Kevin and I we have nailed it down to the tension rod being either stuck or severely out of adjustement. It's very easy to do an adjustment on that rod if you go to scrollsaws.com and do some reading there. Very easy task. Maybe a half hour at most.

[Dragonkort]

lol ok we'll take pictures tomarrow of what is going on. what seems to be happening is that the long yellow arm of the saw isnt going down far enough so that the blade dosent reach the top clamp. In all the years iv been scrolling iv never run into a proublem like this. We still have 2 dewalts set up...spike took the 3d one apart and stored the parts so they can be used to try to get one of the saws working...

[Dragonkort]

yes that is excetly what is happening.... Spike will take a look at it tomarrow and check out the sight. and i'll see if i can watch so i'll know and understand whats happening and how to fix it.  Hopefuly nothing will ever happen to spike but he'll be 75 in may and someday I might be alone. I know how to do a lot of things, IF things arent on to tight for me to get off. lol I had a flat tire once and I had the car jacked up and was trying to get the lug nuts off, a guy in a truck passed me just as i had my hand on the trunk and was jumping on jack to try to get one of the lug nuts off...He turned around and came back and asked me are you trying to kill yourself!!!  NEVER JUMP on a jack like that!! lol then he took the flat off and put the spair on for me.... I know things have to be tight but gezz we cant do the things we know how to do IF things are so tight we cant get them off. lol and now its just about my bedtime. pictures tomarrow  and thank you to everybody!!  

[OCtoolguy]

19 minutes ago, Dragonkort said:

lol ok we'll take pictures tomarrow of what is going on. what seems to be happening is that the long yellow arm of the saw isnt going down far enough so that the blade dosent reach the top clamp. In all the years iv been scrolling iv never run into a proublem like this. We still have 2 dewalts set up...spike took the 3d one apart and stored the parts so they can be used to try to get one of the saws working...

Ok, now you have given me the info I was looking for. If Spike is half way mechanical, all he has to do is to take the tension lever cover off and under that you will find an aluminum cover. There is a rod that runs under that cover and it goes clear back to the back of the upper arm and pulls on a wedge shaped piece that causes the upper arm to raise and lower. When you turn the tension slider, it is pulling on that rod and in turn the rod pulls on that sliding wedge causing the arm to rise and apply tension. That sliding wedge is either jammed and not returning to it's relaxed position or someone has turned the tension rod in too far which shortens is and causes the wedge to not slide all the way back with releases the upper arm. That's why I mentioned Scrollsaws.com because there is an article relating to how to get rid of a knocking noise that is caused by that rod. There are pics that show everything. It's a 30 minute job to take it apart, determine the problem and put it back together again.. You'll be back in business and that almost new saw will be working fine. I think someone must have applied too much tension at some point or they picked up the saw using the upper arm and it is jammed. Never lift those saws by the upper arm.

 

[OCtoolguy]

9 minutes ago, Dragonkort said:

yes that is excetly what is happening.... Spike will take a look at it tomarrow and check out the sight. and i'll see if i can watch so i'll know and understand whats happening and how to fix it.  Hopefuly nothing will ever happen to spike but he'll be 75 in may and someday I might be alone. I know how to do a lot of things, IF things arent on to tight for me to get off. lol I had a flat tire once and I had the car jacked up and was trying to get the lug nuts off, a guy in a truck passed me just as i had my hand on the trunk and was jumping on jack to try to get one of the lug nuts off...He turned around and came back and asked me are you trying to kill yourself!!!  NEVER JUMP on a jack like that!! lol then he took the flat off and put the spair on for me.... I know things have to be tight but gezz we cant do the things we know how to do IF things are so tight we cant get them off. lol and now its just about my bedtime. pictures tomarrow  and thank you to everybody!!  

I'll be 79 next week so age is just a number. I plan on staying around to the centennial. Anyway, you'll be up and running tomorrow. Promise.

 

[Dragonkort]

lol Your right, and spike puts me to shame...hes 10 years older then me and is in perfect health!  all he takes is one bp med a day, where as i have like 10 different scripts I have to remember to take everyday....I was so happy when the pharmist told me  I could just take them all at the same time as i was always forgetting to take the noon and evening meds. spike did what you guys said and unfrountly it didnt fix the problem.....Im thinking maybe if we take that part off and jiggle it around again and then replace the part we take off with that peice from one of the other saws maybe we'd be back in busness. Not that i'll be in the wood shop for awhile even if we do get it working as i seem to have caught a chest cold....to me its just annoying but spike says I should be coughing stuff up....and from the sounds of it my chest is all conjested.... hes such a worry wort  bless his little heart....lol

 

[OCtoolguy]

1 hour ago, Dragonkort said:

lol Your right, and spike puts me to shame...hes 10 years older then me and is in perfect health!  all he takes is one bp med a day, where as i have like 10 different scripts I have to remember to take everyday....I was so happy when the pharmist told me  I could just take them all at the same time as i was always forgetting to take the noon and evening meds. spike did what you guys said and unfrountly it didnt fix the problem.....Im thinking maybe if we take that part off and jiggle it around again and then replace the part we take off with that peice from one of the other saws maybe we'd be back in busness. Not that i'll be in the wood shop for awhile even if we do get it working as i seem to have caught a chest cold....to me its just annoying but spike says I should be coughing stuff up....and from the sounds of it my chest is all conjested.... hes such a worry wort  bless his little heart....lol

 

Ok, when Spike did what you said, how far did he go into the machine? If he took that tension cover off and found that rod, he should have been able to pull or push on it and while lifting up on the arm it should have slid in and out fairly easily. If that wedge has gotten jammed in where it slides, it may require splitting the case apart to get at it but first try what I'm saying. Get to where you can maneuver that rod in and out and while pushing it in toward the saw body, try lifting up the saws arm and jiggling the rod. I think what has happened is somebody lifted the saw by the upper arm and while doing that they may have turned the tension lever and it got the wedge fully engaged. Once the saw was set back down again, the arm relaxed and the wedge got stuck. Try lifting up the arm really hard and while doing that move the tension lever as far in each direction as you can and see if you can unstick the wedge. I'm sure that is where the problem is.

[OCtoolguy]

Here's a great pic of what I'm talking about. It came from Scrollsaws.com if you haven't visited there yet.

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by OCtoolguy

[OCtoolguy]

And here is some more info from same place.

 

[Dragonkort]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you....I was having some problems with my headaces and migrines....it happens sometimes when im close to needing my next series of shots...frontly I got my shots this morning so I should be feeling better by tomarrow. I'll show this set of messages to spike and i'll take a look at it tomarrow too. Thank you all so much...I didnt intend to be missing a few days after we talked.