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Ex-21 blade clamps


chippygeoff

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I have had my Ex-21 a week now and it is a fantastic scroll saw. I also have a Dewalt 788. When I first got the Ex-21 I found the on/off switch very small so I have fitted a foot switch and find this much easier. The arms on the Ex-21 are identical to the Dewalt and I had assumed that the blade clamps would be the same but they are not. I am finding that changing the blade is a real pain and quite time consuming and when I do pieced work it often have to have two or three attempts before I get the blade in just the right position. I have to holt the top of the blade against the outside of the clamp to make sure the top of the blade is in line with the top of the thumb bolt and then slide it into what seems a very deep void so I cannot actually see the blade but have to rely on feel, sometimes i get it first time but usually I have to have several tries before I get it right. If I go just a little higher with the top of the blade then it wont reach the bottom clamp and then sometimes I tighten the top clamp and the blade starts to bend. It really is frustrating so any advice would be gladly welcomed.

 

Geoff

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Hi Geoff

Have had same prob with mine which I have had for 6 months.

I seem to have cured it by making sure the grub screw on opposite side to the clamp screw is kept tight,as it seems keep coming loose.

Also I hate the clamp screws, you have to take pliers to them sometimes as they stick.

Steve Good has a good Idear for these ve made them and they work a treat.

Hope this helps.

Best of luck and have a happy Thanksgiving Jim

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Happy Thanksgiving Jim. Hope your day has been a great one. Many thanks for your e-mail. I tried to find a way to reply but failed. The foot switch I use was sent to me by a friend. We have a supplier here in the UK that is popular with most people called Axminster Tools, I suppose it is similar to your Lowes or Home Depot, they sell everything connected with wood working and more besides. They do a foot switch but it is very expensive, I paid my friend the equivalent of $8 for it.

 

The only problems I found on the excalibur were the very small on/off switch, hence the foot switch and the other problem is the blade changing, it is a lot different to the Dewalt, which I find excellent. I rang the importer today and he said i was the first person to comment on the blade changing. I will try it with the grub screw tightened right up Jim and see how that goes. There were several things loose on the saw when I first had it. I have the same problem as you with the clamp screws, I do not over tighten them but sometimes they are very difficult to undo. I saw the idea Steve has for the clamps and made one for the top clamp on the dewalt and it works fine. Hegner do a round metal knurled knob for their saws and in practice it works very well. I have been trying to get them for the excalibur but have not seen any yet so in the mean time I will adopt Steve's idea. Thanks again Jim.

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Thanks Geoff.

I have just looked it up on axminster site and have ordered it it is where I purchased the saw.

by the way I am in uk as well. northampton.

I have had a few other probs with ex21 but not serious .

If you have any other probs just let me know on oldscroller@hotmail.co.uk

Cheers Jim

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I'm having the same problem with clamping the blades, the amount of times I've thought the blade was in ok just to have it shoot out after just a couple of strokes. :curse: Found that if I make sure that the arm is down as far as it will go is of some help. I keep comparing it too much with the DeWalt and honestly I prefare the DeWalt.

 

Marg

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i too have been having clamping problems with my ex-21 but only with the bottom clamp.

i have what you call i guess the grub screw? i call it a set screw but i have mine put in place with some blue loc-tite (non-permanent) so it doesnt move around.

but when i go to tighten the knob it pushes the blade right out. i have to use a little flat blade screw driver and push/hold the blade in and tighten the knob at

the same time and that works. i had posted this problem on another forum and others mentioned to swap the knobs around to see if that helps and another

mentioned that if you over tighten it can push out the sides of the clamp! i thought i would try and sand the little spinner part on the end of the knob to see if

that would help rough it up to grip the blade better but nope.

i will order a new clamp, knob and set screws next week to see if that helps? i wish i would have kept my dewalt saw as it was lightening fast changing blades,

the ex-21 takes to long to swap out blades but i really love how smooth and quiet it runs.

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I finally got my head round the blade changing problem on the excalibur and I really should have thought of this when i first got the saw. I undid the T bolt and then slid a piece of steel into the opening, which was a nice snug fit. I then wound up the grub screws until they were just touching the steel and the problem was solved. Blade changing is no longer a problem and I get it right every time now. Both grub screws were set differently, the lower one was way off the mark.

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I havn't had any really problems with blade changes. the only things i've noticed is that sometimes with a spiral blade (twisted all the way to the tip) it will sometimes try to push the blade out instead of grab, but it doesn't happpen very often. the other thing I noticed was that sometimes the arm doesnt' drop all the way so when I connect the bottom blade and push the tensioner it's still loose. I've made it a habit now to always pull down on the arm before trying to hook up the lower blade mount.

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when i put in a new blade i use a dead blow hammer because of the weight and i hook the hammer over the top blade arm to keep it pushed down

and then i clamp the bottom blade as i have to use left hand to keep blade pushed in and right hand tightens the knob. sounds wild but i should

take a picture of it to show what i mean.

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when i put in a new blade i use a dead blow hammer because of the weight and i hook the hammer over the top blade arm to keep it pushed down

and then i clamp the bottom blade as i have to use left hand to keep blade pushed in and right hand tightens the knob. sounds wild but i should

take a picture of it to show what i mean.

 

yeah I'd like to see a picture of what your talking about.....not sure why you would need to do that unless something was wrong with the saw

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