Excalibur 21

[Fretnot]

I watched a disturbing video on you tube from Australia of a guy with an Excalibur 21. He said overall it was a good machine but had several design faults. I don't know if I will explain this right but if the plate is removed at the back of the saw it will expose the spindle from the motor that is connected to the drive rod. The spindle is steel and the drive rod is aluminium, the guy said he had replaced the drive rod three times as it wears out very quickly because steel and aluminium do not go together. The other problem was the blade clamps, he said these were also aluminium and the bolt on the thumb screw were steel and as a result the thread wears out quite quickly and in the video he showed just how loose his were.

Has anyone else found these problems as I am due to buy an Excalibur 21 in two weeks time.

[wood-n-things]

I have an ex21 and am extremely happy so far. Mine is only a year old and have not had these problems, yet. He is right about the thumb screws they are identical to the ones on the dw788 and I wore out several of those. the trick is to learn not to over tighten and to have a spare set on hand. I went through 3 pair in 12 years though. Not enough to worry about.

[Fretnot]

Confidence restored.

Many thanks Mike. When I saw the video alarm bells started to ring but going on what you said my confidence has been restored, 3 pairs in 12 years is not bad. I will order a spare set as I have the DeWalt 788 as well.

By the way Mike. On my 788 I have 1mm of play between the clamp assembly and the arm, is this correct or should they be tight. Thanks again.

[wood-n-things]

My 788 had this play also. It is tightened up when I tension the blade. Not too worry.
You need to practice your nickname more often....

[bhenr99]

What was the title of the You Tube video can't find it.

Bob

[Fretnot]

Hi Bob. I typed in Excalibur scroll saw into the search box and it is on the second page. It is called Excalibur Rec. It states 3198 patch and was posted on May 2nd 2011.

[Keith Fenton]

His screen name in the forums is Patch and he's been on many forums complaining about the quality of the Excalibur.

The bottom line is that:

1 - He is the only one I have heard of to date that didn't think like his EX and who thought it was poor quality.

2 - When asked what saw would he recommend, he can't come up with an answer because it truly is a quality machine.

3 - He cuts 30+ hours per week often on 1.5" material. That's an abnormal amount of stress on any scroll saw ...

4 - One of his gripes is that the blade holders wore out after a year.... IMO they are a wearable part that is cheap to replace and after 1500 hours of scrolling, I don't think having to spend $40 for replacement holders is a valid complaint. BTW most saws have aluminum blade clamps.

5 - It appears that after close inspection he did have some defect that caused premature wear.. Carba-Tec (the company he bought it from) refused to honor General International's directives in servicing his saw so General shipped a bunch of parts directly to him even though he is past the warranty period . I haven't heard anything on how this worked out for him. We communicated in emails a bit and after he made that video, he didn't respond to any of our emails.

6 - I wouldn't worry about it

[Fretnot]

Thanks Keith

Many thanks Keith. I was not aware of the problem with Patch. I am quite new to the scroll saw so I am a bit green around the gills. For me it is a lot of money to spend on the Ex-21 but I feel it will be a sound investment. I am afraid I was panicking a bit as I am about to spend my hard earned cash. I thought it strange though Keith as I understand that the Ex-21 was designed by the same guy who designed the Dewalt 788 and that has really stood the test of time, in fact the arms on the ex-21 are identical to the 788. It is obvious that anything with moving parts is going to wear. I am fortunate in having a 788 as well and I am very happy with it. The way Patch was explaining himself was as if he was getting through blade clamps quicker than most people so I was a bit concerned but all my fears have now been put to rest and I am really looking forward to getting the new saw. Thanks again Keith.

[Keith Fenton]

I too went from a Dewalt to a EX-21 and it definitely helped me to be able to cut better. Once you set the saw to minimize front-to-back blade motion, it is much less aggressive than the Dewalt and it helped me a lot.

Here's a short description of how I do it (I copied it from another post):

To get the best performance out of your saw, you can minimize the front-to-back motion of the blade throughout the stroke. Here is an article that explains how to do it. I strongly recommend you do this adjustment:

Excalibar Tune Up
(scroll down to the last article)

Before making this adjustment, Turn the rear knob (which controls the height of the upper arm) until the upper arm sits parallel to the table. The saw is designed to run best when the upper arm is parallel to the table. Also, the front-to-back blade motion will only be minimized if you keep the upper arm at the same height as when you make this adjustment. Some people call it a tension knob which can be misleading... It does adjust tension after you mount a blade, but as soon as you release the blade, you have to put the knob back to it's default position so that your upper arm is parallel again. You really should almost never need to use this to fine tune tension.

PS: I also had a very slight side-to-side motion which is easily fixed by offsetting the set screws on the blade clamps and locking them in with blue(removable) Loctite.

[Keith Fenton]

If you buy/bought the saw from Seyco.com, they do that adjustment before they ship it.

[Fretnot]

Hi Keith. I am very grateful for the tune up link for the Excalibur. I shall make sure I do this when my saw arrives. Unfortunately we do not have anyone like Ray from Seyco here in the UK. I have put an order together for several items from a major supplier. The saw would have been delivered to the store from the manufacturer and in turn sent to me so my saw will arrive as it was made in the factory. I would have thought for the amount of money the saw cost all the fine tuning etc would have been done before it was shipped out. Having said that the adjustments to be made in the link are easy to understand and looks simple enough. I imagine that when the adjustments are made there should be no further need to adjust the tension knob at the back and just release the blade tensioner when not using the saw. Thanks again Keith.

[Keith Fenton]

Sorry Fretnot, I didn't notice your location.

I don't know why the saw doesn't come with this adjustment already done so that it works at it's full potential. It does seem foolish for them to ship it out this way when such a minor adjustment can potentially make a big difference. They would also have to explain that the blade motion would only be optimal when the upper arm is parallel to the table.

[hotshot]

Everyone that buys an Ex should be aware of these adjustments. I got mine from Ray but still needed to do the adjustment for blade travel.

-----Randy

[newscroller]

Is there any way to adjust the front to back blade motion on the Dewalt 788? Mine seems to have excessive motion, which gives me a fit when turning corners.

[Northerner]

it cracks me up that someone makes a page Excalibar Tune Up
for tuning up an excalibur saw and then misspell its name all over the page including the title