Scroll Saws - Hegner vs RBI vs Excalibur

[bsbwoolley]

Hello,

I have been using a low end $100 Delta 16" scroll saw occasionally for 7-8 years. It is not a very good saw. My sweet wife wants to get into Intarsia and so I want to suprise her with a new much better scroll saw. I am hoping to get your opinions in regards to Hegner, RBI and Excalibur scroll saws. I would rather stay under $1000. I see that many of you like the Dewalt, but I am assuming for the extra $500 there must be differences in these premium saws.

Any advice would be very much appreciated!!!

Thanks

Steve W. in Utah

[Hobbyhorse]

Steve,
I have a Hegner which I think is just wonderfull. I moved up from a Makita and the difference is huge. I have not had experience on the other saws you mention but from my reading there does not seem to be much difference between them from a useage point of view.

[wwalker47]

Steve-

I moved from the Delta 16" saw to a DeWalt and the difference was night and day. I am quite pleased with my 788, I, too, wanted to stay under $1,000 and chose this one. I'm sure what ever saw you land on you will enjoy it.

-Bill

[owler]

Steve,

I have no experience with the high-end scroll saws, but I will not buy a cheap tool. Even if you use it once, it needs to do what you need it to do. I am very happy with my Dewalt. It does what my llmited skills ask it to do and appears to work for people who are more skilled than I.

Dan

[urband]

Take a look at Excalibur

I have a 30" Excalibur which I purchased after testing the DeWalt, RBI and Hegner saws. After 3 years I wouldn't trade it for anything. It is virtually vibration free, and you can feed the blade from the top, which is critical if you are doing fretwork of any size. Unfortunately, it costs more than the $1000 budget you have.

I tried the new Excalibur at the Midwest Scroll Saw Show last August, and it cut smooth as silk. I only had a couple minutes to play, and I wasn't looking to buy it, so I didn't check out things like ease of blade change, etc. I'm just saying it's worth a close look, and it is within your budget.

Dan

[jttheclockman]

Now you are talking about making a wise move. But as stated there is not much difference in any of the top level saws just brand names. All will give you no vibration, ease of blade changing to me is a huge factor. One reason I hate lower end saws. Now you say you have used the Delta saw. I assume it had their version of the quick clamp. If you are used to that and happy with it I highly suggest you look at the Delta P20 saw. It is mid range priced with the Dewalt. But it is heavy duty saw and made to take a beating. The big difference with this saw then the others or even Dewalt is two things One is the patented blade holders and 2 the speed changing is a pulley system. But is easy to do and usually most people find a speed they are comfortaable with and keep it there. I know myself I only change speeds if I am cutting a different medium. As mention in the $500 range the Dewalt is a hands down favorite though. The others you mention are top of the line and yes they are top of the line for a reason but you should try them for yourself because it just comes down to a matter of choice. All are good saws. I own 2 RBI and a Hegner.

[bsbwoolley]

Thank you all for your replies. This has helped me a bunch.

Steve

[William Young (SE BC)]

Hi John;
I am not sure if you just made a typo or didn't know the difference when you mentioned the 2 speed change system on the P-20.
Actually it is a 6 speed change belt driven saw. You are correct that most people never change their speed except on rare occasion. I have mine set at about three quarter speed and havn't changed from that setting for several years. Still has the original belt after tons of hard work for over three years. My personal feeling with variable speed saws is that it is largely a sales gimmick as well as a power robber and a potential for a service problem and bill of expense when the speed controllers fail and some certainly do. .

But just out of curiosity and for those that think a P-20 is only a 6 speed saw, here is some information that shows how very many more speeds it can be set at for anyone inclined to believe that more than 6 speeds are necessary on a scrollsaw.
Without checking it all out , I think it relates to about 35 or 40 different speeds that can be changed in a few seconds
W.Y.

Delta P-20 Scrollsaw Speeds

Assume the motor turns at 1725 RPM
Position 1 refers to far left belt position when facing the saw.

STANDARD SPEEDS
Belt Position 1 2 3 4 5 6
Motor Pulley Dia. (in) 2.648 2.450 2.207 2.013 1.379 0.869
Driven Pulley Dia. (in) 2.284 2.486 2.719 2.894 3.400 3.748
Speed 2000 1700 1400 1200 700 400


ADDITIONAL SPEEDS
Driven Pulley Position
Motor Pulley Position 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2000 1837 1680 1578 1343 1219
2 1850 1700 1554 1460 1243 1128
3 1667 1531 1400 1316 1120 1016
4 1520 1397 1277 1200 1021 926
5 1041 957 875 822 700 635
6 656 603 551 518 441 400

[William Young (SE BC)]

Hi John;
I just re-read your post and found that I had misunderstood it the first time when you said

and 2 the speed changing is a pulley system

By *2* you were referring to part 2 of your response .
I apologise for my misunderstanding in my original reading.
W.Y.

[Jediscroller]

I'm curious, what kind of problems did you have with the Excalibur? I've had my EX-30 for nearly a year now and love it.

Kevin

steve, i have owned a few saws and in my opinion they run in this order -#1-eclipse---#hegner---#3dewalt. the excalibur is a joke, and rbi use to be good but the service afterwards is terrible. the eclipse is more expensive, but mine is great. i have a dewalt i'm selling if you want to try a used one. good luck!!! rainman

[Jediscroller]

Rainman, I wasn't offended at all. I was just curious if I needed to be on the lookout for anything.
Never worry about sharing an honest opinion about a tool. About the only people who might get upset are reps for that particular company, and frankly, who cares?

Kevin