Chippygeoff
Established Member
For those who have been following my post on the excalibur saw I have finally got it right. The problem that us scrollers have and wood workers in general is that almost all the machines we buy come from China and Taiwan along with other far eastern countries and sadly when we buy a machine we more or less get it straight from the factory where it was assembled and the people that put these machines together have no idea the use they will be put to. For those of who have an excalibur scroll saw you probably upgraded from one of the cheapo machines so it would appear that the excalibur is like a rolls royce and when set up correctly it would be. I feel I had a one off when I had mine. Loads of problems.
I finally came to the end of my tether the other day and sent an e-mail to the supplier saying I had had enough. They said they would arrange to have it picked up and give me a full refund. The problem now was, what do I replace it with. There was no way I was going to pay £1000 for a Hegner and quite frankly there is nothing else available in the way of a decent scroll saw. In desperation I completely stripped the excalibur and re-built it and I must say it is a lot better than it has ever been. The only problem I now had was the blade clamps. The T bolt on the top clamp was very loose and almost falling out after just two months. The grub screw the other side of the T bolt kept working loose so a bit of locktite sorted that out. I sent an e-mail back to the supplier and said i would keep the saw but I needed a new blade clamp. The supplier e-mailed me back saying they were going to send me two complete arm assemblies complete with clamps etc so I am a lot happier now. In my eyes the saw is still not perfect but I feel it is a lot better than a £150 import from the far east. I have another saw, a Dewalt 788 and it is as good today as when it was new many years ago, sadly these are now made in the far east.
I finally came to the end of my tether the other day and sent an e-mail to the supplier saying I had had enough. They said they would arrange to have it picked up and give me a full refund. The problem now was, what do I replace it with. There was no way I was going to pay £1000 for a Hegner and quite frankly there is nothing else available in the way of a decent scroll saw. In desperation I completely stripped the excalibur and re-built it and I must say it is a lot better than it has ever been. The only problem I now had was the blade clamps. The T bolt on the top clamp was very loose and almost falling out after just two months. The grub screw the other side of the T bolt kept working loose so a bit of locktite sorted that out. I sent an e-mail back to the supplier and said i would keep the saw but I needed a new blade clamp. The supplier e-mailed me back saying they were going to send me two complete arm assemblies complete with clamps etc so I am a lot happier now. In my eyes the saw is still not perfect but I feel it is a lot better than a £150 import from the far east. I have another saw, a Dewalt 788 and it is as good today as when it was new many years ago, sadly these are now made in the far east.
