HELP NEEDED ON SCROLL SAW PURCHASE

[Dibsy]

My husband has a rather cheap second hand scroll saw which he purchased a number of years ago. It rattles like nobodies business and its time for a new one.
I'm wanting to buy him one for Christmas and for the part few months have been reading so many reviews my brain is fried.
I've just come across this forum and have read through numerous threads about scroll saws and the hegner seems to come up quite a lot.
As you'd appreciate that because it's a Christmas present I don't really want to purchase a second hand one.
The only stipulation my hubby had was that it should take pinless blades.
I've just seen one on the hegner website for £502 but I have no idea if it takes pinless or not.
I have no idea what I'm looking for or if their website is the best place to buy one.
Please help a girl out here!
Oh and he uses it for making intarsia items if that helps or should I be looking at something slightly cheaper at the moment.

 

[Droogs]

Hi and welcome.
The Hegner is regarded as the Rolls Royce of scroll saws and is indeed a well built quality machine. Of similar quality and with a perhaps useful feature for your hubby could be the Excalibur made by General International. Unlike most saw, rather than tilting the table the actual saw arms tilt while keeping the table flat making it much easier to cut angles.
Here is a link to the machine on ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/1501535609

here is a video of it in use




The excalibur is available in 3 sizes of table 16" 21" and 30". I have the 30" model and love it. Be aware a company in the UK a company called Axminster sell a copy of it (they were originally the UK distributor of the GI saw). However there have been many reports of the copy being inferior with some serious vibration problems due to cheaper parts. So ensure you get one made by GI not Axminster or Axi as they are known


hth

edit typos

 

[scrimper]

My husband has a rather cheap second hand scroll saw which he purchased a number of years ago. It rattles like nobodies business and its time for a new one.
I'm wanting to buy him one for Christmas and for the part few months have been reading so many reviews my brain is fried.
I've just come across this forum and have read through numerous threads about scroll saws and the hegner seems to come up quite a lot.
As you'd appreciate that because it's a Christmas present I don't really want to purchase a second hand one.
The only stipulation my hubby had was that it should take pinless blades.
I've just seen one on the hegner website for £502 but I have no idea if it takes pinless or not.
I have no idea what I'm looking for or if their website is the best place to buy one.
Please help a girl out here!
Oh and he uses it for making intarsia items if that helps or should I be looking at something slightly cheaper at the moment.

Why not have a look at my videos on purchasing a scroll saw?

 

[Dibsy]

Why not have a look at my videos on purchasing a scroll saw?

I did thank you.

 

[AES]

@Dibsy: You have "only" (!!) 2 problems really - A) you want to buy new, and B) you need it by Christmas.

Either the Hegner or the original GI version of the Excalibur (in one of the 3 sizes) as mentioned above by members Droogs and scrimper will definitely NOT disappoint your husband. BUT you are looking at a pretty big outlay - 500 quid and up.

IF you were prepared to buy SH, and prepared to wait for "the right" ads to appear (ebay, etc) then you could add a 3rd name to the above 2 brands, namely Delta (they are made in the USA but it appears no longer imported into Europe), so SH only. AND you'd save some money. But who knows how long you'd have to wait?

Sorry to be a "dismal desmond" but from my own search around the market when I (finally) bought new, I came to the same conclusion - either Hegner or Excalibur (also sometimes called "Pegas", just to confuse you!); or Delta if SH is OK.

One other possibility though: Axminster Tools have two "cloned" scroll saw machines available - as already said by Droogs, the Axi version of the Excalibur has had MANY bad reports on here; but OTOH, the Axi cloned version of one of the Hegner models has always got good reports here. The current Axi catalogue number for their cloned Hegner is AT460SS.

I should perhaps add that I bought a GI Excalibur 21 just over 6 years ago and have never had a moment's trouble with it. But I bought it in Germany (it's called "Pegas" as well as GI!) and it IS "the real thing" not the Axi "cloned" version.

BTW, Pegas are also one of several manufacturers of scroll saw blades and they are generally reckoned to be excellent. Axi are the UK "distributors" for Pegas blades and they do NOT clone the blades, so you can buy blades there with confidence!

HTH

 

[Dibsy]

My brain is fried!
Thank you for all your help.
I've looked at what you guys have recommended.
Is there one that takes pinless blades as that is the one stipulation that my husband has and I obviously don't know anything about these.
I'm looking to spend around £600.
Any links would be much appreciated.

 

[Dibsy]

@Dibsy: You have "only" (!!) 2 problems really - A) you want to buy new, and B) you need it by Christmas.

Either the Hegner or the original GI version of the Excalibur (in one of the 3 sizes) as mentioned above by members Droogs and scrimper will definitely NOT disappoint your husband. BUT you are looking at a pretty big outlay - 500 quid and up.

IF you were prepared to buy SH, and prepared to wait for "the right" ads to appear (ebay, etc) then you could add a 3rd name to the above 2 brands, namely Delta (they are made in the USA but it appears no longer imported into Europe), so SH only. AND you'd save some money. But who knows how long you'd have to wait?

Sorry to be a "dismal desmond" but from my own search around the market when I (finally) bought new, I came to the same conclusion - either Hegner or Excalibur (also sometimes called "Pegas", just to confuse you!); or Delta if SH is OK.

One other possibility though: Axminster Tools have two "cloned" scroll saw machines available - as already said by Droogs, the Axi version of the Excalibur has had MANY bad reports on here; but OTOH, the Axi cloned version of one of the Hegner models has always got good reports here. The current Axi catalogue number for their cloned Hegner is AT460SS.

I should perhaps add that I bought a GI Excalibur 21 just over 6 years ago and have never had a moment's trouble with it. But I bought it in Germany (it's called "Pegas" as well as GI!) and it IS "the real thing" not the Axi "cloned" version.

BTW, Pegas are also one of several manufacturers of scroll saw blades and they are generally reckoned to be excellent. Axi are the UK "distributors" for Pegas blades and they do NOT clone the blades, so you can buy blades there with confidence!

HTH

Is this the one you recommended?

 

[Droogs]

Both the Excalibur and Hegner can use pinless and pinned blades, both machines also have a quick release clamp for easy blade changing (makes a massive difference to the enjoyment of using the saw). The above is the Hegner clone. The fact it is from the trade range is good as the craft range has a motor that is only rated to run for circa 100 hours per year, and still be under warranty, whereas the trade range is rated basically for almost continuous use

 

[Dibsy]

Thank you so much Droogs, I really appreciate your help and from everyone else. I'm also looking at some Pegas blades to go with it as AES recommended.

 

[AES]

Yup, Droogs beat me to it. All three of the named machines will take pinless blades and all have a quick release (VERY handy) as scrimper says.

Re blades, as you're obviously pushing the boat out (does your hubby know how lucky he is? My wife bought me my Excalibur for my 70th birthday) then have a look at the sticky thread at the top of this Scrolling & Scroll Saws thread. There are a couple of downloadable tables in that post, with good general suggestions as to what blades (size, TPI, etc) hubby should use, and as said, Pegas makes some of the best blades (along with some other suppliers too).

I THINK I'm right, "Axi" ( Axminster Tools) will allow you to make up "sets" of dozens of blades of different sizes. Normally blades are sold by the dozen, but you get reduced prices for buying a gross - 144 - & half gross. Making up sets of dozens of different sizes into a gross/half gross will save you a bit of money.

Here's the link to Axminster Tools (note, they have several shops around the country, but I hear that stocks are generally running low in UK - Covid & Brexit etc, etc):

https://www.axminstertools.com/
And YES, the machine you've linked to is exactly what I was talking about above. I don't know it myself, but several members here have them, most particularly "Claymore", who produces excellent work and he swears by his. Note though: IF by any chance you come across Claymore's mention of that saw, you MAY be confused because he uses a different Catalogue number ("AWS something or other" I think). But that's only because Axi changed their whole catalogue numbering system recently - it is actually the self-same machine.

Your husband is going to have a good Christmas (but I wouldn't count on seeing all that much of him yourself)!

HTH

 

[Yojevol]

@Dibsy You may be interested in my Axminster which you can see here.
I will contact you via PM to discuss if you wish
Brian

 

[scrimper]

Another place you can buy decent fretsaw blades from is Hobbies, I have been using them for many years. Yellow Label Fretsaw Blades Various Grades

 

[Dibsy]

Yup, Droogs beat me to it. All three of the named machines will take pinless blades and all have a quick release (VERY handy) as scrimper says.

Re blades, as you're obviously pushing the boat out (does your hubby know how lucky he is? My wife bought me my Excalibur for my 70th birthday) then have a look at the sticky thread at the top of this Scrolling & Scroll Saws thread. There are a couple of downloadable tables in that post, with good general suggestions as to what blades (size, TPI, etc) hubby should use, and as said, Pegas makes some of the best blades (along with some other suppliers too).

I THINK I'm right, "Axi" ( Axminster Tools) will allow you to make up "sets" of dozens of blades of different sizes. Normally blades are sold by the dozen, but you get reduced prices for buying a gross - 144 - & half gross. Making up sets of dozens of different sizes into a gross/half gross will save you a bit of money.

Here's the link to Axminster Tools (note, they have several shops around the country, but I hear that stocks are generally running low in UK - Covid & Brexit etc, etc):

https://www.axminstertools.com/
And YES, the machine you've linked to is exactly what I was talking about above. I don't know it myself, but several members here have them, most particularly "Claymore", who produces excellent work and he swears by his. Note though: IF by any chance you come across Claymore's mention of that saw, you MAY be confused because he uses a different Catalogue number ("AWS something or other" I think). But that's only because Axi changed their whole catalogue numbering system recently - it is actually the self-same machine.

Your husband is going to have a good Christmas (but I wouldn't count on seeing all that much of him yourself)!

HTH

I think you're right AES, is there such a thing as a 'scroll saw widow'?
I purchased it this afternoon for delivery next week and just until he can buy his own blades as he'd know better what he wants I purchased a pack of the Pegas ones with various tpi's.
I just want to say a huge thank you to you all for your input and help, I cannot even tell you how many months I've searched for a decent scroll saw and read reviews but they were all for the ones at the lower end of the market and I wanted to buy him something decent that would last a while.
I'll point him in the direction of this forum come christmas.
Thank you to you all, you're a great bunch.
From a truly grateful Yorkshire lass

 

[AES]

Hubby will be welcome to join us here at Christmas.

A thought re "scrolling widowhood" (my wife is a "workshop widow" BTW)! So why don't you get hubby to let YOU have a go? Though I consider myself far from expert, I've taught 2 ladies and both took to it like a duck to water! (They both said it was very much like using a sewing machine). AND you could even share the turkey sandwiches in the shed on Boxing Day!

"Happy Christmas"