my scroll saw

[aramco]

hi I finally had to give in and send my saw back to Axminster , too many problems to ignore, top of the list was vibrations. followed closely by arm dropping then the niggly bits , table scratching,screws in the pegas head almost shot,on off switch acting up , speed controller acting up so off it went on Friday, not sure when it will be back, hopefully soon as I am already getting the scroll saw blues, some good did come out of this, hooray I got my shop tidied up, and another bit of work surface put up
- already cluttered - next job put some shelves under it may be tonight.

I have been watching ,some videos on you tube about dust collection, one was a simple container one shoved under the front of the saw, it had wings on the side to catch drop off dust, called excalidrawer 2, gives a free pattern to boot, I will make one and post it when I get it done, another one was dust collection via plastic pipes from the rear , a pipe went along the arm and sucked from the top , and one went under the saw and collected from the blade area , will give this another coat of looking at and see if I can get it to work without getting in the way of cutting/ blade changing.

a man was having trouble with his air blower pipe ,it had a life of its own, so he bought a small clamp and put round the end and it kept it in place, I am sure a small jubilee clip would do the same as long as one did not over tighten it.

take care
John

saw been away one week now and suffering withdrawal symptoms, even tiding my shop does not fix it , but it looks better.

 

[aramco]

Axminster been in touch saw will be dispatched soon.

take care
John

 

[aramco]

Saw arrived this morning , got it back on the stand , brief look hose changed and top pegas clamp, got too hot to continue, will bolt it down and test it tonight , all things being equal.

take care
John

 

[aramco]

set the saw up and the main problem to get fixed hasnt been touched the drop arm

take care
John

 

[Toonie]

The arm is very easy to adjust John, Just slacken the nut off & turn the inside screw in before nipping the nut back up, Do not overtighten the nut, From memory it's 17mm spanner + a screwdriver & it only takes 20 seconds = Job done

Regards Toonie

 

[aramco]

thanks for that Toonie, I have adjusted this from both sides and it stays up for about 10 blade adjustments then starts to drop again, I was cutting a thick piece of wood and it dropped without warning and nipped my fingers , I keep doing it but it is like a bad dream it keeps coming back to haunt you.

take care
John

 

[Claymore]

Sorry to hear your having problems with ya saw, i never lift my top arm so don't have the problem, when you say you were cutting some thick wood how would the arm drop? or was it turned off? Its pretty rare to have problems with the Axi saws but the ones that do seem to have major faults...i must be lucky touch wood that only probs i have had was the plastic rollers on the small saw which Axminster sent me some brass replacements free and on the EX30 the paint on the table scratched very easy so i bought a sheet of 2mm aluminium and shaped to fit and used the original screws to fasten it on, while i was at it i made the hole for the blade smaller as the original one was massive so job sorted.
Cheers and hope ya soon un and running again with it.
Brian

 

[aramco]

hi Brian I have to lift the arm to do my adjustments for some reason I cannot do t the other way round, I lifted the arm up and it is supposed to stay there, as I was doing some internal cuts on 3d stuff aka Steve goods patterns and the arm just dropped bosh got ya, and I do have the same problems with the table scratching, mentioned it to axi and they put it down to wear and tear, not a manufacturing fault, I did put a piece of 2 mm plastic on when I first got it but I wanted to cut some thick stuff and the 2 mm was just too much and the pegas head was wacking the wood so took it off, maybe I should just stick to 3 mm stuff lol, one thing I am considering is making the hole smaller may be an insert we will see after the warranty period is up.

take care
John

 

[Toonie]

John,
I only use the smaller Ex 16 model, A few weeks ago I started getting a really bad squeak when lifting the arm, Prob a bit of muck got down into the arm friction mechanism so i thought i would drown it in Wd 40 having nothing to lose before having to strip machine itself, I gave it a few minutes for the Wd to soak right into the machine & the arm went really loose a very easy to lift, So i just re-adjusted the friction locking nut again (Fig 19 in the user manual by the way) & it's been perfect ever since, in fact better than it ever was.
You said in your last post that you adjusted it from both sides but i think there is only one adjuster on all 3 model sizes so are you sure that you are adjusting the right screw & locknut ? Don't mean to offend in any way.
Regards Toonie

 

[aramco]

hi no offense taken, I tightened the screw near the motor first and that seemed to work for a while, then it started again, so got in touch with axi and they told me to adjust the nut as per your advice , again worked for a while , so adjusted repeatedly and the same thing happens,sent it back and as stated it is still happening, today I did some scrolling and had to again I had to resort to putting a piece of 2 x 4 under the arm, as it is still under warranty I am loathed to do anything else, - tomorrow I will test drive adjusting it again - just as a mater of interest I have been following other threads on Facebook and you tube and the dewalt 788 and other makes in the states all seem to have the same problems,and some people have resorted to making clamps that fit over the arm and operate via pulleys on to a foot pedal, do not want to have to do this yet ,but will when the warranty is out, just wish I could master top feeding

just a thought I might just back off all the adjustments and start from scratch cannot do any worse than it is now.

take care
John

 

[Toonie]

John,
Which screw near the motor do you mean? There is a photo in the manual of the adjusting screw.
I always assumed that it was a friction mechanism but mine feels more like a ball bearing dropping into an indent to hold it in the up position now. if i'm making myself clear ? Since I drowned mine in Wd & re-adjusted the tension my saw is a lot nicer & easier to use. I have just finished cutting two pieces with quite a few internal cuts & it was a real pleasure cutting again. I'll stick some photo's up later.
Regards
Toonie

 

[aramco]

as you know I got my saw back hooray, then this morning I slipped in the wet room an damaged my left shoulder, so will be out of commission for a while , boohoo, and after just receiving a whole load of pine given, off a couple of wood beds. https:

take care
John

 

[Claymore]

Ya dozy sod John! lol I could imagine Frank Spencer doing that lol wait until they leap on their beds and go through it, bit like the Great Escape lol I got a couple of pine beds a few years ago from a charity shop and lots of decent wood from them.....my best source of Oak is from drop leaf tables which charity shops usually have one lurking away....apart from the actual table tops i send the legs etc through my thicknesser and then glue them all together to get some more thicker pieces so nothing wasted apart from the hinges.
Try not to injure yourself more as looking forward to seeing some projects.
Cheers

 

[aramco]

cheers for that Brian it got laughing, must admit I still do not know how I went down, anyway went to hospital and got x rayed etc, all ok nowt bust, now that would have been a bummer if it was bust.

Just finished cobbling together the table off Steve goods site, only had pallet wood available, I did a couple of mods, I put a base in it and made the lid removable, as everything in our house has to be able to store knitting / sewing stuff, I am happy with the end result , it could have been better, as one one of the legs, the knot chose to fall out and went on a mission, and when I cut legs out on the band saw - scroll saw was not back then - a bit of one of the feet decided to do a mizzle, different leg, plus I did not have anymore wood the same thickness, but Sandra is happy with it, I did offer to make it fire wood but she didnt like that idea.

One one of the sites I follow on Facebook, someone had done some fantastic geometric designs and I so want to do at least one, but he has moved back to Porto Rico, I did contact him to see if had any patterns, hope to hear from him soon, on top of that the head boards will be just the right thickness and I will be able to get a big enough piece out of it, 15 x 15 inches.

Got some chakra designs off Facebook , that's another project for me 7 in total, then maybe another table as someone who visited liked it, will do it as a surprise for her, then I must get two patterns off Charles dearings site, of 10 cowboys riding across the plains is one and the other is a one of an old barn he combined the two and it was fantastic, if no ne wants to buy it I will hang it up in my garage and I will be the lucky one, then I must get an intarsia project started no excuse now plenty of wood, all I have to do then is learn how to paint, not my fortay.

this one handed typing is the pits

take care
John