21" Ecalibur First Impressions.

[pddesertrat]

I recently purchased a 21" Excalibur.  I have not used it much yet but I think I am going to like it.  I mounted on my homemade stand instead of them metal stand it came with.  I like my stand because it has a drawer for blades and supplies, and storage underneath the saw.  I'm thinking I will mount my Dewalt on the metal stand and keep it for a while.  I do not have much room in my shop so this may not work out, but if not it will help sell the Dewalt if I chose to sell it.

I had watched videos on the Excalibur and most showed the Excalibur as a pretty much plug and play as it came out of the box.  It should be because there is not a lot of detail info in the instructions that come with it.  I had to do some twicking on mine.  There were a lot of loose screws and nuts.  I could move the head side to side over a 1/4", so I had to rectify that by finding which screw to tighten, the head wouldn't stay in the up position, so that was another adjustment.  The blade wasn't 90' to the table, side to side, got that fixed.  I still need to check the back to front straightness of the blade, it seems okay, but I haven't checked it.

Like I said I haven't got to spend a lot of time with it yet, my 15 year old Grandson us staying a while with us and I have been spending most my time doing things with him.

What little I have used the saw, I have noticed one thing right off that I will have to work to get use to and that is the lack of table space in front of the blade compared to what the DeWalt has.  I think I will get use to it, but it really seemed strange on the little cutting I have done.  I really like the tension lever compared to the DeWalt one and it seems much easier/quicker to install blades.  I am a top feeder when scrolling and when I get time I am going to try to be a bottom feeder, well at least give it a try.  Just seems to me it would be easier to thread the blade through the holes if I am coordinated enough to accomplish it.

I have not tried the dust collection and probable won't.  I just don't think I would like my noisy vacuum running while I am sawing.  I like things quiet and peaceful while I work. 

I am very anxious to spend some time using the saw.  I think I am going to be happy with the it.  It does appear to run quieter and less vibration. 

[tvman44]

If you bought it from SEYCO I know he fine tunes them before shipment.  That makes them plug n play.

[pddesertrat]

I bought it from SEYCO.  Maybe this one was missed.

[Kragax]

Just my two cents,( I have a cheap Ryobi), but for that kind of money you shouldn't have to work on it.

[pddesertrat]

I don't mean to imply I am dissatisfied.  I had to make adjustments to my Dewalt when I bought it also.  Fact I had to assemble it.  The Excalibur was together, just wasn't fine turned as I expected from watching some Youtube videos.  I am going to get along fine with it.

[tvman44]

Call Ray at SEYCO, he is very helpful and cooperative.

[daveo]

Paul

Never mind what you think, What did the Wife have to say about it all in the end???
Dave

[pddesertrat]

Ha, she got me!  We were out of town for 10 days and one of the days as we were driving along, out of the blue she says, "so what is this new saw you ordered?"  I almost ran off the road.  I still have no idea how she found out and she is not telling!  She pretty much okay with what I buy in tools, but we have this game we play....  I fuss about what she buys and she fusses about what I buy.  Keeps us in line.   

[Tropdoug]

heheee - that's one advantage of not having another to bother with. I had a Ryobi $200 one -- drove me nuts, loud, vibrated like a cut snake, extremely hard to change unpinned blades, you could do it, but boy you fiddled for like 3 mins a time. So --- researched the Dewalt and the Excalibur, down to Carba Tec the next day, bought the Excalibur, out of the box, checked everything, good to go and away I went. What a dream, blade changing is awesome, your hands just seem to find the bottom blade screw after two or three changes -- I added a foot momentary switch - that has made fine jewelry pieces a breeze to work on, both hands always on the work.

In fact the last three nights, I have spent in the workshop until Ten pm -- and no one yelling --- dinner!, Get cleaned up! where have you been! ahhhh yes, sawdust, exotic woods, watching beauty transfom out of a block of wood -- and peace --- what could be better?

Doug

[PigsFly]

Paul

I agree on table top size.  If you know a good machine shop you might consider what I did and love.  It is two inches wider on each side and four inches longer in front.   The EX21 original table top is sitting on my custom made one so you can see the difference.  I now have the newer black EX21 but moved the table top to replace the dust collection one.  I did not care for the size of dust collection of the new table top and prefer my own Rube Goldberg dust collection.

[pddesertrat]

Woh! Doug, that is a great looking modification.  I am going to have a talk with my Nephew.  He is pretty good with the metal work.  He might be able to do something like that for me.

[dianetha]

I just received my Excalibur 16 - my very first scroll saw!  I was so excited. Then the plastic dust feeder thingy was off center, so the hole the blade went through was over to the right, and so was the blade.  I couldn't get the blade back in the

The arm wouldn't stay up either. I never even plugged it in.

I drove it back up to Woodcraft, and left it for the owner to look at. They don't carry the excaliburs in the store, so they don't know anything about this machine.  I got called, and he said he fixed it. That it was good to go.

When I picked it up, I was told they took the plastic off and centered it.  I said it looks like the hole was just made bigger.  I was told that's what the blade did to the hole from them doing test cuts.

[pddesertrat]

The adjustment to hold the arm up is pretty simple and explained in the manual.  I have had to adjust mine twice.  May have to do it a couple times until the saw is broke in, I figure.  I have spent a couple hours on mine now and the more I use it the more I like it.  I'm even getting use to the short space between the blade and the front of the table, but I think that down the road I will look into having a larger table to made.

[dianetha]

Ha! I never read the section "Upper arm adjustment for Fretwork". I wasn't doing any fretwork yet, so I didn't need to read that section!

 

I figured when the time came for fretwork, I would read that to see what special thing I needed to do!

Thanks for pointing that out.