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8K views 18 replies 7 participants last post by  swamps42 
#1 ·
Ordering a New Saw

I did it today. I went into Woodcraft, I admired the floor models of scroll saws, and then I bit the bullet. I ordered the 21" Excalibur. I should arrive Friday. I took out a loan from my best friend so I could buy the saw now, instead of in 6 months. This way I'll be able to start using it now and have a HUGE stock of yarn bowls and ornaments for the holiday sales I'm a part of.

Guy pal, who I borrowed the money from, was really sure I should get the Dewalt and save 300 bucks or so, but I just couldn't spend that much money on a saw that wasn't quite perfect and potentially have to upgrade yet again. I upgraded my sewing machine so many times until I had the one I wanted. It would have been WAY cheaper if I'd bought the 1000 dollar sewing machine first and not all the little cheaper machines along the way. Heck, I probably spent well over a grand on lesser machines and their repairs!

I got the scroll saw with the stand too! I'm so excited. I've been very frustrated with my old scroll saw lately. The pin end blades and the table that cuts at 90o when the table is positioned at 4o makes me nuts. I am going to sell my old beginner saw (because really it was a good saw for the first 2 years until I got too good for it) and my treadmill to help pay for the Excalibur.

Geez I can't wait for it to arrive! What should I cut first? I'm off to daydream about cutting with my new saw during supper. Guy pal is also taking me to Outback because He's "hungry and we have a coupon for free appetizers." Guy pal is awesome. Someday I hope to meet such a generous, creative, and intelligent guy who's single AND think's I'm adorable, snuggly, and the kind of brilliant woman he wants for a wife. Guy pal and I dated years ago. It wasn't good. He's a great friend and a horrid boyfriend. Oh well. I GET STEAK AND A SCROLL SAW TODAY! It really can't get better than that. I mean, if the saw showed up today instead of waiting for it to ship that would be cool, but this way I have plenty of time to glue patterns to boards in preparation!
 
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#2 ·
Swamp42,

Congratulations on your new scrollsaw.

I know you can't wait for it to arrive next Friday.

I look forward to seeing your new projects.

Be Careful!

Herb
 
#3 ·
congrat´´s has to wait to the arivel …. LOL
that was very generous of him to help you :)
and you wont regret the excalibur just ask Scolgirl Sheila :)
she also made a very good rewiew on it as well as in her blog talking back and forth about
to get this saw and after it arived in her shop if you have any question about it and scrollsawing
she is the one to ask http://lumberjocks.com/scrollgirl
goodluck with your new saw but I hope you still continue working on the lathe

Dennis
 
#4 ·
Wonderful! Thanks for the link. I've been scrolling for a few years and am REALLY looking forward to the chance to use a real saw.

Guy pal is really wonderful to loan me the money too. I don't have any credit cards or anything. I was disabled in 06 and lost my house I was renting in 09. I'm a very financially responsible person. Even though I was disabled at 22, I'd managed to save and scrimp enough to stay in my home for 3 years of unemployment. He knows this and often teases me about how I'm such a frugal pain in the butt. He was deadset that I get the less expensive Dewalt, but he caved when I said, "Fine, let's go. I'm not going to waste nearly 600 bucks on a saw that's close to perfect and I'll have to upgrade again in a year or two. It's not that it's 300 extra to get the saw I want, but that it's an extra 600 to get the bad saw first and come back and get the good saw later." I can be talked down to lesser, more responsible models on almost everything, except for tools I use daily, like my scroll saw, my sewing machine, my vacuum and my iron. Though really the iron was pretty reasonably priced under 200 bucks.

I also appreciate the link. I'll go check out what she's had to say about her experiences with the Excalibur.
 
#7 ·
Bummer. That steak was GOOD too. It was still bloody enough to make the mashed potatoes pink. Mmm. Every new tool should come with a steak. That just made for a REALLY good day.

Oh, and I'm not sure I mentioned it, but I got a really nice table saw that morning from a friend up in Divide, CO AND put a down payment on a planer that he's got. All around my garage got a lot bigger that day.
 
#8 ·
Good News! I sold my old saw!

I managed to sell my old scroll saw the same day Guy Pal put the down payment on the new saw. It's a cheap Harbor Freight saw, but it comes with a decent supply of blades, the original box, the paperwork, and a sturdy stand. I good friend of mine pounced on it when I offered it to him at $45. This money will go directly into guy pal's pocket to start paying off my new saw. I was going to put it on Craigslist for 50, but I do still have lots of fond feelings toward this saw. I made toys on it for this friend's kids and his then 3 year old who was interested used it with me several times. I want my old saw to go to a home where it will be as well loved and cared for as it was with me.

Dan and his wife are very laid back parents and they trust me to keep the kids safe in the garage. No one is allowed to touch ANYTHING without getting permission and they're only allowed to use tools, even a screw driver, if I'm there helping. Their oldest son is 5.5, the middle son just turned 4, and the youngest is 2.5 years old. The middle kid just LOVES working in the garage. The oldest is scared of the sound and the safety warnings and the youngest just doesn't have the fine motor skills to be allowed to use more than sand paper yet. He does LOVE getting to sand his own toys. I can't say I mind him helping with that at all! It's quite the time saver for me. With the middle kid, I'd let him stand in front of me at the saw and hold onto the board to help guide the cuts on toys I was making. I always kept my fingers in closer between his little hands and the blade. I think using my scroll saw may just be this little boy's favorite thing to do. I've got several masks and goggles with the straps tied up short so they fit the kids. It's so cute when they get all decked out in their safety gear and restate the rules to me before we turn on the power strip.

I couldn't be happier that my old saw is going to a home where it'll make toys for my favorite 3 kids and fiber arts tools for Dan's wife, a spinning and knitting buddy of mine.

Also, as I was cleaning up my saw and waxing the table for the last time, I noticed a wonderful feature on the support table. It has two magnetic strips. One of them faces the user. The spare blades stick really well on there and it makes a great spot to keep a couple of your most used sizes on hand for quick changes. I wish I'd discovered this when I was still using the saw! I guess I"ll have to use some of that magnetic tape my brother gave me for Christmas on the new stand when it arrives.

Here's my old saw ready for it's now home. I told Dan to pick it up Friday so that I can still use it just in case I need a scroll saw in the meantime and it'll be moved out just in time for it's big brother to be moved in!

Furniture Table Gas Engineering Machine
 

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#9 ·
Good News! I sold my old saw!

I managed to sell my old scroll saw the same day Guy Pal put the down payment on the new saw. It's a cheap Harbor Freight saw, but it comes with a decent supply of blades, the original box, the paperwork, and a sturdy stand. I good friend of mine pounced on it when I offered it to him at $45. This money will go directly into guy pal's pocket to start paying off my new saw. I was going to put it on Craigslist for 50, but I do still have lots of fond feelings toward this saw. I made toys on it for this friend's kids and his then 3 year old who was interested used it with me several times. I want my old saw to go to a home where it will be as well loved and cared for as it was with me.

Dan and his wife are very laid back parents and they trust me to keep the kids safe in the garage. No one is allowed to touch ANYTHING without getting permission and they're only allowed to use tools, even a screw driver, if I'm there helping. Their oldest son is 5.5, the middle son just turned 4, and the youngest is 2.5 years old. The middle kid just LOVES working in the garage. The oldest is scared of the sound and the safety warnings and the youngest just doesn't have the fine motor skills to be allowed to use more than sand paper yet. He does LOVE getting to sand his own toys. I can't say I mind him helping with that at all! It's quite the time saver for me. With the middle kid, I'd let him stand in front of me at the saw and hold onto the board to help guide the cuts on toys I was making. I always kept my fingers in closer between his little hands and the blade. I think using my scroll saw may just be this little boy's favorite thing to do. I've got several masks and goggles with the straps tied up short so they fit the kids. It's so cute when they get all decked out in their safety gear and restate the rules to me before we turn on the power strip.

I couldn't be happier that my old saw is going to a home where it'll make toys for my favorite 3 kids and fiber arts tools for Dan's wife, a spinning and knitting buddy of mine.

Also, as I was cleaning up my saw and waxing the table for the last time, I noticed a wonderful feature on the support table. It has two magnetic strips. One of them faces the user. The spare blades stick really well on there and it makes a great spot to keep a couple of your most used sizes on hand for quick changes. I wish I'd discovered this when I was still using the saw! I guess I"ll have to use some of that magnetic tape my brother gave me for Christmas on the new stand when it arrives.

Here's my old saw ready for it's now home. I told Dan to pick it up Friday so that I can still use it just in case I need a scroll saw in the meantime and it'll be moved out just in time for it's big brother to be moved in!

Furniture Table Gas Engineering Machine
i just bought one of those harbor freight saws. i think its a pretty good saw for the money. i paid $64 for mine new
 

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#16 ·
The saw arrives!

Had I not been laying in bed in pain from overdoing it yesterday at my home construction site on what had already started as a high pain day, I would have been much more excited when Woodcraft called to tell me my saw had arrived. I got a log cabin kit delivered out at my property yesterday. Center-cut oak beams with dovetailed corners to build my new house, but that's a whole other story.

Anyhow, I finally got to go pick up my saw when my friend who's carrying the loan got off work. I may have done the happy dance a few dozen times in the store. I'm really excited and I'm now a partial owner of an Excalibur scroll saw! I only own $340 of it for now, but I'll get my etsy shop going again here soon.

I wanted to try out as much as I could on the new saw, so I printed out a Steve Good pattern for a chair. It worked up really quickly as so much easier than on my old saw. I wouldn't have even been able to do this on my old saw. The blade changes are a breeze. The table seems a bit grabby, even after the first waxing, but I think it'll just take a while to build up to a finish I like. I like REALLY slippery tables.

Enough talk, here's pictures! Turns out the chair I made fits a little knitting sheep I made last July perfectly. And yes, the sheep is knitting her own sock on toothpicks that I ground down into itty bitty double pointed knitting needles for her.

Chair in Progress
Finished chair
Is the finish dry yet?
Ah, that's better says Juliana the sheep!
I have also finally come to the conclusion that I need to get some better wood. The super cheap plywood that they have for scrollers at the local small wood shop just isn't good enough. It's so splitty. It's cheap though. I probably should have used another piece to help with the blow out. I stack cut the sides of the chair and the top of the two sides came out MUCH better than the bottom one. It was really cool to stack cut. My old HF saw just made a mess of stack cuts.
 
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