Excalibar Tune Up

Here are some emails I received on the Excalibar and my replies to them explaining the solutions as I see them.

Three weeks ago I ordered a Excalibur 19". Upon first use I noticed the top arm was bent to the left if looking at the front. I traded it for a 30". The 19" had horrible vibration and knocking noises. I attempted some puzzles on the 30" The wood was being picked up in straight cuts and more so in corners. After measuring and checking I noticed that the front to back movement was excessive. Sommerville claims the front to back movement is only .026" which is less than 1/32", mine is moving more. So I was now told to look at the rocker arm and struts. First I made sure the top strut was parallel with the upper arm. Once this had been done I noticed that the lower strut and rocker arm were not parallel, but was upward. After attempting to adjust the lower arm I found I could not get both struts and rocker arms perfectly parallel with one another. I also noticed something worse; a slight twist to the upper arm and blade wobble of 1/32" (left to right). I have four pictures included, one showing the blade tracking problem which I think is caused by the upper arm twist and a Starrett square next to the upper arm showing the rightward twist of the arm. I'm no expert on scroll saw mechanics, especially one as complicated and easily damaged as the Ex 30. What would you do in my circumstances?

I have looked at my saw and can't see much of a way the arm can get out of line. But there is a way the blade can be off line
like you show. Where you are showing the blade is moving left and right, the clamps need adjusted. Run the blade down , place a ruler on the side of the blade. Hold the ruler, run the blade up. Yours seem to be the blade is moving off to the right. Loosen the top blade clamp, then using an allen wrench to back the allen screw out on the left side of the clamp. This will allow the top of the blade to move over to the left when you tighten the clamp on the blade. You may need to do the opposite to the bottom clamp to help take up excess error if needed. When you can run the blade up and down without the blade moving side to side, the clamps are set right to make the blade run true to the arms. Now set the table to be square to the blade Now check your arms to the table again and see if that fixes your alignment problem. The way your blade is currently running off it would cause the lift you are talking about. Once the blade is trued up to the movement of the arms, your lift problem should be OK.

From Seyco: Just a side note on the arm support tubing being out-of-square. In assembly the factory aligns the rocker arms that hold the blade and not the tubing, so the actual sawing is obviously not affected.

As stated previously, I am proud we finally got a saw to you that was
> aligned and working to your satisfaction. Thank you for the e-mail stating
> this. The remaining question I have is--
> "Has SEYCO resolved the problems/issues you had with your Seyco/Excalibur
> purchase?"
> THANKS, Ray

My questions are in response to the blade clamps. I don't understand the engineering as much as I would like. I have learned most of what I know from either you or Patrick S. and his books.

My questions are regarding blade suspension. On many saws the blade is allowed to pivot at the blade clamps, i.e. Hegner's knife edge clamps.

Should the blade clamp blocks be square with the top and bottom of the table on my Excalibur?

So is the surface where the red arrow is pointing supposed to be square with the table on top and bottom for the blade to remain straight? Is the blade supposed to pivot inside the blade clamps after being tightened? Because Ray told me that the suspension is rigid and the way they are mounted on the rocker arms allows them to stay parallel with the table.

The reason I asked the above is because the lower clamping surface is not parallel with the table. To me this would cause the blade to have more front to back movement than it should. But then again I am probably being too picky with the engineering.

The way the blade clamps line up should not make a difference. The blade is locked in the clamp and does not pivot, the clamp is only there to hold the blade on the top and bottom. Once the tension is placed on the blade it is held between the clamps no matter what position they are in. The clamps will pivot with the blade to a very small extent, but then the blade does not pivot that much while the saw is in motion. As long as the blade is placed in the clamp in the far back position , it would not change the arc of the blade in motion. Yes if you clamped the blade forward in the clamp you could change the arc. Many of the saws built now are coming with a blade clamps that are able to slide forward or rearward to make the arc change. In all I would not be too worried that the clamp is not perfect 90 degrees to the table, that would change if the blade is on the up or down stroke anyway.