EX 30 new scroll saw

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aramco

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Got a replacement ex 30 for my old one , not many weeks ago, and already the problems are starting, last night while cutting 3 cms piece of wood, the blade eused to go where i wanted it to , so checked everything out, and found the bottom bush on the linkage that holds the pegas chuck is shot, and the arm is doing its thing and dropping, despite adjustments being made, no wonder they wouldn't extend my warranty.

On another topic anyone thinking of buying a Dremel drill my advice is dont I have had two that broke during warranty and one that has just gave up the ghost , just out of warranty, got in touch with Bosch uk and they dont want to know , no possibility of a repair, as its out of warranty and as for where I could get spares for it again they did not care,

take care
John
 
I have my EX21 in for a second warranty repair with numerous issues and honestly, I´d never buy this saw again and would tell everyone considering it to stay away from axminster scroll saws. A friend of mine also has vibration issues with his EX30.
 
Hi I would really like to see all the people who have now, or previously ,had problems with these scroll saws, to email the CEO at at Axminster, and tell him / her about your problems, if they dont know, how is it ever going to get fixed, mine is a brand new replacement saw not 6 weeks old, and it is broken already, and according to someone at Axminster , who I spoke to this morning, he doesn't know when I will get the spares to fix it, it could well be I will looking for a second hand hegner soon if this continues, as I am totally lost with out my saw, cannot even finish my present project, I wish I had never heard of Axminster .

take care
John
 
I wonder if Axi have allowed a drop in terms of the quality of the build components since they rebranded the saw as there own to save a bit of cash? I have an early EX30 and have had no problems at all and the few people I know who actually bought the Pegas branded version or the older Excalibur Int originals have not had these problems.
 
Again, agree 100% with Droogs. My Ex 21 (Pegas branded) is now over 5 years old with never a problem, ever. Beautifully built and always excellent results.

When looking to buy a new "proper" scroll saw 5 years ago I did a lot of research here and elsewhere and without exception all I could find was positive comments and pleased Excalibur users. Those positive reports, and my own side-bx-side trials with an Ex 21 and a 2 speed Hegner convinced me to buy Ex 21. So I did and to this day I don't regret it, as said above.

Please note that at that time Axminster Tools were "simply" the UK dealers for Excalibur machines and AFAIK, those from Axi in UK were exactly the same as my Pegas-badged Exc 21 version bought in Germany, and the "originals", badged Excalibur/General International.

A while later Axi announced "their own" Axminster Trade versions of "my" machine. I was a bit fed up then because the Axi Trade machines were a bit cheaper than what I paid, and from all the pix posted here and in mag adverts they all looked exactly the same.

But just as Droogs says, a while back (one year? two?) posts started here, most complaining about vibration, and since then there has been at least one case of Axi replacing a machine under Warranty. I think there may have been more than one actually.

I therefore assume (note please, I don't KNOW this) that in "taking over" the Excalibur machines in UK, Axi have "down-specced" their own versions (to save costs? - they were cheaper than other versions when they first came out) and this has led to problems such as vibrations, etc, reported here.

I therefore agree strongly with Droogs that every one of you with faulty Axi Trade machines all get together and approach Axi at the highest level. A bit of checking by one member with a faulty machine should soon uncover the rest here, and the Forum PM system will allow all those affected to join together in approaching Axi direct.

One last relevant point: A mate of mine in Germany bought a Pegas-branded Ex 30 about 2 years ago and hasn't had one moment of problem. He bought his through Dictum Tools in Germany.

Good luck fellas, let us all know how it goes please.
 
This is still a thing?
 
When it happened did the saw stop working or did it just have excessive vibration? Does look to be made from chinesium
 
Thanks for that link Dominik. Never seen that vid before, if you posted it here in the past then I must have missed it.

I've now book marked that vid and watched it twice. A few points if I may:

1. His saw looks exactly the same as mine except that the lower part of mine is painted black (his is green, and I note yours is yellow). I have no idea what difference - if any - that makes;

2. Unlike my saw, his blade retaining thumbscrew is on the LH side (as you look at the vid). Mine is on the right. Similarly, the "puffer tube" on his machine is on the right (as you look at the vid), mine is on the left. Again no idea what difference that makes - if any;

3. My blade retaining thumbscrew (steel, like his) goes into the ali blade "chuck". BUT my ali blade chuck is definitely hardened ali. I've had NO problems with waggly thumbscrews at all. BUT I have carefully following the manual to make sure that the (steel) grub screw on the other side of the blade thumbscrew is adjusted so that the inner faces of blade chuck are completely flat. This is to ensure that when the thumbscrew is fully tightened onto the blade, the other (grub screw) side of the blade chuck is indeed flat - NO ident and NOT standing proud. This is clearly shown, with clear diagram, in my Manual. As said, NEVER a problem on my machine (5+ years old) and I even have a spare blade thumbscrew which I've never used;

4. He states that the big black knob on top of the arm right at the back is for setting the blade tension. As per my Manual that's completely wrong - the procedure in my manual is (without blade) to use that big black knob to set the arm parallel to the table. When that's set, that's it, finished. And it only needs checking (as above) now and again. ALL blade tensioning (once the arm is set parallel, as above) is done SOLELY by moving the little white nylon over-centre arm (right at the front of the blade chuck) from the forwards (blade slack) to the rearwards (blade tight) position;

5. I have never even removed the cover on the LH rear of the arm (as you look at the vid) which I why I didn't recognise the part you showed Dominik. I'll look later on and report back, but in passing I should state that in my machine, many parts are made of pressure die castings - they are NOT ali. That COULD mean "better" metallurgy, or WORSE, depending on the "funny metal alloys" General International have used for their castings. We can't tell just by looking, but on mine it definitely ain't ali;

6. Similarly I have never removed the cover on the top of the arm as shown in the vid. As 5. above I will do so later on when I have time (my arm is in a sling at the mo, and likely to remain so for about a week yet);

7. Finally apart from the paint colour difference and thumbscrew and puffer pipe location differences mentioned above, my saw has a "Pegas" badge on it as well as an Excalibur badge. As above, I have no idea what difference - if any - that makes.

My saw was also made in Taiwan, and apart from the "political economics" of that (which I'm not even qualified to go into), as I remarked after buying mine and reporting in depth on that purchase here, 5 years ago now, I was very pleasantly positively surprised at the high quality of the materials and fasteners used throughout the machine, and with the way it had been assembled.

As your machine was bought in 2011 Dominik (mine in 2015) perhaps General International have indeed improved the product/spec? Dunno. But I'd be interested to know when the bloke in your vid bought his.

I'll post more later on, after I've had a chance to look inside those 2 covers mentioned above.

P.S. Sorry. In the list of comments above I forget to say that when your vid bloke was talking about adjusting blade forwards/backwards movement, as per my Manual he is again wrong. My Manual clearly shows that the blade fore/aft adjustment is made by slackening the 3 motor retaining screws at the back of the arm, then SLIGHTLy rotating the whole motor clockwise/anti clockwise until you get the amount of forward/rearward blade motion you want. Then re-tighten the 3 screws.
 
I´m glad to see this thread.

My story short(er). My Ali EX21 broke after 2 years. It kept blowing fuses in the saw and in my house repeatedly. I sent it for a repair and got a new motor and PCB. It ran well for about a month but all of a sudden a fuse blew again. Instantly after I pressed the switch. It went well gain for a month or so and it blew a fuse again. Now after 5 months after I got my saw back from repair it has developed a HUGE vibration of the top arm. It was "shaking" from side to side.
My saw is now in service and after expection I got an email saying:
They have found that the vibration is being caused by the speed running too fast, this would have been adjusted when the PCB was replaced. They have recommended that the scroll saw PCB will need to be replaced and set up, this will reduce the vibration.

That´s what I have been doing to prevent it from vibration but there are times I need to run it at max speed. A friend of mine has Ali EX30 (the latest version) and he too has top arm vibration problems.

To me, they are just doing some warkarounds instead of fixing it.
I´ve tried sending an email to the CEO listing all my problems (yes, there are several) but it has never been read by him/her. And I dont think it will ever be.
But still, If I can be any help in letting Axminster know about their faulty saws, I´ll do my best.
 
Hi Dominik, how have you got your saw fastened down ??, and when you are cutting a pattern does the blade go off the line and will not come back again??, I had mine on ex 30 stand and it vibrated and the blade wandered all over the place, and the arm kept dropping till eventually I put a piece of timber under the arm to keep it up, while I changed blades or moved cuts,

A quick check is to take the blade out and take hold of the blade holder and move it sideward's left and right there should be no movement at all, if it is loose then there is your problem, the movement will be in the linkages , if that's the case get after Axminster for spare parts , the only problem is there are no spares to found at the moment for this problem, then you will have to fight with customer services about getting a replacement or or your money back.

If I can be of any further help please get in touch.

take care
John
 
hi Dominik, I am going to try a Jet scroll saw they are on offer at Axminister for about £620, - should be the same price as the ex30 - not much more than what you would pay for it to be repaired, it is an American machine so hopefully better quality, on top of which for me the blade clamping method will suit my Arthritic hands better no screws to tighten, I have got to give this a try otherwise I will soon have to give up scrolling a lot.

take care
John
 
That really is a lot of vibration coming through the chassis. I have some but nothing like that. How is the lateral vibrations at the cut point on the table?
 
Enough to make it difficult to cut. As I feed a piece into the blade, it makes the piece vibrate as well.
 
Do you recall having bumped or knock the top arm at all? There is definitely a miss-alignment going on for that much vibration
 
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