Shopsmith 20" Scroll Saw

cincinnati · Post by **cincinnati** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 10:38 pm

Wonder if they are making a new updated model? The not available for the next two years makes me wonder.

I own the DeWalt and love it. I have one of the first models made. They were made by Excalibur in Canada. The newer models are now made over seas some place.
What I like about the Dewalt saw is the upper arm lifts up so you can feed the blade from the top. If my Dewalt would ever need replacing I would buy another without question. Got my DeWalt for $199 with stand from Lowes when they were clearance them out.
I saw a guy using the Shopsmith scrollsaw the "Artistry in Wood" show in Dayton a few years back. He liked it a lot.

ryanbp01 · Post by **ryanbp01** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 2:26 pm

[quote="charlese"]No, I have had neither. However, I have studied the specs and the reviews of the DeWalt. The reviews are not all glowing...QUOTE]

I have the Dewalt Scrollsaw and don't have a problem with it! It is quiet and easy to use. I don't know about the Shopsmith model, however I would imagine it would be noisier since the e-mail stated there would only be scrollsaws available which would run off of the headstock.

BPR

reible · Post by **reible** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:58 pm

I do not have the current shopsmith version, but I have added all the updates they offer for the older model. How close this gets to the new model I don't know.

This was also my first scroll saw, which I know I like better then the jig saws I've owned and used. At least for that type of cutting operation, the old shopsmith jig saw as some other features that I still use and have not even thought about get rid of it despite it sitting around so much of the time.

One of my brothers has a Hawk, really nice machine but as you know they are no longer in business. I think if I recall the story correctly, the Hawk broke down, he went out and spent almost a $1000 on a dewalt (this is a few years back). He used it while the hawk was being repaired but as soon as it was fixed he went back to it.

When the hawk again had problems they were no longer in business so he went back to the dewalt. It ran a very short time more then died. He took it in for repair and was told that the motor/speed control parts are non existent. This model had some sort of problem and virtually everyone of them has already fail or will fail because of a design problem.

He had me searching for someone who might repair them by replacing parts but I could only find one person and he had given up too as he could no longer get the parts that were failing.

So now he has two expensive saws that can no longer be used.

So far as things about the shopsmith version I have. I got it used or should I say lightly used but it must have sat for 10 years collection gunk on the table. That was a major cleaning process, but it came out great. The air pump had dried out but a little clean up and oiling had that going great. Everything else was fine. As I mentioned earlier I did the upgrades that shopsmith offers, like the improvements.

None of my shopsmiths run "loud" especially at scroll saw speed so that was never an issue. Now with the power pro you can take the noise down a notch or two less.

Two things I don't like are that you do not have a power button at hand. When you want to stop it takes extra effort. Cutting a bunch of openings and this gets to be an irritant with all the on and off.

The second thing is trying to find a good way to sit at the saw. Add that to the location of the shopsmith controls, I've often thought about making a stool that would be more friendly but haven't done it yet.

A big improvement would be to have a remote for the power pro.

A couple of things I added to mine is a bracket to hold a lamp with magnifier. That I have to have now, other wise I might as well not draw any lines to follow... The second is a clip-on table that attaches to the extension rails. I have to have a place to set things near by, maybe it is just how I work but I'm lost without it.

See this post for tray idea:

https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=4313

Ed

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:24 am

If you go here -- http://www.ereplacementparts.com/dewalt ... _2632.html -- you'll find that the motor and speed control are indeed available. They're part number 60 and 61 as shown on the diagram. But, the pair will cost you over $300.00 to replace.

baysidebob · Post by **baysidebob** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 3:13 pm

I have a Hawk 26 that I purchased about 12 years ago. Doesn't get a lot of heavy use but I do use it. Have never had a problem with it as yet. Sad taht Hawk went out of business. I thought they had very good products. Recently purchased a SS used that came with a scroll saw, but have not used it as yet. Need to bring it into my shop and go thru it and bring it up to date. Might be a winter project.

moggymatt · Post by **moggymatt** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 10:15 pm

I just picked up a 1990 Shopsmith scroll saw at a garage sale today. It looks hardly used. Final price was $125.00, could... not.... resist....

The guy I got it from was super nice and had a ton of single point tools but he had switched to a Hegner for his scrolling. I already have a Dewalt 788 1st gen and it works great but has a small orbit that can get annoying. I've played with the tune up steps to try and get rid of it but dont have it compleatly work out yet. As soon as I get it checked out and aligned to my headstock I'll post a comparitive review if anyone is interested.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 5:51 am

moggymatt wrote:I just picked up a 1990 Shopsmith scroll saw at a garage sale today. It looks hardly used. Final price was $125.00, could... not.... resist.... The guy I got it from was super nice and had a ton of single point tools but he had switched to a Hegner for his scrolling. I already have a Dewalt 788 1st gen and it works great but has a small orbit that can get annoying. I've played with the tune up steps to try and get rid of it but dont have it compleatly work out yet. As soon as I get it checked out and aligned to my headstock I'll post a comparitive review if anyone is interested.

Please do that. Always interesting to hear others opinions.

moggymatt · Post by **moggymatt** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 12:34 pm

I'm finally getting back to the comparative review I promised last fall. Just after picking up the Shopsmith scroll saw it turned too cold to work in the unheated shop. The last few weekends have been nice, so I started the process and share my findings.
The saw on the far right is my 15” Delta I’ve had sense 1991. It had the original single speed motor on it till a half dozen years ago when I switched it out for the speed control and motor off a Ryobi 16”. That saw didn’t even last 10 hours when the blade clamp self-destructed. Variable speed made the Delta a good little saw again. Believe it or not, the Ryboi parts mated up perfectly and it runs extremely smooth.

I’ll cover the review over a couple of posts, over the next few days as I had Ulner nerve surgery last Friday and I’m not able to do much more then think about working in the shop for a while.

moggymatt · Post by **moggymatt** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:46 pm

To make it as fair as possible, I had to do a few things to even up the two saws. The Dewalt has no dust collection, so I used a router fence port and wedged it between the leg frames. Usually I just bungee the end of a hose but this is pretty stable so I’m going to keep it there. [ATTACH]20716[/ATTACH]
The Shopsmith had older style blade clamps so I picked up the up-grade clamps (from order to delivery was less than a week) and swiped one of the kids flex straws for the upper blade dust control. [ATTACH]20717[/ATTACH]

The only other thing I did was to lay down a layer of clear wrapping tape on the alum. table of the Shopsmith scroll saw because the alum. oxide left on the bottom side of the wood was too much, even after a good cleaning.

putttn · Post by **putttn** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 11:17 pm

http://spokane.craigslist.org/tls/3686756875.html 20" SS scroll saw in Spokane Craigslist also a Hawk Scroll saw thats been in CL here a number of times.
http://spokane.craigslist.org/tls/3656244172.html