Thread: excalibur help please

At double the price of the Delta it would be strange if the Excalibur wouldn't be a better saw.. it is more an industrial one.... too heavy to carry around to meetings once a week tho... also.... my friend did like the Delta clamps so much better he put them on his Excalibur!
As for the price..... you should check Carrolls..... they've just about doubled the price on the TruPro..... I can't believe it... I'm sooooo glad I bought another Delta out of that last batch Carba Tec sold in Melbourne a couple of months ago!

At this rate scrolling will become a hobby for rich folks! Such a shame that there's not one Australian company coming up with a good scroll saw!

Juvy

Hi Folks

I'm getting a little bit cranky about the tone of many of these postings that complain about prices. Do we become angry when a loaf of bread goes up 10 cents? Proportionately, a ten cent rise on a loaf of bread is greater than some of these price rises we encounter in machinery.

We should have all cried out when our manufacturing companies closed down or went offshore. Just one point I would like to make. Many goods manufactured around the world actually are priced in US dollars, despite being made in third world countries, and it was inevitable that chinese manufactured goods would rise ultimately with rising commodity prices and falling local currency. Even our lovely Hegner was made offshore, but fortunately to German standards.

LiliB

Originally Posted by LiliB

I'm getting a little bit cranky about the tone of many of these postings that complain about prices. Do we become angry when a loaf of bread goes up 10 cents? Proportionately, a ten cent rise on a loaf of bread is greater than some of these price rises we encounter in machinery.

Talk about damn lies and statistics! How about you use an example in which the goods are a similar proportion of disposable income - when you buy something once a week that costs 10c & 10% more it's manifestly different (except to pure mathematicians ) ) to something that's gone from $900 to $1000 (+10% or so) even when it's a one-off.

Oh, and I didn't know we used to manufacture a range of scrollsaws that have now left the country.

I paid for quality when I bought, even though it was more than I felt was OK for me. The questions arise when the same quality, or similar, is available for a much lower price. I don't think it is for the Excalibur (in Australia at least). Is there a similar quality machine for much less?

Rob

Hi Rob
I used the example of bread consciously because cost of living is rising and necessities often rise in greater proportion than many non necessities.

The point about Australian manufacturing was to indicate that since heavy engineering has shrunk (my dad was a toolmaker) and steel mills have closed, we in Australia, are dependent on imports, which are immediately affected by currency and commodity prices.

Recalling good quality power tools I bought David twenty or so years ago, I paid huge sums (relatively) for goods. Then we had the honeymoon period with Chinese made stuff and became used to being able to buy anything we wanted for our workshops. I bought him a compound mitre saw made by DeWalt a couple of years ago, and paid $1200, at a time when I could get a basic functioning chinese machine for $500. So there's always been a discrepancy between top notch and also ran.

So, to a degree, the cheap stuff has never interested me, and so these threads do annoy me. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

Cheers
LiliB

Originally Posted by AnatoliSirota

Bob, I just want to state that it is not true !
Just treval to your local Carba Tec and play with that top arm yourself. If you do not believe me, I can make a picture of the top arm in the up postion without any block of wood underneath.

I also have just bought one and the arm on mine says up by it self.

Also worked straight out of the box.

maybe a bolt needs tensioning??????

Regards
Jamie

Originally Posted by LiliB

Hi Rob
I used the example of bread consciously because cost of living is rising and necessities often rise in greater proportion than many non necessities.

The point about Australian manufacturing was to indicate that since heavy engineering has shrunk (my dad was a toolmaker) and steel mills have closed, we in Australia, are dependent on imports, which are immediately affected by currency and commodity prices.

Recalling good quality power tools I bought David twenty or so years ago, I paid huge sums (relatively) for goods. Then we had the honeymoon period with Chinese made stuff and became used to being able to buy anything we wanted for our workshops. I bought him a compound mitre saw made by DeWalt a couple of years ago, and paid $1200, at a time when I could get a basic functioning chinese machine for $500. So there's always been a discrepancy between top notch and also ran.

So, to a degree, the cheap stuff has never interested me, and so these threads do annoy me. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

Cheers
LiliB

I Agree
Cheap is normally nasty. And doesn't last long.

Originally Posted by AnatoliSirota

I have just found that Carba Tec has increased the cost of Excalibur Scroll Saw up to $1,195 !? What a joke. I use this saw for a year and I am very happy with it. It is much better then Delta but I can't believe that Excalibur can cost so much. I simply do not believe they have a chance to sell a single saw from now on.

I bought one last week and they agreed on the book price which is $949.00 and that was what i paid.

Might make a difference where the saw is made.... seems some excaliburs work great out of the box, others need a bit of TLC before they work right.
I did find that with the delta too tho.....but once set up right they're a great work horse. I liked mine so much I bought another one - from the last batch Carba Tec had - the ones without warranty. Something about the variable speed control.... turns out it's just what I needed.... it goes from fast to faster.... no real slow mode! lol Motor gets a bit hot when I use full speed too long... other then that ... love it.

Juvy