In May and June of 2023, I posted a series of blog articles about scroll saws I currently have or have used in the past. I cut some similar puzzles on three of those saws and discussed the different cutting experiences. Of the saws I wrote about, I preferred my Dewalt but indicated I thought the Hawk was a higher quality saw. In December of 2023, my Dewalt started having issues and I needed to replace it. I was in the middle of a custom order and needed something soon. I continued cutting on the customer’s order using the Hawk. When the new saw came in, I finished the order with the new saw.
I decided I wanted to try one of the newer constant tension parallel link scroll saws that have some adjustability of the front to back movement of the blade. (For more on this topic, see my Part 4 entry from June 14, 2023.) There are a number of saw names/brands that fall in this category: Seyco, Pegas, Excalibur, King Industrial, Jet, etc. In sorting through the options, I zeroed in on either the Pegas or the Seyco ST-21. They seem to be functionally identical. I talked to a couple of retailers who were familiar with both. For various reasons, I decided on the Seyco ST-21, although it was pretty much a toss-up.
The Seyco comes with a stand included in the price, the Pegas does not. The Pegas comes with the blade clamps everyone seems to love, the Seyco does not. Seyco has an outstanding customer service reputation. Grobet (Pegas), not so much. One of the vendors that sells Pegas saws in the US has posted on one or more scrolling forums about slow customer service from Grobet. Other forum members have chimed in supporting that customer service with Grobet could be better. The Seyco has a bigger tabletop made from steel. For more $$$, you can buy a bigger table for the Pegas that still is smaller than the Seyco table. When I ordered around Christmas time in 2023, Seyco had a sale in progress that was $100 of store credit towards blades and accessories. Everything leaned Seyco for me, so that is what I ordered.
I’ll not bore you with unboxing details, but here is a picture of the assembled saw. Notice that huge rectangular table! 16 1/4″ wide by 28 1/4″ long.
I will try to follow the same sort of format I previously used. I’ll start with the fact that this is a constant tension parallel link mechanism. Rather than re-explain what that means, I will refer you to my blog entry from 26 May 2023. Scroll saws Part 1 Basic-Info. The advantage to this parallel link mechanism is less vibration than a parallel arm mechanism. The disadvantage is the larger front to back blade motion created by the greater arc of the short arms moving enough to create the up and down blade stroke. This is discussed in Parts 2 through 4.
The advantage to the Seyco style of parallel link saw is that the fore and aft movement can be minimized by adjustments made to the saw. This is the major difference from the Dewalt which led me to spend roughly $400 more for this saw than a new Dewalt would have cost me.
Adjusting the blade movement
The first step is to ensure the upper support arm is exactly parallel to the table.
The upper support arm is the large horizontal black metal piece in the above photo. You want the distance from the tabletop to the bottom of the arm to be the same along the entire length of the support arm. This is adjusted (with the blade removed) by twisting the knob on the upper right. You can use a ruler or tape measure, but I used a set of inside calipers.
Note the position of the adjustment knob. It has a white mark on it for easy reference. I have not had to adjust mine since I assembled the saw a year ago.
Next is to adjust the front to back movement of the blade. Interestingly enough, this is NOT explained in the manual that comes with the saw. So, perform this adjustment at your own risk. The geometry of this saw is identical to the Dewalt, i.e. the arm length is 3 7/8″ and the stroke length is 3/4″. This gives a theoretical range of motion front to back of .018″ to .073″. You may remember that on my Dewalt, the measured blade movement is .036″. On the Hawk saw (different saw mechanism), it is only .009″!
I started by measuring what this came to me with from the factory. To make a firm measuring surface that would not flex, I used a large handheld coping saw blade of rather large size and placed it in the blade holders backwards. Next, I mounted my magnetic gauge to the table with the feeler against the blade. I removed the cover over the motor screw so I could turn the motor with a screwdriver. I then rotated the motor and marked the measurements through the full range of motion.
It was initially .031″. Not much better than the Dewalt. I loosened the motor mount bolts and twisted the motor through various locations until I had the least amount of motion.
I did not try to find the worst amount of movement, but I had one measurement that went to .045″. The best I could obtain was .023″, which is where I retightened the mounting bolts.
Geometry tells us the best that could be theoretically achieved is .018″, so this .023″ is fairly close. I was really hoping for the .018″. Anyway, it is better than the Dewalt, but still a long way from the Hawk measurement of only .009″.
Other saw features
Tilt Mechanism
Moving on to the rest of the saw, I’ll start with the tilt mechanism. Unlike my other saws, this saw has a tilting head and blade rather than a tilting table. I absolutely love this feature. That table is incredibly stout and will not be inadvertently knocked out of square with the blade. I rarely cut an angled piece these days, so the tilting method is not critical to me. I do sometimes knock the table on the Dewalt, and it moves. If I am not aware it moved, I can start cutting on the saw without realizing the blade is no longer square to the table.
The saw motor/head assembly is supported by two large pins which go through corresponding holes on the stand. It pivots freely on those two pins until it is locked down by the knob in front under the table. Unlike many of the other saws of this style, there is no gear mechanism employed to tilt the saw head. Nor is there a potentially inaccurate angle gauge to bend down and look at under the table. (I never trust those to be accurate on any of my equipment.)
Instead, this saw comes with a digital angle gauge that sits up front where it is easy to see without getting on your knees to look underneath the saw table. This gauge is made by Wixey. It is held in place with magnets on steel components. I had another Wixey angle gauge for over 10 years that I use for table saw set ups, jointer fence alignment, etc. They are pretty good little tools. Here are some pictures of the two of them side by side.
The one that came with the Seyco saw uses inexpensive and easy to obtain AAA batteries. The older one on the left uses an expensive watch battery. After I set up the saw a year ago, I pulled the battery out and put the new gauge and battery in a drawer for storage. I was hoping to use the Seyco gauge for all my needs going forward because of the better battery situation. I pulled it out to take some pictures for this blog post, and after a couple of minutes, it stopped working even with a new battery. I have emailed Seyco about it since it is basically new and unused. I have had this saw for a year now, so we’ll see what response I get. The saw itself comes with a 2-year warrantee, but I do not know if that applies to the angle gauge it comes with.
First, you square the blade to the table. The saw comes with a little 2″ engineer’s square for this purpose. I do not normally use a square for this. I just use a piece of wood, cut a slot, and reverse the wood to see if the blade fits in the slot.
Once the blade is square, you zero the Wixey gauge. I had to put a new battery in my old one for this series of photos. When I mounted it and turned it on, you can see it was not zeroed yet.
Once the gauge is zeroed, you can loosen the adjustment knob and pivot the saw head to the angle you want. My most common use in the past was at 7 degrees for making some inlay projects. The next picture shows the amount of tilt possible from left to right. This was before the provided gauge stopped working. One item to note is that the saw motor is mounted on the right side of the saw head. When you loosen that adjustment knob, the weight of that motor wants to go full tilt to the right. Be prepared!
Magnetic table cover
An optional feature I chose was a magnetic table cover with concentric rings and lines. You can see it in the above photos. If you watch Steve Good’s 7-year-old video on this saw, they originally came with the magnetic cover. Now, they are an optional accessory. Not strictly necessary, but I do like the lines converging on where the blade passes through the table. When I am cutting some gnarly twists on the saw, they help me realize I may be pushing sideways too much, which makes a bad cut. After a year, this one is getting wear marks on it. I am not sure if I will replace it when it is time.
Heavy duty stand
The stand is strong thick steel and is incredibly sturdy. As mentioned above, the saw comes with the stand for no additional charge. Additionally, it can be set up as a floor stand as I did, or it can be set up as a benchtop saw.
Here is a picture of the saw stand as compared to the Dewalt stand.
If you look at the bottom of the legs, you can see there is a short section on all four legs. If you want a benchtop saw, you just use these short pieces without the long sections. Also, you have some adjustability on how tall the floor stand is by attaching the short sections through different holes. Also, you can make the front legs shorter than the back legs if you like the saw to tilt towards you. I often sit in a bar height chair while cutting, so I went for the full height. I just put a board under the back legs if I want it tilted.
Big table
This has a huge table on it. I like the big table that helps support large puzzles when I first start cutting them. Here is the table as compared to the Dewalt.
Once again, if you look at Steve Good’s video on the Seyco saws, his originally came with a slightly smaller table that had “saw dust collection trays” around it. Those are gone, which I think is probably a good thing.
The table is made from steel and is about 1/4″ to 3/8″ thick. It is coated with something, maybe powder coated. When waxed, it is pretty slick, but I do have that magnetic cover on it.
On/off switch
The on/off switch is pretty small. It is also “protected” on the sides by metal tabs that stick up. I had never used a foot switch before, but it was readily apparent that I would need one with this saw. I did purchase one separately. 25+ years of habits are hard to overcome, but I have adjusted to using a foot switch. I have now purchased another one to use with the Hawk saw and probably will get a third one to use on the Dewalt when I get around to fixing it. If you are not using a foot switch, do yourself a favor and get one.
Blade clamps/tension adjustment
This is the one area where I believe the Dewalt is a better saw, including the Hawk saw. The blade changes are quick and easy. On the Dewalt, tensioning is done with a little lever right there with the rest of the controls. I can easily change out a dull blade and continue cutting within 10 seconds without any issues. That includes the time spent pulling a new blade out of the container I store them in.
On these newer saws, there really is not a tension adjustment. You replace the blade and move the tension release lever, and the blade clamps automatically adjust using a spring built into the upper clamp. I at first broke about a third of the new blades I installed in the saw before even turning it on. At first, I thought it was a defect in the factory blade clamps, so I bought the Pegas replacement clamps that people rave about. No difference. I have to install the blade with a little curve in it to keep the tension from exceeding the blades strength.
It turns out that it is really an issue with the blades I like to use, not the saw’s fault. I use the Pegas MGT 2/0R blades. They break easy and this is indeed discussed on a few forums and has been mentioned on a couple of Facebook groups. This really came to life for me while cutting the double-sided stopwatch puzzles last summer. I tested a number of different 2/0 size blades to compare the cut roughness on the double-sided puzzles. None of the other blades broke on me when placed in the saw. Just the Pegas MGT 2/0R blades. This was never an issue with the Dewalt style of blade clamp and pressure mechanism, as the tension is manually adjusted. You just move the tension lever until the tension is correct.
I still prefer to use the Pegas MGT blades, but I have to ensure there is a little bit of curve when I install them in the saw. When I tighten the blade, sometimes I have to release the tension lever and readjust because the blade is too loose. Blade changes just take longer than they do on the DeWalt.
Speaking of reverse tooth blades, you may remember from my prior blog posts that different saws have more or less of the reverse teeth projecting above the table. Like the Dewalt clamps, with these clamps you can position the blade higher or lower with respect to the table. I can position the blade so the reverse teeth only come up about 1/8″. This gives me the cleaner cut on the backside without causing tear out on the front side.
Summary
After a year of using it, I am very happy with the saw. I did not cut another dragon tails puzzle for this, as I still have some unsold dragon tail puzzles for sale. I don’t currently need another one! So, I cannot compare cutting times per piece like I did before.
I love how sturdy it is and the non-movable table. I do not really cut at an angle, so the tilt mechanism does not matter to me. I would say that I do like the digital angle gauge accurate to 1/10th of a degree that is visible from the topside.
The saw is practically vibration free. I put a glass of water on the table while running it at full speed and barely had any ripples in the glass. I put the same glass of water on the Hawk table, and the saw got wet. Really wet, until the glass fell onto the floor. If it was running, the Dewalt might have had a splash or two with that test.
Besides cutting puzzles, I have used the saw to cut some animal shaped wooden blocks for the grandkids to play with when they are here. With the right blades installed, it plowed through 3/4″ thick maple, hickory, and alder with ease. Very smooth polished edges to the cuts which required no sanding.
Is it better than a Dewalt? For the most part, I would say “Yes, it is better than the Dewalt.” Was it worth $400 more better? I guess that depends. If looking strictly at the front to back blade motion issue (which is why I originally bought it), that little bit of adjustment was not worth the extra $400. Looking at the stand and the sturdy tabletop with some of the other features, I am quite happy I have it. If I did not have the extra money, I would have bought a Dewalt and also been quite happy with it. The Dewalts are great saws and much more affordable. Plenty of people are using Dewalts to make many many jigsaw puzzles. I just would not have had that itch scratched: “are the $1000 saws better than the $600 saw?” I do not regret buying it.
Is it better than a Hawk? $1000 saw vs. a $1600 saw? For what I am primarily using it for, I like the Seyco (and Dewalt) better. The Hawk does cut more precisely. Blade changes are a little more finicky on the Hawk. The speed range on the Hawk does go down to 40 strokes a minute. (Why would I need that? The Hawk, with an optional coolant drip tank, can be used to cut stained glass with diamond blades). The Hawk can adjust the fore and aft angle on the blade for more aggressive cutting. The Hawk can be modified with an optional wide and lower set of legs for use with a wheelchair. Not really a quality issue, but I like that the Hawk is still made in the U.S. I like to support American workers. The Hawk is a higher quality saw overall, but I prefer to use the Seyco or Dewalt for puzzle cutting just because of blade changes.
Of course, all of these can be found used for a lot less money. New ones have a list price that can often be undercut due to sales. I say $600 for the Dewalt as that is the current price I find online, but I have seen it recently for significantly less. You do have to be careful on what it includes (stand or no stand, for example).
And, of course, there are used saws out there. This is the seventh scroll saw I have purchased in my lifetime. It is my first brand new one. I would have bought a used one, but Pegas and Seyco saws do not pop up on craigslist or Facebook Marketplace near me. I think there was one Pegas before Christmas, and the seller wanted almost as much as a new one delivered. Not happening. Currently, there is a Dewalt about 50 miles from here that is listed for $425 that is advertised as “assembled but never used”. It includes a stand, a light, and a bunch of blades.
I hope that this is interesting and useful information for someone. It took me too long to write for it to be a total waste of time! <smile>
Happy Puzzling!
Bob