Maximum Scroll Saw

[dchishol]

Hi everyone. My scroll saw was purchased in Canada at Canadian Tire. The name on the saw is "Maximum" but I wonder if it is sold elsewhere under a different name. It seems to be a bit of an oddball and I want to improve the blade clamping system, so if it goes by another name I may be able to find an aftermarket blade clamp. Any help would be appreciated. I have attached a pic if that helps identify the saw.

[Woodrush]

Olson makes a kit you could try. Can't see the blade clamp on the picture.

[Woodrush]

I think the Olson one would work. There was someone on you tube that was putting one on a craftsman I think

[dchishol]

Going to check out the Olson kit. Thanks.

[rfielder]

Any luck with the kit?

I also have a Maximum scroll saw.  Not a good purchase, since it will not accept pinless blades.  It was on sale, and this was a couple of years ago, so at the price I paid, it was a good deal.  At that time.

If you use the saw within it's limitations, it is OK.  Vibrates a LOT if you slow it down, but not bad at full speed.  The blower works, but only is effective when the saw is running at full speed.  The light is good, but the vibration of the saw makes it less than ideal.  Not horrible at full speed.  Are you seeing a pattern? 

As long as your patterns can stand 3/16" holes for the pinned blades, you can do OK work with it.

It does have a slow start, which can be nice, although not everyone likes this feature.  Makes a foot switch a bit less effective, easier to just leave it running.

The manual says nothing about pinless.  If you check the CTC website, the questions section speaks about getting the correct screws to hold pinless - the saw does come with tapped holes for the screws.

I called CTC support, and they sent me two screws.  Tried them, and found that if you tighten them enough to hold the blade, they crimp the blade and it breaks right away.  It breaks as soon as you power up,

I picked up two other screws - they are a standard size - and ground the ends of them flat.  That did not help.

The screws sent by CTC are very, very short, and you need an allan key to turn them.  The bottom one is buried inside the frame, so getting a screw with a knob likely would not work, you could not reach the knob.  The top one might work with a knob, but I am not going to spend the time figuring that out if it is just going to break blades.

If there is a way to hold pinless blades, that would be a real upgrade.  Otherwise, I am going to drop a lot of $$$ onto a deWalt or a Excelsior.  Just trying to figure out if the EX-21 is really worth $500 more than the same-sized deWalt.

[dirtrider73068]

Go look through Matthis Wandels youtube channels he has two, in one vid he does a comparision of maxium tools which is canda's low end brand of tools.

I love my ex saw, I had a craftsman before and it did ok for about a year before I had issues and to fix it I could buy a new one for the cost of parts so I put up the money for the ex saw. Ray at Seyco in Texas knows the ex and has his own saw out in the market which is pretty close to the ex and his customer service is great. The new saw coming out think its king makes one, the excelsoir are a pretty much spin off remake of the ex saw. If in the USA homedepot is carring the ex 21 model, and to me its worth the price to get it. Dewalt saws unless they did major fixes on the issues I would not own one of the type 2 dewalts there were quality control issues, unless you are lucky and find a type 1 used somewhere.

[spirithorse]

Greetings,
If the blade clamp already has tapped threads for allen bolts, that sounds like a simple fix.
The problem with breaking blades that rfielder brought up may just be because he did not
make sure the bolts were centered in the blade clamp.
In other words you cannot have one bolt going past center and the bolt on the other side
pinching the blade in an awkward position. It will definitely crimp and eventually break in
that scenario.
These are just generalizations since I do not own a Maximum saw and have not used one but,
all the problems with scroll saws seem to usually have a general theme.
I still use a Craftsman 18" scroll saw and lots of people say they are CRAPSman scrollsaws but,
it is set up fairly well and has really done an extremely good job for several years.
I just bite my tongue and try not to get thin skinned because someone else can afford an Excaliber
and I cannot.
God Bless! Spirithorse

[rfielder]

If the blade clamp already has tapped threads for allen bolts, that sounds like a simple fix.
The problem with breaking blades that rfielder brought up may just be because he did not
make sure the bolts were centered in the blade clamp.

That is a good suggestion!

However, there is a tapped hole on one side only.  You don't have a screw coming in from the other side.

I think that the inside of the blade holder is not flat.  That is why the blade crimps and breaks.

I am also trying to find out if the DeWalt blade holder screws are the same size and thread.  Maybe, with their rotating tips. those would work better.

To those that say the Maxium is the low end of tools - you need to know that the Maximum line is the high end of Canadian Tire products.  They have non-Maximum tools that are even less expensive.   CTC no longer seems to have a non-Maximum scroll saw, but they have lots and lots of non-Maximum power and hand tools.

You could say that you get what you pay for, but I suspect that a lot of other scroll saws that cost the same as the Maximum scroll saw are better.....