Product Reviews / Scroll Saw Reviews

Product Review – Excalibur EX-16

excalibur-ex16-siloExcalibur EX-16

By Bob Duncan

Excalibur has introduced a scaled-down version of their popular scroll saws. While the saw arm is only 16″ long, the compact saw is still as powerful as its bigger brothers.

The EX-16 uses the same overall design as Excalibur’s larger saws, including the tilting arm and ability to feed the blade from the top or the bottom of the blank. However, the footprint of the EX-16 is smaller than the two larger Excalibur scroll saws, the EX-21 and the EX-30. The EX-16 easily fits into an already-full shop or family garage. It’s also a good choice for someone upgrading from an entry-level saw, because most entry-level saws are of similar size.

The downside is that the smaller saw limits the size of the projects you can cut. You can overcome the shorter arm length by using spiral blades, but the small table makes it difficult to control a large project.

Like the other Excalibur saws, the EX-16 is available with or without a stand. In most cases, I suggest people buy the stand designed for their saw. Stands are usually designed to minimize vibration, which is the bane of most scrollers and the reason people upgrade from an entry-level saw to a higher-end model. However, I tested the EX-16 without the stand—I simply set up the EX-16 on my workbench, adjusted the feet so it was level, and turned it on. I was pleasantly surprised. There was little vibration—much less than I expected. I had anticipated that the lower mass of the saw, as compared to the larger Excalibur saws, would translate into higher vibration. That definitely was not the case, which increases the usefulness of this saw for people with a small shop or those who want to travel with the saw.

Overall, the EX-16 is a well-designed and well-manufactured, but scaled-down, version of the larger Excalibur scroll saws. I don’t recommend this saw if you plan to cut large projects, but if you are limited for space and cut mainly small projects, this saw is definitely worth strong consideration.

The EX-16 is available for $579.99 plus S&H without a stand from Seyco, 972-722-9722, www.seyco.com.