Scroll cutting expectations.

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Honest John

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Although I’ve had a scrollsaw in my shop for a number of years I have used it very little and. So can’t claim any major experience, which leads me to my question. I was trying to cut some hard wood about 40mm thick. This is supposed to be within the capabilities of my machine. The wood was Indian Rosewood and was quite gummy. I used a new Olsen blade the coarsest I had which I think was a number 7. The cut was painfully slow to the point of boredom. Searching round my workshop I found a packet of Rexon pinned blades from a machine I owned many years ago. No idea what the number of these were but they much coarser than the Olsen 7s. I found that I could push the pins out with pliers, don’t know if that’s normal, but I was able then to mount the blade in my painless saw. The cut was still tedious but it was achievable. That particular project is finished but I couldn’t stop thinking about what I can expect from a scroll saw. With that thought in mind and before I put my machine back in the corner where I store it, I tried another cut with this same blade, I tried it on a scrap of 2x1 White Oak. Cross cutting the 1 inch thick section was slow but better than the thicker Rosewood. What I found was odd was that I had great difficulty in scrolling curves with this blade, although it was not too bad in a straight line. What blades would you think I should be using for cutting thicker section hard wood ? Although I haven’t tried it, I have seen YouTube’s where people have stacked pen blanks and cut wiggly lines down the length of them then mixed up the cut sections back together. Clearly the cut has been plumb top to bottom or the sections would not fit together in a new order. On that basis I would not have expected my 40mm thick Rosewood to cut well. 2 stacked pen blanks would be about that thick.
Sorry to have rambled on but I’m curious about what I can expect from this machine. For completeness my machine is a reasonably powerful variable speed jobbie branded Peugeot. Looks to be identical to a Rexon I briefly owned but was stollen before I ever used it!
 
Hi John
You will get a few answers but my answer is what you are experiencing is normal.

I tend to cut one inch hardwood and you have to go very very slow. You can’t force the blade into the wood. You have to let the blade do the work.

Using number 7 blades will cut my one inch wood fine but it’s a slow process. If you try to rush or push the wood too hard then the blade won’t last and it will break. Sometimes a blade will last ages and another time will last 2 mins.

I like to use number 5 blades for turns and little tricky cuts but again it’s take it slow.
It can take a long time to cut out a project but it’s worth it in the end.

A lot of practise is needed to perfect the turns and circles.

Don’t give up John and try to practise on thinner wood, below half inch. I used soft pine to start with to get the feel of it.
Some of the hard wood can be a pain to cut out. Don’t go too thick if you can help it.

Andy
 
Basically I agree with the above. A scroll saw is not really a tool for fast cutting, especially not thick hardwood, and especially long rips (or cross cuts). As you found, the coarser pinned blade that you pushed the pin out of - "standard bodge" BTW - will cut a bit faster in a straight line, but slow down considerably (if not break) when cutting tight radii.

Perhaps a no. 9 blade would be a bit faster than the no 7 you tried, and a skip tooth pattern (every other tooth left off) helps with clearing the saw dust more quickly from the kerf. And even a no 9 (pinless of course) will go round curves pretty well.

But you just can't compare a scroll saw's speed of cut with, say, a band saw or a circular saw - or even a jig saw. The strength of the scroll saw lies in it's accuracy (once you get the knack!) and it's ability to cut all sorts of rounds, curves, bevels, etc, etc.

As above, I suggest you look at thinner stock for a bit more practice before "attacking" 40 mm stuff again, and perhaps a look on Youtube for a number of useful cutting practice exercises. E.G. Steve Goode.

HTH (and don't put the machine back in the cupboard - there's a lot of fun to be had with it) :D

HTH

Edit for a P.S. You WILL get faster the more you practice, AND you'll get used to choosing a blade that suits you and the job.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I’m not exactly new to scrolling, but it’s not something I use every day. A couple of years ago I had to make about 20 table place marker labels for my daughters wedding out of Black Walnut, maybe half an inch thick. They turned out very well and were not at all difficult to cut, not like this oak and Rosewood today. Il have another go tomorrow and see if it’s my technique or blade choice causing me distress.
I have to put machines away when they are not being used simply because of lack of space. You just learn to live with it. What I have done today is to mount my saw onto a board of 19mm mdf, which now allows me to place this on my Triton WX7 table that I use as an assembly table, router table, and now scrollsaw table. Three cramps lock this board solid and it appears to work very well for scrolling. When I’m finished I can simply move the board and scrollsaw into its place in the storage area. I’m hoping that this will allow me to access the saw very quickly and put it away equally quickly when I want to route or assemble projects. I used to use my workbench for this, but I always had to clear loads of clutter to free up a space for the saw, so it didn’t get used often. I even tried clamping it to the top of my table saw with the blade retracted. That worked fairly well, except that the table saw seems to attract dozens and dozens of small interesting bits of wood that I was so sure would “come in” for and insert in a turning or a bit in a feature ring in a segmented vessel. The Triton workstation is working very much better as it’s constant use demands it’s kept (reasonably) clear. Although I will put the saw awa, it’s only a couple of strides away and I’m looking forward to doing more with it. Intarsia work is very much on my list of craft things to pursue. I shall pick up some smaller tpi blades on my next visit to Axminster or wherever and see how these go with thicker stock. Thank you for your replies.
 
Great John, glad to be of some help.

If you're buying from Axi, they are the UK stockists for Pegas scroll saw blades. Personally I like Pegas a lot, although there are other makes such as Niqua and Flying Dutchman which I think you have to buy on line.

I agree with silversam, the no 5 blade (pin less) is a good compromise, though I do also use no 3 and 7 and sometimes even no 9. I THINK that Pegas do a little trial pack with various different blades which will give you a chance to try out several, which is a good idea. As already said I find the skip tooth pattern useful, and if cutting thin stuff, especially sheet stuff like MDF and ply, the reverse tooth pattern is useful too. These have the first few lowest teeth pointing the other way (upwards instead of downwards like all the rest of the teeth) and these help with reducing "fuzzies" on the bottom side of the job. Pegas also have a blade series called "Modified Geometry" in the various numbers. I'm not quite sure what Pegas have done exactly (changed the angle at the bottom of each tooth I think) but I've found these to be pretty good at fast (er!) cutting too.

Just try a few different ones to see what you like, it's a pretty individual decision and what suits me may not suit you so well.

HTH
 
So I had a look through my blade drawer and found a packet of Pegas No 7 skip reverse so I put one of those in and found it cut very well through my piece of 2x1 white oak, which is very dry dusty and hard. Taking on board what other posters had said, I didn’t push the cut at all but only gave it enough pressure to maintain the teeth on contact. The progress was still very slow but the cut was fine. I measured the cut edges and found them to be perfectly square. I then turned the piece through 90 deg and tried following a wiggly line cutting through the 2 inch thickness. Again the cut was slow but perfect and square. I haven’t got anymore gummy looking Rosewood to try as this was certainly more difficult than this oak. Prior to this I had not cut anything thicker than about 10 - 12 mm and I hadn’t expected it to be so slow on thicker hardwoods. I think the Indian Rosewood I was using was particularly resinous and this probably added to the difficulty I thought I was having. I noticed yesterday that Axminster have started up their £1 delivery under £30, so I ordered some of the Pegas modified geometry blades. These came today and I have use the no 5 blade on some stacked plywood that I was using to make some platter and small dish display stands. These modified blades are extremely good and I shall continue to use these. They leave a very good finish on both sides. Thanks again to all repliers, suppose il have to find some time to have a go at some intarsia work now I’ve resurrected my scroll and organised a work station. :D
 
Glad to be of some help John, and pleased it's all working out. Don't forget to post some piccies when your first Intarsia is done.

BTW, personally I don't think I've had to cut resinous wood (apart from "pine" now and then) but I have seen somewhere on the net people advertising a scroll saw blade lubricant "stick". No idea if it works or not, and probably just rubbing a candle stump over the blade a couple of times would work too, but it's something you may care to keep in mind if you go cutting particularly resinous stock again.

Have fun
 
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