Blades Blades Blades

[Samfire]

Advice appreciated.
I've had my scroll saw for a couple of weeks now and been enjoying various exercises mostly in pine and a bit of ply wood. Anyway, a couple of days ago I had my first blade break on me, but I thought nothing of it because it had to happen some time. However, since then I have been snapping blades all over the place and I'm rapidly going through the ones that came free with the saw. I believe the ones I have been using and breaking are #5 #3 reverse tooth.

At first I though I must be putting to much tension on the blade, but when that didn't cure it I put less tension on, but that didn't work either so I have lost a bit of confidence.
I have been plucking the blade like a guitar string and listening to the tone, but that doesn't work when I'm doing an inside cut because the blade can't ring through the drilled hole.

Is it better to have more tension on the blade rather than less and are any make of blades less prone to breaking? I need to order some more rather sharpish the way things are going at the moment.

 

[Chippygeoff]

Hi Samfire. You are doing a lot of things right, good choice of blades for the material you are cutting. You are also applying a lot of thought on how to overcome problems as they arise. I would say the blade breakages are almost certainly down to over tightening the clamps. Make sure when you put a new blade in that it is dead centre of the clamp, you will be surprised at how little pressure you need to secure the blade. The blades that come with a saw are usually rubbish. If you were to try Flying Dutchman blades from Mikes workshop it would give you a whole new experience. I don't normally wait more than 5 days before I get my blades from across the pond and postage is very good. Go for the ultra reverse blades in 3s and 5s. Use 7s for hardwood. When cutting have very good tension, the tighter the better. If you have any other problems along the way I would be only to glad to give the benefit of my experience. Happy scrolling.

 

[Reggie]

You haven't actually said which scroll saw you bought, it might help

 

[martinka]

I believe Samfire has an Excalibur. I know ChippyGeoff is certainly correct where Hegner's are concerned, and I am eternally grateful for his advice, although if I used the same pressure to tighten the blade on my Jet saw, the blade would probably just drop out. I hope he is right and the same applies to the Excalibur, because it makes it such an easy solution. In fact, I have watched a couple of Sheila Landry videos on Youtube, and you can see how little pressure she uses when tightening the blade clamp.

Martin.

 

[Samfire]

You are right Martin it is an excalibur and I will watch the youtube clips, so thanks for that. Thanks also chippgeoff for your recommendation regarding blades. I did not consider that I might be over tightening the clamps so hopfully that is where I am going wrong.