Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy...

[ScaredyCat]

I've scrolled about 10 reindeer* so far and am getting the hang of things now but I occasionally have an issue. Sometimes the blade seems to grab the wood and I'm left with it bouncing around like a mad kangaroo.

Up until now I've just used brute force and ignorance to stop it, but I can see it being a problem especially if the wood gets away from me and I have my fingers under the arm holding the back of the piece.

What is the recognised method of preventing and dealing with this sort of thing?

.

* Herd of reindeer. Of course I've heard of reindeer - I'm here all week, try the fish.

.

 

[gjhimages]

Blunt blade?

 

[ScaredyCat]

Blunt blade?

To be honest I don't really know. I'm totally new to this so I have no idea how to identify that as an issue. It's still cutting, just occasionally grabbing.

.

 

[AES]

A couple of suggestions:

1. Is the blade blunt (i.e. needs a bit more force than normally required to proceed along a straight line or gentle curve cut)?

2. Are you using too coarse a blade? Try going up down a number (e.g. if you're currently using a No. 5, try a number 3 instead);

3. Are you using a reverse tooth blade (first few teeth facing upwards instead of downwards)? If so try a normal blade;

4. Most saws have a hold-down foot. Most of us take them off after the first few cuts, because they tend to get in the way a bit, though they are useful when first starting out, or when helping a newbie to start out. Normally though, I think most people find them a bit of a nuisance - but it does always need a constant downwards pressure on the job when cutting anything, but usually this is only a light pressure - just about only the "weight of you hand";

Hope something in the above helps.

 

[ScaredyCat]

A couple of suggestions:
1. Is the blade blunt (i.e. needs a bit more force than normally required to proceed along a straight line or gentle curve cut)?

Swapped the blade out for a new one, still had the occasional grab. nothing I couldn't control though.

2. Are you using too coarse a blade? Try going up down a number (e.g. if you're currently using a No. 5, try a number 3 instead);

I'll try this, I'm using a fairly coarse blade because I'm new to this and I can be a bit more ham fisted with a coarse blade.

3. Are you using a reverse tooth blade (first few teeth facing upwards instead of downwards)? If so try a normal blade;

No, no reverse teeth.

4. Most saws have a hold-down foot. Most of us take them off after the first few cuts, because they tend to get in the way a bit, though they are useful when first starting out, or when helping a newbie to start out. Normally though, I think most people find them a bit of a nuisance - but it does always need a constant downwards pressure on the job when cutting anything, but usually this is only a light pressure - just about only the "weight of you hand";

I didn't even fit mine but the weight I'm using is much more than the weight of my hand, I'm pushing down quite hard.

The Aldi saw has variable speed, could it be I have it set too fast or too slow?

I'll drop to a less coarse blade and see what happens, thanks for the advice.

.

 

[AES]

Yeah, it could be the speed, try varying it quite a lot, both up and down on the same stock, and see if that helps. But most likely your blade is too coarse.

You can try fitting the hold down thingy too, if this is your first go at scrolling. The trick is to adjust the height/pressure of the foot against the stock until you can still easily slide the job along into the blade but the job cannot move up off the table. As said, those things are a bit of a pest really, but they DO help when you're first starting out - I took my own off a long while back, but have re-fitted it a couple of times when I was helping a couple of ladies who wanted to try scrolling for the first time.

But my "best guess" is that you need finer blades.

 

[kstano83]

When I experienced this the first time I got very confused. When I didn´t hold my workpiece down strong enough it got bouncing like crazy. Took me a while to realize I had my blade in with the teeth facing up.

 

[AES]

That's always possible kstano83, but if you look at my point No. 3 in a couple of posts higher up, when I asked about reverse tooth blades he answered that his blades are facing the right way, so I think not this time

(Did I ever talk about a SCMS where I fitted the blade round the wrong way? Easily done!!!!)