Chippygeoff
Established Member
The last couple of hours in the workshop have never been so frustrating. Earlier I had a dozen plaques that were customer orders and as usual I cut the outside first with a number 7 FD-UR blade, no problems at all, done it hundreds of times in the past. Then when it came to cut out the lettering or internal cuts I switched to a number 5 FD-UR and this is when things started to go wrong. I keep my blades in clear plastic test tubes and these are stored on a carousel by the saw. I had orded a new batch of blades from Mike's workshop about a couple on months back and these were up on one of the shelves. In the plastic tube I suppose I had maybe 10 blades left and I would use these up until the tube was empty and then put a gross of the new batch in.
As I started using the number 5 blades I started to lose tension after about 5 seconds of cutting. I had to keep stopping the saw, release the blade from the clamp, add more tension and then re-attach the blade, very time consuming when your in a rush. After about half an hour I had had enough. Some time ago I had the same sort of problem and what it boiled down to was that I was over oiling the bearings on my Hegner and this was seeping down to the tension rod. I have since cured this problem by obviously not oiling so often but as a safe guard I fitted thick hair bands to each arm so if oil did seep down the hair bands would absorb it. Today I did what I did before. I took the tension rod off the saw and and cleaned the threaded rod and both of the wedges. I cleaned under the arms as well and then put it all back together.
I started cutting again and exactly the same thing started happening again, I was losing tension. I knew in my heart there was no way it was oil on the tension rod, it was as clean as a whistle. Out of curiosity I put a new blade in, applied the tension, had a nice ping when I plucked the blade and then I put a white marker on the star knob on top of the tension rod, which was in the 5-O-clock position. I did some more cutting and when I started to lose tension again I looked at my marker and it was in exactly the same position and then I saw the light, the blades were stretching as they were cutting. I found it very hard to believe. In all my years of scrolling I have never seen this happen before. The problems I was having was struggling to keep the blade on the line, and then the wood started burring depsite the clear packaging tape on the wood and then the blade would not back up when I came to a tight turn. I took a new blade from the new batch and everything went like a dream. Problem solved. I can't wait to use up the new batch of FD blades and then I shall switch to a new supplier.
As I started using the number 5 blades I started to lose tension after about 5 seconds of cutting. I had to keep stopping the saw, release the blade from the clamp, add more tension and then re-attach the blade, very time consuming when your in a rush. After about half an hour I had had enough. Some time ago I had the same sort of problem and what it boiled down to was that I was over oiling the bearings on my Hegner and this was seeping down to the tension rod. I have since cured this problem by obviously not oiling so often but as a safe guard I fitted thick hair bands to each arm so if oil did seep down the hair bands would absorb it. Today I did what I did before. I took the tension rod off the saw and and cleaned the threaded rod and both of the wedges. I cleaned under the arms as well and then put it all back together.
I started cutting again and exactly the same thing started happening again, I was losing tension. I knew in my heart there was no way it was oil on the tension rod, it was as clean as a whistle. Out of curiosity I put a new blade in, applied the tension, had a nice ping when I plucked the blade and then I put a white marker on the star knob on top of the tension rod, which was in the 5-O-clock position. I did some more cutting and when I started to lose tension again I looked at my marker and it was in exactly the same position and then I saw the light, the blades were stretching as they were cutting. I found it very hard to believe. In all my years of scrolling I have never seen this happen before. The problems I was having was struggling to keep the blade on the line, and then the wood started burring depsite the clear packaging tape on the wood and then the blade would not back up when I came to a tight turn. I took a new blade from the new batch and everything went like a dream. Problem solved. I can't wait to use up the new batch of FD blades and then I shall switch to a new supplier.
