My first scroll-saw. Now, what to do with it?

[nev]

Improvements:
Fitted a bigger tabletop - just an old backing sheet from a kitchen cabinet glued to some mdf with the shape of the base of the saw bed cut out, so Ive only increased the height by the thickness of the hard board. Nice and smooth and slidey now

Fitted the 'sewing machine light' (about 3 quid on eBay with 3 week delivery or 7 quid on Amazon with immediate delivery).
Now I can actually see the line I'm supposed to follow, so no more excuses there!
@AES - Yes definitely the thinnest wires I've ever seen carrying 240v :shock: Hope its just because there is very little current draw and not just because the Chinese manufacturers are determined to burn my house down

Fitted a couple of Axminster clamps for pin-less blades (Axminster Blade Clamp for AWVFS Scroll Saw) and some pin-less blades . Changing the blade will involve allen keys and faffing but looks like its a worthwhile modification, if it continues to work when being used in anger.
As a quick test I scribbled on a bit of that backing board and cut away and wow! how much more manoeuvrable with the thinner blades, much better cut too.

So thanks to all for the suggestions =D> , hopefully I'll get to use it this week sometime.

 

[Claymore]

..........

 

[novocaine]

I think I'd rewire that light and add an earth, it will be either a capacitive dropper or a step down to 5-12V for the LED referenced to 240v, which means if (or when to be honest) it shorts to the nice metal body or even nicer metal arm it's going to be at 240v with no ground fault triggered at the fuse board. for the sake of swapping out the lead to a decent 3 core and earth the case.

oh and as it's stuck the saw with a magnet guess whats going to be live at mains? (not sure if your pinching the earth from the saw actually, in which case you'll be fine, didn't think of that till I'd tapped all this out, maybe don't use it as a torch aye).

 

[AES]

Interesting novocaine. I too have these lights and it was me who raised the point about a VERY thin lead. But there are only 2 conductors, no earth (on mine anyway) so doesn't this mean that the whole assembly is double insulated? (Forgive my ignorance please, but also I thought one should never add an earth to a double insulated item).

Just asking, 'cos I really was surprised to see such a thin lead on a 240 V item - in fact I had to add a few layers of insulating tape to the outer sheath just so that the cable grip on the plug would in fact grip the cable.

Sorry if it's a dumb question.

AES

 

[nev]

I'll check for continuity between the lamp casing and saw later to see if it earths via the case.

EDIT: There is no continuity between the flexi arm and base, and the magnet/ metal base is cushioned/ isolated with a rubber 'o-ring' so the lamp base does not actually contact the saw. So I would say without pulling the lamp apart there is no earthing.
That said, with wires clipped into place its not going to moved anywhere so I'm happy that nothing is going to short because of movement.

 

[AES]

Thanks nev. Just to add info, your light in the pic looks exactly the same as mine. On mine, the only metal bits in the whole assembly are the flexible swan neck and the magnet housing itself (which, surely, also houses whatever electronic gubbins is responsible for dropping the mains to LED voltage) - everything else is plastic.

I'm in the middle of re-wiring my cellar right now (the "profi" is coming in a mo to connect up the 3 phase to 1 phase stuff) otherwise I'd check my own.

AES