Newbie, 1st try at making something "useful" - any comments?

[AES]

For some time I’ve been much interested in many of the posts here - the workmanship shown, and the designs.

It was clearly time to replace my very old Dremel Mototool with something better. I don’t think I’m really into the more “artistic” side of scrollsaw work and certainly don’t see myself selling anything, but having got a new “badge engineered Chiwanese” scrollsaw recently I felt the need to do some practising with “real” work of some sort rather than just aimless cutting exercises.

As it was approaching Christmas at the time I thought a couple of candle holders may be OK. The group shot shows the result (apart from three that I was “forced” gave away).

First patterns. The first design (which I’ve called “geometric compass pattern”) involved nothing more than a compass “flower” that I bet we all did at school when first learning to use a compass in geometry class. 2nd I found some quite nice stiff plastic star templates (giveaway in a cereal packet I believe); and 3rd, I shamelessly copied a “6-bladed wheel” that someone posted here some time back. In all cases I drew them out on paper, scanned them onto my PC hard drive, and then printed them out at the required sizes. This worked fine but I found that “Pritstick” glue was easier to get off the wood when after cutting than spray mount adhesive. I haven't tried parcel tape "lubricant" so far and had no problems - so far!

Pic One – the designs

Here are a few notes I made throughout the process, mainly for myself, but perhaps any newbies having ideas about producing such stuff “properly” may find them useful. And any experts who’d like to comment on the following will be heard most gratefully:

• Variable speed is a definite must-have, i.e. necessary, not just useful

• Although it’s supposed to have a “quick-change” blade holder, mine isn’t very quick! Modification is very necessary,
especially if inside cuts are going to feature in future work

• Also, pinless blades are a must (I couldn’t find pinned blades at less than about 25 TPI), so another saw mod is
required to take Mike’s Workshop, etc, blades, as although my saw is (apparently) supposed to take pinless blades
it doesn’t!

• That “dust puffer” which uses a little rubber bulb thingy trapped between the saw frame and the outer casing is
almost useless. An old aquarium pump wired into the On/Off switch is a MUCH better solution

• The little LED work light on the end of a flexible neck is brilliant

• I don’t have a foot switch and so far I don’t feel the need of one

• The blade tension adjustment device (plastic) broke pretty quickly. My temporary repair is kind of “OK” but
needs a proper mod to make it work easily

• I MUST try to fit/adjust the saw main frame bearings to try and get the side-to-side blade play out. If not then
it’s “bite the bullet” and buy Hegner or perhaps Excalibur (like I probably should have done in the 1st place!)

Pic Two – “funny” acacia effect from shelf offcut (see below). A double decker geometric compass pattern. Dia 140 mm

Pic Three – silver aerosol car paint (to match candle colour). Single decker geometric compass patter. Should have glued the
cork base on AFTER painting! Dia 135 mm

Pic Four – ditto Pic Three! Tea light with glass holder. Dia 110 mm

Pic Five – ditto Pic Three! Double decker stars. Dia 115 mm. (Candle 250 mm high, but holder still quite stable)

Pic Six – the “6-bladed wheel” design, copied from this Forum. The three “stolen” candle holder in solid pine were this
design as well. This one has that “funny” look from the Acacia shelf offcut, like Pic Two. Dia 180 mm

A few thoughts on materials and designs:

• Buying offcuts from the local DIY emporium is NOT the way to go if you want decent results, especially if the work
is to be given away or sold

• The problem is, apart from mail order, where to get decent hardwoods in the required thickness locally
(Switzerland)? More research needed

• The “hardwood” (Acacia in this case) shelving sold in DIY shops which is made of “sticks” glued together looks fine
as bought but by the time it’s laminated into 2 thickness, sanded and then re-varnished, it just looks “weird”, even
after 3 coats of varnish – see Pics

• MDF cuts very nicely but is horrible hard work to get a nice paint finish on

• I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the 3 candle holders “pinched” by my wife’s girlfriends when visiting us just
before Christmas were all those that I cut out of a solid pine board of about 25 mm thickness

• I like a thin sheet of cork glued onto the bottom surface (to protect tables, shelves, etc when the holder is in use)
BUT this must be glued on AFTER painting/varnishing

• HOPEFULLY suitably fine-pitched blades (pinless) will save all the final sanding after cutting out (which takes MUCH
longer than the actual cutting out!)

• Double decking makes it MUCH easier to cut the candle hole 1st, then glue the 2 together after cleaning up the hole

• Pinned blades are OK on thicker wood and are also very useful as “files” when wrapped with sandpaper
secured with double-sided adhesive tape

• The idea of setting the table at a slight angle to produce variations in such designs looks interesting but from the
brief trials is actually more complicated and needs more thought than I appreciated. Try again sometime
(probably just before next Christmas!)

Several of the "good ideas" above actually came from this Forum, so thanks to all, and as said above, any comments gratefully received.

Krgds
AES

 

[Bryan Bennett]

Hi AES welcome to a Great Forum I would suggest to visit http://www.scrollsawartist.com there is plenty of patterns to look at I like your project that you have shared with us.I would strongly advise not to use MDF I believe that the dust will harm your health,from what I have heard.( I am NOT a expert)

Bryan

 

[StevieB]

Many thanks for the detailed post - very useful to any new scrollers out there!

To address some of your observations specifically, variable speed saws are useful for different projects and materials, but I have never found the need to vary the speed within a single project. It would sound like you have a fairly cheap generic chiwanese clone of a saw which is the source of some of your problems. Blade clamps are rarely excellent on this level of saw, pump quality is variable and if it only takes pinned blades then that is a limitation that will soon cause you problems as the finer blades necessary for most more detailed projects are pinless. Don't think its Hegner or nothing however, there are solutions such as the Hegner clone sold by Axminster that are the same design but at an appreciable fraction of the cost. E-bay is a good source of these if you can wait for one in the right region and price bracket! In terms of timber, decide what sort of thing you want to cut first in terms of project. Things like tea light holders are fine in pine from a DIY shed or hardwood off-cuts. MDF is very nice for cutting but as stated a mask is necessary as the dust is so fine that it can cause respiratory problems if breathed in. The edges of MDF can sometimes need sealing to take a good paint coat - try watered down PVA, but this is a faff.

Keep up the good work!

Steve

 

[boysie39]

Hi AES , you certainly have given this newbie some great help and new ideas . As a beginner I find when all the findings are posted together it makes it much easier for me to have a kind of check list to work to .

Lots of what you posted will be very helpful to me and I thank you for that .As regards the different machines I can not comment on the difference , I was fortunate enough to be able to buy a Hegner saw albeit the smallest of the range the Multicut 1 which I had V/S added .In hindsight in my case I have never had a reason once I had found the speed which suited me to have to change speed .I read on this forum that V/S is most useful when cutting metals .So from my point of view V/S was a waste of £140 . Maybe I may change my mind further down the line :roll: .

I think when buying a saw if you know how much you are going to use it and for what type of materials you are going to use could have a big say in how much you want to spend . For instance if the saw is going to be used 6/8 hours a day you really need a top of the range saw IMOP. However if it's only used a few hours a week a good cheaper saw might be good enough . I know I am lucky I have a very good saw but for the time I am able to use it I think maybe I could have saved a significant amount of money .But ,But ,But , :roll: :roll: it has always been my philosophy that if you have the best tools you can have no complaints about what you turn out . :lol: :lol:

 

[AES]

@Bryan Bennet; Stevie B; Boysie 39:

Thanks for your comments and encouragement chaps.

Bryan & Stevie, noted re mask for MDF, thanks. Thanks for the tip re watered-down PVA as a base for painting MDF too Stevie.

Boysie: Yup you're dead right, choosing any tool is IMHO very much a question of balancing cost/quality versus amount of usage required. In my case I certainly won't be using the saw (or any other tool) 6-8 hours/day. 6-8 hours per week is more like it! So that has "governed" my choice of scrollsaw and other tools too (e.g metal working lathe, bandsaw, etc). But in each case I end up having to do mods and repairs to get the "quality of usage" that I really want. No problem to do the mods and repairs, and I actually quite like doing that sort of stuff, BUT it does take time - to the point that SWMBO has remarked that I spend more time fettling "new" tools than I do making "actual stuff". (that was another reason for having a go at those candle holders :lol: ). But the lovely girl did insist that for my last birthday she buy me a "proper" trade quality battery drill instead of the (now 3) cheapo rechargeable drills that I've had previously (and which after a year or so need new batteries that cost more than the new drill!!!)

Anyway I digress. I very much feel the need to have VS because:

A) I will be cutting sheet metals (steel, brass, ali, maybe nickel silver), and;

B) because I've found VS useful in my experimenting to date (remember please that I've been trying different timbers, different thicknesses, and different blades, all at the same time). No doubt that this will settle down once I've got the blade clamps sorted out and have settled on one or two favourite blades.

But point taken, yup, perhaps in future I won't use VS so much, except for cutting metal sheet (thicker than about 2.5 mm as I have an electric drill attachment "nibbler" that will handle up to 2.5 mm).

Thanks for the heads up re the Axi Hegner clone too gents. First though my "pride" dictates that I spend some time trying to sort out my present saw, but perhaps later I may think again.

Once again, thanks to all.

Cheers
AES