Pins in blades breaking.

[Shaggy]

I have an Aldi Workzone Scrollsaw and I've just done a couple of tree decorations for my nieces to colour and hang out of 6mm mdf and a tree of life picture out of 5 or 6mm ply for my wife.
The blades that came with the saw are bit iffy so I bought a pack of Olson blades (not sure of number size, but say on packet suitable for sharp turns in quarter inch wood).
I snapped one blade by forgetting to pull the tensioner down , then the next blade did a few cuts then I thought the blade had snapped again but it was the pins that had broke :? . Then today after a couple of inside cuts in the thin ply, another "PING!!!"... Not the blade but the pins again .

Have got some dodgy blades, am I doing something wrong, like having the tension too tight or am I just unlucky?

P.S. I've kept the blades so I can try and use then as painless blades in future :wink: .

 

[AES]

That's quite interesting shaggy. I've used pinned blades from time to time - still do sometimes - but have never noticed the pins themselves breaking. In fact I've sometimes "de-pinned" a pinned blade (easily done, just drill a slightly oversize hole in a piece of scrap, hold one side of the pin vertically into the hole and gently tap the pin out of the blade from above with a light hammer). In all such cases the pins themselves appear to be hardened/toughen steel and have shown no sign of breaking.

As a complete guess therefore, I'd say yours must be very poor quality blades. If you need pinned blades, Pegas (amongst other good brands) are a good choice. Axi are the UK distributors for Pegas.

HTH