roombacurious
Established Member
I've recently taken interest in scroll saws after realising that a bandsaw can't actually do everything I wanted... I've studied a few web sites and other sources and I think I now have a fair idea of how a scroll saw works.
However I can't help wondering whether in this era of high tech electronics the current designs are the only way of making an effective scroll saw. I just can't believe that the best way of making a blade go up and down is attaching it to a frame/set of arms a few hundred times heavier than it and then making the whole thing reciprocate which will obviously result in unwanted vibration.
My thought for example would be that the upper arm should be made to have little weight and zero or minimal travel, i.e. a design with a fixed upper arm and all the moving parts attached to the bottom of the blade.
An even better way would be to attach magnets to the ends of the blade holders and make these travel up and down with the use of electromagnets, one on each arm. (I can give details if this sounds complicated, I think it's pretty simple) This way you do away with both the motor and practically the majority of the vibration since both arms are fixed and don't have to move. Tensioning the blade should also be simple to adjust electronically.
Does anyone know whether anything similar has ever been tried? There may be pitfalls I haven't thought about.
However I can't help wondering whether in this era of high tech electronics the current designs are the only way of making an effective scroll saw. I just can't believe that the best way of making a blade go up and down is attaching it to a frame/set of arms a few hundred times heavier than it and then making the whole thing reciprocate which will obviously result in unwanted vibration.
My thought for example would be that the upper arm should be made to have little weight and zero or minimal travel, i.e. a design with a fixed upper arm and all the moving parts attached to the bottom of the blade.
An even better way would be to attach magnets to the ends of the blade holders and make these travel up and down with the use of electromagnets, one on each arm. (I can give details if this sounds complicated, I think it's pretty simple) This way you do away with both the motor and practically the majority of the vibration since both arms are fixed and don't have to move. Tensioning the blade should also be simple to adjust electronically.
Does anyone know whether anything similar has ever been tried? There may be pitfalls I haven't thought about.