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MIGNAL

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Memory is going! It must be 10 years ago since I bought these but never got around to using them. Presumably these are a blade conversion kit to pinned? Have I got two kits though? and why is the square holder proving so damned hard to tighten and hold a pinned blade, It holds the blade but it really does require some force on the old allen key.
 

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Off the top of my head, it does look like 2 pinned/pinless blade conversion kits. But I'm not 100% sure. What machine is that in the pic please?
 
It's just the cheap single speed Draper. It's been OK because I've only used fairly coarse pinned blades. Kind of like a powered coping saw with infrequent use. I think I bought the conversion kits from Axminster. One of the square holders is surely faulty as it's taking some serious effort to close the jaws and even then it doesn't always grip the blade. Fortunately I've now found a third one that does work. All a bit of a mystery how I've ended up with 3 of them.
 
It may well be the same as the Proxxon but I bought them as a conversion kit. The Draper is the only scroll saw that I've ever owned (excluding a Hobbies treadle).
I made a new insert with much less clearance, far better than the plastic one the machine was supplied with. That was annoying because it wasn't level, pretty common with the cheap machines I believe. The cast table has also been sanded of it's rough finish and then wax applied. Next is to bolt it down and buy some sort of flexible light - the position where I'm going to mount it isn't great in terms of light. The Draper doesn't seem to be particularly riddled with excess vibration but bolting it down won't do any harm.
 

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I'm plunging down a rabbit hole! What started as an attempt to convert to plain end blades I've now found myself with a half dismantled machine. I noticed that there was some side to side movement of the blade as it completed one stroke, not a great deal but something like 1 mm of sideways deflection. It's not noticeable when it's running, you have to hand crank it slowly (machine unplugged of course). Having zero experience I'm not sure whether 1 mm is terrible, indifferent or good (although I doubt that it's good). Any back/forth movement of the blade seems extremely small. I've removed the bearing that the arms pivot on. I'm fairly certain that the lower arm was a bit too loose. The draper is a little different to some of the other machines as access to the end of the arms is through access plates at the rear of the machine. Blade is tensioned at the front of the top arm. I even think it has some form of quick release. Anyway I'll buy some suitable grease, lubricate the pivot points and reassemble, see if it cures the blade deflection.
BTW I'm not struck with those barrel type blade holders that I showed in my first pic. They could be a real nuisance with the lower one dropping when doing a number of internal cuts. Perhaps if it was turned into a magnet it may work much better.
 
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