# Home Made Scroll Saw



## Gill (25 Aug 2005)

*This* has to be seen to be believed. I can't wait for part 2.

Gill


----------



## Les Mahon (25 Aug 2005)

Gill, 

That would be an intersting take on a scrollsaw challenge! Mind at the price I pay for oak, the delta saw I have was probably cheaper!

Les


----------



## wizer (25 Aug 2005)

it's one of those things where you just have to ask.... WHY?


----------



## Gill (11 Jun 2008)

I still can't answer the question 'why?'  , but the second part of the plans are now available here.

Gill


----------



## chrispuzzle (11 Jun 2008)

That's a beautiful thing.

Why? Well, when I built my Meccano fretsaw it was primarily for fun, and then as an exhibition piece, and it seems to be a real crowd-puller to watch someone making a jigsaw puzzle on a self-built machine.

So I think if you built that beautiful wooden treadle fretsaw it would be a great addition to your stand at a craft fair. Of course the pieces you're selling would probably be done on the electric saw back home but what a great advertisement for your hobby!

Secondly, although you can perhaps take the principle too far sometimes, the idea of making your own tools is not a bad one. You learn how the tool works, for a start: what makes it good, what makes it bad. And there is a sense of pride in the self-sufficiency of it (although I guess until you can make your own blades too, that's a bit of a mirage...)

I can think of a third reason, just about: to build a saw with some specific characteristics to enable you to do something you couldn't do with a commercial saw. One might be speed control, to have the blade moving really slowly like with a Diamond saw that can go as slow as you like. Another might be to have an exceptionally large throat for those occasions where you might want to cut a very large board - with a jigsaw puzzle, for example, you'd only want to make the one (very long and wiggly) cut down the middle of a board to double the size of jigsaw you could cut on your electric saw.


----------

