# Is scroll saw works to cut the wooden letters and shapes



## Letter cutter

Hi Everyone,
I am really new to this wood cutting etc.
I am a wooden letter decorator.
Usually i buy the wooden letters and wooden shapes from the supplier
and then i will sell them. But i am paying lot of money for normal 5cm length /3mm thick wooden star shapes,
heart shapes. So i heard scroll saw works to cut the shapes and letters.
So yesterday i saw scroll saw in lidl for £49.99 and i bought it.I never used anything like this before.
Is it really serves purpose. I can pay little bit more if there is any machine in a reasonable price..
Anyone guide me please. is it easy to cut the letters and shapes etc. and is there any other machine which
serves my purpose.
Thank you


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## Chippygeoff

Hi. I would not want to disappoint you but I feel the scroll saw you bought would be at the lower end of the market as scroll saws go but having said that it may well fit the bill for what you have in mind. You are going to be much better off using pinless blades as you have a lot more choice and with scroll sawing having the right blade at the right speed is crucial to making a success of it. The best place to buy blades is from Mike's workshop in America, 90% of people on the forum use then so having a decent blade is the battle half won. As you are new you will not make first class numbers and letters at your first attempt, you must practice first on scraps of wood, ideally thin plywood or thin timber. Draw some squiggly lines with a few tight turn and corners and just keep practising. If you get stuck along the way post your question onto the forum as everyone here will give you the benefit of their experience. Happy scrolling.

Geoff.


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## Letter cutter

Hi Geoff , 
Thank you so much for the reply.
Yeah I will do lots of practice.
Shall I buy some mike's workshop blades for this scroll saw.
Or this scroll saw won't work at all for my work .
I can't decide shall I keep this saw or buy another one
Thank you


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## Chippygeoff

I would not get rid of your saw until you have tried it. I am not familiar with the saw that you got but I rather think it would have the same far eastern stamp that many others have. What you are looking for in a scroll saw is variable speed and quick change blade clamps, if you have to mess about with an allen key to change the blades every time this will slow you down and is very annoying. If after trying it you decide to get something better the AWFS 18 from Axminster would be worth a good look or of you want something really nice than you could not do better than to get the excalibur 21, it is quite the ultimate scroll saw. You can look up Mikes workshop, just type in Mikes workshop into the search engine and he will come up. Choice of blades depends on what type of material you are going to cut and the thickness. If for example you are going to cut 1/2 inch hardwood then a number 5 blade will do the job quite well but if you are going to have tight corners and curves I would plumb for a number 3 blade. In my opinion the best blades are called ultra reverse. They cut on the upstroke as well as the down stroke, they leave a really good finish and very little fuzziness on the bottom which for your type of work sound like the ideal blades. Mike does a selection pack. I would not go for this as there will be blades in it you will probably never use. Just order 3s and 5s in ultra reverse. Postage from the states is more or less the same as here but the blades are considerably cheaper with Mike and are the best. Don't hesitate to come back if you have any more questions.

Geoff.


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## bugbear

Letter cutter":1mmtxaev said:


> Hi Everyone,
> I am really new to this wood cutting etc.
> I am a wooden letter decorator.
> Usually i buy the wooden letters and wooden shapes from the supplier
> and then i will sell them. But i am paying lot of money for normal 5cm length /3mm thick wooden star shapes,
> heart shapes. So i heard scroll saw works to cut the shapes and letters.
> So yesterday i saw scroll saw in lidl for £49.99 and i bought it.I never used anything like this before.
> Is it really serves purpose. I can pay little bit more if there is any machine in a reasonable price..
> Anyone guide me please. is it easy to cut the letters and shapes etc. and is there any other machine which
> serves my purpose.
> Thank you



If the letters and other shapes are your goal, and the saw is intended to be a money save, you might want
to post samples of your current suppliers product and prices.

You are (implicitly) trying to compete with an automated factory; you WILL cut out their markup, but you won't have their efficiencies.

The key question is how long these shapes take to cut. I'm sure other forum members will be able to advise.

If (OTOH) you wish to extend the range of shapes you can have, your own saw is clearly the way to go.

BugBear


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## Gill

BB is very likely to be right - for standard lettering it will probably be much more economical to buy prefabricated letters. However, the scroll saw comes into its own if you are cutting letters that either use a non-standard font or are a different size from those which are commercially available.

Don't forget you will need a drill to provide pilot holes for internal cuts to remove the inner holes in some letters. A small hand drill usually suffices for this, although a multi-tool such a Dremel can speed up the process if there are a lot of piercing cuts to make.


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## Leo

I have just bought the same scroll saw, ( Parkside ) from Lidl. in Lanzarote. I am also new to scroll saw work, IMHO. it is ok and pretty good for the price, but it will take longer to make things and with rougher cuts. I am finding that it is a good starter saw, but will replace it after I have mastered ( ? if ever ? ) my new hobby/work. The tension knob also knocks when the blade is tensioned, but I can ignore that ??.

I am glad for the blade advice, the blade I have just replaced ( came with the saw ), was blunt in about 20 mins. of use. Off to the USA. for blades then.

Leo


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## Gill

Leo":2x40dv1z said:


> The tension knob also knocks when the blade is tensioned, but I can ignore that ??.


That would worry me. Worse than that, it would annoy the bejabbers out of me because I don't like noisy distractions when I'm cutting. It suggests that the seats through which the threaded tensioning rod (which I presume your saw has) passes are not as secure as they ought to be. I'm not familiar with the Lidl brand of saw, but it's the sort of arrangement which governs so many different brands that I suspect your saw may work in a similar fashion. Of course, I may be completely wrong  .

Does the tension on your blade slacken after a few minutes of cutting? If so, you may need to examine the saw tensioning system or ask if the retailer will exchange it for you. If the blade tension is consistent, you will probably be okay but knocking is never a good thing and you really ought to try to identify its cause. There's a good (but dated) book about how scroll saws work by Zach Taylor called the "Scroll Saw Bench Guide" which should help you to set up your machine properly.


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## Leo

Thanks Gill,

The main reason that I am not too bothered about the knocking was because of this guys guide to cheaper saws.............. here....http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=sdg ... Rfp9jKDcZQ.

He has a lot of good ( excuse the pun ), stuff and it looks like it may just be part of buying cheap.

I will look into a good book as suggested,thank you !!!

I have also just ordered a load of blades from Mike, so that should improve the cuts, I just need to find out how to improve the operator now LOL........


Leo


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## Letter cutter

Hi, Thanks for the wonderful helpful replies.
Yeah i am paying 10 , 3mm 7.5 cms heart shapes £5.00 including postage.
And for 7inch letter/6mm thick letter i am paying £1.90 including postage. 
If i use my own saw can i save any money.
Thank you


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## Blister

If you buy a saw for £500 

you need to cut 263 7" letter to break even :mrgreen:


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