# Scrollsaw vs fretsaw



## sturob

Hi there,

I am new to this forum and found it when I was looking for info on fretsaws.

I was wondering - what is the difference between a fretsaw and a scrollsaw?

(Is it correct to write them both as one word?)

I have a G-scale garden railway (1:22.5, but 1:24 is usually close enough) and I want to construct some buildings, probably from marine plywood. They will then be painted to withstand the British Summer, but they will probably be brought indoors for the winter.

I currently use a manual fretsaw for cutting out windows, but this is a bit of a pain, so I was looking for an electric saw that I could use instead. The Draper ones look OK to me, but I don't really know what to look for. I don't want to spend more than £100.

The largest piece of plywood I would use in a building would probably be about 12" square (approx 30cm square). I would only be using plywood about 12mm thick.

Is it easy to cut straight lines with an electric fretsaw?

Any help or advice would be appreciated


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## StevieB

Hi, and welcome to the forum  

No difference between fretsaw and scrollsaw other than which side of the Atlantic you hail from - fretsaw traditionally this side, scrollsaw the other. All will make life much easier than using a hand fretsaw, althuogh you may have to get used to the increased cut speed! All should also equally be fine for cutting straight lines in 12mm ply. You will need a fairly thick blade - a #5 or #7 and they may blunt fairly quickly on ply due to the glue in it. On the upside they are cheap :wink: 

For your budget of £100 max most saws are going to be about the same. You have two options - new or ebay. I believe the SIP gets good reviews at around £70 but have not used one personally - do a forum search for info. Ebay may be better if you want a better saw but second hand, although the hegners are still out of your price range even second hand. Looking at Axminster, Rutlands, D&M tools etc will allow you to pick essentially the same saw in a colour and badging to suit your decor :lol: 

In short, any should be up to the task you wish to use it for. More money tends to mean more weight and less vibration in use, and allow the use of non-pinned blades. Very cheap saws will only allow the use of pinned blades, which limits their thickness. Fretsaws tend to be used for fine detail cuts and curves, so the finer the blade the better. As you want to make mainly straight cuts this may or may not be something you want to consider in the future if you want to extend your woodworking to include signs, signal arms, fancy fretwork for the Austrian mountain station etc etc.

You can make a cheaper saw perform much better by using a good quality blade - people tend to go for flying dutchman blades from the states (www.mikesworkshop.com) or Olson blades from Germany. A pack of Draper blades from the local DIY shed will also cut wood, but the finish will be nothing like as good with respect to splintering, blade life and smoothness of cut in my experience.

HTH,

Steve.


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## Gill

Welcome aboard  .

Steve seems to have covered all the bases quite nicely and I agree with his suggestion of the SIP saw. There's quite a variety of blade retailers around; whilst many of us deal with Mike Moorlach in the USA very happily, blades are also available in the UK from Hegner, Shesto and Hobbies of Dereham (and probably others too).

I knew a doll's house manufacturer once who bought a scroll saw and hardly used it, prefering to make templates with a jigsaw and cutting them with a router. Although the buildings you make are a smaller scale, that production technique might be worth contemplating if you'll be producing more than one copy of each item.

Gill


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## Brucio

Hello and welcome.
I'd recommend a SIP 16" scrollsaw (because I've got one).
It's got variable speed, takes pinned or pinless blades, no vibration (mine isn't even bolted down, and there's no vibration).
If you're cutting mainly straight cuts, Clarkes 24 tpi blades are great. They're fairly deep (from teeth to back of blade), so cutting straight lines is easy.
If you want to use smaller blades for detailed curvy cuts, then follow Gill's advice-get some decent pinless blades.
When I bought my saw, it was £70 (about six months ago), but I see it's gone up to about £90-it must be popular!
Bruce


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## scrimper

sturob":17rv431o said:


> Is it easy to cut straight lines with an electric fretsaw?



No it is not easy to cut straight lines with a fretsaw, especially along the grain as the blade will 'wander' and try to follow the grain, you also have to feed the timber to the saw at an angle, you will soon get used to doing it, the reason is that most fretsaw blades are stamped out and have a bias on one side.

FWIW I find the reverse teeth blade excellent they give a nice clean smooth cut with virtually no feathering at the bottom.


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