I’m clamping it down but just seems pretty hard work to cut. Obviously my inexperience but il get there. Just had to mega over correct which seemed a bit wild even when taking my time..[/quote]
I bought my first scroll saw a few months ago and had a few “mega correction” moments at the beginning. I thought I was feeding the workpiece in slowly enough, but I realised I wasn’t. Slo-o-o-owly does it, and if your eyes are getting tired take a few moments out to rest them. Any brief moment of inattention will instantly be punished with a swerve off line.
The next thing that helps is good blade tension. I followed the instructions that came with my Axi saw, but soon discovered that these left the blade way under-tensioned. I now tension until the blade pings, then keep tensioning until I get a really high note. You may break one or two blades early on, but this is cheaper and less frustrating than ruining a nice project.
Following on from this, it is important to match the blade to the thickness and density of the wood. My first project used 9 mm birch ply which was nice and easy to cut. I next tried some rather hard 25 mm thick beech. Complete frustration until I switched to a blade with much fewer teeth, when cutting suddenly got easier again.
Some may disagree with me, but I have stopped using the hold down clamp. It gets in the way,and I can hold down a workpiece perfectly safely without it - so long as I feed it slo-o-o-only !
And last of all, though a side issue to your original question- please always protect your eyes and breathing when using a scroll saw. It may only produce a small amount of dust, but it is still bad for the lungs.
Apologies if I am repeating advice already given by others - I cannot refer to previous comments while typing.