Scroll saw issues

[Ukulele joe]

I may try that in the morning whilst waiting for the Olson, Cheers!

 

[Ukulele joe]

Joe - thanks for starting this thread. I'm sure this topic has been thrashed around on UKW more than once, but having not been active for quite a while this has been informative.

I sympathise with your clamp problem - having look at the Axminster webpage, my reaction without being a metalurgist is that stressing a casting as this is just leading to failure.

I dialled up hook type blade clamps and found this, but I suspect this is machine dependent, and again maybe because this is just one of the hassles of cheaper machines I can live with them.

https://www.lawson-his.co.uk/draper...QTDKW2ixquJ0KQBSrhVmBzcud2JXnukAaAoz1EALw_wcB
I very much liked AES's input as it clearly was from a user who had been through the phases and expressed well the gains of the upper level machines. Another element I didn't mention in my earlier post is that one way of making the better machines less vibration sensitive is to increase their weight such that they almost have to become a fixture. My workshop can't tolerate that and the scrollsaw lives on a back shelf and has to lifted down to the main bench for use.

So it is horses for courses, but with the bonus that unlike some power tools, the entry level scroll saws are, if we for a moment forget about these horrible clamps, pretty effective and a good place to start and continue on an occasional use basis.

Joe - keep us posted please on the clamps you are going for.

Yippee! The Olson kit came today and I couldn't wait to fit the new clamps.I was a little bewildered at first but following the instructions, managed to fit them. I wanted to give them a real test so I decided to have a go at 3d figures. Well, as you can see, my very first effort is not bad. I did get a couple of hairy moments with the dreaded "bounce"! but had to laugh with delight when I discarded all the cello tape wrapped around and out popped my efforts. I've added a shot of my 3d and what else I'm doing. I believe I lost the bid for the Axminster but father Christmas might be nice to me, who knows! Best wishes to all and many thanks for your input and interest.....Joe

 

[AES]

Glad to hear it's "all coming together" Joe. BTW my wife has a girlfriend who's mad about cats, and though I haven't a lot of 3D figures experience I did try that 3D cat out for her (top centre of your pic).

I must say that from what I can see - it is a bit small pic (you can have a file up to 150 Meg on this new software, yours is only 100K) it looks to me like you've done a very "respectable" job. I found that narrow area between the cat's neck and tail - AND the narrow tail itself - particularly tricky - so "Well done Sir"!

 

[Ukulele joe]

Glad to hear it's "all coming together" Joe. BTW my wife has a girlfriend who's mad about cats, and though I haven't a lot of 3D figures experience I did try that 3D cat out for her (top centre of your pic).

I must say that from what I can see - it is a bit small pic (you can have a file up to 150 Meg on this new software, yours is only 100K) it looks to me like you've done a very "respectable" job. I found that narrow area between the cat's neck and tail - AND the narrow tail itself - particularly tricky - so "Well done Sir"!

Thank you AES, when I watched 3d scrolling on YouTube the operator remarked that if you wander off the line, don't try to go back but just continue and come back to the line. So my little friend is slightly fatter in places. It is true what he ,"only you know!" I am still considering upgrading to afar better machine though, cheers mate....Joe

 

[Ukulele joe]

My computer knowledge is practically nill so when you talk about 150 and 100 means nothing to me. I worked off the book that I purchased on 3d scrolling told me to increase to 140% which I did. I even had to Google how to do this and that just told me to go to "more options" which I could not find. However I did come upon "resize" on my A3 printer and found my way to 140% from the original 100%. So the size you see is from stock 43 mm X 20mm to test my new clamps.
On another subject , how can I identify what # size of saw blade I need when the list that I see on all sites just mention number of TPI on their saw blades?

 

[loftyhermes]

Joe, if you google scroll saw blade charts you'll find a few, I know there's an Olson and Pegas one and maybe a Niqua one as well. Blades for wood are usually numbered 3/0 to 12. 3/0 being the finest and 12 the coarsest. I mostly use 1, 3 and 5 blades. Just found a Scrollsaw woodworking one.

 

[AES]

My computer knowledge is practically nill so when you talk about 150 and 100 means nothing to me. I worked off the book that I purchased on 3d scrolling told me to increase to 140% which I did. I even had to Google how to do this and that just told me to go to "more options" which I could not find. However I did come upon "resize" on my A3 printer and found my way to 140% from the original 100%. So the size you see is from stock 43 mm X 20mm to test my new clamps.
On another subject , how can I identify what # size of saw blade I need when the list that I see on all sites just mention number of TPI on their saw blades?

Joe, I'm far from a PC expert myself - on the contrary in fact - but here's the little I know about pictures and PCs:

1. The size of the picture you have quoted has nothing whatever to do with the size of the picture when seen on a PC screen. The size you quoted ONLY deals with how big your picture would be if you printed it out on paper;

2. The size of the picture that you need when it comes to displaying a picture on any PC screen is the number of "pixels" (per inch or per cm). Most PC screen these days can usually handle a picture width of 1024 pixels. (If someone views your picture on a mobile phone screen, which can't handle so many pixels, the software here - and I think in the mobile itself - cleverly makes sure that the mobile phone viewer still gets a decent size picture. Dunno how it does that though - all too clever for me);

3. When talking about your picture on a printer, etc, you are again dealing only with your picture as it will appear on a piece of paper - the adjustments are only "accidentally" adjusting the number of pixels that will be displayed on screen;

4. To adjust your picture for viewing on a PC screen, you need some software. Don't panic though because it may well already be built into your computer operating system (I have a basic MS picture-handling software built into my Windows Office suite, but actually use a very old version of Adobe Photoshop Elements - V5 - which I had to buy separately). Don't worry about all that though, do a search of various threads on here and there have been several discussions here in the past about changing pixels in pictures ready to post here. Some of the software mentioned in those posts is free. I can't tell you more though because, as above, I use Photoshop myself;

5. Lastly, after a picture has been "sized" to appear good and big and clear on screen - as above, 1024 pixels seems to work well - you end up with a "file" (just like any other computer "document". Your file will probably be named something like "name of picture" plus a dot with 3 (or 4) letters behind it. Those 3-4 letters will most likely be "jpg" or "jpeg" (though there are others for handling picture files, those are the most common). The present software here on UKW allows a maximum "file size" (i.e. a single picture) of 150 Megabytes ("150 Meg") - that means 150 million bits of information in that single picture file. The picture you posted was "only" 100 KB (100,000 bytes) - i.e. roughly one fifteenth of the size you could have used. Obviously the more "information" in a single picture file the clearer and more detailed the picture will be when viewed on screen.

That's really all I can tell you - I'm already perilously close to "the blind leading the blind" - but as said, do a bit of searching here about posting pictures and there are several members who really do know their onions (and who are no doubt cringing at what I've written above)!

Re your Q about blade size numbers and TPI's: In the link below there are several tables. One is a list of blades for wood that Pegas makes. That table lists all the details of each blade, including the blade number, thickness, width, and TPI (though being Swiss, Pegas talks about "teeth per centimetre "or something equally metrically daft"!

Cheers, HTH

(1) Sourcing Blades for Scroll Saws and Jewellers, Piercing, Coping, & Junior Hack Saws | UKworkshop.co.uk

 

[Ukulele joe]

Joe, I'm far from a PC expert myself - on the contrary in fact - but here's the little I know about pictures and PCs:

1. The size of the picture you have quoted has nothing whatever to do with the size of the picture when seen on a PC screen. The size you quoted ONLY deals with how big your picture would be if you printed it out on paper;

2. The size of the picture that you need when it comes to displaying a picture on any PC screen is the number of "pixels" (per inch or per cm). Most PC screen these days can usually handle a picture width of 1024 pixels. (If someone views your picture on a mobile phone screen, which can't handle so many pixels, the software here - and I think in the mobile itself - cleverly makes sure that the mobile phone viewer still gets a decent size picture. Dunno how it does that though - all too clever for me);

3. When talking about your picture on a printer, etc, you are again dealing only with your picture as it will appear on a piece of paper - the adjustments are only "accidentally" adjusting the number of pixels that will be displayed on screen;

4. To adjust your picture for viewing on a PC screen, you need some software. Don't panic though because it may well already be built into your computer operating system (I have a basic MS picture-handling software built into my Windows Office suite, but actually use a very old version of Adobe Photoshop Elements - V5 - which I had to buy separately). Don't worry about all that though, do a search of various threads on here and there have been several discussions here in the past about changing pixels in pictures ready to post here. Some of the software mentioned in those posts is free. I can't tell you more though because, as above, I use Photoshop myself;

5. Lastly, after a picture has been "sized" to appear good and big and clear on screen - as above, 1024 pixels seems to work well - you end up with a "file" (just like any other computer "document". Your file will probably be named something like "name of picture" plus a dot with 3 (or 4) letters behind it. Those 3-4 letters will most likely be "jpg" or "jpeg" (though there are others for handling picture files, those are the most common). The present software here on UKW allows a maximum "file size" (i.e. a single picture) of 150 Megabytes ("150 Meg") - that means 150 million bits of information in that single picture file. The picture you posted was "only" 100 KB (100,000 bytes) - i.e. roughly one fifteenth of the size you could have used. Obviously the more "information" in a single picture file the clearer and more detailed the picture will be when viewed on screen.

That's really all I can tell you - I'm already perilously close to "the blind leading the blind" - but as said, do a bit of searching here about posting pictures and there are several members who really do know their onions (and who are no doubt cringing at what I've written above)!

Re your Q about blade size numbers and TPI's: In the link below there are several tables. One is a list of blades for wood that Pegas makes. That table lists all the details of each blade, including the blade number, thickness, width, and TPI (though being Swiss, Pegas talks about "teeth per centimetre "or something equally metrically daft"!

Cheers, HTH

(1) Sourcing Blades for Scroll Saws and Jewellers, Piercing, Coping, & Junior Hack Saws | UKworkshop.co.uk

Many thanks again all, everything I have sent to this site I have used my Lenovo tablet. After reading what you say ,this is possibly why the pics are small? Don't laugh folks but prior to finding the "resize" option on my printer I used to photograph the pictures on my mobile then send it to my email, open it up on my laptop then open to print where all the options were available. I could then resize it from A4 to A3 if I needed or whatever! Will let you know how my Olson clamps weather in the future. I'm off to find that blade chart now! Cheers ......Joe