What am i doing wrong

[caretakereg]

I have just purchased a second hand scroll saw, only a cheep one, I need it to cut a wavy line down a wood pen blank.
It had a blade in the machine so I switch it on, all looks good as blade go's up and down, I slide the blank in slowly, it grips the wood and it go's up and down as well, I press hard down on the blank and it starts to cut but if I relaxed my presser a little, Wow.
Any tips on what to do.

 

[loftyhermes]

Is the blade in the right way? The teeth need to be pointing down to the table also a blade with more teeth will help.

 

[caretakereg]

I now have just changed the blade for a new one with more teeth but also made sure the teeth are pointing down.
I tried a strip of 1/4 ply 2x6 inches size it was not to bad across the 6" way but the length it was just trying to lift the wood.
The saw is a Silverlight machine, I must admit I'm on the verge of putting it back in the cupboard.

 

[lanemaux]

Have you any sort of hold- down device on your saw? I have about the bare minimum of scrollsaw that you could get from a manufacturer , and it came with a plastic hold down in the rough shape of a tiny telephone booth in clear plastic. It is attached to the stationary cover for the upper arm. I adjust it by putting a match book cover on the stock and letting it rest on the card stock thickness of the cover. Sloppy setup , I know, but it works to avoid major vibrations. Once tightened , I still keep firm pressure on the stock manually , but if I lapse in concentration at least my wood won't flap like a hummingbird on Benzedrine against the table. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[caretakereg]

I do have that plastic cover, I thought it was to stop sawdust or a blade guard, now it makes scents.
Will try it out tomorrow, thanks Lanemaux your a star.

 

[Silversam]

If you are trying to cut a very small piece of wood it’s difficult to hold and the blade will whip it out of your hand. As said above use the plastic to push the wood onto the table.

If you try a bigger piece,not thicker just bigger so you can hold it better. Go slowly too. Don’t force the blade into the wood. You need firm pressure on the wood pressing down but you will find with practise that you don’t need a lot of pressure to hold the wood to the table.

When I first tried the saw I was clenching my teeth so hard my jaw hurt lol
I learnt to relax which in turn helped to relax the downward pressure needed.

Make sure the blade is tensioned too. That again takes practise to get it right.
If a blade breaks, which it will eventually, that makes you jump.

So take it slow and don’t force the blade into the wood, let the saw cut the wood gently. It’s a slow process with thick wood.
The thicker the wood the higher the number blade you use too.
Andy

 

[pulleyt]

I've not done an awful lot of scrolling yet but I found the same problem as you when I started. I prefer not to use the hold down so I know I have to hold the piece down well. But I think I was doing a couple of other things that caused the blade to catch and raise the workpiece.

Firstly, I was quite tense holding the workpiece and I suspect I occasionally pushed it sideways a bit, deflecting the blade and causing it to bind in the kerf.

The other thing I was probably doing was forcing the workpiece through the blade too fast so that the teeth were digging into the bottom of the kerf and lifting the workpiece instead of cutting it.

I haven't got the technique properly sorted yet, but I am more relaxed and patient about cutting on the scrollsaw and I haven't had the workpiece bouncing on the tabletop for a while.

Hope this helps.
Trevor

Just seen Andy's reply and I'd agree with everything he said

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you don't use one, hot melt glue is brilliant stuff for holding awkward small pieces - just stick them to a bit of scrap.

 

[caretakereg]

I used the plastic hold down and it worked but thinking I will need more practise.
I have only just mastered my table saw after several months then my brother in law has a go and dose it better than me, he can have a go at the scroll saw, that will slow him down.
Thanks for all the tips and kind help.
Reg

 

[whatknot]

Hi, what blades are you using? good blades such as Pegas make a huge difference

 

[Alkeen]

I found that if the speed is slow the work piece will chatter up and down on the blade as it cuts but if the speed is increased the chatter stops but you still have to manually hold the work piece. Try lubricating the blade by wrapping the wood in masking tape or use a candle on the blade.

 

[whatknot]

Much of it is just down to practice, the more you do the better at it you become

Given that you are using good quality blades fit for the job in hand

Personally I do not use a hold down as they just tend to get in the way but if it makes it easier you, use it

Poor quality blades will tend to jam and not clear the sawdust and bind in the cut, causing unwanted lift

Most lifting can be cured with good blades and holding the workpiece down

I often use rubber palmed work gloves which give a much better grip, the sort of cheap workgloves you see all over including £ shops

 

[AES]

+1 for the above comments from whatknot.

Although blades cut on the down stroke (unless you put them in upside down!) there IS still a tendency for the job to get lifted up off the table a bit as the blade returns to the full up position. Just as wk says, you do need to keep a slight downwards pressure on the job at all times, and as he also says, this does take a bit of practice.

But that downwards pressure is usually only quite low - not enough to stop you moving the job around the blade when making even very complex cuts and tight curves for example.

As wk also says, you can use the hold down if you like (like him I removed mine because it gets in the way of a decent view of the cut) but I also found when teaching 2 new comers on my Ex 21 (talk about the blind leading the blind!) they both found it easier to start off with to have the hold down in place - both were lady friends of my wife and both independently said scrolling was a lot like using the sewing machine, especially comparing the hold down on the saw with the foot on the sewing machine.

But another thought - if your job is using wood which is especially "soft n hairy" and so creates a lot of soft clogging dust when cutting, and especially if you're using fine blades (nos. 2 or 3 for example) then excess dust COULD be jamming in the kerf and in between the blade teeth. That would increase the tendency for the job to get lifted up off the table when the blade is on the up stroke.

Another POSSIBLE cause is that if you don't tension the blade tightly enough (listen for the musical "ping"). That could also increase the tendency for the job to get lifted up off the table.

HTH