You do an entire spiel about how easy it would be to use one, and they could use it too. You make all kinds of claims and promises about how much money you could save by making presents for the family members, like Aunt Martha who has everything and nobody really likes anyway, who never appreciates anything you give her, and you start talking about all the extra money you could make selling things you created on this awesome toy until finally, in a week or two you wear them down and they say okay.

The saw arrives, you get it set up, slap a pattern on some wood, because after all, this is easy, turn it on and almost immediately one of two things happen. The blade breaks, or you cut anywhere but where the lines are. Of course your spouse is right there watching and you get "the look." We all know what that is. Things like, what have I done, and it looked so easy, fill your mind. You wonder why you can't do what you saw the rep at the demo do. You failed to realize in your awestruck state at the demonstration that these people use their saws for hours 3-4 days a week if not more. Of course they are good.

But you can be good too. All it takes is practice, practice, and more practice. But sooner than you think, you will be cutting out those personal gifts that even Aunt Martha will love.

I will be posting tips and tricks and basic instructions here to help you learn to do what you saw done. Don't get discouraged and don't be afraid to ask questions. That's how we learn. What I tell you is not gospel. It works well for me and many others, but you might find a way of doing something that works better. If you do, please share it with us. We are all in this together and are here to help each other.

We were all beginners once and we learned from other people in groups like this one, by reading books, and by trial and error. I am hoping to take away some of the trial and error for you to make your learning experience even more pleasurable. And remember as you learn more and more and get better, even the most experienced scrollers still make designer firewood and wooden Frisbees from time to time.
 
 

This has got to be the most important thing you do. This holds true on every tool you own. Set it up right. Take the time to do it and you will be much happier with your saw.

The saw was set right when it left the factory and still could be, but given the fact that it has been bounced around in trucks, loaded and unloaded several times, and then brought to your house, it could be out of adjustment.

Don't put a level on your saw table and make the table level. What if your bench or your floor isn't level? Right away you have put your table out of square with your blade. So how do you determine if your blade is square with your table? There are several methods.

o        You can buy a 2" Machinist's Square and use it. I have a 3"
protractor with an angle gauge built into it. Costs less than $5.00. I don't use the gauge, I use it as a square.

o        You can cut about ½" into a piece of wood, remove it, and put it
behind the blade and see if your cut will slip into the back side of the blade. This is one of the most common methods.

o        Another way is to go about 1" into a piece of wood and cut about a
½" square piece out of the wood. If your blade is square to the table, the piece you cut should come out through the top or the bottom of your wood equally.

o        You can also use a piece of wood, such as oak or walnut, as long as
you are certain that the edges of it are perfectly square. Set it on your table and slowly move it towards the blade until you make contact, then check that the blade is touching the edge of your board equally. It's the same principle I use with my angle gauge.

Once you have everything squared up, you should have an adjustable pointer on your table that is located at the bottom of the saw in front of the table and has the numbers on it from usually 0-45. Your manual will be able to show you where it is. Loosen the pointer with a screwdriver or Allen wrench depending on your type of saw just enough to be able to move it if it is not setting on zero already. Once you get the pointer set, retighten the screw, taking care that the pointer doesn't move in the process. Then you are good to go.

Remember, this is a machine and it can work itself out of adjustment periodically, so check it from time to time, and anytime things aren't cutting squarely. There are several reasons that a blade won't cut square which I will cover in another section, but this is also one to check.

READ YOUR MANUAL! So many of us don't do that and there is a world of information in the manual that is specific to your brand of saw. Reading it now can save you grief down the road, and don't lose it either, because you will need it from time to time. It covers routine maintenance as well as troubleshooting, and a parts list should something need replaced. Nothing irritates a service technician more than hearing that you need this bolt looking thing for your saw but you don't have the part number or the model number of your saw. So keep it in a safe place with all of your other owner'
s manuals. You will be glad you did.

Proper set up is the key to making your saw do what it is supposed to do, the way it is supposed to do it. So set it up right the first time.

Now here is an issue that isn't easy to resolve, but it is possible, so don'
t be discouraged when you are first starting out and you are breaking blades or finding out that your cut is one size on the top and another size on the bottom.

What you will hear and read the most when it comes to blade tension is to tighten your blade until it makes a high C note sound when you pluck it. I suppose this method will work great if you happen to have a piano in your workshop to tune your blade to. But most of us don't, and what good is this method if you happen to be tone deaf?

I have said that I would try to help eliminate trial and error, but when it comes to blade tension, it is just something you have to learn to do, but here are a few pointers to hopefully make it easier.

First off, see what your manual says about how to tension your blade as well as how to install it. If it isn't installed properly it will break. If it breaks at the top, chances are you haven't installed the blade correctly in the upper blade clamp. If it breaks at the bottom, check to see that it is installed right in the lower blade clamp. Your manual will have this information.

If it breaks in the middle, you probably have the tension set pretty good, but you are feeding your wood into it with too much force. So slow down a little bit.

If your tension is not tight enough your blade will drift. It will want to follow the grain of the wood, and it will flex when you are turning corners and cutting curves. Flexing will cause your cuts to be out of square, usually wider on top than on bottom. This can be a major problem when stack cutting. If you are cutting a piece that is especially small in your pattern it is quite possible that you will completely lose that piece on your bottom board because the blade will be cutting a lot smaller piece on the bottom than on the top.

It's pretty frustrating to cut 4 pieces of something and take them apart only to find that the bottom one and maybe even the one above it are missing parts of the design. Yes, I know this from my own experience.

The basic thing to remember is that the smaller the blade, the less tension you put on it, and of course the larger the blade, the more tension is needed. We aren't talking about a whole lot of difference here, but there is some.

Experiment with your blade tension. That is the only way to learn. It can't be told, it has to be done. When you find what is just right for you, and it really doesn't take that long to do, remember how the tension felt, and in no time at all you will be an expert at blade tensioning.

Pluck the blade and it should give you a nice ring when it is adjusted right. Might be a high C or a B flat. It's hard to say, but as long as it works for you on your saw, that is all that matters. Being a musician is not a prerequisite for setting blade tension. You are still going to break a few blades, but that is part of the learning process, so don't let that discourage you.

By now you have figured out that there are a lot of blades out there to choose from, both in size and brand name. I am going to recommend to everyone, regardless of their experience, to try Flying Dutchman blades. If you were to take a poll of all the people who use a scroll saw on a regular basis, I believe the overwhelming majority will tell you that they use the Flying Dutchman blades. The prices are good on them, and the service you get is outstanding. They are available at www.mikesworkshop.com. I do not work for Mike, I get no commission or anything else for recommending his blades, they are just a great product. He will even send you a free sample pack to try out and there are no shipping charges. Having put in my two cents worth about that, I'll get back to the subject matter at hand.

Blades come in all sorts of sizes. The most common ones used are 2/0, 2-5-7 and 9. The larger the blade, the stronger it is so the theory goes. It is also said that the larger the blade, the less small detail work you can do.
I have seen some incredibly intricate work done with a # 9 blade, but this person was an RBI demonstrator who scrolled every day for hours on end.
Personally, I couldn't do what he did with that large of a blade.

All of these blades also come in the came sizes with an R after the number.
The R stands for reverse cut. When you cut with a regular blade, the back side is going to be very rough where the blade cut the wood. You can sand it, but if it is an intricate piece you risk breaking it. The reverse blades all but eliminate the tear out and sanding. Depending on the blade size they will have a few teeth on the bottom that cut on the upward stroke which removes the "fuzz" on the backside of the piece you are cutting.

The trade off between the two types of blades is that reverse blades cut 15-20% slower than standard blades. In my opinion, the time spent not sanding more than makes up for the slower cutting speed. Besides, right now, as a new scroller, you are more interested in accuracy than speed. Speed will come naturally as you get more experience using your saw, so don't worry about that part of it. I do not use anything but reverse tooth blades.
Which type you settle on is a matter of personal preference. I suggest you try both.

Smaller blades such as the 2/0 are a lot harder to control than the larger ones, so you will need to practice with them. I also found that after using Olson blades for quite some time, that the FD blades were hard to control because they cut a lot more aggressively than Olson blades. Again, this just takes practice till you get used to them.

Most of your manuals will recommend a certain size blade for a particular thickness and type of wood. These are good guidelines, but experiment with different blades in different woods and thickness.. You will find you can do a lot more with different blades than just what is listed in your manual.
The manual will also recommend the proper cutting speeds, as does several scroll saw books on the market.

Be sure to put the blade in with the teeth pointing down. These blades are small, so it's easy to put them in wrong. They don't cut very good upside down. Lightly run your finger against the blade and you can tell which way they are pointing. Don't put them in backwards either. They won't cut at all that way. Once again, the voice of experience is telling you this.

There are precision ground tooth blades (PGT) that tend to be stronger and cut straighter, but they are more expensive. I have found them to be good for cutting thick wood and compound cutting, but for normal cutting the regular blades work fine.

There are also specialty blades for cutting corian material, tile and glass, but since I don't know a lot about them, I will leave it to you to learn about them on your own.

There is one other type of blade I have avoided mentioning till now. It is the spiral blade and it comes in the standard sizes and can also be purchased with reverse teeth. Basically it is a standard blade that has been twisted into a spiral shape. A large amount of people will tell you they are the only blades to use. A spiral blade cuts in all directions at once. You don't have to turn the wood; you just feed the wood into the blade. It creates a lot of tear out on the back side, but I understand the reverse cut blades have really improved this problem.

I don't like them. We don't play well together. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try them out for yourself. You might love them. I might love them if I practiced with them some more. As I said, a lot of people swear by them, so you ought to try them at least a couple of times and judge for yourself.

As far as a blade of choice, I'd have to say# 5 or # 2 would be the best blade to start out with. The # 5R is probably my favorite blade and the one I recommend for you to learn with. But the # 2R is a close second. They are both excellent blades to learn with, and to continue sawing with.

In my album on this site I have several portraits posted. Everything except the Ground Zero ornament was cut with a # 5R blade. Take a look at them and you can see that you can do some fine detail work with a # 5. The ornament was cut wit a 2/0 by the way.

Practice with several different sizes till you find the one that feels the best for you, and then make a mountain of sawdust.

I'm not talking about side to side flexing. That has to do with blade tension. This is about the flexing of the blade as you feed your work into it.

No matter how slow you feed your work into the blade, the blade is going to flex backwards. Feed your work with too much force and the blade will flex to the breaking point and you will get that horrible noise that always scares you no matter how many times it happens. You know the one. Sounds like the entire saw is going to explode. We don't want that noise. We don't like that noise.

So when you are cutting out a project, particularly if it has a long section of cutting in it, look at your blade and see where the middle of it is in relation to the top of it. This just takes a second, and you can tell very easily if the top of the blade is outrunning the middle of it. It is always going to be flexed a little, but if it looks to be more than you think it should be, back off of your feed and allow the middle of the blade to catch up with the front of it. Doesn't take any time at all for it to catch up, and it could well save you from that heart stopping noise you get when a blade decides it doesn't want to be treated this way anymore.

Bear in mind that the smaller the blade, the more it is going to flex and adjust your feed accordingly. Like almost everything else there is in learning how to use a scroll saw, this is easy to figure out, and once you do, it's easier on your nerves too.

My Saw Won't Cut Straight!

No, it won't, but it's not your fault. You can have a line drawn that is perfectly in line with your blade, and you can hold your board in that perfect alignment and the cut will still go off the line, usually to the right.

Unlike other saw blades, scroll saw blades do not have teeth that are set so you can cut straight. Scrolling blades are stamped out, which leaves a burr on one side of the blade, most often on the right, so the blade wants to cut to the right. So you have to compensate for this by turning your wood and following the line that way. It doesn't take much, somewhere between a 5 and 10 degree angle as a rule. Once you get your cut going straight, take a look at your board and see how much of an angle you had to turn the board on the table. You can make a mental note of it, or you could even mark a line on your table for a general idea, but the angle can change with different blades, so I wouldn't recommend scribing a line in your table.

It doesn't take that much practice to figure out how much you need to turn your wood to get a straight line. For the most part you will be cutting curved lines anyway, hence the name scroll saw blade.

Precision Ground Tooth blades are made different than regular blades and will cut straighter, but it's been my experience that they too need to be turned a little.

One way that might help you is to think of your blade as a pencil, and you are simply tracing your lines to be cut. Just turn your board to follow the pencil (blade) just like you do when you are cutting curved lines.

Once again, with a little practice, you will be able to cut any kind of line you have to do. The key is go slow and practice. You will get better and you will get faster, and the problem of the blade not cutting a straight line will be one you no longer concern yourself with.

There is no standard answer to that question. It all depends on the size of the blade, the material you are cutting, and the speed and force you are using to cut with. In other words, it varies with each individual.

If you are cutting pine it will last longer than when you are cutting oak or walnut as a general rule. Plywood will dull a blade faster than any solid wood will because of the glue used in making the plywood layers.

So when do you change your blade? As you get more experienced, you will know. But here are some guidelines.

o        If you have been continuously cutting for 30 minutes, it's time to
change the blade. By now it is hot and dull. Remember that only a small portion of the blade actually does the cutting. Looking at the upper part of the blade won't tell you anything because it doesn't do any cutting.

o        If the blade absolutely refuses to follow the lines, you need a new
blade. If you continue to try to use one that keeps drifting on you there is a good chance you will ruin your project.

o        If you find yourself using more force than you were, you need a new
blade. Don't keep using a blade when you feel your arms start to ache. It isn't worth it.

Blades are cheap. Depending on what you buy, anywhere from 0.19- 0.25 each.
A new blade is a joy to cut with. It's easy to feed your stock in to and your lines are easy to follow.

Now the price I quoted may not seem right to you. It won't be if you run to your local home center or Wal-Mart, because they charge a lot for the blades and you don't get many of them. Anywhere from 5-12 is generally what you buy at these places. If you are really fortunate, there will be a supply store near you that sells blades in bulk amounts, like ½ gross or gross. If not, you can order them from a number of different places and still get them for a lot less money. You say you don't need 144 # 5 blades? Most places will let you mix and match blades of different sizes as long as they are in the same price range. The majority of these suppliers will want you to get a minimum of 3 dozen of each size to mix and match. But this is the way to buy your blades. It may sound like a lot of blades, but you will use them in time, and they don't eat anything.

As far as how long a blade will last it is something you will learn as time goes on, just as you will learn when it your blade is dull. Just remember, for the good of your project, your patience, and your arms, change your blades often.

This is an area that you don't think much about with a scroll saw. It's not like a table saw or a sander. It doesn't put out that much dust. Or so you think. You cut for a couple of hours or even all day and there's a little pile of dust on your table or bench, and you figure that you have found something that doesn't make much of a mess. But it does create a lot of dust.

How much dust? Try this. When you are done for the day, just wipe the dust off your saw table, and maybe something else that's easy to see in your shop area. When you come back the next day and look, you will find that the items you wiped clean are now coated with a very fine dust.

Scroll saw dust is sneaky. You don't really see it. The dust doesn't cloud up the room you're in like a saw or sander will, but it is still there. It's a known fact that the dust from some species of wood can be toxic, and over a period of time any wood can be toxic if you breathe enough of it in. Dust collection for a scroll saw is just as important as it is for any other tool that generates dust. The difference is that the dust from your scroll saw is extremely fine and you can't even see what is floating around in the air, and that you are breathing in.

So what do you do? There are a lot of products out there to choose from. You can do something as simple as wear a dust mask, and many do. Personally, I don't like to wear one myself, even though I probably should. You can buy a product that you wear on your back that filters the air as you breathe through an attached mask. You can even build an elaborate dust collection system if you'd like. However, you can get in to a lot of money doing that.
What can you do that is affordable? To start with, there is one thing you can do that will greatly reduce the amount of dust in the air for a small amount of money.

Get a 20" box fan. It will run you less than $20. Then buy some furnace filters of the same size. (20" x 20". I buy 2 different types. One is the cheap one, and the other is a little more and has pleats in it. I just tape the one with pleats to the back of my fan, and the other one to the front.
Set the fan up about saw table height as close as you can get it to your saw with the fan blowing away from you. This is the most basic of all filtering systems and while it won't work as well as some air cleaners, it won't cost you $250-$300 either, and it will make a difference in how much fine dust is floating around your work area. A big difference.

Many scroll saws come with a built in dust port of one kind or another. The Dremel has one on the side and I've seen a few others that way too. RBI has a hole in the table that you stick a vacuum hose into, right under your saw table. If you have a machine with a dust port, use it with a vacuum of some kind.

Most shop vacs make a lot of noise. Some will run you out of the house. But some aren't all that bad. Shop Vac makes one called an All Around. It is a small unit with plenty of power, and not terribly noisy. They sell from around $60-$90. Shop around. Some companies sell the same thing with their name on it for more money. That is what I use. If you have the space to do so, you can run your hose through a wall to the vacuum in another room, and you barely here it.

I have a foot switch on mine I rigged up so that whenever I step on it the saw and the vacuum both run at the same time so I don't forget to turn the vacuum on.

You can get a dust collector, (different from a regular shop vac) that will not only take care of the sawdust, but will filter the air that is exhausted, but most of them have 4" fittings, so you would have to get parts to reduce the hoses down to fit your machine, which causes something called friction loss and greatly reduces the efficiency of the machine. They too are not real loud, but they take up more space and cost from $100-$450 or more depending on what size machine you get. On the plus side, you can use them all around your shop.

There are also air filtering machines that will change the air in your shop several different times an hour, depending on what size you buy. They are usually ceiling mounted and many can be purchased with a remote control.
These units range from $200-$500. A bench top model is available which is handy because you can use it when sanding as well as scroll sawing and several other things that create fine dust. Once again, some places put their own name on them and charge you more for them, and occasionally less.
They are called portable air cleaners and range from $99-$160. Something else it will pay you to shop around for.

As you can see, you can spend a little or a lot to keep the dust under control. For starters I would recommend the box fan with the filters. It will serve you well, and you can upgrade to better systems if you feel you need to at a later time.

But do set up some sort of dust control system. Not only will it save your lungs, it will make your shop or work area much more enjoyable to be in, and you won't end the day by putting a finish coat on your work only to come back the next day and find it full of dust that has gotten in to your finish. You may not eliminate all of it, but you will get rid of the majority of it. So breathe easy and have fun.

Stack cutting is a great way to get things done faster. That's a plus. On the minus side, if you make a mistake you can't fix, you've ruined more than one piece, but I think the risk is worth it. There are several different ways to stack your wood, and I will touch on all of them, and tell you which one works best for me.

Why stack cut? It doesn't take any longer to cut 3, 4, or however many pieces you have stacked than it does to cut one. If you are making things to sell and it takes you 30 minutes to cut 1, why not cut 4 of them at the same time. By doing that your labor costs have dropped a lot. Plus I find it much easier to control 4 pieces of wood stacked together than it is to control one piece of 1/8" plywood.

How many pieces do you stack together? That is a personal preference. I have heard that you shouldn't go more than 8 at a time. I've not tried 8 (Seems like too many to me). As a rule, and I need to say this, I am talking about 1/8" plywood here, I stack 4 at a time. Occasionally I will stack 5 together. How many you stack is how many you feel comfortable doing at a time. If I am cutting ¼" material, be it plywood or solid wood, I stack 2 at a time.

How do you hold them together? There are several tried and true ways. Some use small nails on the edges and waste areas. If you do this, it is important that the nail does not go through the bottom piece. Besides being hard to maneuver, you will really scratch up your table and nobody wants that.

Double face tape works really well. But if you use it, buy the cheap stuff.
I know, I am always saying get the best you can afford, but not in this case. There is a cloth double face tape, but you don't want it. VERY HARD TO REMOVE WITHOUT DAMAGING YOUR WORK. The plastic (cheap) tape is much better for holding the wood together because it comes off much easier. I will discuss removal of it a little later.

I use a different method. There is a paper made that is like double face tape that I have heard good things about, but it is costly. I use regular copy paper, spray temporary bond adhesive to both sides and put it between the layers of wood. It comes off very easily and I don't have to worry about taking pieces of wood off with it.

So here is the process I use in stack cutting. You can use some of it, all of it, or you might not want to use any of it, but after trying many different methods, this is what works best for me.

First I cut my wood to size, such as 8" x 10" for portraits, or whatever size I need to have for the particular projects I am working on. Then I sand each piece, front and back. You don't need to do a lot. I usually run over it with a piece of 120 grit using a mouse sander. A ¼ sheet sander would do the job too, but don't use a big belt sander because you are liable to take too much material off using it. You can also hand sand it too.

Then I blow the dust off, put a piece of paper that has been sprayed with glue and cut to size on it, and put another piece on top of that, and continue that way till I get as many stacked together as I need. It is important to keep your stack straight. It needs to be even on all 4 sides so it is all cut the same way.

Once they are stacked, I use 2" clear packing tape and wrap it around the entire stack, covering the wood completely. You can use masking tape, or painter's blue tape too. I use the packing tape because it is the most cost effective, at least in my part of the country. Then I apply spray glue to my pattern and put it on top of the tape. You can put the pattern on first and then the tape, but by having the pattern on top you don't have to worry about removing it from the wood when you are done. The main reason I put the pattern on top if the tape is to eliminate the glare from the tape. It can be kind of hard to see with the light reflecting off the tape.

Once it is all taped together and the pattern is on, I drill all the holes needed. When you drill, put a piece of scrap under your stack so you don't have tear out on your bottom piece. Lot easier to thread the blade into the hole when it is nice and smooth on the bottom.

Now you are ready to start cutting. As always, or at least almost always, start in the center and work out. If you have some particularly delicate areas, once they are cut, take the piece you cut out and stick it back in the project and secure it with some scotch tape. This will give you added support.

Don't force your saw blade. You know how you can cut thicker wood and it will be different on the top than it is on the bottom because the blade will flex on you. The same holds true with stack cutting. In some cases, such as detailed portraits, you can ruin the bottom piece if you apply too much pressure, especially side pressure, so be very mindful of keeping your blade as straight as you possibly can, and always make sure your table is square with your blade. Doesn't matter if the saw itself is not perfectly level.
What matters is that the table and the blade are square with each other. And remember, plywood will wear out a blade faster than solid wood and blades are cheap. Change blades as often as necessary to maintain a smooth even cut that does not require you to push the wood into the blade until your arms hurt. If you have to do that, you need a new blade 15 minutes ago.

So you are done cutting and it looks like everything is okay. No wooden Frisbees or firewood. Now you have to get them apart without breaking all those little pieces you've spent hours creating. So start peeling off the tape. I generally start on the back side and it usually comes right off. But if it doesn't, don't force it. I use a heat gun on low setting, but a hair dryer works too, and so will mineral spirits. If you use a heat gun be careful. You can burn your wood, burn your fingers, or set that little stack of scrap wood close by on fire. You don't need to know how I know these things, just trust me on this.

It takes a little time, and sometimes more than a little time to get your tape off. Occasionally it will peel right off, but don't expect that to happen often. I would imagine the blue tape would come off the easiest, but around here it is very expensive. If you have used double face tape and it is still sticking real well, gently pry your wood apart just a little and run your heat gun in the gap. Once it warms up, it comes right off. If you use the paper with the spray glue, it should be no problem to take off, but if it is, a little heat will solve that problem.

Occasionally, there will be some tape residue on your project. I don't know why there is sometimes, and other times there isn't. Full moon, Mars position in the sky, who knows. Mineral spirits will solve that problem. Don 't try to sand it off. All that does is just gum it up in one area of your wood and then it is really hard to get off.

Once in a great while, I guess for the same reasons mentioned earlier, the tape will take off very small pieces of the plywood. They are pretty small and a light sanding will usually take care of smoothing the wood.

After you have all the pieces apart and any glue residue removed, sand the pieces lightly, and gently so you don't break anything off. Now you are ready to apply your finish of choice, but remember, you are still handling some delicate work, so be careful.

Stack cutting is really not that much different than cutting a piece of solid wood. It just takes a little more preparation, and a little extra care when you take the finished pieces apart from each other. Even with the time spent in preparation and removal, it is still a lot faster than cutting one piece at a time. It just takes a little practice. So get some wood stacked together, turn on the saw, and let the dust fly.