scrollsaws

I have a dewalt.. love it. The excallibur is excellent, and tilts the frame rather than the table.

Look for used.

Of course if you really get into it, the Hegner and RB are the way to go. but first dip your feet. Buy yourself a set of reading glassed 3.0 for working fine lines.

I no longer have a scroll saw but many years did have a Delta, POS.

I believe that scroll saws are a bit like band saws. Inexpensive ones are going to always need some kind of tweaking. Life is too short for aggravating equipment, IMHO.

Anyway those that woodchucker mentioned have always had good reviews.

Leon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

I think scrollsaws are like bandsaws in that the blade makes much more difference than the saw.

That said, in the little scrollsawing I've done, the biggest annoyance was sawdust collecting on the line I was trying to follow, so I'd say a good dust blower is the important feature to look for.

John

One of my friends does a lot on the scroll saw, and they have their own str ange little community here. He loves his really large DeWalt. He had a co uple of cheap ones, a Dremel and something else, and told me they were crap . Weight is needed for dampening of vibration, and then of course accuracy of the saw's movements.

I would agree 100% about the dust blowing as well as collecting. Not one o f the guys that I have met saw outside on the patio. They saw in the air c onditioned garage, or a converted room in the house. In their cases, dust collection is a must.

Robert

Surprisingly, Craigslist - wherever you happen to be - generally seems to have a number of the Hegner scroll saws within driving distance.

Some great deals to be had. I got their top of the line model - Polymax, 20",somewhat vintage, but working like a charm - on Craigslist at a price that made me think I should be wearing gloves and mask

Contacted the manufacturer's rep out east, picked up some missing parts and upgraded the tensioner. I don't think I have much over $500 total invested in a $2900 plus shipping tool.

Good tip on the glasses. I find the magnifying glass light to be more of a hindrance than a help.

That is the opposite of my experience. I had an 18" Rikon BS for a brief period of time and it did well with no name brand blades, sometimes, and never with a quality blade like Timberwolf. In fact Timber wolf sent me replacement blades to remedy the tracking problem with no luck. I had a couple of off brand blades made for the saw and one did fine as well as the no name brand blade that came with the saw.

I returned the saw two weeks later because of that problem and other issues and ordered a Laguna LT16HD band saw. That was the end of my blade problems, period. I have a very low tolerance level for having to tweak every setting when changing blades and between saw operations days apart.

The Delta scroll saw that I had would almost vibrate off of the table and could not hold on to the blade.

Now I will agree that a quality blade is most likely to perform well and last longer but as far as tracking and cutting well the free throw in blades that Laguna gave me with the saw were as easy to set up to track perfectly on the saw as the Timberwolf blades and the Laguna Resaw King blade. Timberwolf was gracious enough to give me full credit on the 5 blades that I previously purchased, for the 150" blades that fit the Laguna.

I understand that many people have better results with different brand blades but my results with the Laguna are that the quality or brand of blade does not matter.

Just so happens I have pictures. ;~)

These two show a fresh cut with a Laguna throw in blade. It appears it was a 1/2" blade. I did this before the replacement Timberwolf blades arrived.

Pretty thin

This is a tiger maple veneer I cut with the Resaw King 1.25" blade. I had a 4"x4"x36" piece that I wanted to use and not all of it. The veneer is glued to the 1/2" thick regular maple drawer fronts.

I had 26 drawer fronts to cover.

The Woodcraft store I used to work at used nothing but the DeWalts for classes. Took a lickin' and kept on tickin'.

And yes, I could put a coin on edge and leave it there - vibration is next to non-existent.

That was all over 5 years ago - the bean counters may have cheapened it by now, but if not you can't beat it for the money. One review I remember said it was "90% of a Hegner for 20% of the cost."

i will keep my eye out for a dewalt

always do but will probably have to get new unless i am lucky

those are like the festool of scroll saws

i saw a video of an eclipse and it was taken at a trade show the unit had a window in the side to see the inner workings but i also saw a circuit board

still puzzled over why it had a circuit board

right now good lighting is enough but will probably need something later

one site recommended them due to their lower price I think

i try to never aggravate my equipment and life is too short in any case

You say that here but I wonder if that is the truth. ;~)

now the wood is another story

i got some oak logs cut fresh and decided to rough turn them while wet very rough and nothing concave or convex just a cylinder

then i stored them indoors on some bricks so it was cool and dry

they split all the way to the center and along the length of the piece not just a hairline either

i will let them sit longer and eventually salvage much smaller pieces from them after i cut them in half along the split

Maybe painting them would have helped? I know people frequently put something on the ends. I suppose that's where the highest "concentration" (per square inch) of evaporation occurs.

I have a DeWalt and love it. It cuts thru everything I have thrown at it and keeps going great.

That said, I hope one day to upgrade to the Excaliber which are about double the price, but very well worth it imho, if you scroll a lot.

If you can find a good used Excaliber, Henger or RBI Hawk for a reasonable price, you would probably be very pleased. I don't know anyone with an Excalibur who isn't happy.

I got my DeWalt off a guy only selling it because he won an Excaliber and his wife wouldn't let him keep both in the house. He had health issues, on oxygen, and had to stay indoors.

As a side note, I have a small bandsaw (3-wheel gift from FiL) that I use to bulk cut wood for scrollsaw, carving or pyrography. It works well but no way it can do what the DeWalt can do in detail.

Hope that helps!

You need to seal the ends of the logs and let dry. Just like you see on the ends of hardwood lumber that.

Leon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Might not have helped. Oak likes to split. I used to love it when splitting firewood with my brother-in-law if we got some oak to split, because you barely had to tap it with the maul and it'd break cleanly all the way thru. He got some cottonwood once (it was free) and that stuff has such interlocked grain it wouldn't split at all. I think he eventually chain-sawed it into wedges.

John

If you leave the heart (pith) in the log, it WILL split. If you really want the wood for later use, make two lengthwise cuts, on each side of the pith, then seal the ends. You will have two half logs, with luck, which is better than none.

the cheaper the better and i doubt i will want to upgrade later as this is really just for doing decorative features that are part of a larger whole piece

so mid-range but not garbage is what i am trying for

i think the delta 40-694 and dewalt 788 share some heritage

i watched a video on the 788 and the design of the saw action makes a lot of sense

the guy talked about the needle bearings drying out he used valvoline synthetic grease with a specially rigged grease gun it has 32 needle bearings

i saw another video of a guy assembling the 40-694 and they must be literally from the same mold and the delta $100 cheaper

it is funny you say that because before i posted this message i looked around at websites and noticed that there is some kind of scroll saw sub-culture

different than wood turners a lot wider audience of participants but it is good because it is wood there is some really beautiful and amazing work done on scroll saws i had no idea

have heard good reviews on it

yes the blade action is driven by an eccentric shaft like a crankshaft and introduces very little movement into the system

and the delta seems to share heritage with it but is $100 less i still need to look around for some more delta info