scroll saw blade won't stay tight

[Janice Calfee]

I'm new to this forum, and fairly new to scrolling.  I'm starting to do projects using thicker wood, and I've started having an issue with my blade constantly loosening.  I have a King scroll saw that is less than a year old.  It's probably user error, but I would appreciate any assistance you can offer.

 

Thanks  

[Jim McDonald]

Don't know about a King, but question is:

Are you losing tension, or does the blade come loose from the clamp. If it is coming loose from the clamp--top or bottom?

With more information, I am certain we will get an answer.

[dgman]

Hi Janice, welcome to the Village! The king saw is similar to a lot of scroll saws on the market that use a thumb screw. Saws like Excalibur, DeWALT, Delta, Jet, Pegas, Axminster and others. It’s a good clamping system, but the ends of the thumb screws tend to wear over time. Also, scroll saw blades have a thin layer of oil on them so they don’t rust. The thumb screw wear and oil tends to make the blade loose tension. There are several things you can do to solve this problem. First, if you remove the thumb screws, you will notice the tips are shiny and slightly rounded over. They need to be slightly rough and flat. You can use a nail file to sand the tip. Be careful to keep the end of the tip flat. Second, you can carefully sand the ends of your scroll saw blades to remove the oil. Removing the oil will help the blade clamps from slipping. When I load a new blade, I always Sand the ends. And about once a month, I sand the thumb screw ends. With this routine maintenance, I never have a slipping problem!

[Janice Calfee]

Thank you so much for the responses.  It doesn't seem to be losing tension, the blade appears to be slipping, but not all the way out, so I can't tell if it is from the bottom or the top.  I can tell by the way it cuts that it is loose, so I stop and tighten it before it comes all the way out.  I will look closely next time it happens to see if I can tell which is moving.

Thanks so much for the maintenance suggestions.  I will definitely implement those and see if that helps.  I will let you know what I find out.

 

Thanks again for your quick responses.

[OCtoolguy]

5 hours ago, Janice Calfee said:

Thank you so much for the responses.  It doesn't seem to be losing tension, the blade appears to be slipping, but not all the way out, so I can't tell if it is from the bottom or the top.  I can tell by the way it cuts that it is loose, so I stop and tighten it before it comes all the way out.  I will look closely next time it happens to see if I can tell which is moving.

Thanks so much for the maintenance suggestions.  I will definitely implement those and see if that helps.  I will let you know what I find out.

 

Thanks again for your quick responses.

Dan gave you excellent advice. Probably the most important is to "wash" the oil off the blades. I dip my blades in mineral spirits when I open a new bundle of them. Then, take the time to lightly sand the ends. Takes just a few seconds. All you want to do is "rough" them up.. Another important thing is to make sure the tip of your thumbscrew is rotating as it should. Most folks don't even know that the tip is removeable and rotates so as not to "twist" the blade ends. The last thing I would recommend is to upgrade the blade clamps to the Pegas style. They are lighter weight, and just plain better. I have 2 Excalibur saws from back in the early years and I have upgraded both. Fantastic difference. Keep on scrolling!

 

[rod143]

I use acetone to clean new blades before installing them and lightly sand them with fine grit sand paper. Probably mineral spirits are just as good, but I haven't tried that.

[new2woodwrk]

Gee, I've never cleaned a single blade before using

I must be missing something