JTTHECLOCKMAN

Brighter light Kevin. Outlast you though.

I use to use those magnifiers just for a light source, now I can not scroll without the magnifier. Not sure what happened. Have the first one I ever used which was an incandescent bulb one. I just got rid of one that had the starter on the outside if anyone remembers those lights.

I always followed my Dads wise words of wisdom. "If is not broke don't fix it" Carried me this far. I will tinker but just because I see a better way.

I just was making a point about the Zerk fitting on those bearings. That was brought up. Bearings are a huge problem on lathes as I mentioned and most forums I go to the answers are to buy a better quality bearing and a site is usually given rather than getting same ones from the lathe company you bought.

Maybe that is why my saws have had no maintenance needed on them. Around that age. I have run the heck out of them and they are still ticking like a clock. Don't make things like they use to.

Seems like I am always looking to be the negative guy. Well here I go again. Doing scrolling requires to be relaxed, not hunched over the saw. You have to find that perfect distance when wearing those. I use some when working on watches or other fine detail work. It is not for hours and hours though. A good magnifier attached to a saw can be swung into play or out of play very easily. Easy to set distance because it stays when set the first time. Just my opinion. One of mine broke a few weeks ago so I will be picking one up when the woodworking show comes to town in Feb. May pick up 2 and have a spare. Now they make them LED.

Dave that is not necessary. They do make quality bearings that will outlast the entire saw. Sealed bearings is nothing new. Why these companies do not use better ones is only guess work but it probably is a $$$ thing. If the things mentioned were added to the Dewalt it would put it out of the midrange saws and into the higher end saws. The market is more lucrative in the mid range than the higher end.

Best line yet. This way of thinking can be applied to all tools. Why not have a saw just do the work for you as you sit back and have a beer. Oh yea CNC and lasers they have things like that. How about a handheld coping saw. If you ask 100 different scrollers this you will get 1000 different answers. Most of the top saws do what you are asking. They may go about it differently. I know it is a hypothetical question but any changes will mean retooling which will increase costs. Some saws there are simple little things that can be added but so can you if they are simple. As I said a true scroller designed the Seyco saw. Anyone have this saw and can give us feedback. Maybe that perfect saw is this.

This is one that will again draw alot from the saw you are currently using. Unless you are a guy like Steve Good who is able to use many different types of saws over the years and put them through the paces. To me I would not change a thing on my Hawk 220 or 226 except the plastic bottom clamp holder. But that was an easy fix. Now these saws are from an age when they just improved over the barrel clamps. I am not into a vac system on a scrollsaw. Listening to a vac while scrolling to me is nerve racking. After each session of scrolling I roll the vac over and vac around the saw. I have a shop air cleaner close by. Half the noise of the vac and I do not even realize it is on many times. From what I am reading the New Seyco saw is suppose to be the cream of the crop. They took many ideas from other saws as well as their older saw and made a good product. I have not tried it. Years ago all the saw companies use to come to woodworking shows to pedal their wares but none do this now at least my woodworking show. The last company was PSI who did that but that saw is in my opinion not worth the money.

You can take that same perspective and use it for anything that is bought today. I agree highend saws are just that for a reason. But you have also seen over the years many of these saw companies have changed hands and those are the ones that seem to be making the news. Hegner which I believe is one of the few companies that is still run by the same group and you do not hear peep about problems with their saws. What is also disturbing is if and when there is a problem there are no close service outlets to take care of problems. Sending a saw back is almost impossible and if not mechanically inclined doing the work yourself is challenging to say the least. The people that buy into the business do not have the same connections to the customer as the original owners did. You see this all the time. Those people are just after the $$$ because they figure the ground work has been done for them. Just my thought. You see this bearing problem many times on lathes too.

I meant to say 2/0 jewelers blades. I cut 1/8" brass with them. #5 blade is what I use for cutting wood most of the time. I know what they are like I gave you my source for blades. Maybe you need to try them.

We have had this conversation before. I have an older Hawk and I have cut with jewelers blades as low as #5 and do not break them. Do slow the saw down some but not drastic. at some point I will try cutting some coins. Have so much on my to do list now though.

Agreed Randy and in fact if you read my post to him I mentioned that. His counterpoint was a straight line cut. Many times it comes down to what you became familar with Have you cut coins on the Dewalt and done fine detail work with it??

Randy, Here is what I can tell you. When the Dewalt saw came from the factory it had an aggressive cutting action in that when the blade came down into the wood it was forward more and then rock backwards. This is what everyone is talking about that the RBI has a more straight up and down motion and does not rock forward much. You can change that setting by moving the bottom clamp. Now the top clamp stays the same so it is now forward of the bottom clamp making it an aggressive cut. What I did is take the aggression out of the dewalt saw by making the top and bottom clamp equal. Whatever rocking motion you get from blade travel is now minimal. Both saws even though they use different arm configurations are about the same aggressiveness at least on my saws. As I said I am not sure how the newer dewalts are coming through but easy to test if you use the method I explained with the straight edge in the back of the blade and move the arm up and down by hand and watching the spacing between straightedge and blade as you do this. Not sure about other saws either but again an easy test to do as I explained. I do not have a video camera so I can not set up a video of my set up.

Ray, I was talking about the Dewalt saw. Seems to be a serious discussion about the Hawk and the Dewalt. IN the lower photo I show what I did to improve the forward motion of the blade on a dewalt. I calculated the amount I needed and made a shim. Then had to enlarge the 2 side holes to be able to secure the table. The Hawk as the ability to do this with the placement of the bottom clamp so no further adjustment is needed. Anyone who uses a Dewalt especially for delicate work and marquetry work usually made some sort of adjustment. There is a scrolling club that goes to a woodworking show that I attend and they showed me that trick. I believe Rick Hutcheson has done this also and maybe on his site. That fix was popular with the Type #1 saws coming out of Canada which I have. What the saws look like now as far as that aggressiveness is something I do not know because I never measured on a newer saw. I believe both Iggy and Kevin have a newr saw and never made that adjustment and it is set up to be more aggressive in cutting. So it is unfair for me to compare any more. In my mind and on my saws the way I have them set up they cut the same speed. I do not tell anyone to alter anything but will offer my solutions if I found a way to improve something. It is only metal. My saw is way beyond warrenty.

Did all those people need a map on how to get there or did they just use Alexa or Siri??/ Just kidding Good luck.

Could be a number of rosewoods also. cocobolo is usually in the brown series but can run the gamut. http://www.wood-database.com/wp-content/uploads/cocobolo.jpg

inch for inch yes Not that fragile. Cutting the brass was the hardest part of the project. The stain glass in the steps made me have to go out and buy a better glass cutter than I had, that is for sure.

Like I said if neither Iggy or Kevin did not correct this then their saws will cut more aggressive than mine for sure.

Red heart is a heavy exotic wood. I know it it is hard to see but here is Redheart with a Danish oil finish on it in this project.

What photos are they??? If this is what you are asking. This topic came up before and I tried to find the thread. To fix the aggressiveness of the Dewat there are 2 methods. This was mine. There is a method that moves I believe the upper blade clamping system. This is that video.

Better than a video Iggy, because it is so hard to tell at least for me even at low speeds to see any difference, to use a machinist square. There are 2 ways to make sure your blade is cutting at it optimist. I am sure you and most scrollers are familiar with those methods. The first is to make sure the table is referenced 90 degrees to the blade. Not that the table is level. Take a straight edge and place against the back edge of the blade on each side of the blade after you installed a blade in the clamps. I like to use a small machinist square for this. There should be no spacing between the blade and square on both sides. You need to just kiss the side of the blade because any pushing of the blade throws off the test. You adjust the table left or right till you get it perfect. Now the blade is trued to the table and your cuts should be straight up and down. You could also use the cutting test where you cut a slot and then reverse the wood to the back of the blade and it should slip into slot easily. If not adjustments are needed. The next test is to see the forward and backward motion of said blade. This is done with the same square set at the back of the blade. As you by hand push the arm up and down you will observe the travel of the blade from its top stroke position to bottom stroke position. The ideal position is to have the same amount of gap at both the top and bottom of the stroke with the center part of the stroke having the blade flat against the blade. This test will give you a better view of your saws blade travels and you can see how aggressive it cuts. If more gap at the top stroke then it is set for more aggressive cutting. Again this all depends how you install the blade in the clamp. I like to bottom out my blade at all times so I know it is the same for every blade. Some saws allow you to set the blade a little forward in the clamp and this will allow more aggressive cutting. When I got my Dewalt I wanted my saw to cut as perfect straight up and down as possible. I showed the photo here before of how I had to adjust the back end of the table to allow this. Back then Dewalt saws were known for their aggressive cutting action because the top of the blade was a larger gap than at the bottom of the stroke. The RBI has ways that this can be accomplished too. But for me I like to be straight up and down. Maybe this is why I do not see the speed difference in the 2 saws. I can post that photo again if someone is interested.

Len do not be afraid to jump in. It is not anything here that is gospel. I probably took Iggy's original posting and took it down a different path but that is what we do. Maybe I am or maybe I did miss the entire point. I just could not and still can not see the justification of speed when scrolling anything. I understand all the desires to meet deadlines and order numbers and quantity numbers but they are just numbers. No one is holding a gun to these guys heads telling them to do it or else. So many factors go into doing tests against saws. If someone knows of tests like this that have been done against the top brand names I would be interested in reading. I posted this question on another forum trying to get outside info because I have never seen testing like this. Come on in and play. No right or wrong answers.

Would not hurt them if you dip in jewelry cleaner if the wife will let you have some. Then as mentioned run through a piece of scrap wood a little thicker than what you will be using for a quick time.

Kevin I do not care about the speed. I use my RBI saw and love it and will defend it against any saw on the market. If you want to do speed tests so many things need to be the same. Same speed, same blade, same table top resistance, same weight ratio if you are setting up pulling like someone suggested. same wood density, and probably more things. The thing about blades not lasting as long with one saw compared to another is another mindboggling thing to me. I can not wrap my head around you 2 guys and your findings. Let me take a 10 inch Freud tablesaw blade and put it on a Delta saw and the same blade and put it on a jet or a Sawstop saw and tell someone that one saw wears the blade faster they would laugh their A-- off. The same goes for a scrollsaw blade. The teeth contact the wood the same amount of times unless there is a drastic difference in distance of arm travel if all elements are equal as listed above. Unless you drastically adjust the angle of cutting then that is a factor.I believe all this is a mind thing with you 2. I do believe different saws do have different blade travel lengths. Longer means more teeth cut thus lasting longer as opposed to shorter travel because the same teeth have to do more work to cut the same. Now if you can prove this then you have something worth taking note of. I do not have all the specs on each saw. Some saws you can vary the length of the blade by the amount of blade you have sticking in a clamp. That can affect blade travel distance too. My point here this is not a scientific study that will carry any weight at least not with me. But knock your socks off and have at it.