Hi Aberdeen, welcome to the Village! This is one of those questions that always gets a lot of answers. Since your interest is in puzzles, just about any scroll saw will get the job done. However, if you are looking for a quality saw that gives you a quality cut and is durable, there are a lot of choices. I would stay away from the 16” saws that can use pinned and pin-less blades as they require adapters to mount pin-less blades, which is what you will want to use. Also, the quality and durability of these saws are not the best.
On the high end, there is Hegner and Buston Hawk. Both of theses brands will last you a life time and provide a pleasant scrolling experience, but are not economic.
In the middle, there are many saws that will serve you well. The Delta and DeWALT saws are very good saws. Both are user friendly and will serve you well. Unfortunately, both saws use inferior berings that need to be replaced after an extended period of use. If this is just a hobby, they will last many years without service. If you are looking to cut full time, I would consider the next class of saws. These include the Excalibur type of saws commonly referred to as EX type. These include Excalibur EX1, King, Pegas and Seyco. All these saws are made in the same factory in Taiwan except for the Excalibur EX1 which is made in China. I would stay away from this one as it dose not meet the Same quality standards as the Taiwan made saws.
All the above saws except for the 16” saws have segmented air hoses which stay in place when cutting and usually provide enough air to blow the dust off of the cutting line. As far as lights staying in place, none of the recommended saws come with a light as lighting is always up to the user.
Changing blades is always one of the most important features of a saw. As I said earlier, the 16” saws use adapters to use pin- end blades. In order to cut puzzles, you need to use a very small numbered blade. Pinned blade are very large. For puzzles you want to use a 2/0 or 3/0 blade. Pinned end blades don’t come in this small of a blade.
All of the middle and above saws come with durable tables.
now, what do I recommend? Remember, you are going to get a lot of recommendations. I used DeWALT saws for over twenty years. I went through three of them. If they were a more durable saw, I would stick with it as that’s what I have been used too.
I purchased a Pegas saw at the beginning of the year, and I love it. As with all the EX type saws, the arm tilts rather than the table tilting. Comes with The Pegas blade clamps which are far superior than any of the other EX saws. While this is a relatively newer saw, the durability hasn’t been tested yet, but appears to be a very durable saw.