hippygirl

I have a Skil SS (it's old but barely used) and am using the WEN pinless blade holders...just how deep into the blade holders, both top and bottom, are you supposed to insert the ends of the blades? I mean, the way I've been doing it is working, but I've always wondered if I'm inserting them too deeply...top holder, tip of the blade even with the top of the holder, same with the bottom (as far as I can tell, anyway). Thanks.

Oh, my saw is just a Skil. I just got the WEN pinless blade holders and they're MUCH better than others I've tried (I no longer have to crank the bolt down almost to the point of stripping the threads OR my allen wrench!). I have FD UR blades (sizes 3, 5, 7, and 9) and some Olson's I bought back when I first got my saw. If this goes well, I plan to upgrade my saw at some point...we'll see.

Thanks for the welcome (back...LOL!).

Hello all! I joined several years ago, but I got discouraged and stepped away from my SS. I've recently decided to give it another go and, for SOME reason, I seem to be able to actually follow the lines now...go figure! Anyway, just wanted to say hello and look forward to being part of the forum again!

That's lovely! I especially like the look of the "silky oak" (never heard of it before)!

Yup...it's metric. Thing is, the description said it was steel, but I think that refers to the screw itself, not the handle. My knee-jerk reaction is to classify these handles as junk, but considering it's somewhat hard to close the clamp even with the original hex head screw, I could be wrong. Anyway, I'm ordering a replacement blade clamp hoping MAYBE it'll be easier to close and less hard on my hands.

Well, so much for that...BOTH of the handles (the handle part, NOT the screw that goes through the blade clamp) have stripped or something! When the first one failed yesterday, I was sawing away, practicing curves, and the blade suddenly came loose (scared the bejeezus outta me, too!). I thought I might not have had enough of the blade in the top clamp, so when I went to unscrew the thing to open the clamp, it wouldn't "catch". Finally got it out, took the screw and spring out of the end of the handle so I could get a look...sure enough, several of the teeth seemed to be stripped. OK, so this is why I got TWO of them, so I popped the other one on and it worked fine for the rest of my session...loosened the tension at the top-rear of the arm, and called it a day. This afternoon, I decided to try out my new FD Jeweler's blade, removed the old blade, put in the jeweler's blade, started to close the clamp and whammo...it stripped (que "hurling obscenities into the cosmos" thing) So I'm right back where I started. I don't know if the blade clamp that came on my machine is defective or something, but even with the original hex head screws, it's pretty hard to close the clamp...I guess that's what stripped them. I'm going to order a replacement blade holder (only costs $4.18+$5 shipping from M&M Tools) with the hope it might close more easily, but I'm finished with this handle business...time to start saving for another machine. In the meantime, practice, practice, practice.

YAY! I actually made a deposit rather than a withdrawal!

If you're using WIndows, you can DL their snipping tool and capture anything on your screen (see pic below...Birds of Paradise font at DaFont). I'm using Win10 now and it comes with the tool, but when I was still using Win7, I downloaded it from Microsoft with no problems.

UPDATE - new blade clamp "handle" for Skill 3335...IT WORKS!!! It wouldn't pull the clamp together at first (and, yes, I almost went into "hurling obscenities into the cosmos while flinging the offending item wildly across the room" mode), but once I ran the threads over some beeswax it worked like a charm and is holding tight! Now I can start drilling some holes!

Nope...I say it all the time as well (I have NO recollection of where I got it from, though!).

Ended up ordering a 2-pack from Amazon (like the one in the first pic) for half the price as shown above, tossed in the clear test tubes for blade storage, and a $5 bowl scraper to get the order at/above $25 for free shipping. I also had a $10 credit so the entire order cost $17. I did go to HD again for extra parts, but ended up with the same result (screw wouldn't close the clamp with the wood knob attached), so I'll return the unopened items tomorrow. Now I can quit "fretting" over it!

Well looky here...TWO options at McMaster-Carr. Saw a reference online to "cam levers" and "cam handles", did a search and voila! I "think" the first one is the safer bet (it is, after all, a screw), but I'm going to call them tomorrow, tell them what I'll be using it for, and see what they can tell me about the clamping "force" of the 2nd one shown.

I know and it drives me CRAZY! I've been using Inkscape since v42 or so (the version before they intro'd the spiro tool anyway) and now I'm using v92...same old manual as far as I can tell. I mean, I get it that it's an open source collaboration (no one's getting paid), but it would be nice if someone out there would update the manual.

...but, for some reason, it won't close the clamp enough to hold the blade. To add insult to injury, the SAME screw WITHOUT the knob assembly DOES close it. Went to HD today, picked up a few different screws of the same size (M4-0.7), extra nyloc nuts, fender washers, 2-part epoxy, and a 1/2" piece of poplar (I'm determined to get this to work!). I can tell you one thing for certain...if I can learn to make my cuts as cleanly/neatly as what I've seen here and enjoy doing it (fighting with a piece of equipment sucks ALL of the joy out of a project!), I won't have this problem with my next SS...I don't care if it takes me a YEAR to save up for it!