dickross

Moving forward on the downstroke would seem like the logical way to design the linkage. For some reason, Dewalt reversed this on the 788. The stoke is .75" so when cutting .75" wood the chips should clear regardless of forward or back motion. Also does anybody know the difference between the 788 type one and the 788 type two??

LarryEA, I forgot to ask, On your Delta saws. Does the blade move forward or backwards on the down stroke?? Dick

I've spent my whole life making things better or finding new ways to do things. It's just not in me to ignore something that looks wrong. Sometimes it turns out I'm the one that's wrong, Sometimes I get another Patent. But I generally end up a little smarter than when I asked the question. Dick

I made that modification a couple years ago shortly after I got the saw.. It did help a lot but doesn't address the the question I asked.. Both arms that hold the blade are 4" long from pivot point to blade. The stroke is .75". If you do the math that means the blade moves back and forward .071" as it strokes up and down. The arms are horizontal when the blade is raised to the top of the stroke. that means the blade is moving back, away from the operator, as it goes down.. If you run the saw at its slowest speed and look at the blade at eye level. you can almost see that its going down and back at the same time. Or, stop the saw with the blade at its highest point. Then place a scrap of wood against the back of the blade, push the upper arm down manually. You'll see the blade kick the wood back about a 1/16". I'd really like to hear from somebody with another brand saw to see if it's made the same way. Dick

I have a Dewalt 788 saw. When looking at the blade motion. The blade goes down and back away from the operator. Then up and forward. This seems backwards!!! and the forward and back motion is around .090". This seems excessive.. If I was going to design a saw from scratch I would try for .040 or .050" front to back motion (2 X tooth height on avg. blade) and the blade would move forward on the down stroke.. Are all scroll saws made this way? What am I missing? Dewalt is a big company, surely they must have a couple people smarter than me! Just for grins, I put a blade in backwards and tried pulling the wood into the blade. It seemed to cut faster and was very much easier to hold down. It was very hard to follow a line. I'm sure that is partly due to just being a new way to do things. Dick