TerryD

I have cut quite a few ( probably 8 or more ) of Mikes patterns over the years and loved doing all of them. They are a bit of a challenge but very rewarding once finished. I would recommend his patterns to anyone who likes to cut detailed fretwork patterns.

I had a saw similar to this when I first started scrolling and found it is very difficult to set up a spiral properly. The best piece of advice I can give you is to lightly clamp the blade to the top blade holder first. Make sure the top of your blade is level with the top of the allan screw in your holder. Now tighten your blade to the holder at the bottom. It will twist out of shape but if it is aligned properly it shouldn't matter too much. Remove your blade from the top holder and it should be fine to retighten several times because there is no excess blade sticking out from the top to twist. Hope this helps ( and makes sense ). Terry

Hey Jim. Big GOT fan here. I have a suggestion for an inside pattern on a round coaster. A Dire Wolf. If you're not a fan, it is on everything related to the Stark Family on the show. (Coat of Arms, Standard etc..) Should be lots of patterns out there to pick from and your nephew would love it. Terry

Sam I have been scrolling for about 20 years and still have this problem at times. I mainly use the 2/0 or 3/0 spiral which is harder to clamp because the blades continue to turn towards the top. If all the great advice given here does not work for you and you are still having issues you may want to use a small pair of needle nose pliers to straighten the blades as they start to bend. It will not fix your problem but it will extend the blade life. A #1 blade is still pretty small and it doesn't take much for them to start to bend. Terry

Hey Chris, Excellent advice here so far but before you purchase a saw to cut your 30" blanks you must consider the arm length (or throat capacity -- from your blade to the back of your saw ). I use a Dewalt 788 which has roughly 20" of workable space. That is to say if I drilled a hole in the very centre of a 30" blank I could only cut 5 " in a forward direction before my blank would hit the back of my saw. (15 " of blank to centre plus 5 " of pattern ). This would give me about 10" of cut pattern in the middle of a 30 " blank. Such a waste. You could get around this by using spiral blades but i doubt these would work on such a thick piece of wood as being suggested. The Hegner Ex 30 or something along those lines would meet your requirements because of the longer arm length. You said you were new to scrolling so I wanted to make sure you understood how cutting larger pieces works. I look forward to seeing your finished pieces in the future. Terry

I use 1/8 BB for all my portrait style projects but I think it depends on the pattern as well. If there is a lot of fretwork cuts in it the project 1/8" is the way to go. If not you may want to add some depth with the 1/4". I do my cuttings a little different than most I guess. I stack cut 3 - 1/8" BB but I also sandwich 5 pieces of card stock in between the top and middle layer and 5 pieces of card stock between the middle and bottom layer. The 10 extra pieces are pretty close to 1/8" thick. So instead of having 3 or 4 finished projects you have 13. You can sell the card stock cuttings for 1/2 the price as the wooden ones or if you are like me, give these to family, friends, or fundraisers and still keep your wooden ones to sell at a higher price. I normally use wedding invitation stock because of it's lighter color but you can get bold and use silver, black, grey or whatever color you want to experiment with. Just a thought. Terry

Hi Edward, I think I can help you out. Firstly I checked my Dewalt and with my thumb screw tightened it is horizontal to the table. If the set screw opposite your thumb screw is off by a 1/4 turn it will point the long end down interfering with your cut. Try backing off the set screw a little so that your thumb screw can tighten horizontally. I noticed the set screw wasn't fitting properly when I had to purchase a new blade holder. As long as it doesn't damage your blades you should be good to go. By the way my saw measures 2 -1/8" from table top to the bottom of the blade holder at its lowest point. ( just in case this means something as well ). Terry

My first saw was similar to what you have. It was very frustrating to say the least. After a while you get used to it but you have to stay with it. I had more trouble with only 2 speeds than I did with anything else. In the meantime there are some really nice patterns out there that you can do with the pinned blade. You don't need to get into highly detailed fretwork to have fun with scrolling. The size of the pilot hole you make in the waste area for your blade to go through can determine how detailed your fretwork can be. The more detailed fretwork can come later when you upgrade. And when you do upgrade plan ahead. Go for the higher quality saw because you will eventually want one anyway. Save a little longer to make your purchase. My DeWalt should have been my second saw not my third. Congradulations on your soon to be new addition.

I do mostly portrait style cuttings, stacked to 3/8" and the only blade I use is a 2/0 spiral. I had the same problem as all of you with twisting ends. Low blade life because of breakage etc... I almost threw them away but there is a little trick that I discovered that may help. It all depends on how the blade is mounted in the blade holder. ( Important note: I feed my blade through the bottom of my cutting and I use a DeWalt 788 ). Align your blade between the 2 holders. On your top blade holder, bring your blade down so that the very tip of your blade will be at the very top of your tightening screw but turn your blade so that the flat part of the twist is flat against the very top of the screw and your holder. Lightly tighten your blade holder to keep the blade in place. Now tighten the bottom holder as hard as you can. The blade will twist out of shape below your holder as you tighten because of the excess blade but this is normal. Release your top holder and your ready to go. You will never be able to reuse this blade again because of the damage at the bottom but there will be only a slight amount of curling or bending at the top of the blade that can be easily straightened with a pair of needle nose pliers. It may take a little time to get used to but this method really works. I found, for my purposes, the flat end spiral limited my cuttings because of the larger hole required to thread your blade through. I hope this made sense to everyone.

Hey Alex, Sounds like you are using a luan plywood. This is not made for scrolling because it will always blow out of the back because there is nothing there to hold it in place. The wood fibers in the back are only held together with glue. You can still practice with it but you have to support it. Most saws have a large gap on the table top for the blade, Try to close it off a bit. If you can get your hands on X-Ray film cut it in to a rectangle about 2-1/2" by 3-1/2" , drill a small hole in it based on your blade size, thread your bade through it, tighten your blade and tape the film to your saws table. This adds great support and I have been using this method for years. Eventually your blade will make the hole bigger so simply change it up for another piece of film. Also don't forget that blade size and saw speed can affect the your cuttings. I hope this helps. TerryD

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I'm hoping to participate as much as I can and I'm sure I'll be asking more than answering, for the first little while anyways. TerryD

I found your site a few days ago and thought it looked real interesting. Inspired me enough to sign up. There are obviously lots of talented people on here and I was hoping for some advice on pattern making and I'm sure a few other things. I am not overly blessed with computer skills but I get by the best I can. I have been scrolling for about 20 years and try to get down in my workshop whenever I can. Hopefully I can help out with some scrolling questions. Hey -- i just noticed built in spell check. Perfect. TerryD