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General Category => General Scroll Saw Talk => Topic started by: gap15102 on October 16, 2014, 09:28:39 pm
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I am having trouble cutting a straight line with ol yeller. I need to hold the wood at about 30 degrees to the blade to get a straight cut. I use flying dutchman blades and have the blade tension set at 3.5. Any comments/suggestions?
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The way that scrolling blades are made leaves a slight "lip" on the backside of the blade this generally causes it to do what you are explaining. A remedy for that is to get a small sharpening stone or one of those small diamond sharpening stones and with the blade installed run the stone on the back edge of the blade, this should fix the problem.
DW
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Cutting a straight line is one of the most difficult things to do on a scroll saw. It is more difficult on solid wood pieces than ply because the blade tends to 'follow' the grain of the wood.
I find that I do best cutting straight areas by using slightly over sized scroll saw blades for those places. If you are typically using a 2 or a 3, try putting a 5 in and seeing if that helps. If it still pulls off center, go up one more size to a 7.
I think you will always need to angle the piece by varying degrees when cutting straight on. This is because of the nature of the blade which was described in the previous comment. That is why we can't really use a 'fence' or any type of wall to cut straight - the blades are too thin and subject to twisting and we constantly need the 'human factor' to correct our cutting line. (That is a good thing - we are not obsolete yet! ;) )
On many of my candle tray patterns I have either a square or circular edge. Certainly the center piece that drops from the middle of the trays are either round or rounded squares. On all of my instructions, I advise to use larger scroll saw blades for the reasons explained above. It also helps to look about half an inch or so in FRONT of the blade while you are cutting, as it helps to steady your hand (It helps me, anyway).
I hope this helps you all out. The larger the blade, the more stable it will be and the less likely it will be to twist from the discrepancies of denseness in the wood grain. Keep that in mind and you may find you are more successful. :)
Sheila
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Watch Steve's Video. 8)
Cutting straight lines on a scroll saw. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSO8uXe2NgY)
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Yup, you generally always have to hold the piece at an angle. After a while though, you get so used to it that it becomes natural. To complicate matters, different types of blades cut at different angles. That isn't an issue if you mostly use the same type of blade though. I notice the difference when I go from my normal #1 or #3 ultra reverse to a superior puzzle bade that I use for really fine fret work.
Lots of bandsaw blades will do the same thing.
Ray
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Russ and Ray gave you very good advice.
I like to use high speed most of the time and push very slow into the blade, let the blade do the cutting.
FD Mike