sawing 1/3/4 wood for chess pieces

[wacharlie]

    Question as i'm having trouble on some chess pieces, as cuts do not line up sometimes.
  what blades are best and what is best way to cut 13/4 inch wood.
 thanks

[Toneman]

I suggest using a FD-UR#7 or #9 and make sure your tension is good and your speed is high, almost 100%. You must let the blade do the cutting, ie, do not push or force the blade. Go SLOW>>SLOW>SLOW! You may want to email Mike @ Mike's Workshop and let him suggest a blade. Good luck!

Tony,aka,Toneman

[jscott2]

When I find the cuts don't line up top to bottom, I have been pushing sideways on the work piece so the blade bends sideways.  Increasing the tension reduces the bending but doesn't eliminate it, especially for thick wood.

Toneman is correct, let the blade do the cutting. Every so often, I ease up on cutting and almost let go of the work piece.  If the piece moves sideways, I'm pushing sideways.

Hope this gives you some ideas.
Jim

[jim stiek]

I would suggest a polar blade #5 or larger on that thick of a piece cutting compound pieces, something that thick will probably be hard on blades, if there is not a lot of fine detail a 9 would be in order. mike can help you out with this.

[Jim Finn]

I prefer the Flying Dutchman Polar #5 blades for cuts like that. #7's will work also.  As has been said, high tension and very slow feed rate.  The cut is so smooth with a scroll saw (when compared to a band saw) that no sanding is required so I as I cut this, slowly, I remember that I am cutting and avoiding sanding at the same time.

[Danny]

If your cutting a HARD wood like Oak or....the cutting will be more difficult.  If your cutting
Pine or Popular or a soft of semi soft wood the difference is night n day.  My first thought
was to reduce the size of the pattern to be able to reduce the size of the wood. 

I have cut over 40 different patterns resently using POPULAR and some Good Pine.  I have
experimented with different blades as is mentioned above.  I swear by the FD-UR #1.
This is the blade I have used for 90% of all the patterns. 

YES Tension is IMPORTANT.  Cutting speed is Very Important.  It is Slow going, but when
you get the swing of this and LETTING THE BLADE DO THE CUTTING.  NEVER push.
Wrecks a project real fast.  Anyway this is my 2cents...............................Danny  :+}

[grampa sawdust]

I have nothing more to add but I use the Polar but the main thing is slow. Put on the music, coffee and relax the shoulders. It has taken me years to learn that I do not do the cutting I do the steering slowly and no faster than the blade wishes to eat it up.

[DWSudekum]

Unlike everyone else I find that with practice spirals work very well.

DW