Forum topic by Landomakesstuff | posted 04-25-2017 09:53 PM | 2670 views | 0 times favorited | 5 replies | ![]() |
![]() |
04-25-2017 09:53 PM |
I’ve been building up a shop over the last year or so, and I decided that it would be fun and useful to get a scroll saw. I found an old Craftsman 24” that looks a whole lot like brianinpa’s saw in his blog post http://lumberjocks.com/brianinpa/blog/6438 All of the info I’ve found so far is for setting up modern saws, which seem to operate/tension differently than this older one. From what I’ve read, most everyone seems to say that breaking blades tends to happen when they are under too much tension, or if the material is being fed too quickly. Unfortunately, every blade I’ve tried so far has broken almost immediately… No matter what I do the blades seem to snap about an inch above the bottom blade holder almost immediately after turning on the saw. I’ve tried setting the blades with as little tension as I could (where the blade will actually bow a bit at the top of the blade travel), and I’ve also tried medium and higher tensions – all with the same results. Often a small bit of blade will go flying as well, which has been pretty scary (even with safety measures in place.) On the plus side, my face shield has really been paying off lately. I’ve heard that these older scroll saws weren’t meant to handle delicate blades, and that’s primarily what I have on hand. I’ve been trying to use Olson blades (sizes #2/0 through #4.) Am I going to have to use something larger/stronger? Is there something else I could be doing wrong? Anyone have any specific insight into tuning up this style of saw? I would really appreciate any help you can offer on this. |