Scroll Saw Blade Selection

One of the most common questions that I see being asked by people new to scrolling is, what type and size of blade should I use?

Here are some basic things you should consider. What type of material are you going to cut, a hardwood, softwood, maybe an exotic or one of the composite materials i.e. plywood, mdf or particle board? How thick is this material 1/8" - 3/4"? What is the radius of the curves in your project? How much final sanding do you want to do, because a little forethought can save you a lot of laborious work at the end of your project.

• Scroll Saw Blade Sizes - Scroll saw blades generally range from 3/0# all the way up to #12. Number 12# being the heaviest blade. The lower the number the smaller the blade, remember to slow down your feedrate when using small blades as they break easily. TPI or teeth per inch, the 3/0# blades can have from 30 - 35 tpi and the 12# blade generally from 8-10 tpi. Thick Wood Blades are even more coarse (fewer teeth). Blades with fewer teeth make a more aggressive cut than those with more, if you feel that your cutting to slowly move up to a larger blade. Don't push harder, let the saw do the work!
  

• Material Thickness - Thicker materials require heavier blades. You can refer to this Olson Saw Blade Chart to get yourself started, it's courtesy of Sloans Woodshop as a PDF Blade Chart

• Material Hardness - Harder materials require larger coarser blades. This includes hardwoods, exotics, plywood and mdf as an example.

• Curve Radius - How tight are the cuts in your project, little tiny zig-zags as when doing fretwork or long gentle sweeping cuts, or maybe somewhere in between. Blades that are thin and narrow make smaller kerfs have more control than wider and thicker blades. I find that when I have selected a blade that's to large for the cut radius of my piece that as you exit a turn the blade kind of snaps as you go around the turn, rather then gently following the cut. This can also cause the blades to break up near the top or bottom arms of the saw where they are clamped in the blade holders. If this is the case, change to a smaller size. You can also exploit this tendency and use it to your bennefit, by that I mean that wide thick blades will wonder less in a long straight cut than a smaller blade would, making a smoother cut.
• Blade Type - I prefer skip tooth blades for general cutting, they offer a good trade off between smoothness of cut and speed, although they leave some roughness on the bottom.
  

• Reverse tooth blades : are a good choice for a fairly fast cut that leaves a smooth finish on the bottom of your work. I don't like to use these much as they have a tendency to lift the work up and down which can be fatiguing on your fingers.
  
• Double skip tooth blades: work well when you don't care about speed, but would rather a really nice smooth edge. Your other alternative here is a double skip reverse tooth blade, it cuts slow but leaves nice edge and smooth bottom too.
• Spiral blades - These work well for cutting intricate profiles in thin stock, they now come in reverse tooth as well. One other thing that you might consider is the flat end blades as they are easier to clamp up.
• Crown tooth blades: I haven't tried them yet, but you can flip them end for end and get a fresh set of teeth from one blade. This might appeal to you.
• Mach series, PGT blades & Double tooth blades: I find these to be very aggressive blades, probably best suited for cutting really hard stock like hard maples, ash, hickory and exotics.
• Metal & Jewelry blades: the metal cutting ones, self explanatory. Jewelry blades, some people use also these to cut puzzles, I prefer the Pegus puzzle blades.
• Pin end blades or Pin less blades: If your saw only takes pin end blades your stuck, if you can use either, the pin less type is your best choice as you can't fit a pin end blade through the tiny holes required for fine fretwork.
  

There really are no hard steadfast rules here, so experiment some and figure what works best for you. Don't run out and buy a handful of every blade in the book, you won't ever use most of them again after you find favorites. If your still not sure what to order, pick up the phone and call, tell them what your doing and they will help you make a selection. If you don't know where to buy scroll saw blades, look to the bar on the left of this page for scroll saw blade suppliers and you will find help there.

One last word, all manufacturers don't offer every type of blade, and all suppliers don't carry every type of blade that a manufacturer makes, so look around at everyone's offerings before you make a decision.

Sky Wonder Puzzle

This is the latest puzzle that I've cut, again it's a vintage vegetable crate label from back in the the fifties ," Sky Wonder Brand" D'Arrigio Bros. Company of San Jose, California. The Puzzle has 113 pieces total with six themed figurals, the figurals are symbols from the state of California, The Condor,Trout, California dog face butterfly, California Grizzly Bear, Desert Tortoise, and my key figural a Lighthouse. Measures 7" x 9" and is cut from Baltic birch plywood (5-ply) with Pegus skip tooth puzzle blades.

The Lead & Safety Police

I'm sure that everyone out there is concerned about the quality and safety of the toys that their children play with, and I'm also sure that most of the laws that the Consumer Product Safety Commission proposes are well intended. But, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act seems to be misdirected overkill. What was originally intended to protect everyone from dangerous commercially made toys ,will soon spill over into the cottage industry of handmade toys and surely destroy it.

If you make and or sell homemade toys/items, or like to purchase these items for your children, and are not aware of this impending law, I suggest that you do so post hast. Below is a link to an excellent free newsletter for woodworkers The Woodworker's Journal eZine in it you will find an in depth article and links where you can go to help with this issue.

Ryobi Detail Sander

I picked one of these up at the Home Depot for $29.00, a Ryobyi Detail Sander. It works reasonably well and comes in handy for sanding small items like the puzzles, where even the 1/4 sheet sander is a little cumbersome. The sander is fairly quiet as sanders go, and doesn't vibrate excessively on the operator end. The sander doesn't raise big clouds of dust so it's perfect for small sanding chores inside.

The commercially made sanding angles are a little pricey for what they are, approx. 2" triangles. I chose to go the shop made route. I used some of the 180# and 220# commercial grade paper I bought from Klingpor's (See Tue.4/29/08 posting), I applied double sided tape to the back of the paper and traced around one of the sanding angles that came with the sander, then cut them out with a pair of scissors. This doesn't take up a lot of time and saves lots of money, something you can do watching your favorite T.V. program.

All and all, it's a nice little sander for the money. Keep in mind no to push to hard, as the sander orbits in 3mm arcs, let the machine do the work. The sander comes with an odd assortment of abrasives, especially when they remind you that it's a detail sander, one looks like 50# grit, which is definetly not my choice for finish sanding. The sander seems to work best when you choose abrasives of 150# and higher, works really nice at 220#, 240# and 320#. The sander can also use and comes with scuff pads, polishing pads and can also use an opptional scraping attachment (not supplied).

The Ryobi Detail Sander will never replace the Fein Muti Master, but it won't set you back $300 bucks either. It's a nice little sander for the hobbist or ocassional D.Y.I'er, for the professional trim carpenter or cabinet maker/installer the multi master is probably still the weapon of choice.

Animal Puzzles

These are the latest puzzles that I have cut in the last few days, they are from the Animal Puzzles for the scroll saw - 30 projects in wood book by Judy and Dave Peterson.

All are cut from 3/4" Maple and finished with clear salad bowl finish, outside cuts were made with #5 skip tooth blades and inside cuts were made with #3 skip tooth blades.