Model Forum / General / Models / December 2006

I have to say I hate scroll saws with a passion - maybe I just have a
duff one or my technique is crap, but I seem to spend more time
fitting new blades than I do cutting stuff. Even when I get the thing
going well, holding a line is a royal PIA.

My tool of choice for crossing out clock wheels is a CNC mill. You
don't need anything very elaborate - for example, Arc's Super X1 or
the Taig/Peatol mill works fine for that sort of light duty milling.
Converting to CNC as a DIY exercise isn't terribly expensive these
days (see my recent articles on re-converting my Taig - the
motors/drivers etc. for that project would drive an X1 no problem).
Granted, it would end up more expensive than  the scroll saw route,
but having both I know which tool gets more use!

Regards,
Tony

I wanted to suggest a Hegner. They are really solid. But be aware, there are
models with a aluminium table (wouldn't buy this one for metalwork) and
ones with a CI-table.
I once was close to buying one and asked the dealer (wood related) how about
cutting metal on it. He said, that one of his customers is doing
boiler-plate work for vintage cars and is really happy with it. I didn't
buy it, because I went out of money. But it is still on my list!

I owned (and still have) a Proxxon when I was looking for the Hegner and am
really *not* happy with it cutting brass sheet. Maybe the problem are the
blades (mine only accepts those with a small pin at both ends).

Nick

I have a device that uses standard piercing saw blades to cut one-piece
blanking tools from  steel gauge plate up to 1.6mm thick.  Its
hand-operated and it seemed to me that a good quality scroll saw would
serve even better, so I spoke to a Hegner rep about my requirements and
was assured that their saw would do the trick. So I bought one. Since
the blade travel was only about 10mm, the fine piecing saw blades I used
 were quickly blunted and just wouldn't do the job. The rep came round
several times and eventually agreed that the saw wasn't going to do the
job and refunded my money.
I was using it to cut steel gauge plate rather than brass, but the 10mm
travel meant that it was not possible to use anywhere near the full
length of the blade, and even at the lowest speed I could cut only about
5mm before the blade was useless - when used in the hand-operated device
I could cut at least 150mm.
I'm pretty sure that, had the blade travel been closer to 50mm, it would
have done the job, but 10mm is useless for cutting metal.

Sorry, I don't know anything about that particular machine but I do own a B&Q
£30 special and can comment generally as follows :

1.  A scrollsaw (mine anyway, with me at the helm) will not cut to a straight
line,  the blade is too thin and cannot help but wander.  I can cut within a
32nd of an inch however (in plywood generally) and a better quality machine used
with more skill might improve on this, I can't say.

2.  If you are going to be doing a sh**load of internal work (I guess crossing
out clock wheels falls under this heading) then you _really_ need a saw that has
a quick-change facility on the blades.  On my scroll saw you have to unscrew the
tension knob every time you unhook the blade,  this gets old quickly as you
then have to retension every time you cut a new hole.

3. A scroll saw is a delight compared to any manual saw provided you can live
with 1. and 2. above - it's just so much less effort.  But I speak only cutting
plywood on a cheap machine as that's all I've used mine for.

Hth,

A die filer is what you need ...
these don't just file ...the saw too.

can be picked up on ebay for a song ...less than £100.

mine shown here was bought for £85.

Excel sawing and filing machine.

its the metal workers scroll saw.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v190/aboard_epsilon/engrave/filing.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v190/aboard_epsilon/engrave/filertable.jpg

it's very versatile ...and has lots of speeds ...adjustable stroke,
tilting table, compressed air piston blows the swarf away and it has
fingers to stop the work lifting.
Runs almost silently..

and almost any tool can be bolted in it's jaws.

including a magazine of continuous band saw blade ...when a bit wears
out you just move it up. :)

The more imagination you have the better the machine becomes :)

PDF OF A LATER ALMOST IDENTICAL MACHINE TO MINE ...should give you info
on speed and stroke.

http://www.bbssystem.com/manuals/Excel-Filling-Machine-Manual.pdf

I've tried brass lettering in a  wood workers scroll saw ...took me a
long time to perfect it ...and left me with very sore fingers ...ended
up putting junior hack saw blades in it ...and using tile-saws to
finish.

All the best.mark