• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Blade tension rod.

Sitting, so I can work the pedals. No, wait, you've not gone and bought an electric one have you? :)
 
I do like to get me eyes quite close the table hence the back ache when the saw is on the bench. A very high bench or sitting down would probably be more comfortable.
 
AndyT":q37v262n said:
Sitting, so I can work the pedals. No, wait, you've not gone and bought an electric one have you? :)
Click to expand...

:eusa-clap: :eusa-clap: :lol:
 
Sitting for me but I have mine mounted on a ply base and just clamp to the bench, if I have a lot to do I shove a packer under the back and incline the saw towards me which I find more comfortable.
If the bellows don't work a small aquarium pump is very effective, I don't on this one but did on the first cheapie I had.

It won't be long before you'll need to upgrade your electrics to handle all these machines Mike. ;)
 
Lons":1psaods8 said:
.......It won't be long before you'll need to upgrade your electrics to handle all these machines Mike. ;)
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: What I'm really after is a bandsaw. Mine just has to go.
 
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8-) 8-) 8-)

Welcome to the other side of woodworking.

You stand and saw. Sitting does not give you flexible movement.

Whether you cut from left to right is a lot dependant on the olden days - do you hang left or right :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Mr P":2sy2tcku said:
I scroll sitting down and with the saw tilted forward with a piece of 4 x 2 under the back of the saw.
Click to expand...

I cant even lift the Polycut, let alone get anything under it.
It weighs 38KG then the stand then the thick ply base and the wheels.

I had to strip it down on the back of the LDV to get it off and onto a mobile base.
 
Agreed. It could take you into the 1950s but if you want a treadle powered version without a (possibly) scrap electric motor, they're not hard to find.
 
Have you picked it up yet Mike?

Don't hang about ....would not surprise me if he is not super happy at selling for 99p.
 
Yes, I've got it. The tension rod looks fine to me, but it's missing a collar that the tension mechanism bears on. It's also missing some air tubing. Other than that, on a cursory inspection it looks fine. I'll take it to bits and rebuild it when I get a moment.........the best way of understanding a machine, I reckon.

-

It says that the blade only goes 15mm up and down. Why do they have so many teeth, then? Surely it only needs an inch or so of toothed length.
 
Good.

Are you confusing stroke length with depth of cut?

Mine is Hegner and has 65mm maximum depth in wood (much less in metal) and a stroke of about 19mm I think. Table tilts too, which affects which teeth are in contact and where.
 
Or ignore the air blower full stop. Great of it works, not worth fixing if it doesnt.
 
AJB Temple":8l93l8ma said:
Good.

Are you confusing stroke length with depth of cut?

Mine is Hegner and has 65mm maximum depth in wood (much less in metal) and a stroke of about 19mm I think. Table tilts too, which affects which teeth are in contact and where.
Click to expand...

Yes, I hadn't thought it through. But I'd also never imagined trying to cut anything that thick on this buzzy little thing. OK, so depth of cut + oscillation + allowance for tilted table = maybe 100mm of teeth needed.
 
Yep. I think that's about right. Mine came from a retiring jeweller a while ago. It was his basic machine (he had much finer machinery than this, including a beautiful little lathe that I wish I had bought) and he gave me a massive box of all kinds of blades, from skip tooth to almost invisible tooth, some with pins, some not. It never breaks blades as he told me to just feed material in slow and steady. He said "like a virgin" but I have no idea what he meant.

The blower thing gets on my nerves. I just rig the extractor up in the pigeon loft and let it suck from beneath and one side. I know you are more relaxed about this, but when cutting materials like abalone, the dust obscures the line. They don't produce much dust though.

My son last used mine to cut out dozens of pieces for a drone he made. Moaned constantly that in his uni lab the CNC machine would be much faster :D
 
Mike G":2t89dkxg said:
And then look what popped up today on Ebay.
Click to expand...

An old friend was a clockmaker and he made something like that out of brass and a sewing machine motor, as you would expect it was precise and more like a work of art, I wanted to buy it when he retired but he wouldn't part with it.
That one on ebay looks home made and overpriced.
 
AJB Temple":3h547umy said:
My son last used mine to cut out dozens of pieces for a drone he made. Moaned constantly that in his uni lab the CNC machine would be much faster :D
Click to expand...


I think that kids should have to use hand tools and do stuff the old fashioned way before getting their hands on CNC.
 
novocaine":f4czcxfp said:
Or ignore the air blower full stop. Great of it works, not worth fixing if it doesnt.
Click to expand...

The Hegners have a 'bellows' set up as a blower.
Plastic pipe is very cheap. What Andy shows above is ideal, but costs.

I use the plastic pipe and tape the end to the light to blow the dust off the cutting line.
If connected to the machine-arm thingy on the older Hegners, the dust blows back onto you and you end up looking like a 'dust bag' :twisted:

The cutting stroke - I can get about 55mm thick piece of timber cut on the Polycut. Just very slowly.

For dust collection at the bottom, see this thread. I have just cleaned the unit and maybe next year build a revised model.

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4380
 
Could someone suggest a starter pack of blades, please. I have no idea what I am looking at. Apparently the machine takes pinned or pinless, 127mm, and I haven't a clue as to which I should be using (wood or plastic only, at this stage). It's unlikely I'll cut anything thicker than an inch for a while.

It all seems in pretty decent order, other than the the tension knob, which is about to fall in two, and a missing collar on which it should bear. The bellows have disintegrated. The motor looks fine, the switch and speed control all work, and there is next to no wear on the brushes. The bearings seem fine.
 
Mike, sorry I have had my bumper pack of blades for so long I just cant remember where they came from.
I can't even find an email trail.

if Gill doesn't pop up soon drop her a PM
 
Always use pinless blades. It's years since I bought any but the Niqua brand has always served me well. I'd do an internet search for a retailer - they're widely available and often sold as variety packs. Skip tooth and reverse tooth blades tend to give the best cut but reverse tooth blades can slightly encourage the workpiece to jump upwards during cutting. If this happens, it's usually a sign that you're making turns which are too tight or you're forcing the piece into the blade too quickly.
 

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Given as I cant tension the blade at the moment, I am in no position to take any measurements.......but is there any practical difference between a 127mm blade and a 130mm blade?
 
It sounds like a bit of metric/imperial measurement confusion to me, Mike. Scroll saw blades are 5 inches long, which is 127mm. Unless someone is selling a metric version, in which case it might make more sense to continental purchasers to call it 130mm.

I'm surmising. :eusa-think:
 
Mike G":zj9f7dbu said:
Given as I cant tension the blade at the moment, I am in no position to take any measurements.......but is there any practical difference between a 127mm blade and a 130mm blade?
Click to expand...
The 3mm won't make any difference Mike, as Gill said, the continentals rounding up.
 
Mike, an indication of what blades to use

My 'general' use blade is a #7
The #3's just keep on breaking
#12 for very thick cutting

ScrollSawBlades.JPG

FlyingDutchMan_Blades.JPG
 
Thanks for that. I'll find some blades this morning online, and try to track down some parts before I have to resort to welding and cutting up scrap pipe......then n a few days I'll have alittle play and get a better idea of the world of scrolling.

I have no doubt that scrolling fora are filled with discussions on pinless vs pinned blades, but could someone sum up the differences/ main points for me.
 
Phil":3p0pdujm said:
Mike, an indication of what blades to use

My 'general' use blade is a #7
The #3's just keep on breaking
#12 for very thick cutting.....
Click to expand...

Thanks Phil. Saves me ending up with packets of blades I'm unlikely to use.
 
Mike G":leagzx56 said:
Thanks for that. I'll find some blades this morning online, and try to track down some parts before I have to resort to welding and cutting up scrap pipe......then n a few days I'll have alittle play and get a better idea of the world of scrolling.

I have no doubt that scrolling fora are filled with discussions on pinless vs pinned blades, but could someone sum up the differences/ main points for me.
Click to expand...


Pinned blades are what we used on a fretsaw and also my old 1970's Rockwell.
Only buy pinless now.
I suppose a lot depends on your blade holder.
 
Cons
pinned.
needs big hole to pass through wood
deeper blade (typically)
more expensive

non pinned
can slip out the holders occasionally
bit fiddly to fit

pros, obverse of cons. :D

I'm not a heavy user by any means but I have this pack of blades that I'm still working my way through after a few years. they do a smaller 3 blade pack for 9 quid that would highlight which blades you use the most and then you can pick up those separately.
I do metal scroll work as well as wood, I have about a hundred blades for that which I got with the saw.

https://www.axminstertools.com/pegas-36 ... EbEALw_wcB
 
Mike if you do not get the one on eBay you can have mine. Same model no issues hardly used. I just need to get a more industrial model for what i need
 
Very kind of you, PAC1, but I got it (99p!! :) ).
 
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