Creative Woodworks & crafts 1998-07, страница 51
SCROLL SAW ARTIST EXTRAORDINAIRE DIRK BOELMAN IS CUTTING A GREAT DEAL FOR YOU! Receive his latest i catalog and the next issue of his Red-Hot newsletter, SCROLL SAW CHATTTER, absolutely FREE! The catalog features hundreds of terrific patterns, including Native American* Western-Frontier, Wildlife, and Religious silhouettes, clocks of all shapes and sizes, and much more! We also sell blades, clock movements, and dozens of other scroll saw accessories! Simply send $1.00 (for shipping & handling) along with your name and address to: The Art Factory 950 Hollman St., P.O. Box 701 Platteville, WI 53818 Ph: (608) 348-8332 Order Hotline 1-800-566-6394 11 \ is the exception. So let's go over the steps necessary to properly check your blades. First, look at the blade against a light background. Arc al] the teeth and gullets in alignment? Are all the teeth clearly visible and the same size? Ts the distance from the bottom of the gullet to the back of Lhc blade consistent? They should be. Next, make the same observation on the other side. Run your finger along the blade against the teeth; it will be somewhat sharper on the right side. You'll soon develop a sense for how this should feel. If it seems as though Lhc blade has extra sharpness, it will more than likely cause you grief. To show you how much this can affect your cutting ability, take a blade that does not look properly manufactured and try the following test. Mount the blade in your saw. Next, take a 1" to 1-1/2" thick piece of wood and draw a straight line on it about 2" long followed by a right angle bend to your left for another 2". By making the blade turn to the left, you arc turning with the duller side into the advancing cut; this will give you a feel for control with thai blade. Following the line, make a test cut. If the blade cuts wide to the right, draw another line that is 6" to 8" long, then cut along that line to the end and stop. Lay a protractor on the line with z.ero degrees on the line. Sight down along the top arm and read the number of degrees that the blade is leading off. This should prove that when you come across a blade that doesn't look right, you use it at the risk of your finished project not looking right either! Now that you know what to look for, save any blades that you are sure are not milled properly and when you have a small collection, return them to the supplier. Tf possible, let them know when you received your shipment. It may correspond with similar complaints and could possibly help to pinpoint a particular problem which they may be able to correct. Precision Ground Blades can be the answer to this problem. However, these blades arc .018" thick and leave a wider kerf. Here at our workshop, most of our pieccs arc made from thin plywood, which require us to use blades down to .016" thick for fine detail. But for our thicker hardwood pieces, PGT blades work perfectly. This wider kerf is also good when cutting plastics over l/4"-thick. Along with proper lubrication and motor speed, the cut of this thicker blade has less of a tendency to weld shut behind the blade. As for reverse tooth blades, manufacturers do not have a standard configuration for these. That is, there is no set rule for the distance that the reverse teeth start from the bottom or end of the blade, as well as for the number of teeth on each blade. Each of my saws has a different table height between the arms. On one saw, T have to trim the tops of the blades to fit in the clamp; another saw has just enough room for two teeth to come up through the hole. Just an observation that I wanted Lo share- Hope you enjoyed spending this time with me in my workshop! Until next time, don't breathe the sawdust! n July, 1998 83 |
