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bassinjody

finding the right saw

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Hi

Your posting touched a nerve with me as I bought myself a fret saw which is probably the same as a scroll saw. it is a nightmare to use on any wood over 5mm thick, I am sure on soft wood such as balsa it would be just fine but I use beech of 10 to 18mm thick and it is just not worth the effort and is now sat on the workbench redundant. I cannot comment on bandsaws as I have not used one but I would imagine they are a lot easier to work with than the scroll/fret saw. A far better investment would be a belt and disc sander, just cut the shape roughly and sand it down to the line voil

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Player's choice. I use a scrollsaw. It can be a bit slow and tedious to cut hardwood like basswood, paulownia or cedar but it zips through balsa. It's nice for cutting thin circuitboard lip slots and you can do smaller radius cuts with it. For speed and convenience, I think an ideal tool might be a mini bandsaw with a thin, fine tooth band. Whichever, get some polycarbonate safety glasses and wear them. I use a pair of clear shooting glasses I found at Walmart.

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The others have already answered the question, but my 2 cents is to get a bandsaw. The scroll saw as Lapala said is for fine detail work and you can make it do the job. But I think the bandsaw is a better all around tool, and you will probably find other uses besides luremaking. The scroll saw is certainly the less expensive of the two.

One thing about scrollsaws that make them unique...you can do an "inside cut" with them, and cannot with a bandsaw. For example, if you wanted to cut a hollow shape out of a board, you could drill a hole, remove one end of the blade, and thread it through the board. Then reattach and begin cutting with the blade already in the center of the workpiece. With the bandsaw you have to cut in from an edge.

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Interesting input on saws; I have both a band and jig saw. You might also consider a jeweler's saw for intricate cuts; it cuts on the pull (looks like a coping saw). The jeweler's saw is actually fairly fast and less opt to mess up. Very good for cutting bills out of micarta and lexan. I only use power tools on low risk cuts.

You can get a variety of blades for cutting metals, lapidary, and certainly cuts wood. Obviously a hand tool is not the ticket for production.

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With a smaller band saw (9 in.) and a 1/8 in. blade, you can do most cuts with no problem.

Even with a 1/4 in. blade, I rarely run into problems. And you can always make a relief cut if you're trying to make a really tight turn.

A scroll saw might be fine for balsa, but I can't imagine how it would be with harder woods. Cutting eastern cedar, I ruin enough 1/8 inch band saw blades.

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silverdoctor, you have made a good point. Often I think we forget that the original cordless tools (handpower) will often do the job better and sometime quicker. Like you said, not on production basis, but on individual crafting basis. I'm not familiar with the "jewlers" saw, but the hand "coping" saw can make cuts as intricate as the scroll saw. Also, the blade can be threaded through a hole in the same way, as it basically is the hand-powered version of the same setup. I think the "coping" saw and "scroll" saw were interchangeable terms. Ask a real old timer what a scroll saw is, and he might not show you one with a cord. Now when we say "scroll saw" we are talking about the powered version with a cutting table. Good point.

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Thanks for the note. If you would like to see what the saw looks like, Rio Grande Jeweler's supply is one of the major suppliers. The frames are very ridgid and have an endless set of options for the blades. Ebay likely has a cheap version.

(Please note, I use hand planes for wood work as well, throwback?)

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Wow.....The best thing on this site is the advice......a very close second is the search option............I have been debating wheather to get a scroll saw or a band saw. I want to cut out lure bodies from the endless supply of 3/4" X 5" oak planks I have. From what Im reading here.....I think I will go with a small band saw. There is a small table top 9" Ryobi at Home Depot and the price is right................I have space in my tiny work area for one more table top tool so I need to make sure I make the right choice........Any comments would be much appreciated...............

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If you have room for only one more table tool, I'd suggest the oscillating belt/spindle sander by Rigid at Home Depot. It takes 4"X24" belts, which have a large surface area, so they last longer, and, depending on which belt you choose, you can rough out a blank from rectangular to finished.

I've been in residential construction for over 40 years, and own more tool than I ever dreamed possible when I first started at 17.

The three tools, aside from a cordless drill and drying wheel, which are, to me, the best foundation for lure building, are a band saw, table saw, and oscillating sander. In a pinch, I could leave out the table saw, but it does make cutting stock down to size, and hinge joint cutting easier.

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Another option if you are limited for room for tools is to take an "adult education woodshop" course at the local high school if available. I own a 10" band saw, but it was a little underpowered for cutting out 8" - 10" baits that were 3/4" to 1" thick. I took the course over the winter and used their industrial band saw and cut out enough different blanks to last me for quite awhile (course met once a week for five weeks). I cut out the baits close to the line using their bandsaw and then used my own belt sander for sanding outside bends and an osillating sander for the inside bends at home. Because these are large and thick baits, I used my router table to make the round-over on the edges.

Jim

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Wow, Coley just gave away the house and no body even asked for it.

I would bet that 90% of the members on this sight could use that photograph to straighten out the learning curve by a few years, but I am not sure they will realize what they have before it becomes lost in the archives. But you never know. Like this thread on saws was found by Sonny a year and a half later.

Great information Coley. That is not a tidbit that you posted it's a nugget.

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Wow.....The best thing on this site is the advice......a very close second is the search option............I have been debating wheather to get a scroll saw or a band saw. I want to cut out lure bodies from the endless supply of 3/4" X 5" oak planks I have. From what Im reading here.....I think I will go with a small band saw. There is a small table top 9" Ryobi at Home Depot and the price is right................I have space in my tiny work area for one more table top tool so I need to make sure I make the right choice........Any comments would be much appreciated...............

If you have the storage space mount your smaller table tools to a piece of plywood square, that you can bolt down to the table when useing them and when you not hang them on the wall. I have a buddy that does this in a small shed an works out nice for him. oh ya be sure to hang them on a stud in the wall.

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Thanks plenty folks..........I hit the Home Depot and came home with a 9" Ryobi band saw. I have already cut out a bunch of blanks to play with. I have a few slats of oak from a pallet. I also have a couple of the large cross peices that I was trying to figure out how to cut planks from easily. From what Coley posted....I guess I was thinking about it all wrong.......Thats definitely thinking out of the box..........A freind gave me a Hickory plank today and I have already made some dust with it. That stuff is rediculously hard. It cuts nice, but it is really hard to sand down finished. I like how tough it is....but it makes oak feel like pine in contrast...LOL

Regards

Sonny

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I have a question about bandsaws.

Can a small bansaw cut straight pieces of wood?

Say, I have a piece of wood, 2 inch thick, and I want to cut out straight stripes of wood, which will have the thickness I need for the crankbaits? The hardest wood I will use will be basswood.

I know that a table saw would be better to this end, but I cannot have both, so I have to choose one.

For the moment, the only type of bandsaw I can find in my town is an Einhell brand, (and it costs about $165) so I may try to buy a bandsaw in another country.

I have a scroll saw, but I have never worked with a bandsaw. I think every small bandsaw comes with a fence, so it should cut straight. But I don't know if you could cut straight into a 2 inch piece of wood. Does the blade oscillate? Can the machine be adjusted for this job?

Thanks

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PhilB

Ok, not sure as to how to send out all these message, but here goes,

I was into Fret Work hard and heavy, I've got a Hawk G4, it uses a 5" plain end blade

The saw blades that I pisked up in stores and that came with the saw were junk.

You can find a place called CherryTree on the internet. Look for the 5" OLSON

PRECISION GROUND REVERSE BLADES. 552GT, 553GT and the 554GT,

these blades last and last, I've cut red oak 2 to 3 hours straight with same blade.

Sorry for butting in

ed

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I have a question about bandsaws.

Can a small bansaw cut straight pieces of wood?

Thanks

Rofish,

A bandsaw's ability to cut straight pieces is dependent on three main things.

First, can the upper guide be raised high enough to accept the stock.

Second, is the blade sharp, and the right tooth configuration and width.

Third, can the blade be tensioned enough to keep the blade from deforming and wandering during the cut.

Assuming you can fit the stock you want to cut under the upper guide,

the blade and blade tension are really the most critical components.

I have a 16" Grizzley (Chinese) bandsaw that I bought for work twenty years ago.

If I want to cut taller stock with a straight cut, I put a 5/8" or 3/4" wide, skip tooth blade on, and crank the tension up until the blade really twangs when I thump it with my fingers. And I make sure the blade is sharp, and that I feed the stock slow and steady.

Nothing makes a blade wander faster than feeding stock too fast. That will make even a brand new, sharp blade drift.

Also, bandsaw blades are rarely perfectly parallel to the fence when they actually cut. Each blade has it's own "personality", at least on homeowner saws, and I always do a small test cut, to see which was the blade wants to drift, and set the fence parallel to the cut, instead of trying to force the cut to be parallel to the fence.

Small table top bandsaws may have improved over the years, so I don't want to say they can't do the job.

But smaller saws have smaller wheels, and shorter blades, and get dull faster. And they generally don't have frames that are rigid enough to really tension a wide blade. So you need to be sure you use really sharp blades, and go slow, letting the resistance you feel during the cut tell you how fast.

Good luck.

I hope this helps.

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