A First for Me

[Jim McDonald]

I have been scrolling for nearly 15 years and yesterday I had a (hopefully) one of a kind experience.

Let me set the scene:

Stack of 3 x 1/4" exterior grade plywood

Really tight inside cuts

Almost new FD#3UR blade.

Knowing I had some really tight inside cuts coming, I changed the blade about 3 or 4 inches before I got to the said tight cuts and everything was going just great.  When in got into the corner, the blade snapped out of the holders--both at once.  Well, that was strange enough, but when I went to grab the blade with pliers to pull it out, the top half was turned about 30 degrees relative to the lower side. (No wonder it torqued out of the holders!)

But I could not get the blade to move with the pliers--just a tiny bit of movement and then the top section broke off.  Oh well--just grab the bottom and pull it out.  No such luck.  Pull and tug as I would--that blade was stuck and was not going to move.  Now this piece is some fretwork, so I didn't want to get too violent.

Final solution was to break the blade right at the surface of the bottom and then put in a new blade to extricate the 3/4" section that was un-retrievable. I managed to loosen enough wood around it to get the section out without altering the pattern--but that blade went into the burn bucket still wedged firmly in the stack.

I have broken a lot of blades through the years and never had a problem getting the remainder out of the stock--but this one was a new one on me.  Luckily, there was no damage to the cutting and after I got the section out, I was able to breathe a little easier and not worry about throwing three pieces of 6" x 8" fretwork in the bin and starting over.( I was nearly finished with the inside cuts at that point.)

Edited October 1, 2017 by Jim McDonald
spelling

[lawson56]

Man O Man.Now that is a new on me.I have been scrolling for 17 yrs.I have never had that happen to me either.Glad everything came out alright.Sounds like you did some Very delicate work,both in cutting and removing that blade.Big Congrats.

[SCROLLSAW703]

I hear ya. 26 years of scrollin' here, & ain't heard of that one. was your tension just a little loose? or did the blade just bind in the project?

[amazingkevin]

1 hour ago, SCROLLSAW703 said:

I hear ya. 26 years of scrollin' here, & ain't heard of that one. was your tension just a little loose? or did the blade just bind in the project?

Sounds like close quarters with saw dust not getting removed while cutting,Maybe,that was thick wood so it's a good possibility.

[heppnerguy]

An interesting event indeed. It is a new one on me too. Instead of stopping and changing blades at the tight corners, why did you just not back out a little and approach the corner from a different angle? That is what I used to do when I was first learning and it always worked well for me then.

Dick

heppnerguy

[Jim McDonald]

9 hours ago, SCROLLSAW703 said:

I hear ya. 26 years of scrollin' here, & ain't heard of that one. was your tension just a little loose? or did the blade just bind in the project?

I'm thinking it was a bind and I just tried to get a little too tight in the turn--instead of just backing out and easing into the turn.

[cnkcustoms02]

Sounds like maybe some stresses inside the wood might be a factor but who knows

[SCROLLSAW703]

18 hours ago, amazingkevin said:

Sounds like close quarters with saw dust not getting removed while cutting,Maybe,that was thick wood so it's a good possibility.

in fretwork? i have my doubts. I'd be more inclined to think turning to sharp to fast.