Hello from Central Florida

[heppnerguy]

Welcome to The Village, You should be very comfortable here as we are all very friendly and love to help one another as well as share our work for others to see. You have cut a lot of the same patterns that I too have cut and quite a few, I have not. Glad you are with us. Enjoyed viewing your work

Dick

heppnerguy

[flarud]

On 12/3/2018 at 12:05 AM, heppnerguy said:

Welcome to The Village, You should be very comfortable here as we are all very friendly and love to help one another as well as share our work for others to see. You have cut a lot of the same patterns that I too have cut and quite a few, I have not. Glad you are with us. Enjoyed viewing your work

Dick

heppnerguy

Thank you Dick.  I am really liking what I have seen so far on the site.  Easy to use, lots of good people.  

[JT1986]

Welcome. I'm very new myself. To scrolling and to this forum. 

I see that you have some experience with the Porter Cable Lowe's sells. That's what I'm using now. Do you prefer scrolling with pin-less or pin end blades? I'm having difficulty finding the right tension with pin-less blades. They either bend too much when scrolling (applying light pressure - could be the wood or tension I'm guessing) or pop right out (too much tension?). I have a variety of blades I'd like to experiment with, however, the pin-less blades are frustrating me.

 

Jeff

[Bill WIlson]

2 hours ago, JT1986 said:

Welcome. I'm very new myself. To scrolling and to this forum. 

I see that you have some experience with the Porter Cable Lowe's sells. That's what I'm using now. Do you prefer scrolling with pin-less or pin end blades? I'm having difficulty finding the right tension with pin-less blades. They either bend too much when scrolling (applying light pressure - could be the wood or tension I'm guessing) or pop right out (too much tension?). I have a variety of blades I'd like to experiment with, however, the pin-less blades are frustrating me.

 

Jeff

You will find that most scrollers use pin-less blades exclusively.  I don't even think my saw will accept pin end blades.  Plain end blades offer the most variety and the best quality of cut for most scrolling applications.  There are all sorts of different tooth configurations available, so that is a learning experience unto itself.

That said, there are a couple tips you may not be aware of that should help.

First, take a piece of sandpaper and rub it on both ends of the blade.  This cleans off any residue that remains from the manufacturing process and roughs them up just a little, allowing the blade clamps to get a better bite. 

You can do something similar with the contact points of the blade clamp.  They can get a slight build up of gunk on them as well.  Don't oversand, just enough to clean the clamps, but not enough to alter their surface.

Generally speaking, more tension is better than not enough.  Even tiny blades are pretty tough and shouldn't break with proper use.  Once you overcome the challenge of getting them to stay in the clamps, you will never go back to pin end blades.

I'm not familiar with the blade clamps on the Porter Cable, but there are aftermarket blade clamps available that may be better suited for pin-less blades.  I'll let someone with more direct knowledge of the PC weigh in on that topic.