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I've only just experimented with spirals, I've watched a ton of videos and cut a few things. I decided that spirals are going to be part of my journey, I don't think they are particularly hard to use, but forget everything you learned about straight blade and a deft touch is required.... But what do I know

He brings up the point about how the blade doesn't cut without you pushing it.. This is the same example I've explained about my saw speed.. People always said it goes too fast for them to cut with the saw running on fasted speed.. LOL.. He also mentioned blade flexing.. I always said if the blade is flexing you're pushing to hard..

In my limited use of spirals I found if you make your cut then very gently go round the edges again you can tidy up most of those fuzzies, but it's all in a very light touch .

I did not want to Highjack the thread on compound cutting clamps. I cut lots of them especially at our clubs woodworking shows and give them to the kids. Occasionally I will show off the capabilities of the scroll saws for cutting small stuff. The smallest reindeer in this image is a bit less than 1/2" and the smallest and most delicate compound cut for me so far. I used a Pegas #2 28TPI blade no reverse teeth. The trees are turned and carved. I did not sand any of them.

Yep, same problem with mine when I purchased it (used). I think, when the pivot arm's bearings wear out, it causes that sound with enough vibration that with every down-stroke, it tries to yank the blade out of the holder just a little bit. After a few hundred strokes, it finally gets it yanked out. That's why the saw sounds like it is getting louder the longer you have it running. Once I replaced my pivot arm, the noise went away, and the blade stays put. I would call Bushton directly. They make some parts to order. When I ordered my pivot arm, I wanted to replace the counter weight on my motor as well since that started to show wear marks, and they had to machine it for me. She said it would be a couple of weeks, but I had all of my replacement parts within a week. Nice folks and great customer service. Dan

I agree. sort of like a fine rasp. I find I do this a lot when using spirals to straighten cuts take a little more off etc.

@kmmcrafts Kevin I watched the video a week or so ago and I thought the very same thing, we were discussing this in another thread a while ago

Love to watch Charles live YouTube videos.. and some of the good conversations / entertainment in them.. I just never happen to catch them on live this time of year.

Ray, I had my crow well done, heavy on the hot sauce to get a good sting out of it. Larry

Sorry about the bad advice. First time I've ever been wrong.

Just putting this out there, May be of use to someone that wants to use spiral blades. This is a video by Charles Dearing. He is what started me on spirals many years ago... He ha s great pattern designer. His site is Woodenvisions.com. Keep in mind, Charles has never used a straight blade. Most the pictures he scrolled were big, I mean in the 3 ft., by 4 ft. range. He has always use a #5 spiral blade. He video helped me get started with spiral, although I do it quite differently than him and I mostly is a 3/0 sized spiral when I use them.. But this is a good video to get started, them experiment and find out what works best for you.

I like nautical patterns and projects, and I have made a lot of it, mostly as a presents. And here is my latest - Galleon Galleon pattern

Here are a couple more for my wife's cousin's Christmas order. I have two more to post and I should have them packed and ready for the post office on Monday. I thought they were a little the way she ordered them so I framed one and added a little color to the other one. I am happy to be getting these finished and on their way soon Dick heppnerguy

Hi I got asked to make something for our American friends by my Mum and Dad who have been invited to there wedding in America. I have 1week to make some thing no pressure LOL Here is what I have come up with so far.

Hi Bit more done

That is not a real complicated looking circuit board,, To you have anyone near buy that can trouble shoot it.. like a a electronic shop.. Mavbe a simple inexpensive component that can be replaced.

Your troubleshooting is impressive. I hope the new controller board does the trick. To update an old adage: To err is human. To really screw things up you need "technology".

I saw a video from one of my suppliers about this. It has a thinner top veneer. I wonder about scrolling this material for tear out. They sell "craft' plywood with mdf core and a thin veneer surface. The first project I tried I got lots of tear out on the back and had some breaks right to the front on some tight areas. Scap that project. Need to test using some other blades. The comparison is here https://youtu.be/P7itvDBsKvc

The description on the Rockler site says the core is "solid fir ply" and "solid wood core with between 5-7 plies depending on thickness".

I'm pretty sure it's the pivot arm.. IF the bearings are still sitting tight in the arm ( they are pressed in ). You might be able to take the arm to a bearing shop and buy a couple $5 bearings and not need a whole new arm. Another thing that can cause the blade slippage is a worn upper arm where the wedge rides against.. Some of the newer saws had this area machined out and a steel insert in there that can also be replaced.. IF you're saw doesn't have the insert you can send them the whole arm and they'll machine it and add the insert if it isn't worn beyond repair. But it wouldn't typically make this sound for that so as i said I think it's that pivot arm

Actually you must have posted your second video while I was typing out my post. In that second video, you can certainly hear the rattle getting louder before it popped the blade. That's the symptom I was just describing. Dan

I did replace that washer when I replaced the pivot wedge. The noise does seem to be coming from that pivot arm. I was wondering if I needed to do anything with that. I hope they sell a replacement for it on my old Hawk! Also that noise isn’t constant. It will be quiet then once I’m cutting and starting to make a lot of turns it starts the rattling. Thank you guys for helping me figure this out!

My hat brim is 0.125 inch thick and is about 18 inches from edge to edge.

Exactly ...

Looking at the reviews on it, this is just the same as the birch plywood from the box stores. There is one ply for the core, and one reviewer said the core is fir. Tom

I use FD modified spirals, still get fuzzies but not as many as other spirals. I also find them easier to control. Spirals are good for texts, but I find you have to be careful when their are narrow bridges as they can break the them out. For example I am currently stack cutting 2 portraits and the rear one is buggered as a bridge was broken out.

It's a good video for sure. Every time I try to use a spiral blade I get totally frustrated with the fuzees that it leaves. Maybe I use the wrong blade.

Another tip, that I use that may help a few members. For small items such as Xmas Tree Decos, or small sections of an item that requires a bit of colour, I use Nail Polish, What's left after I do my nails There are some fantastic metallics and glitters available in nail polish and if you go to the discount shops you can pick up pots from 50c each. Another good source is chemist shops when they are getting rid of unwanted stock and have a tub full discounted. If the polish is a bit thick a few drops of lacquer thinner fixes that.

Looks like a decent deal compared to BB.. I didn't see 1/8" unfortunately that's mostly what I use..

Sounds like a good deal compared to what Rockler wants for Baltic Birch. I haven't bought any birch plywood in a while so I'm interested in seeing what people are paying.

You can use the black to paint eyes. Easy to find this time of year, might even be on sale because Halloween is over.

Never thought about the pivot arm.. I also had this happen once.. It's nothing but a piece of flat stock with pressed in bearings.. Pivot arm is the flat stock that bolts to the motor and to the lower saw arm and is what powers the saw. Just has two sealed bearings in it. Might look at that too as Dan mentioned. The saw is awful noisy, Hawks are normally quiet like a sewing machine when running so you have something going on.. maybe a couple things, LOL

It also sounds like may need to replace your pivot arm. My G4 sounded the same and was popping out the blades. Plus, the bearing in the pivot arm was warn out. I replaced that and the saw got nice and quiet and stopped popping blades. I second the nylon washer. I had to also order the wedge, and the lady on the phone recommended I replaced that as well. Dan

You say you bought a new wedge that goes to the back tension rod.. Did you also replace the nylon washer that goes on top of the wedge? I only ask because it looked like in the video that your adjuster handle had turned some and was hitting the back uprights of the saw.. that hitting could mess with your tension. That nylon washer is supposed to help make some friction to keep that back adjustment lever from turning on its own.

I did some testing using a 2.5 HP DC treadmill motor. You can run it off of a car battery, a car battery charger, and a 20V DeWalt Lithium battery. A 9V Alcaline battery also works. My DC bench power supply did not work and was overloaded immediately. I pulled the scrollsaw motor and connected it to a battery with it on the bench. Nothing happened, so it might not have enough power to kickstart the motor, so I gave it a little spin, and off it went. Ray told me about the commutator having a dead spot, so I tested it repeatedly, starting from a slightly different position. It worked flawlessly in all positions I tried. I remounted the motor in the saw without connecting it to the linkage and plugged it into the controller board. Now it starts, but it makes a buzzing noise that is not there when it is running on the pure DC from a battery. I think this buzzing is caused by voltage fluctuation from the controller. It sounds like 60Hz, so the DC voltage is fluctuating, and there is also a lot of 60Hz ripple riding on the DC. I don't own an oscilloscope, so I can't check this. I'm going to order a controller board.

So I did clean up the bottom thumb screw and things seem to be working but if there’s any other info on maintenance I should be looking at please let me know it you have time! I want to keep this machine running as long as possible!

Great info! I did not know that about the cam bar so I have that set with some resistance. I put a new thumb screw in the upper blade holder. Now it’s popping from the bottom blade holder. It was cutting ok then it seems when I start doing turns it starts the rattle and then pops. IMG_1580.MOV

"I like your idea of putting them back together and taping them for gifts. However, I need to make reindeer from a different pattern for that." Why? I keep all of the pieces together while cutting, and then add the tape as I remove the clamp. This should work with your reindeer pattern as well as mine. The pattern that I use came from Markus Wendell's website www.woodgears.ca, but I cleaned it up a bit and changed the size. I now make 5 sizes, with the largest being direct from his pattern size. Charley

I can for just the sailboat. Watch for it in a little while.

And I had presents to hand out to all the birthday scrollers. Bummer, I guess I'll take them back to the car dealers.

Yes he does look as if he is looking at you and saying "Oh there you are" Look great, well done. Marg

I posted a while back about making layered ornaments and painting for contrast etc.. These are not handmade as I made them with my laser. But is hand painting them still make them somewhat handmade? LOL Anyway showing off my painting not the lasered ornament, LOL I might be biased but my favorite one is the Ultrasound Tech.. biased because that is what my daughter does now that she graduated school.. The last two I'm not sure about the black.. it might show up better if my box had a different color bottom on it as it blends in with the box too much.. It's supposed to be MRI Tech and Xray Tech.. one has a skull on the back piece and the other the bones of a hand.. in case you can't make that out.. I might change the colors of the lettering..

Ha, I just cut 9 3d patterns of the same thing and was amazed 9 times!! But I go around pretty amazed most the time.

Any tree that either produces a seed with either a fruit or a shell is considered a Hardwood. Useless fact # 541 that i somehow know

Welcome to the club, Paul.

One additional note. If you are trying to true up a circle without a center hole, create a blank circle with a hole, then attach the blank without a hole on top with double stick tape or adhesive, sand and remove.

Much of why I got involved in scroll saws is now done on lasers. I was considering making a German style schwibbogen (a lighted multi layer window arch.) And a local discount store had mass produced Chinese laser cut ones for less than $20, that were nearly identical to what I was planning to make. Even worse, it now appears that most of the ones imported from Germany are now laser cut. The ornaments I make are cut with a scroll saw out of .25 inch stock, but then carved by hand to 3D and painted. There are now machines that can duplicate even that, but not with the same differences from piece to piece that tell a customer, mine are indeed individually hand made. Another problem, is that many vendors are merely such. They are selling mass produced foreign stuff. Some laser items are local and crafted from the standpoint of the artist actually created the art and converted the item digitally to a computer code to laser produce. Many do not even do that. They buy the program for the art on line almost the same as scrollers buy patterns to reproduce. Except scrollers still need the skill to cut the patterns. Many laser vendors have merely purchased the codes and shove a piece of wood, leather etc under the laser and flip it on. Welcome to a new age. It is one of the reasons, why I think a person who demonstrates the craft at the show will be the one that sells more. There was a large outdoor craft show nearby that was shut down for lack of insurance. Probably 130 vendors normally While most vendors had large tents and tables, there was one crafts man that sat on a folding chair at a small table. He had a couple of pliers, a few hammers, a tiny anvil, a blow torch and a few other items in a small tackle box and a large roll of heavy copper wire. He made jewelry, right there on the spot. He had very little on display and he sold the items as he finished them. He had a line of people waiting to buy and pretty much whatever he made and most prices were $15 to $30 dollars. It took him about 8-10 minutes to make a piece. Little to no inventory, perhaps $70 worth of tools and a pair of strong hands to bend the copper. I'll bet he was making at least $150 an hour.

Me too. Very slow cutting but no fuzzies!

Thanx Paul. My best sellers were my puzzles and military plaques. Came away with 6 orders for customized plaques (I laser personalized info on them e.g. names, rank, years of service, unit or ship ID - anything they want to put on it)in addition to the 'generic' ones I sold there. Only had 12 misc puzzles with me and sold them all. Sold about half of the 40 Christmas card puzzles I had. I have no desire to turn this into a job, so it’ll be easy to keep it fun.

I saw where he said unfair treatment from lawmen drove him to crime. And I sure wasn't knocking the cutting because he was an outlaw. If I had to take down all my portraits of people with skeletons in their closet there wouldn't be many left. My self portrait would have to come down for sure.