Thread: scrolling mitres

Lance, without trying to sound offensive, are you sure you know what a scrollsaw is?
Comparing it to a tablesaw is a bit drastic and I am wondering if you don't mean something else.
There are no guides on a scrollsaw and work is done freehand, the tables tilt (on some) to 45 degrees either way but I think you are trying to achieve an angled cut across the wood and not through it which is what a scrollsaw will do.
Maybe you should consider a fine blade on a tablesaw or a compound mitre saw.
Maybe I am just misinterptreting the question but either way let us know exactly what you are trying to achieve.

Iain,

I have only seen one so here goes
Scrollsaw - is kind of like a motorised fretsaw, the blade reciprocates and cuts wood or other material which rests on a table and is fed into the saw by hand. The operator usually follows a line or pattern they have drawn on the upper surface.

The thing is, if I could fasten a guide to the table of a scrollsaw and cut mitres I could save a lot compared to the cost of a table saw or some compound mitre saws. I could remove the guide and still use it as a scrollsaw if I wanted to.

The compound mitre saw is the obvious answer for cutting accurate mitres.

I was just trying to get more bang for my bucks.

I look at it this way, I can buy a compound mitre saw, great it can cut angles and straight across and even cut metal.
If I buy a scrollsaw I can cut curves and freehand shapes, if the scrollsaw can be easily adapted for straight cuts and mitres this would make it a more versatile tool compared to the compound mitre saw.

I just wanted to know if a scrollsaw could be easily adapted to cut mitres. I have only seen one so I don't know if some have removable clamps or guides or not.

I see from your last post scrollsaws do not normally have removable clamps or guides.

So I'll just get a compound mitre saw.

thanks,
Lance

[This message has been edited by Lance (edited 20 October 2000).]

I looked back at my post and I was going to modify it but you beat me to the mark. I think you would find a scrollsaw a fair bugger for what you want and there are no fences etc for them. This is not to say you could not make your own out of some nice heavy MDF and clamp it to the table.
More bang for the bucks, we wish we wish we wish. It would be nice but, unfortunately, not practicable.
I don't have a compound mitre saw but if I did it would be a sliding unit. Now seeing you are a man of means, money is not going to be an object, put a post up now on power tools and see what is the best unit available.
My workshop has built up over thirty odd years and I have had to compromise, be patient and don't buy second best, it's worth the wait.
The advantage of a compound saw is that you can clamp your work and get nice accurate cuts every time. You will probably get both in time anyway and now you have to decide which one is going to be first.
Also Christmas is coming and it's wishlist time

Iain,
Thanks for your advice, I won't go clamping MDF or modifying a scrollsaw. The compound mitre saw is the go, that's what they're for.


Oh well just another thing to save for

hmm sliding eh, I will have to do some research.

cheers,
Lance

Gooday.

I am really going to put a spanner in the works here.

Lance, are you doing 45DEG mitres or odd angles for block laminating bowls?

If you are cutting blocks for bowls I don't think a Compound mitre saw is going to be accurate because they move a little (I have owned 2 and used heaps of others, all do it, some more some less) and you have to sand to get a good fit.

If it is just 45 Deg cuts then the most accurate way is to use a router with a 45 Deg bit in it.

------------------
Ian () Robertson
"We do good turns every day"



[This message has been edited by (edited 20 October 2000).]

Why not just buy a bandsaw and be done with it!!

A band saw will give you the curved cuts, angle cuts, compound angle cuts and straight cuts. And with a bit of fine tuning and good blades you can work very acurately. On top of all this it will probably be cheaper than a half decent mitre saw.

About the only thing you can't do is the pierced internal cuts of a scroll saw. I bet someone will tell me you can even do that now with some new fangled blade.

Hope this helps.

Cheers - Neil

You can do internal cuts with a bandsaw Neil, Carba Tec have a tool for brazing the blade back together again
I was thinking of a SCMS for mitre cuts that don't go all the way through and I thought it would be a better proposition than a bandsaw although I must admit it is the most used saw in my workshop (next to the chainsaw for the dovetails)

- some odd angles (yes block laminating for bowls). 180 / no of segments per ring = cutting angle. An octagonal shape uses 22.5 degrees, a 12 segment ring uses 15 degrees etc.

Thanks Neil - a bandsaw, well that's something to consider. I'll have to look into them.

Maybe I could cut (within a few degreees) using my so called 'precision mitre saw' and finish using the below.

Abbot and Ashby make an arrangement for bench grinders with a disc on the end which has a platform (runs across the disc)with an adjustable angle sanding attachment which might be good for final sanding.

thanks,
Lance

Scrollsaw will not achieve precision mitres.
Take a look at the top of the range Nobex mitre box, I use one and its accuracy to cut picture frames and box sides 7" high is 100% only Hitachi sliding dropsaw comes close, at 6 times the price. Regards, Tom.

Among other woodworking tools and machinery I have accumulated over tens of years is a humble 16" Ryobi single speed Scroll Saw (SS).

I found that the SS will not cut straight well although a BETTER BRAND blade would cut straighter than the original RYOBI baldes which always moves the line to one side. The problem is that the fine blade must have been made by press stamping and so the teeth are pressed and bent to one side of the blade.

I have tried using a shortened fine Coping Saw blade ($2 type will do) mounted on the SS with a pin-less adapter on one end.

With proper guide and clamps, the SS (with a Coping Saw blade) can cut reasonably precise "compound mitre".


What the SS needs is just need a wide blade - like a coping saw or a broken band saw blade or even a hack saw blade. To reduce friction the blade could be periodically oiled with a felt dipped in oil.

I have even use the SS to cross-cut mitres of battens to accurate lengths. This is done by clamping the batten with an X-Y Vise ($80) mounted on the same table at the left side of the Scroll saw and then winding the X-Y vise in the direction required.