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View Full Version : Clamps for pinless blades (for GMC etc)



scooter
2nd November 2004, 10:02 PM
Just a tip for those running GMC or other saws requiring adaptors to use pinless blades.

Woodworking Machinery Specialists (WMS) in Preston, Vic stock adaptors to fit these saws, they appear to be a better idea than the GMC ones.

The GMC adaptors are a stirrup type that hangs off the small tongue at the ends of the scroll saw arms. From experience the weakness of this design is trying to stop the clamp falling off while trying to do up the piddly little grub screws while keeping the (small) blade centred, it's all too much. (Drove me to a Delta...but that's another story ...)

The adaptors that WMS stock actually bolt on the ends of the scrollsaw arms in place of the stock assembly, and have (from memory) 1 screw that pinches the clamp together to retain the blade. Looks like a better idea all round; and is still able to take pinned blades as well if you have that nostalgic leaning. :p

Timbecon have the same adaptors but were dearer than WMS, at the WW show anyway.

Good luck.................cheers.........Sean

oges
3rd November 2004, 03:12 PM
I tried the adapters from Timbecon and the allen key soon wore away the grub screw making it hard to tighten anymore, thats when I went to the hegner clamps. Maybe I just didnt put the allen key in right when I was using the clamp :confused:

Oh well dont have to worry about that anymore

scooter
4th November 2004, 11:31 AM
... Oh well dont have to worry about that anymore

Yeah, you lucky bugger !

The allen headed bolt may well chew out after a while but should be able to be replaced with a normal (or high tensile) one.

The clamp concept just looked better than the GMC ones, and at a bit cheaper price than the Hegner clamps for the budget conscious (I feel the pain :p ).

Cheers........Sean the Quick Clamper :o

rick_rine
23rd November 2004, 10:22 PM
hi all , Newbie to this site and this question has undoubtably been asked before but I wonder about the blades for the 2nd hand GMC I bought . I was under the impression a scroll saw had a really small blade , something like a wire but this has blades 2mm deep ( with pins ) it was a real hassle getting them here in Tasmania . Can y'all fill me in with what's best and where to get it ?
Regards
Rick

scooter
24th November 2004, 12:46 AM
Gday Rick, welcome to the board. Plenty of info & lots of friendly faces (keyboards?) around so good to have you involved.

The GMC comes as standard with pinned blades as you describe. You can get adaptors from GMC (stirrup type), from WMS in Preston VIC or Timbecon (clamp type - refer above), or Hegner (clamp type, fine quality, bit dearer) from Neil Schultz, Owen & Helen Harris, WoodWorks in Sydney, probably Mik, or mikesworkshop.com.

The suppliers mentioned also carry blades, scrollsaw blades range from the big 'uns that come with the saw, such as you have, which are also available at Bunnings; down to very small (read hair sized) blades for very fine work. Not sure about anyone else but I usually use No. 3 and No. 5 skip reverse blades for stock up to 3/4" thick, these blades are approx 1mm deep at a guess, and probably less than half the thickness of the stock blades. Skip means every second tooth is "missing", and reverse means the bottom 1/4 -1/3 of the blade has the teeth pointing up which cuts down the "fuzzies" on the bottom of your workpiece.

This means a smaller kerf, tighter turns, less lifting the workpiece off the table by the saw (meaning you take the holddown off), and generally better sawing all round. Oh, and you can thread them through smaller holes for inside cuts.

I read a tip that you may find useful, if you want to use up the blades you have, you can punch out the pin on one end of the blade and replace it with a small safety pin. This can be removed for threading through and means you can use a smaller drill size for the holes for inside cuts.

You will find a skim back through the scrollsaw forum well worth your wihile, plenty of good information to be read.


Good luck.........cheers..........Sean

Buzza
10th December 2004, 09:33 AM
G'Day All. I've managed to get a set of these adaptors, and find they don't fit onto the pinned blade fittings on my GMC, which is about 3 years old. The blade holders are wider than the stirrups. Am I doing something wrong here?

Buzza.

scooter
12th December 2004, 08:59 PM
Gday Buzza, welcome aboard.

Sounds like you got the GMC stirrup type adaptors.

I had the same ones on my GMC saw, which was the dearer of the two models that were available, it had a light and was around the $100 from memory.

The stirrups were a close fit over the chrome "tongues" on the ends of the arms on my machine. Hopefully without telling you how to suck eggs, the upper tongue (:eek: ) is above and forward slightly from the pinned blade mount that you would have already used for the stock blades.

Does this help? Reply on this thread or PM me for further info.


Cheers..........Sean the silver tongue :)

Buzza
14th December 2004, 10:35 PM
Thanks Sean,

I'll give that another go in the morning, but I been thinking about grinding off a slice of the existing adaptors, but so far I'm reluctant to do so.

I'll post results of this next attempt.

Buzza


One day I stumbled across a case of bourbon...and kept stumbling for several days thereafter.
- W.C. Fields