Spiral Blades for 16" GMC

[ShellieWorld]

Hi I'm sick of the blades that came with my scroll saw and I'm not quite getting the hang of turning the piece around either... I'm hoping a spiral blade will make my life easier??

I have a GMC 16" (yes not the best, believe me I know!) I went to Mitre 10 and some dopey guy told me that their supplier must have stopped sending them because they didn't have any... argh...

There's no where else around here to go....

So is there a shop online I can try? What kind of spiral blade should I get??
The kind of things I want to cut are pretty basic shapes that I will then paint. I use MDF either 3mm or 6mm...

Any advice??

thanks,
Shellie

[Dean]

Does your scrollsaw take pinless blades? If so, Carbatec sell Olson brand blades and should have some spiral blades in stock. I use these when i need to scroll saw something and they seem to work reasonably well.
Another source is Mikes workshop - www.mikesworkshop.com - He is in the USA but the blades he sells are considered by many scrollers to be the best.
Might be worth getting a few sets shipped over.

[pedrofret]

Turning the piece is a question of practice, you only need a few scrap pieces of wood to practice ultil you get the feel of it, after some time you'll be able to cut anything, no matter how intricate. Also, flat blades produce a much cleaner cut. I only use round blades for details like leave nerves in fretwork patterns and so on.

It could also happen that you are using a too big blade. If you could be more specific we may help better.

Mike's blades are excellent. These are the ones I use.

About other blades in Australia I have no idea. Try a google search.

Pedro.

http://www.finescrollsaw.com

[oges]

really depends if your saw takes pinless or not, do not think pinned blades have a spiral variety. As you have guessed Mike is the best contact to deal with, but he has reps in Australia if you do not wish to do the Overseas stuff.

Also if you are using the blades that came with the saw, when I had a GMC saw they had quite thick blades so that would make it difficult for you to turn also.

[Sprog]

Hi I'm sick of the blades that came with my scroll saw and I'm not quite getting the hang of turning the piece around either... I'm hoping a spiral blade will make my life easier??

Any advice??

thanks,
Shellie

From Mikesworkshop (http://www.mikesworkshop.com/) Q&A page

"Spiral Blades?

Don’t start with a spiral blade. They are very hard to control. They leave a lot of fuzz and leave a very wide kerf. The spiral blade is a regular blade with no reverse teeth that has been twisted around with teeth in all directions. This makes the blade go in any direction. When cutting hardwood it wants to follow the grain and go to the soft spots in the wood making it very hard to control and stay on the line of the pattern. Most spiral blades are used for cutting plywood. Plywood has no soft spots."

Practice cutting with different sizes of blades.

[ShellieWorld]

Thanks everyone, I don't think my blades are pinless, they look like blades that coping saw use. I'll give spiral blades a miss for now, I thought they would be easier, thanks for the advice! :)

I'll go have a look at Mike's

Thanks again
Shellie