Thread: Review: WMS 18" Scroll Saw - 2 Speed

The statistics:

• 450MM THROAT
• 2 SPEEDS 700 AND 1400RPM
• 65MM DEPTH OF CUT
• HEAVY CAST IRON CONSTRUCTION
• TILT TABLE 45L / 10R
• QUICK RELEASE BLADE TENSION SYSTEM
• HEAVY DUTY HOLD DOWN DEVICE (I removed this)
• VERY EFFECTIVE DUST BLOWER WITH MULTI DIRECTIONAL AIR SYSTEM
• LARGE CAST IRON WORK TABLE 460 X 235MM
• USES PLAIN END BLADES
• WEIGHT 30KG

The saw is a Taiwanese brand and is built as an imitation of the well known Hegner scroll saw. Its use compares quite well with the Hegner saws.

Whilst the variable speed would have been the better option, it was no longer available in Australia due to the increase in price from the OS supplier.
The two speeds however still make for a very usable saw. I complete most of my work on the 700 speed on my variable saw (Delta) and find this option just as good on the WMS. The 1400 speed would be good for thicker work and the machine is quite solid and stable at that speed also. I did however need to bolt it to the stand at that speed as it wandered a little on the slippery surface of the stand.

The blade tensioning and changing are just the same as the Hegner saw. There are two blade clamp changing slots on the WMS as compared to the one on the Henger, but the WMS are a hard plastic instead of metal.

The blower works great out of the box and no third market means are needed to increase the air flow, even at 700rpm the air pressure is good for moving the dust away. The adjustable air hose comes standard with the saw also.
It has the option of attaching a vacuum system to the machine so that the air hose sucks away the dust rather than blow it away and also catch the dust falling through the slot in the table.

The saw comes with a clear plastic eyeshield and heavy duty kickback/holddown device but I chose to remove these.

The saw comes with 3 lots of blades (6 of each) that are of reasonable quality and cut fairly cleanly. Although I do prefer the cut of the FD reverse blades. The saw comes with two lots of blade clamps and an allen/hex wrench for use of changing the blades.
I have since ordered some Hegner clamps as I find it fiddlier changing the blade with the allen key. I have ordered a thumb screw blade clamp for the top and a standard clamp for the bottom to be used with a clock key.

I think I have covered most of the topics of the saw here, feel free to ask questions or more details on something I missed.

I have attached a picture of a Cocker Spaniel I have cut on the saw. I stack cut two layers of 4mm hoop pine ply and it cut this quite easily on the 700 speed setting with a #3 blade. No finish has been applied to the project yet.
I need to work on the pattern design as its made for a rounded style setting rather than to be fitted in a frame, you can see a bit of the round frame at the bottom. So I will work on making this more suitable for the frame for this pattern and the other dog patterns I have in the book.

The other pictures are of the saw from the side and front.