From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Scroll saw
Scroll saw
from the ceiling, thus providing an arbitrarily deep
throat.
Scroll saws vary in price from under $100 to close to
$2,000. The more costly saws are more accurate and easi-
er to use, usually because they minimize vibration.
Uses
Scroll sawing is a popular hobby for many woodworkers.
The tool allows a substantial amount of creativity and re-
quires comparatively little space. In addition, many scroll
saw projects require little more than the saw itself, re-
ducing the investment in tools.
Dremel scroll saw Scroll saws are often used to cut intricate curves and
joints, a task they can complete quickly and with great
A scroll saw is a small electric or pedal-operated saw accuracy. They can also be used to cut dovetail joints and
that is useful for cutting intricate curves in cases where are a common tool for thicker intarsia projects. When a
a jigsaw or coping saw is not appropriate. It is capable of fine blade is used, the kerf of a scroll saw is all but invisi-
creating curves with edges. It is somewhat similar to a ble.
band saw, but unlike band saws, in which the saw blade Scroll saws are comparatively safe. In particular, in-
is a continuous loop, scroll saws use saw blades similar to advertent contact between the blade and the operator’s
those of coping saws and operate through a quick recip- fingers is unlikely to result in serious injury.
rocating up and down motion.
A scroll saw has two main advantages when com-
pared to a band saw. The first is that the blade can be re-
Mode of operation
moved and placed in situ through a pre-drilled starting There are several types of scroll saws. The most common
hole. This feature allows interior cutouts to be made arm,
design is the parallel arm in which a motor is attached
without creating an entry slot for the blade through the near the back of the arms and the two arms always re-
edge of the workpiece. Second, a scroll saw can cut sig- main parallel to each other. The C-arm variant uses a
nificantly more intricate curves. solid "C" shaped arm, with the blade being mounted be-
Many different brands of scroll saws are on the mar- tween the two ends of the "C". The parallel link type,
ket today. Notable ones include Excalibur (made in Tai- used by Excalibur and DeWalt, has rods in the upper and
wan), RBI (made in the USA), Hegner (made in Germany), lower arms that are "pushed" by the motor to move short
Eclipse (made in the USA), and DeWalt (originally made (about 4 inches – 100 millimetres– long) articulated arms
in Canada, but now made in Taiwan). There are also a which hold the blade.
number of less expensive scroll saws manufactured in The rigid arm scroll saw was popular until the 1970s
Asia, including those from Delta, Dremel (Bosch), Crafts- but is no longer made. It has a single-piece cast iron
man, Ryobi, and others. frame. The blade is attached to a pitman arm on the bot-
tom, which pulls the blade down. A spring in the up-
per arm pulls the blade back up again. This design has
Size a significant weakness in that the tension on the blade
Scroll saws are classified according to the size of their changes with every stroke; modern scroll saws are all
throat, which is the distance from the blade to the rear "constant tension" designs.
frame of the saw. The throat depth determines how large
a piece of wood can be cut. Smaller saws have a throat
of as little as 12 inches, while commercial saws can ap-
Blades
proach 30 inches. Before the era of computer automa- With the exception of blades made for very light duty
tion, industrial saws were sometimes used to make even saws, typical scroll saw blades are five inches long. The
larger objects by hanging the top mechanical linkage major types are:
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Scroll saw
• Diamond blades (wires coated with diamond
fragments), for cutting glass.
Blades come in many weights, ranging from #10/0 (for
making jewelry - about the size of a coarse hair) to #12,
which is similar to a small band saw blade.
Another variation is called a reverse tooth blade. On
reverse tooth blades, the bottom 3/4" of the teeth are
reversed (point up). This arrangement helps to reduce
splintering on the bottom edges of the cut. However, it
does not clear sawdust out of the cut as well as a regu-
lar blade, so cutting is slower and produces more heat.
This heat reduces blade life and makes scorching of the
Hand-operated scroll saw, around 1900 workpiece more likely. Reverse tooth blades are espe-
cially useful when cutting softwood and plywood such as
• Skip tooth (or single skip tooth) which have a tooth, Baltic birch.
a gap, and then another tooth;
• Double skip tooth (two teeth, a gap, then two teeth);
• Crown or two-way, which have teeth facing both up
References
and down so that the blade cuts on both the down-
stroke (as with all other blades) and the up-stroke; Further reading
• Spiral blades, which are essentially regular flat
• Jensen, Laurits: Billedskærerbogen, 1986, ISBN ISBN
blades with a twist, so that teeth project on all sides;
87-7490-263-6
• Metal cutting blades made of hardened steel;
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Categories: Saws, Woodworking machines
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