Scroll Saw Tips & Techniques

Drilling and Cutting

Take a good look at the pattern before you head to the drill press; take note of any long cuts in the piece, as well as the way the overall strength of the wood will be affected your scrolling. Try to plan your cutting in advance; I like to start close to the center in the area I feel most likely to break, that way if it becomes “designer firewood” it does it early.

Another consideration before you drill, several of the connections in my designs are thin and the cuts very close together, you have to be sure your drill bit is perpendicular to the wood and be extremely precise when you do drill. Cutting some of my patterns will cause the wood to loose A LOT of strength as you cut, keep that in mind and drill accordingly.

I cut all of my designs with Flying Dutchman Spirals . For most of my designs I use a 2/0 and drill my holes with a #68 bit. Bits that small while wonderful for this kind of detail will often cause the wood to “splinter” on the bottom making blade changes all but impossible. To eliminate this problem run the bit down in the hole a second time to cut the back clean. If you need help getting Flying Dutchman Blades and Micro drill bits visit Mike online here: Flying Dutchman Scroll Saw Blades

Keep in mind as you begin cutting; a pattern is simply a guide book not a rule book feel free to make any changes you want thicken some lines, remove some of the cuts, whatever you feel meets your talent, experience and saw, I do this quite often on patterns I designed myself.

Blade tension on patterns like these is especially important; the blade will need to react as soon as you move the wood. I like a setting of about 4 - 4 ½ on my Dewalt. Use a tension you are comfortable with bearing in mind how thin the connections in the pattern you are cutting are.

I am often asked at shows by other scrollers how did you cut that and not break that long piece that hangs into the waste area. The two things I tell them always seem to make their eyes light up so I will share then here. First if you are using a spiral it is not necessary to turn the wood around the blade. Use the blade like a pencil and trace the lines of the pattern using the entire 360 degrees of the cutting surface a spiral offers. Another technique I often use is to change directions when I cut~ Often if you follow the line all the way around you will end up with a long piece that hangs way back into the cut out without enough support to keep it from breaking off. If you will change direction cutting across the waste area to the hanger when you get to it and cut it then resume the outline you won’t lose those pieces. Take your time and let the blade do the cutting.

The most difficult cuts to make are the long straight ones . One way to deal with those is speed, keep reading it’s not what you think. Try to make those cuts as fast as you can comfortably feed the wood into the blade, my feed rate almost doubles when cutting those long straight lines. It sounds crazy but you will find if you speed up your feed rate it will be easier to cut a line that is at least fairly straight. If the need arises use the spiral to “sand out” some of the little wiggles to straighten it out.

If you feel like the cutting needs more support as you get close to completing it use clear packing tape on the top and bottom to give it some extra support this allows you to see the pattern while giving a little strength.