The importance of mastering scroll saw usages.
Beginners are frequently enthusiastic about gaining new skills and knowledge. A detailed tutorial on how to use a scroll saw will make each of your steps and phrases easier. They aren’t tough at all and are all explained in depth below. Let’s get the ball rolling!
Guideline On How To Use A Scroll Saw With 15 Main Steps
Below we present a few stages for you to follow:
Marking Out The Pattern
Even professionals find it hard to make a perfect cut without marking the materials. Be careful with this step because it plays a key role before implementing the next steps.
Drafting On A Small Piece Of Wood
Getting to know how your blades will work on materials will help you get used to its flows. Find some small scraps and learn your blades’ tension by using your saw on them.
Creating Negative And Positive Areas
Be mindful of having both negative and positive areas on the wood before pointing your scroll saw down on it. Positive and negative areas or you may call bridges, are in charge of pointing out where to cut and where to leave them alone for you. The positive parts often link many components of your work together.
Man working with a circular saw in a workshop.
Safety Should Always Come First
The process of cutting through metal or wood might create the splashing of the materials, bits, and pieces. Therefore, don’t forget to put on safety goggles while producing your wood art. They are there to prevent small metal or wood pieces from landing on your eyes and other body parts of yours.
One more thing to ensure your safety is to put your scroll saw on any particularly stable surface before proceeding with your project. Any bit of looseness may bring about unexpected results and damages during the cut.
Choosing The Appropriate Blade
Especially for beginners, we highly recommend the size two or three as they are the most common among newbies, and they are pretty easy to control.
However, you should consider the size of five or seven blades for layers with thickness up to 2,54 cm or a little less.
Adjusting And Coping With The Tension
After the blade selection step, adjust the tension. This preparation will greatly affect the accuracy of your process to contribute to a perfect result.
Moreover, too-tightly-attached blades are not good at all as it makes them break easily and creates a nasty sound. Make sure to adjust it to an appropriate degree.
Pressing The Blades
Regardless of the blade type, it is essential to create a bit of pressure between the blades when handling tension. Only for securing yourselves and ensuring the edges don’t bounce off. Doing this also helps you understand how fast your blade is moving.
Turning Your Scroll Saw On
It’s time to operate the scroll saw by plugging it into the power source. It would be best if you were cautious of the power source to prevent bad incidents when working.
Having Your Dust Blower And Light On
While using the machine, turning on the light and the dust blower enables you to get rid of dust and better control your machine. If your tool doesn’t come with any light, find some alternative light source, a small desk lamp will work just fine.
Double-Checking Before Cutting Patterns
The preparations above ensure your readiness to create your art. However, doing the step of drafting on a small piece of wood once again would be a wise option to provide a secure sense to your hands.
Starting At A Slow Speed
Best scroll saw options for you
Setting the saw at a slow speed at first can prevent mistakes, especially when working on delicate or complex patterns. This gentle speed will help you get used to the pace first and have better control of everything.
Using Faster Speed For Softwood
Nevertheless, slow speeds are not necessarily suitable for all types of wood. For wood with soft textures like maple, a fast and decisive saw will leave a clean cut. Operating the tool at a slow speed while working with this kind of wood will only make you unsatisfied with an uneven surface.
Working With Both Hands
All craftwork requires meticulousness, and it’s even more important in this case of a big and powerful machine as the scroll saw. Using both hands to guide the piece of wood through the saw line will ensure nice stability and control over your tool.
Making The Right Angle
The easiest way to create a 90-degree angle is to carry out straight cuts. To do so, you need to remove your material out of the saw and place it where one of the perpendicular lines stretches towards you. Then slide it through to make the first cut. Repeat this method for the other line, and there comes your perfect right angle.
Things To Do When You’re Finished
Bear in mind that turn off the scroll saw after finishing
Never forget to turn the scroll saw off after finishing crafting. It might lead to a bigger problem than just an uncleaned cut. Also, you should remove all the used blades eventually so that you won’t mistakenly use them next time.
Conclusion
Our lesson today on how to use a scroll saw has covered every step of the way. It’s crucial for anyone with a passion for creating objects to master this tool because it plays a significant role in making complex or minor cuts that conventional saws can’t achieve.