Cuts are done

Well the night of cutting started out disappointing. I finally figured out why I have been making so many goofs with the cuts. It was just not obvious as it degrading over the time I was cutting. But the reason I was goofing up was I kept noticing the blade was getting loose which was making the fine scroll saw blade to flex and cut where it should not. So you exacerbate the issue by making the blade holder tighter and tighter.

Tonight I could not even tension the blade with out it popping out before I could even start the saw. Finally I noticed the problem. The bottom blade clamp is cracked and as I tighten the blade the clamp moves apart thus applying very little tension. So when I would throw the quick blade tension knob the blade would pop out.

So I take the scroll saw table top off to get a good look and yup there is a nice crack in the clamp. So over the past 6 or so years the thing just had a stress fracture take place. It is not all that expensive to replace but it will take time to get here. Probably not going to finish this in time.

So here I am sitting watching some walking dead on Netflix and suddenly the design aspects of the clamp come to mind and plain as day I know how to secure the blade and cut more! So very excited that I run out to my workshop and implement the idea and sure enough the blade is staying tight. It is going to ruin the blade in a way that it is now a one use blade. But all I have is a couple of large pieces to cut out so I can go with this idea as I will just need two blades to finish. I would probably use two blades anyway so no real loss.

If I had a lot of small cuts it would not have been good to use it this way. But heck now I am done and can get this thing cleaned up and apply the danish oil and drop it off in a couple of weeks for the State Fair!

Yes

Thanks for looking!
Jim