Thread: Scroll saw recomendations?

Going to dabble a little into scale making and was wondering if anyone has had experience on the HF scroll or dremel scroll? Got some sheets comin from delvrie plastics and I was going to try and use just a dremel with the cutter attachment but not sure if it's more of hassle to use.

I have one of the ones from... Sears, I think. I seem to remember it was around $100. I unsure HF is cheaper... But also cheaper, if you know what I mean. I'd say that with a tool like that, it's probably worth a little more to get something that will hold up to its workload.

That said, I picked up a cheap HF grinder that I turned into a buffer because I wanted something faster (RPM, that is), and it does its job very well.

I use one of the old Dremel scroll saws that is nearly impossible to get parts for now, but it works really well for what I use it for. I have a HF belt/disk sander that has held up really well so far, but no clue how the scroll saw would be.

My advice is NOT to buy a scroll saw. IME, you'll be a lot happier with a bench top bandsaw.

I actually wish I had a bandsaw cause I could do alot more with it easier than with a scroll saw.

I've got the HF, it's good for the price, but I would have gone with the Porter cable if I had to do it all over again. The one good thing for the HF is you can use plain and pin in blades, so it is a bit more versatile. The scroll is great for woods, but if you want bone or god forebid g10, good luck. I broke down and got a 9" bench top band saw for the harder stuff. The scroll just burns through blades, and wants to grab the
g10, took me like 3 blades my first set of g10. You can however cut acrylic just fine on a medium speed with the #7 blade (11-15tpi are best).

Thanks gents...I thought about a band saw but wasn't sure if it was just as versatile. I guess based on the advice a band saw it is. When looking at used ones what would you consider besides running would you look for in a band saw?

Originally Posted by regularjoe

My advice is NOT to buy a scroll saw. IME, you'll be a lot happier with a bench top bandsaw.

I totally disagree here. To get the fine curvature some scales require you need a scroll saw. You can also tilt the table of most scroll saws to create bevelled edges on scales.
I use a Ryobi scroll saw. At low speeds it's great. At higher speeds I can't use it, the table moves up and down by about 2 inches ridiculous!
Theere are advantages to using a bandsaw, like it's inherent stability, personally I wouldn't trade the versatility for stability JMHO.

Well, the good thing about the 9 and 10" bench top bandsaws, is that they have a variety of blades for them. I keep bosche blades, in 1/4" 6tpi, 1/8" 15tpi, and one 1/8" 20 tpi, and with the 15, 18, and 20tpi blades, I can cut almost 90* w/out twiting the blade. I use the skil 9" from lowes by the way.

Thanks Carl..definitely got some thinking to do.