Scroll Saw Blades Keep Snapping

1.5” maple is a really hard piece for a scroll saw to cut. Sllooowww down, let the blad do the cutting instead of you pushing it through.

-- Dan-- Info for all @ http://www.hoistman.com

thats gonna be tough… like said above go very slowly and get the biggest courses blade you can. but your gonna snap a lot of blades

HI you might as well be cutting aluminum try something softer or take it slow and easy.Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

I found this on a sroll saw site:
sawdustus
Senior Member

Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 1,731

When you are cutting a curve in thick wood there is a strong tendency to to push the wood from the side in order to turn it into the cut. This bevels the cut and makes the piece stick or not come apart in one direction. I have cut dozens of the Peterson’s puzzles as well as a number of dinosaurs of my own design in 3/4” to 1 1/8” thick woods as varied as mahogany, hard maple, oak, walnut and poplar.
The solution is to let the blade cut the wood. Get the blade a tight as you can, use a fairly high speed on your saw and as you start a sharp curve, such as one of the tabs, slow your feed rate way down and concentrate on only applying pressure from the front by using one finger as a pivot point near the blade. Try not to push the wood into the blade as you turn the corners of the connecting tabs. I have also found that a #5 or #7 skip tooth blade works best for me. They give me the aggressiveness I need for unbeveled cuts and easy assembly and keep the kerf small enough to keep the puzzles together.

george

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

As the others have said, you are trying to cut a fairly thick piece of fairly hard material. Keep the speed of the blade high but slow down how fast you are trying to cut. This will also give you a more uniform cut. I would imagian that cutting a chess piece would be a compound cut (cut on one side, rotate the piece and cut from the side) It will also be important that the blade stays in one place, not getting pushed to the back or side by what you are cutting (if that makes sense). also try using a thicker blade.
MrsN

All of the above. I used to have blades break on me a lot until I learned to be sure the blade was tight and I never forced it. They still break from time to time, but not as much anymore.

I also have a difficult time cutting maple on the scroll saw. Going at a slow pace will really help. The blade will still get very hot but at least it won’t break.

-- Remember, measure twice, cut once