Scroll saw balde tensioner question from beginner

PS, went on line to get the owner’s manual and the Delta site said it was unavailable at this time.

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

Nothing my manual about it. On handsaws it is done mainly to protect the tires on the wheel.

-- Folly ever comes cloaked in opportunity!

They recomend that when it is not in use that it should be released, to release the pressure off the blade. Having said that mine tends to stay on more times than not .

-- Theresa, https://sites.google.com/site/tmj65treasure/

Like just about everyone else, I just leave mine tensioned. If I don’t, I know I will forget and turn it on when it isn’t tensioned. I do release the tension anyway though when I have smaller (weaker) blades like a #2 or #3 installed.

-- Mike, American in Norway

The reason we release the tension on a bandsaw is to take the pressure off the tires. Furthermore, the tension on a bandsaw blade is much higher than the tension on a scroll saw blade.

I see no reason to release the tension and I see no harm if you do (other than forgetting to reapply the tension before you start the next time).

-- Rich, Cedar Rapids, IA - I'm a woodworker. I don't create beauty, I reveal it.

What is the model number of your Delta scroll saw? Maybe someone has that model and could copy the manual for you.

-- John at Sugarloft Mountain........Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference.

It is a Delta 40-540.

Mike, that is what happened to me the other day; i started without tightening. Being a novice with the scroller, I wondered why it cut so poorly:-)) I finally noticed the blade seemed a bit too wobbly :-)) :-)) Cut a lot better after that!! I tend to forget to release and to tighten.

I have a new appreciation for scrollers ability. Cutting those perfect radii time after time is a real talent! Looks to me like it is nearly impossible to take those intricate designs to the belt sander to clean up the lines:-)

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

Most of the time I either take the blade out or leave it tensioned. If the is no blade in the machine no one can use it or accidentally turn it on and get cut. I worry about that. I checked my manual (hitachi) and it didn’t say anything about leaving blades tensioned.
when I am working on a project with lots of inside cuts, leaving the blade un tensioned works, when I come back to cutting my first cut will need to have the blade put in a hole. When I am cutting things that don’t require inside holes it is nice to have a blade ready to go.

-- ----- www.KNWoodworking.com ----- --

I have to agree with Rich. I release the tension on my BS but not on my scrollsaw, it’s straight no tires to flatten out,The BS is always changing it’s shap in a way, because it is turning, which in my mind it is bending more than a straight blade and kust moving up and down. It does move from side to side. But I don’t think it does as much as a BS does.

-- Tim, Missouri ....Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the heck happened

Thanks for the info everyone. Guess I won’t worry about it:-))

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

Topamax and others
if you take an old model like a frame saw , you always release the tensension
on the the saw and take the stress moment out of the blade
and tensioned it again when you are going to use it

I have seen a blade that was tensioned a ½year and you cuoldn´t use the saw
after that becourse the blade behaved like there was not enoff tension on it,
it wrickle ,wrackle and woble the hole time we try :-(
we controled the length of the blade with a simular one and it was a little longer
not much but it was longer

just my 2cent

Dennis

Thanks Dennis, maybe i should rethink my previous comment ;-) It is probably good practice to release anything under tension when not in use.

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

Topa don´t bee tooo quick
you still need to tension the P-brake ….....LOL

or put a stone under the wheel

“P-brake”???? What’s a P-brake?

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

I have quite literally left the blade tensioned on this particular model for years with NO ill effects. Besides, blades are so cheap that you really should put a new one in at the beginning of each new project anyway. IMO, don’t over think this, it is a non-issue. Hail, I didn’t even remove the rust off the SS table for the first +15 years, just WD-40’d it once in a while. Still runs like a champ.

There is probably more danger to NOT having the blade tightened than leaving it tightened. Anyway, dug up all the old paperwork on mine and made a copy of the safety chart for you. I even found my receipt stapled to the Warranty envelope, dated 03/07/93. FYI, in 1993 it cost me $179.00 USD.
http://www.horizontalheavens.com/DeltaSafetyRulesScrollSaw.jpg
http://www.horizontalheavens.com/DeltaPartsListScrollSaw.jpg
http://www.horizontalheavens.com/DeltaGrenadeViewScrollSaw.jpg

-- HorizontalMike -- "Woodpeckers understand..."