how do i keep my blade from turnin on me,when i start cuttin it goes straight then it starts to twist the blade,broke 2 blades already,and its frustratin.dont want ruin any project.

Sounds, right off, that your blade is not tight enough.  Another thought is pushing too hard.

Where is it breaking?

After making a couple of cuts, take the blade out and look at it - then describe to me what the blade looks like.  (A picture is worth a thousand words as well.)  Ifn ya want, we can arrange a phone call to discuss it and then post the results.

---

Fred
aka Pop's Shop
www.pops-shop.com
'Soooooo many patterns - sooooo little time'
Scroll Saw Forum Host

1st one broke near top,second around the middle,i tightened it as much as i could, i might be pushin to hard,but was only way it cut straight,then started curvin off again an had to stop an let it straighten out again

 
Fred Wilson said:

Sounds, right off, that your blade is not tight enough.  Another thought is pushing too hard.

Where is it breaking?

After making a couple of cuts, take the blade out and look at it - then describe to me what the blade looks like.  (A picture is worth a thousand words as well.)  Ifn ya want, we can arrange a phone call to discuss it and then post the results.

---

Fred
aka Pop's Shop
www.pops-shop.com
'Soooooo many patterns - sooooo little time'
Scroll Saw Forum Host

Watch my video on YouTube on proper blade tensioming, channel name is scrollsawvideo look for the video title 'Blade Tensioning'. Also, what 'wood to blade' are you doing? This is an important part.

Here is a quote from http://www.mikesworkshop.com/DaveG.htm written by Dave Gandy about blade tension:

First off, see what your manual says about how to tension your blade as well as how to install it. If it isn't installed properly it will break. If it breaks at the top, chances are you haven't installed the blade correctly in the upper blade clamp. If it breaks at the bottom, check to see that it is installed right in the lower blade clamp. Your manual will have this information.

If it breaks in the middle, you probably have the tension set pretty good, but you are feeding your wood into it with too much force. So slow down a little bit.

If your tension is not tight enough your blade will drift. It will want to follow the grain of the wood, and it will flex when you are turning corners and cutting curves. Flexing will cause your cuts to be out of square, usually wider on top than on bottom. This can be a major problem when stack cutting. If you are cutting a piece that is especially small in your pattern it is quite possible that you will completely lose that piece on your bottom board because the blade will be cutting a lot smaller piece on the bottom than on the top.

It's pretty frustrating to cut 4 pieces of something and take them apart only to find that the bottom one and maybe even the one above it are missing parts of the design. Yes, I know this from my own experience.

The basic thing to remember is that the smaller the blade, the less tension you put on it, and of course the larger the blade, the more tension is needed. We aren't talking about a whole lot of difference here, but there is some.

Experiment with your blade tension. That is the only way to learn. It can't be told, it has to be done. When you find what is just right for you, and it really doesn't take that long to do, remember how the tension felt, and in no time at all you will be an expert at blade tensioning.

Pluck the blade and it should give you a nice ring when it is adjusted right. Might be a high C or a B flat. It's hard to say, but as long as it works for you on your saw, that is all that matters. Being a musician is not a prerequisite for setting blade tension. You are still going to break a few blades, but that is part of the learning process, so don't let that discourage you.

This helped me when I first started using my saw. The other thing that messed me up is the slight burr on the blades. It took me a good week to understand that the saw will cut a slight bit to the right.

I have to take the discussion on a different pathway:  Wood hardness and thickness must be taken into account when selecting a blade size. Also, I tend to use larger blades if I'm cutting outlines or silhouettes rather than internal fret cuts that have acute angles. Tell us what you are attempting to do. Thicker woods and harder woods require larger blade sizes... it isn't unusual to need a #7 or #9 to cut 3/4" oak although you can try a #5. In the other direction, cutting 1/8" birch ply is difficult to control because there is no resistance at all, so I tend to stack cut 3 or more at a time and I find it easier to control the cutting.

Also, note that blades tend to not cut in a straight line in a manner similar to band saw blades... you have to see the drift angle and compensate for it while pushing the wood into the blade.

Another way blades break is by pushing too fast. The feed rate and the blade speed are related. You have to pay attention to the exact place the blade is cutting the wood... sometimes I stop pushing completely just to see if my blade is going to continue cutting forward (if I see it 'catching up' it means I was pushing too hard and bending the blade backwards... and that is another way to break blades).

Spence

Hi Ron, I'm not an expert but I was having trouble with blades breaking, first they were too loose, then I had them too tight, I found they don't break as much when you have the tightness in the middle. Hope this helps!

Excellent comments, gents.  Ron, as you can see, there are many factors into blade breakage.  Blade tensioning, choice of blade, pushing wood straight into the blade cutting surface (not off to one side or the other), speed of the saw - all of these factors go into an accurate cut.

Using scrap wood of various species, Practice, practice, practice and find out which technique works for you.  There is NO hard and fast rule in scrolling.  What works for us might not work for you.  That being said, try the suggestions listed here and see which one(s) work best for you.

Thanks for asking a great question.

---

Fred
aka Pop's Shop
www.pops-shop.com
'Soooooo many patterns - sooooo little time'
Scroll Saw Forum Host

thanks to all of you,learned alot,haha didnt know there where different types of blades,and all about the tension on blades,will be practicin all these,and again thanks
 
Fred Wilson said:

Excellent comments, gents.  Ron, as you can see, there are many factors into blade breakage.  Blade tensioning, choice of blade, pushing wood straight into the blade cutting surface (not off to one side or the other), speed of the saw - all of these factors go into an accurate cut.

Using scrap wood of various species, Practice, practice, practice and find out which technique works for you.  There is NO hard and fast rule in scrolling.  What works for us might not work for you.  That being said, try the suggestions listed here and see which one(s) work best for you.

Thanks for asking a great question.

---

Fred
aka Pop's Shop
www.pops-shop.com
'Soooooo many patterns - sooooo little time'
Scroll Saw Forum Host

Ron,

  Tell us what you're working on... perhaps we can give our 2-cents about the blade size or blade type or the wood we'd use.

BTW, are you using plain-end blades on a variable speed scroll saw?

Spence