For these of you who wish to scroll saw, you know the way tedious it may be to chop very small items of your scroll saw patterns. After years of damage (and typically even weeks), the outlet in your scroll sawed table will get scuffed and enlarged from repeated rubbing of the blade. This incidence isn’t usually attributable to personal error, however is what I’d consult with as ‘the character of the beast’. In my 13+ years of scroll sawing, it’s uncommon that I’ve come across a scroll saw table that does not have the sort of put on quickly after its preliminary use.
For probably the most part, this doesn’t intrude with manufacturing, however when chopping small, delicate items typically required for intarisa or segmentation, it could trigger the issue of lack of help in addition to shedding the piece as it’s a one off. With a view to rectify this, many scrollers make what’s known as a ‘zero clearance plate’ for his or her saw. The aim of the zero clearance plate is to offer higher help for small and delicate items, in addition to keeping away from shedding them within the pile of sawdust beneath.
There are a number of methods you may make this add-on to your saw. I shall be discussing what I really feel to be the simplest, quickest (albeit, short-term) methodology of constructing this plate. It’s a nice ‘fast repair’ for these of you who do not want or need an extra everlasting kind or do not need to use it on a regular basis, and might be put in in lower than 5 minutes.
Meeting – To begin with, ensure your scroll saw table is clear. Give it a spritz with WD-40 and use some fine grit sandpaper to wash any adhesive or particles that will have collected on it.
– After sanding, use a paper towel to wash off the WD-40. This may make the floor slick and oily. You’ll now want to make use of Windex or one of some other window cleaner or alcohol to take away the oily residue. You need the table as clear and grease-free as potential.
– Subsequent, take an empty two-liter pop bottle and reduce a rounded rectangle from the plastic. The rectangle ought to be about three inches sq. with rounded corners.
– Use your drill press and a small bit (about 1/sixteenth of an inch) to drill a small gap within the middle of the plastic piece.
– Go to your scroll saw and place a small blade within the blade holder. Launch the highest of the blade and thread the plastic piece by way of, curved aspect down.
– Re-attach the blade and tighten the strain.
– Sq. out the plastic and use 2″ clear packaging tape to tape the plate into place. I take advantage of strips of no less than 6″ long. Place 4 strips – two vertical to every aspect of the blade and two horizontal at the back and front of the blade. Do that rigorously so you do not get any wrinkles within the tape which might intrude together with your chopping.
– There you’ve got it! A straightforward, efficient and fast zero clearance scroll saw table!
I discovered that the sort of plate works nice particularly for delicate segmentation and intarsia scroll saw patterns with very small items. After a number of initiatives, the outlet does begin to get larger and typically the tape will roll up barely on the edges after a little bit of use. If this happens, I simply take a pointy scraping knife and trim off the free edges of the tape. After some time, I exchange the plate, cleansing my table as said earlier.
Though I would like to switch the plate periodically, I nonetheless use this methodology versus an extra everlasting one as a result of it’s inevitable that even on picket overlay plates that are standard, the outlet will present indicators of damage and get bigger. Additionally, with a picket plate, you might be elevating the floor of your desk the thickness of the wooden, and this might have an effect on the efficiency of reverse-tooth blades, which I take advantage of typically.
Many individuals additionally use this methodology utilizing expired bank cards or different types of plastic, however, I discovered that they’re a bit thicker than the pop bottle plastic and have kind of a ridge which causes issues when feeding delicate work. So I save a number of ‘clean plates’ in my scroll saw tool drawer, as I use anywhere from 4 to eight of them from a discarded pop bottle at a time, which lasts some time. I hope you are able to work this methodology and that it really works properly for you.