Hardwood cutting suggestions

[lonepine]

Hello; If any of you have any proven tips for cutting hardwood,3/4" to1 1/4",would like to hear of them. I have a G4 and am having some trouble with bogging down. Thanks Bob.

[William Young]

Hi Bob;
I saw your message in another site about the G-4 bogging down.
Most people really like their G-4 and no way should any scroll saw bog down for power and that includes even the cheapest entry level ones.
The best thing I can suggest is to either email or phone Hawk and explain the situation. They might have a fix for you or better still send you some replacement parts under warranty.
Good luck with that. Bogging down when cutting any thickness of woods is a problem we seldom hear about.
W.Y.

[GrayBeard Phil]

Bob:

The only suggestion I can offer is to change the blade.

Thick wood suffers from too many teeth in contact with the wood. That is one of the reasons there are so many teeth geometries for S.S. blades. By reducing the teeth, (skipping a tooth here and there) there is more chip clearance.

Cannot prove it, but I think the heat caused by the thick wood and the clearance of wood chip problem adds up to quick dull of the blade's teeth. Just my opinion there. But a dull tooth blade is going to slow you down a bit. Jess 'bout like honey fresh out of the refrigerator slow.

-Start with trying a FD Polar skip tooth design (real hard tooth with skip design,)
-or maybe an Olson precision double tooth (a skip & double tooth design with a larger gullet between the two teeth.)
-I am sure the Pegus Modified Geometry blade would be worth a try also (a skip design with agressive sharp teeth.)

H.T.H.

Phil

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Bob

Not quite sure what you mean by bogging down. If the motor is slowing down due to the extra thickness than this would be a manufactoring problem. There is no reason that saw should not be able to handle that thickness especially 3/4". Now the first thing I would suggest and it was already touched on by Phil is use a good blade that is sharp and has spacing between teeth. You will need to step up to at least a #9 or larger blade with wood over 1" You can do just fine with #5 or #7 with 3/4" wood unless they are exotics and very oily woods. Then you may have to go to a more aggressive blade. The FD polar is the one I am familar with so that would be the one I suggest.

Now with that said that saw has the ability to adjust the aggresiveness of the cut by changing the angle of the lower clamp. You may want to try going to a more aggresive angle. That is one of the biggest complaints with Ernie Melons Eclipse saw and the older Delta saws that had that straight up and down motion. They were alot slower cutters because they were not as aggressive as todays parallel arm saws. As you know though the thicker the wood the slower the cutting. Good luck and would be interested to hear what you find out.

[lonepine]

Thank You all for responding; I do like your suggestions and will implement them to see if there is an improvement.I have a better read now,and can try to explain to Hawk this unusual circumstance. Bob

[lonepine]

Hello; I could not fix the problem with the slow cutting.I got a hold of Mark from Hawk, he came up with a premis that the speed control was malfunctioning.They are sending me a new speed control box. There were very understanding. I hope to be cutting again,and cutting Harwood.
Will keep you posted. Thanks, Bob

[lonepine]

Hello; After receiving the new speed control, I was excited to start cutting again... low and behold, same problem, called service talked to Mark, and I was not very happy. He told me to go to page 28 of the manual, it seems there is a set screw that holds the counterweight to the shaft... it is mostly hidden and out of sight...it had come loose,so the motor shaft was not secure, and there by bogged down and lost power.
I corrected that and it runs like a champ.
Looks like vibration caused it to loosen...Iv'e had other screws come loose before on this saw. I will have to implement a monthly PM to check all these areas.
The RBI people know there saws, and I am getting to know mine...back to making sawdust, finally!
Thanks again for your help.
Bob

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Bob

Glad to hear you got things squared away your new saw. Look forward to seeing some new projects.