Science/Engineering/Technical forums

I promised elsewhere I would post about the precision scroll saw I was building and finally got the pics up on my own website (http://www.celticcrosseng.com/building- ... or-jigsaw/) - so here are a few pics for anyone interested in such a device.

Why would you want to build a precision scroll saw when you can buy a "pretty good" one at Harbor Freight for 70 bucks? Same reason as the whole climbing a mountain thing, I guess... for me anyway, it was because a band style oscillating precision scroll saw with a 22 inch throat is cost prohibitive. And its not that hard or expensive to make.

This will allow me to cut out some very nice foam patterns for my lost foam forging projects as well as weirdly shaped PC boards, and whatever else needs high degree curve cuts...

If you want more theory on scroll saw (or Jig-saws as I used to call them when I was a kid) then read the stuff at the link, I go over each different kind. but here is a simple design sketch of mine:
Everything is held together with threaded rod, and even the rocker is threaded rod so that the attachment of the cables will be fully "tunable" and the rocker can be made as vibration free as possible.



And my build so far:


Updates soon!

You can often find 24" delta scroll saws around for $50 to $100 with a stand around here. I picked one up a few years ago. Very well made and some have a reeves drive for variable speed.

Yes, but oscillating band style? Probably not. And anyway this was more or less to just do it and have a saw that I could modify in a variety of ways. The Reeves drive sounds interesting and would be worth it for that - but I plan on using a Triac-Diac circuit and foot pedal for speed control. I also have an old DC motor that reverses and has speed control from an old Stren fishing lure winder, but that probably does not have the power I need.