Diamond Scroll Saw

[garyleed]

Hello everyone,

Does anyone use the Diamond Scroll Saw from England? If so do you think it is a value for the money? Could you give some pros and cons of the saw and compare it to other saws that you have used. From the ad it looks like a good saw.

Thanks for your feedback,
Gary

[Greenfield_Bob]

Gary, I think Gill does, maybe she will answer you

Bob

[Gill]

Hi Gary

I've got a couple of Diamond saws, plus one or two other thoroughbreds in my stable. If anyone feels inclined to donate an Eclipse or a Hawk, my pedigree herd would be complete .

Tor recently acquired a new Diamond, so perhaps he'll be able to offer his advice too.

The Diamond is a good saw - in fact it's truly excellent for some applications - but I don't believe its legendary status is deserved nowadays. Go back a few years and it possibly may have been. New saw designs have been produced since the heyday of the Diamond and they are certainly contenders for its crown.

I've met its manufacturer, Doug Woodward, and he's an absolute star. He seems to regard every saw he makes as his eternal responsibility and even if you ask him to service an old saw that you picked up off an internet auction site, he'll treat you as if you were the original purchaser and only bought the saw from him last week. His pride in his saws is such that he takes it as a personal affront if any of his machines have the temerity to become unserviceable, even after years (in some cases, decades) of use! Sadly, Doug is now a sole operator and he's rather elderly. Although he's tried to train apprentices to succeed him, none have lasted the course.

The Diamond website extols the speed of blade changes; I believe it says you can change a blade in 8 seconds. I've never managed to achieve this. The tension is controlled by a knob at the rear of the arms, rather like a Hegner, and the blades are clamped in position with thumb screws. So to replace a blade you need to loosen the tension on the arms, unscrew both thumbscrews, insert the blade (checking for alignment - more on this later), tighten the thumbscrews and re-tension the arms. Give me a Hegner with a tension release lever and a Quick clamp any day of the week, or even a DW788. If you do choose a Diamond, the Type 7 clamps are well worth the extra money because they're much easier to use than the Type 6 clamps. You just drop the blade into the Type 7s whereas the Type 6s require manual positioning.

Yet for all its relatively cumbersome blade changing, the Diamond blade clamping system has one unique feature: you can rotate the blade through 360 degrees. In conjunction with the Diamond's deep throat, this gives you an ability to fret cut very large pieces of board. There aren't many saws which can cut, for example, noticeboards or door signs with a diagonal greater than 3'. When I cut this door sign, It was so big I had to use the sort of roller stands to support the plywood that are normally used to support wood being fed off table saws!



If you want to work on a large scale, I can't imagine a better saw than a Diamond.


Another factor to consider is the fact that the Diamond can take irregular blades. If you don't have a bandsaw, you can insert a section of old bandsaw or hacksaw blade and the Diamond will cut away quite happily. It won't be quick and I believe it can't cut wood more than 4" thick but at least it's an option. I've got a decent bandsaw so I've never needed to put my Diamonds to the test .

Not surprisingly, the Diamond has a large footprint. It will require a bench which is at least 3' long. It's a heavy beast, certainly as heavy as a DW788 if not heavier. A lot of this is due to its brush motor, a potent critter but noisy with it. The Diamond actually has two motors - the second is an electric motor which powers the dust blower. The advantage of having the independent dust blower is that you'll get the sawdust blown clear even if the saw is being operated very slowly. Some machines (Hegners spring to mind) only blow dust according to the speed of the saw.

This brings me to another great advantage of the Diamond; it has a variable speed control which is effectively "Stop" to "OhmygodI'velostcontrol". Most other variable speed scroll saws have a minimum speed of about 400 strokes per minute but the Diamond goes much lower than that. If you're cutting fine boards (less than, say, 1/16" thick) you'll really notice how useful this is. It's a pity the speed control box can be a little temperamental - sometimes it likes to speed things up and slow things down without any input from its operator. This variation at slow speeds, although noticeable, is rarely detrimental to the saw's effectiveness. It just wakes you up!

The standard Diamond table is made of high quality plywood. Surprisingly, it's a great asset! Not only is the plywood stable but it means that false tables (such as zero clearance tables) can be screwed onto it very easily. The workpiece slides over the table as easily as it would on an aluminum table but the experience can be enhanced if you dust the table with a little French chalk (such as you get in bicycle tire puncture repair kits). Although the table only tilts to one side and it doesn't have an angle gauge, it does have one brilliantly simple device which ought to be standard on all scroll saws in my opinion; an adjustable stop. Once the stop is set accurately, your table need never be out of alignment with your blade again. Tilting the table isn't as smooth as tilting that of a Hegner, but it's far superior to that of a DW788.

Finally, there's the actual cutting action of the saw. It's... different! Most scroll saws rely on having the blade clamped into place at the end of two arms which are engineered to make cuts in a parallel motion. However, the clamps are often not free to move and this often leads to a very slight undercut. Diamond blade clamps don't have this problem; they're free to move whilst cutting. As a result you'll get an extremely accurate cut, one that's probably only matched by the Eclipse (according to accounts I have read). Blades seem to last longer too.

If it was my money, would I buy a new Diamond? Yes, if I had a particular requirement for its unique strengths. However, if I wanted a high quality general purpose saw, I'd head straight for a quiet variable speed Hegner with the latest quick blade changing accessories.

Hope this helps. Don't hesitate to ask me if there's anything I've not covered or anything that needs a bit of clarification. Now it's time to sit back and wait for Yellow Peril owners to cry out that the only saw for you is a DW788 .

Gill

[Neal Moore]

Excellent review Gill!!! Someone should be paying you for such a comprehensived description of their equipment. I doubt seriously if any of us owners of the "Yella" saw will extoll it's virtues over the Diamond......especially since most of us have never seen one!! LOL!! BTW...Welcome back, I've missed Ya!!!

[garyleed]

Thanks Gill for the quality information.

[Rolf]

Gill That is a very nice sign I like the image at the top.
Yes it is GOOD to have you back.

[minowevie]

I have to say, I have never heard of this saw. but after reading , ALL , of Gills post, I am sold. there is so much this saw can do. and I wont it. thank you Gill. I don't think i am going to traid my Hegner. but . i would love to have the qualitys that this saw has to offer. mmmmmmmmm new shop. many saws. sorry, I guess I am a tool junkie too. thank you Gill. that was great. sooo Gary, how much is this saw? and can you get it in Caif? ohhhh santa.? are you listening. sorry got excited. your friend Evie

[lucky788scroller]

Thank you Gill for the info, very informative. Dale (and no, I wont cry out that yella is the best choice. the best choice is the saw that has all the features you want and can afford)

[Gill]

Those saws aren't cheap, Evie. The basic model costs £635 (roughly $1300 US) and then you've got postage on top! Mind, a Hegner 2 would be £582 (roughly $1200) on this side of the pond. I had a lucky break on eBay the other week and picked up a practically brand new Hegner SEV for a fraction of its retail price .

There are a couple of points about the Diamond that I didn't mention because they're not terribly significant but if you're ever playing the scroll saw version of Trivial Pursuit, you might get a question . Firstly, the Diamond has a multi-tool take-off shaft. Sadly, Dremel drive shafts don't fit this - you've got to buy a dedicated drive shaft, and they're more expensive than Dremels. Secondly, although the blades can be rotated through 360 degrees, if you cut with the blade rotated through 90 degrees (or 270 degrees ) you don't half notice how the blade oscillates! I did mention earlier that the blade clamps are free to move back and forth and this gives you a perfect vertical cut when the blade is set to face the front. If you rotate the blade through 90 degrees, it moves left and right instead of back and forth - most disconcerting! Strangely, this doesn't seem to affect the cut. When I made my first cuts with the blades rotated through 90 degrees, I expected to to find the top had been rounded over - yet it was a true vertical cut. The movement isn't very significant; I'd say it's about 1/32" at most. However, if you're trying to maneuver a large board from a position some three feet away from the saw, it's difficult enough trying to follow the pattern without having the blade wobbling too.

Great fun though .

Gill

[afshin]

Hi Gill;
you wrote about the Diamond fretsaws:
"The tension is controlled by a knob at the rear of the arms, rather like a Hegner, and the blades are clamped in position with thumb screws. So to replace a blade you need to loosen the tension on the arms, unscrew both thumbscrews, insert the blade (checking for alignment - more on this later), tighten the thumbscrews and re-tension the arms. "

I have talked with Doug and I have tried it for more than a year, and it seems that it is only necessary to adjust the rear tension knob if you want to change the size of the blades. Otherwise you only need to unscrew and then screw the thumbscrews, without touching the rear knob at all.
I have also covered my wood table with 1 mm stainless steel top, and I have added an adjustable "blower arm" so I can make the blower to blow in the "right" direction.
Here is a picture:
Diamond.jpg

Afshin