Advice for a real Newbie

[Fremmed]

My wife got a scroll saw for Christmas and I've started tinkering with it. Having ABSOLUETLY NO woodworking experience. I wanted your advice as to what tools and supplies are musts, needed, helpful, etc. Also, how do you organize all the different blades you own? Thanks for help!

[AKAkopa]

Well for me the MUSTS are a Dremel (or other brand of small rotary tool) with small drill bits and sanding attachments and a palm sander. Clear packing tape is also a MUST along with repositional adhesive for putting my patterns on wood. Another must is good lighting.

Other tools I find useful are a drill press, belt sander, table saw, router, reciprocating sander, band saw, planer, shop vac, etc (get my drift--ANY tools relating to woodworking is helpful LOL). I am kind of like Tim Allen on "Home Improvement" when it comes to tools. I can find an excuse that I HAVE to have something new to work and play with when it comes to this hobby. Can't wait to get in my new home this spring--it has a 24x40 garage that will have a large area dedicated to wood working. I think I see a Lathe in the near future!

If you will be doing any clocks you may need forstner bits. Small bits are a must for fret work. A good assortment of small files, sand paper and finishing products are also needed. Look at the magazine articles here in the archives and these will give you an idea as too what people use for many of their projects and this will give you an idea as to the essential stuff needed.

As far as keeping my blades organized I ordered blade tubes from Sloans Woodworking, drilled some holes in a piece of 2x4 (used forstner bits), cut the labels off the plastic bags my blades came in and taped these to the tubes. Now my blades are standing in this rack visible so as to be able to see what blades I need to reorder as they get low and are easy to pick which I am going to use for different projects,cuts or woods.

I am sure more "veterns" here will give you a more difinative list than what I have as I am sure I missed many. If it cuts, sands, carves, shapes, clamps etc with wood then By Gawd I want it and will find it useful if for no other reason than to say to my Brother "Well hell yes I got one of them! You mean you don't?".

Hope I helped and garnered a couple of chuckles from you and others here.

Pat

[rayzir]

I suppose it depends on what kind of projects you want to do. But I found the easiest way to jump scroll sawing is to do fretwork/portraits. It requires the least amount of tools and produces some really great pieces. (and impresses all of your friends!)

The bare essentials that will get you started. You'll need a drill and the smallest drill bit you can find. A palm sander. Blue Painter's tape for applying the pattern to. Spray adhesive to mount the pattern to the blue painter's tape. For the finish, just some clear acrylic spray. Naturally, scroll saw blades and some wood goes without saying. I'd definitely find some quality scroll saw blades, though. The garbage they sell at the hardware store is just that...garbage.

I can't wait to see your first project! Welcome to the hobby!

[I-saw]

It depends what kind of things you plan on making, there really are no must own tools/materials other than decent blades & material to cut (& sandpaper if you're using wood). No real need to buy anything else just yet...your saw is enough until you get experience.

Buy quality blades & practice using the saw by making basic cut outs, etc.

I am quite specialised in what I do, so I don't use a variety of blades, I have no blade organiser...you will find that unless you're doing very varied work (ie. working with lots of different materials & thicknesses), you'll usually use the "average" blade for most work you do...the No.5 blade (fine enough to do detail, strong enough to cut thickness).

You'll discover what kind of projects you prefer often by accident...or you'll see some piece of work you admire & try it yourself.

I've been sawing 6 years & I rarely need to use anything more than a drill & sandpaper.

Try searching the forum for advice on which brand of blade to use...most US sawers seem to favour the Flying Dutchman blades.

[Rivari]

The only thing you will need is a constant infusion of your bank account, scrolling leads to many other things. When you buy tools, buy them with the mindset that you will most likely outgrow many of them, at least thats been my approach. And since nobody mentioned it, get yourself a mini-fridge and a good radio for your shop, music and beverage selction is up to you and most importante'.

[Jim Rodman]

Fremmed
Welomce to the forum, you have got some good advice so fare.
The one thing that I would add to what has been said is when looking for a drill machine, it should be a drill press not a hand drill.
And with the drill press buy one that has a "zero clearance chuck".
This is when you close down the jays of the chuck they all will touch togeateher and hold fine bits. Most chucks will not hold very small bits.
jim form Ontario

[oops99]

Hey Fremmed,
First off, welcome to the site, this is by far the best place in the world learn about scrolling. The people here are not only very knowledgeable, but they are some of the nicest people you could ever want to meet.
so far as tools, you have the most important one so far, the scroll saw. The next must have is a drill with some small drill bits The best advice I can give you is to try playing with the saw to find out how it works. Take some scrap wood, thin plywood is a great starting place, 1/4" or 3/8" works great, draw some lines on it, zig zags, straight lines, and curly Q's, then try cutting the lines, get the feel of the saw.
Most if not all scroll sawing uses a pattern, get yourself some spray (Re-positionable) glue, print out a pattern, or even draw something on a piece of paper, spray the back of the "PATTERN" not the wood, let it get tacky, then adhere the pattern to the wood. Cut out you piece, to make an internal cut, you have to drill a hole, then disconnect your blade (usually from the top blade holder, insert it through the hole, reconnect the blade, reset the tension, make you cut, and then do the same for any remaining cuts, then just peel the pattern off, sounds easy, and with a lot of practice you will find that it really is.
Oh, and another thing, scroll saws come with a hold down (foot) to hold the wood down on the table while cutting, the first thing most any scroller will do is to remove this device, it really only gets in the way when your cutting, use your hands to hold the wood down.
Give it a shot, and let us know how you are making out.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Tom

oops99

[GrayBeard Phil]

I would like to add the following:

Go to your local big box Home Improvement Store (aka Big Orange Retail Giant--BORG)

In the Paint Dept

1- 3M Blue Painter's Tape--a masking tape colored blue, which leaves less sticky residue than regular masking tape.

2- One can (quart) Boiled linseed Oil (BLO)

3- One can (gallon) Mineral Spirits

4- One spray can of a finish. There is lots of arguments about a finish, but for a raw newbie, I recommend the spray MinWax Polyacrylic clear gloss finish.

5- Dust mask, disposal kind. Look for the kind with two rubber straps, and upper and lower. You should wear one anytime you sand.

BTW: while there you can get a can of 3M-77 spray adhesive, as someone already recommended.

Large discount department store:

Pint and Quart sized glass jars (Wide Mouth) for BLO, so you don't pour used BLO back into rest of BLO in can.

New set of Men's tee shirts, and declare current men's tee's as rags to be used in hobby.

1 roll of heavy duty aluminum foil

1 cheap 9" X 13" pan

(on some projects, it is easier to line the 9X13 pan with foil, pour in some BLO and dip the project in. after a few minutes, wipe down then hang up to dry using wire coat hanger or 14 gage copper wire. Then pour the left over BLO into glass jar with screw on lid.)

Aside: If you don't purchase a separate pan and foil, don't ask me how I know this, but just grabbing the spouses good cookware 9 X 13 roasting pan will NEVER be forgotten-EVER! Every social occasion this will be brought up!

Phil

[Tor]

Well looks like things are well covered for fretwork. If you have ideas on what you want to do, let us know, and we can update lists with that in mind.

Tor

[Barefoot1]

This is a MUST Have!
The New Scroll Saw Handbook by Patrick Spielman published by Sterling.
ISBN 0-8069-7877-5 $16.95 US

This will answer just about any question you have and is a great resource to have handy in your shop.

Also, I have seen a lot of posts telling you to get a palm sander. They are a great tool to have, no doubt, but I would highly recommend that you go to your BORG or BBRG in my case, and by a few rubber hand sanding blocks. The heavy ones and several grades of paper starting at about 180 and in steps to 400. This is much less expensive than a palm sander and allows you to sand with the grain and apply light pressure that you are in control of on cut projects. Fretwork can be very fragile.

Oh, and Welcome to the Addiction! Hours and hours of fun await you!
You can take a look at my page for pics of the shop and the tools there if you want, I started with a scroll saw . . . .