Auxiliary Top

[Buzz]

Don't remember where I saw this, but I made one for each of my Hawks and they work fine. They are 3/4" thick and when my blade starts getting too dull I put the auxiliary top on and that gets me to unused teeth. Mine are made out of shelving material (Melamine?) and the locating tabs are any scrap material. You see that I used 4 tabs to hold the top, but any amount that would work is fine. Also, you can cut a slot all the way to the front of the top so you won't have to loosen the blade to put the top on. This approximately doubles the life of the blade. By the way, I got a piece of shelving out of the scrap bin at Home Depot for $3.00. Had some left over after making the 2 tops.

[CanadianScroller]

Thats a good tip Buzz. It would work with almost any saw.
Thanks for posting it.

[PuzzledMoose]

Loud ringing of bells here - I don't know if it's the same place that Buzz saw the information about auxililiary tables but I have the same suggestion here in a book by Rick Peters. I haven't tried it yet but the idea seems interesting when cutting thin stock ...


AND ... that is where I had seen the suggestion about using a fence on a scroll saw that I asked about a few weeks ago!!! Peters suggests using a fence attched to the auxiliary table ...

He doesn't mention anything at all about overcoming blade bias though, which Carl (I think) mentioned.

Am I right in thinking that PGT blades don't have a bias?

[BobD]

One way to get around the bias would be to use a spiral blade...it will be a bit rougher of a cut, but gives you a pretty nice cut. I got the idea from an article by Fred Byers that we are running in the spring issue...It worked when I try it!


One caution about using the aux. table is that it basically eliminates your reverse-teeth on the bottom. I'm not saying I wouldn't do it, but just remember it if you are doing something you didn't plan on sanding!!!

Bob

[millwab]

Originally Posted by BobD

One way to get around the bias would be to use a spiral blade...One caution about using the aux. table is that it basically eliminates your reverse-teeth on the bottom.

Another way would be to use a crown tooth blade. You have the benefit of turning it end-for-end to get a fresh set of teeth, and, you don't lose the reverse-teeth.

[workin for wood]

It's an interesting idea, but it does take your hands up closer to the arms of the saw for some potential knuckle whacks. I do use an auxillary table on my Hawk too, but it's only 1/8 " thick and I only use it to eliminate the hole around the blade for cutting small pieces. If they fall through the hole, they tend to get lost.

[BobD]

Good point, Jeff,

It wouldn't be a good thing if doing intarsia or compound cutting (where you traditionally use thicker wood. If cutting fretwork, you'd be fine, though!

Bob

[MikeDingas]

I'm about as new to scrolling as one can get. But I don't see the advantage to saving blades when you can buy blades for less than 20 cents each. I do see another use for an auxiliary top, though. Somewhere I saw one used to help cut perfect circles using a pivot point on the wood top. Something you can't do on a metal table.

[PuzzledMoose]

Originally Posted by MikeDingas

But I don't see the advantage to saving blades when you can buy blades for less than 20 cents each.

Hey Mike my mum used to say "Look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves" ...

I used about a dozen blades yesterday - 12x10c is enough to buy an extra coffee at Tim Horton's ...

[cskipper]

I like the idea, especially being able to put a fence on it. PG blades still have a little bit of drift - but not nearly as much as others. Using the table would make reverse tooth blades pointless. Good idea.
Cathy