Flying Dutchman Blade Breakage

[Guy Gadois]

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum and I'll start posting by asking a question. I recently puchased some #5 FDR blades and am experiencing much more blade breakage than I have encountered with some other (Olson) blades. Size for size the FD blades are more delicate in appearance than others. The blade always breaks at the topmost tooth. Mike at mikesworkshop says too little tension on the blade is most likely to cause this problem. The Hegner tech says the tension should be a turn to a turn and one half after the tension adjustment knob meets resistance. Should the tension on the FD blades be higher than others?

Thanks in advance for your replies.
Guy

[William Young (SE BC)]

Probably the most extensive and complete information on blades and saws is HERE.
Click on blades and the sub headings on the left side and read up about blades.

My own personal experience says that your blade is not tight enough. Scrollsaw blades are a lot stronger than you think. Some say tighten to a high C note , A lot of people don't have a clue what a high C sounds like. Some say tighten to a "twang" or to a certain number on their tensioning device. Some say tighten to a certain resitance on a tension adjustment knob. All are guidlines but the problem is that every saw is not the same even in the same brand name of saws so those suggestions are nothing but guidelines .
My suggestion is to crank the blade up real tight. You will get used to how tight you can pull it up without pulling it out of the blade holders. You should not be breaking any make of blade and especially the #5 size that you prefer if it is properly installed tight enough in the holders and if you are not pushing too hard on it so as to not allowing it to do its job of cutting. Try a tighter blade and a slower feed rate .
Of course there is always a possibility of a bad run of blades with a manufacturing defect but that should be taken up with the distributor that you got your blades from. I have seen that happen over the years from a couple different brand names. Sometimes even from some blades in the same package while others were OK.
W.Y.

[BobD]

Guy,
Bill is right about the tension. When I was using the Hegner, with the blade clamps that require the "key", i could actually tension it a little more than some other scroll saws. I'm one of the tone deaf people who can't hear the high "C", so I tighten it up as much as I can before it slips out of the blade holders...For me, the tighter the blade, the easier it is to control.

When I switched to the quick change clamps, I couldn't tension it as tight, but if you rub the ends of the blades with a bit of fine-grit sandpaper, and do the same to the thumb screw, you can apply quite a bit of tension to the blades.

I haven't found that any of the major blades (Olson, Pegus, or FD) require any real differences in tension.

I break MANY more blades due to insufficient tension than I do from too much tension.

Like most things, there is a learning curve, though. I never really paid attention to how many turns I made...Sorry I can't help you more in that way.

Bob Duncan
Technical Editor

[TerryInMich]

I'm with BobD - I'm tone deaf and tighten blades as much as I can on my DeWalt. I've used both FD and Olson and neither seems to break any more than the other. As an aside I tried to get my son who owns a music store to find me a device to tell me if my blade was at "high C", but no luck.

[CanadianScroller]

I have said it before and I will say it again. I will come tighten your blades for a "C" note

[PuzzledMoose]

Originally Posted by CanadianScroller

I have said it before and I will say it again. I will come tighten your blades for a "C" note

You might want travel expenses too, Carl ..lol

[William Young (SE BC)]

But Carl

I have said it before and I will say it again. I will come tighten your blades for a "C" note

But you didn't say what octave or how high in a C note . Apparently it needs to be a high "C" note. Do they have to be real high in a paper C note as they do in a musical "C" note ?
May take some searching either way.



W.Y.

[Back2Jake]

Originally Posted by Guy Gadois

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum and I'll start posting by asking a question. I recently puchased some #5 FDR blades and am experiencing much more blade breakage than I have encountered with some other (Olson) blades. Size for size the FD blades are more delicate in appearance than others. The blade always breaks at the topmost tooth. Mike at mikesworkshop says too little tension on the blade is most likely to cause this problem. The Hegner tech says the tension should be a turn to a turn and one half after the tension adjustment knob meets resistance. Should the tension on the FD blades be higher than others?

Thanks in advance for your replies.
Guy

Hi Guy - welcome to the forum.
Since you have already established talks with Mike at Mike's Workshop, perhaps he would be the best one to direct your tension question to. Afterall, he is the guy in the know when it comes to performance of FD Blades.

Take care
Toni