Jayne......

[lucky788scroller]

............. I know, what an odd way to start a thread. Anyone that has experience should add to this. The reason I said Jayne is because she mentions it in many threads. The use of copper and other metals. My question is Can you give us a little bit of your knowlege on cutting the metals, what works or doesnt work, maybe some pictures of a few cuttings,and tell us the heaviest guage of material, and types youve cut. I will admit, I am a little leary of cutting metals on my saw because of the abrasiveness of metal filings an the moving saw parts, but I would like to learn more from your experiences. Thanks, Dale

[Meiglan]

Hi Dale
The metals I work with are Fine Silver, Sterling Silver, Copper, Brass, Red Brass (Dixie Gold) and aluminum... I normally would work with 12 guage to 20 guage...12 ga = 2.05 mm and 20 ga = .813 mm. I work with metal mostly for the color and texture of it so I do flame painting, patination, repousse and fold forming, most of metal for that would be done with a jewelers hand saw or electric metal snips or nibbler since it typically would have a basic shape and no fancy cutting to it. I have done some fretwork in metal on the scroll saw and what I have found is that:
1. I prefer to use spiral blades. I tried using jewelers blades but they are not
designed for the speed and heat generated by the scroll saw and they
shatter...not break but shatter....
2. I turn the speed up high and use a very slow forward motion....the
spiral blades don't break as much as they bend and thus distort the
bottom layer of the sandwich.
3. Copper, no matter how it is cut, tends to be a "sticky" metal...so normally
I use a wax compound called "blade extender" but bee's wax works just
fine.
4. You have to glue the sheets of metal together or they chatter a lot when
you get to the inside of a large cutting...I just used 3M spray glue and it
comes off just fine with mineral spirits.

The metal sawdust sticks to everything so I vaccuum out the scroll saw and then use a compressor to blow out everything....so far I haven't noticed any problems with the internal workings.

All metal gets work hardened when it is bent of banged around so for the easiest cutting it should be annealed before it is cut....If you have a torch you can anneal it yourself or it can be bought in 3 different hardnesses, hard, half-hard, and soft. When you finish cutting it you have to work harden it again or it will bend and flex all out of shape.....this is the easy part, grab a rawhide hammer or a rubber hammer and beat the snot out of it, you can get rid of a whole days frustration in one sitting.....

I am not sure how much more I should add, but if anyone has any questions feel free to ask....I have lots of metalsmithing/goldsmithing books so if I don't know the answer I will try to look it up for you.....

Here are a couple of pictures of metal cut out on the scroll saw...

[lucky788scroller]

Thank you jayne. Sorry I didnt respond sooner, had a busy busy week. I am surprised at the use of spirals over jewelers blades. I would have thought spirals would have trouble here, even though there are woods that are harder then some metals . Have you ever cut mild steel on the saw? I have a book here somewhere about cutting coins, and always had an idea of thrying that, but so far havent.When using the spiral blades (or any blade), do you get a big nasty burr on the underside of your cut, or does it come out pretty clean?
Thank you for your explanation. Someday I will have to try it. Dale

[Janette]

Thank you for sharing your experiences with us! It is really interesting to see pieces made with materials other than wood. It really shows some options as to what can be accomplished with a scroll saw!

[PuzzledMoose]

An interesting post, Jayne. As Janette says it's interesting to see work done in alternate materials.

[Meiglan]

There is not much of a burr on the back of the metals that I have used so far, but it is a pretty sharp edge...I have a few small reminders on my fingers...I put together a sandwich of 1/4" maple plywood, 22 guage brass, 14 guage copper, 22 guage aluminum and a bottom layer of 1/4" B/B plywood...that was a pretty big load for both me and the saw..all the pieces came out very nice but it took about 6 blades to do a cat pattern and a fairy ..both are about 6-7 inches high...and note to self...."self make sure you polish the metal BEFORE you cut it...not after" lol....I will post some pictures this week....sometime..this is a pretty busy time for me..lots of folks on holidays so OT and more OT.....Jayne

[lucky788scroller]

Thanks again Jayne. Get the OT while you can, because I too have way to many irons in the fire right now to experiment with this , but I will try it, it sounds exciting. I got this nice hunk of 1 inch thick Stainless steel here just waiting to be scrolled (LOL, wouldnt that give the saw a workout!!) . Dale

[Meiglan]

Originally Posted by lucky788scroller

I got this nice hunk of 1 inch thick Stainless steel here just waiting to be scrolled (LOL, wouldnt that give the saw a workout!!) . Dale

LOL...that would give you....your saw...and your wife's ears a real workout...to say nothing of the neighbors peeking over the fence to see who was being murdered.....Jayne