Sycamore and Walnut?

[michaelsscrollsaw]

I have bought some walnut and sycamore (just less than 2 inches thick) to make the pieces for my new chess project. Will I be able to cope with such thick wood, and please can you tell me which type of blade I need to use.

[wood-n-things]

That will depend upon the clearance on your particular saw. if it will accept that thickness you can cut it. I would use no less than a #7 blade and probably not a reverse tooth blade. You will really need to keep your feed rate slow, let the blade dictate the speed of your cut, do not make it bow or you will not be pleased with the outcome.



I watched your video (Eiffel tower cutting), so i see you already have the patience thing down.....<smile>

[michaelsscrollsaw]

Thankyou very much, but what do you mean by the feed rate?

[Bill Wilson]

2" thick is stretching the max capacity of most scroll saws. Neither sycamore nor walnut are especially hard, so as long as it fits within your saw, cutting it shouldn't be too much of a problem. As Mike said, a larger blade would be called for, perhaps a skip tooth. The size will depend on how tight the turns are in the patterns. Use the largest with which you can readily navigate the pattern. Skip tooth blades have larger spaces between the teeth, for better chip clearance, which reduces friction and heat build up and helps extend blade life.

Feed rate is basically how hard/fast you are pushing the wood into the blade. This is different from blade speed, which is dictated by the speed control setting on the saw.

[michaelsscrollsaw]

Thankyou very much Bill, that's a lot clearer now.

[wood-n-things]

Thanks for helping out Bill. I've been preoccupied with research today.

[will8989]

The thickest I cut was 1 1/2" cherry or walnut, and used a 7 or 9 skip tooth blade. Worked great.