I own one and like it for roughing. There is an assortment of blades including !/8" 18 tooth. You also have the option of adding a cutting liquid. For thick Mokume Gane Billets, I use a $99 Harbor Freight band saw on a wooden frame I built.
Hi,
this unit looks interesting…Proxxon DS115/E scroll saw…cuts non-ferrous metals…it doesn’t give a max thickness…it uses jewelers saw blades…
julie
Thanks Brian; I did think about trying one of the old style bench top scroll saws and modifying the blade retention system to accept jewelers saw blades. But at $99 with 1/8" 18tpi blades available, it might just be worth a shot.
Thanks Julie, Rio is where I went looking first and saw this one as well. The price wasn’t bad at $150 (unlike the KnewConcepts power saw) but the reviews were pretty dismal.
I tried that years ago. It did not work out. Perhaps you will have better luck.
There were several major issues.
The foot that holds the metal down scratched the silver. Putting tape to the underside / polishing it did not help much. The foot is needed because the upstroke of the blade will pull the metal up.
The worst issue was access to the bottom clamp for tightening the bottom of the saw blade. Very poor. It became unacceptable very quickly. It’s probably o.k. for sturdy pin-end blades, but a serious downside for finer jeweler’s blades.
At least on the saw I had, even the slowest speed was too fast.
Shop carefully, paying special attention to finger access to the blade clamp below the table, if you go this route.
Neil A
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Thanks Neil!!
You bring up some things that I missed in my earlier post. Scratching the metal and the thin jeweler’s saw blades not holding.
Another thing to mention is that the stroke length on most scroll saws is very short, which means you’re only using a small part of the blade. Thin jeweler’s blades will get dull very fast and break soon after that. (I noticed that in the Rio scroll saw description that they left the stroke length info blank.)
Back in the 80’s or 90’s the folks at Otto Frei talked me into trying out a new variable speed scroll saw that had been adapted to hold a jeweler’s saw blade. I thought it was going to change my life, but it just ended up being extremely frustrating. I gave it my best shot and tried everything that I could think of to make it work, but I ended up returning it.
Many jewelry tool companies have a 30 day return policy. If someone does decide to try one of these scroll saws make sure that you confirm the return policy.
Jeff
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Hi,
I am now thoroughly convinced that a jewelers saw is the way to go! less dangerous!!
I wonder if one of those Beverly shears would be a better option for at least the roughing out stage the OP was mentioning…what is the metal thickness of most of the elements?
julie
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Throatless shears (the type Beverly makes) can be very precise but tiny pieces are hard to manipulate close to the blade, and dangerous as well. It’ll cut your fingertip right off! They also curl the offcut which makes it wasteful.
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