Adrian ‘Tinky’ Broadhead
Adrian ‘Tinky’ Broadhead

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my blog on the art of scroll sawing, my big passion and favourite hobby!

Over the next few weeks, I will be reviewing scroll saws, starting with the hobby machines right the way through our range to the saws for the more experienced scroll saw artists among you. I will also be taking a look at scroll saw blades and advising which type of blade you need for various applications. In addition, I will endeavour to give you a Tip of the Week, provide a pattern each week for you to have a go at and review one of the many books out there designed to get the best out of your scroll sawing.

If anyone has any questions about any of the products being reviewed, please do not hesitate to contact me by leaving your comments below.

If you have any ideas on what you would like me to include in the blog or suggestions on new products available that we do not stock at the present time I would be pleased to hear from you.

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Scroll Saw Spotlight

Starting at the very beginning, let’s take a look at the Axminster Hobby Series AWFS16 Scroll Saw.

This machine is great for people wanting to give scroll sawing a go as a hobby, but do not want to spend that much money in the beginning. It has a cast iron table and a 90 Watt motor. The table has 400mm depth and is capable of cutting max depth of 50mm (20mm recommended).

The machine takes pinned and pin-less blades (the pin-less blades are attached with adaptors). The table has a turning facility at a 45° angle, so if you wanted to cut projects such as segmented bowls, you are able to do so. It is also fitted out with a set of bellows to blow the debris away from the line that you are cutting. This is a single speed machine you can use to create some great projects with.

Don’t forget that this saw comes with Axminster’s unbeatable three year guarantee. You can find out more about what this means and also about our classification categories on this site - oops nearly forgot to mention that this is a Hobby Series saw.

In addition, if you are just starting out, you might want to think about a stand for your saw. You can bolt the scroll saw to this to provide a nice comfortable height for standing at the saw or sitting with a bar stool.

The design of the legs splaying out helps with the vibration of the machine which improves accuracy. Be warned, with the stand, that you might have to adapt the bolt holes to fit your type of machine.

If you have not got the room for a stand in the workshop but you have a bench I would recommend that the machine is bolted to the bench.

If you are not happy drilling the bench, then mount your machine to something like 1" ply board and clamp this to the bench. In both cases you will find a huge difference with less vibration.

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Tinky's Tip of the Week

When you start scroll sawing the great advantage is that most projects are completed within a couple hours. In fact, most of the time that you spend on the project is preparing to cut it out!

Over the next few weeks, I will be giving you tips on how to save time in the workshop. This week’s tip: if you are preparing to do a lot of repetitive work it is sometimes easier to make jigs up instead of measuring all the time as I have illustrated in this image.

What I have done here is to cut a piece as a template to prepare the wood on the bandsaw. This is great for two reasons: one, you save time measuring; and secondly, by cutting the right sized piece, you cut down on the amount of waste wood.

Until next week, enjoy...