I hate pinless blades

[cpowell]

Okay, I am just going to vent here a minute.
I know this is akin to heresy here but I hate pinless blades right now. Messing with the hex wrench, trying to get those adapters to hang right, and easily, is a major pain!
I have tried starting with the top hanger and after threading it through the wood hole attaching the bottom hanger. Really hard. Tried starting with the bottom hanger then up through the wood to the upper hanger. Some better but in the end no easier and certainly no faster.
I tilt the table, shine in a light and fumble around until I get it on the bottom one then hold the blade until I get the top attached and start sawing again. It takes more time to make the changes to new holes than to cut the whole pattern.
I know, I know; practice will make it easier but dang, it must take a lot of practice to make changes fast and easy. I know that I have to use the pinless because of some of the patterns but so far pinless and I have not made peace.
I'll keep trying.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

[dgman]

I know what you are going through. My first saw was a Dremel that used adapters also. On average it took 2 1/2 mins. to change to another hole. Now, For the past ten years or so I have been using a DeWalt 788. Now on average it takes about ten seconds! It's not the blades, its the saw.

[Arcy]

The problem is less the blades than the saw. The majority of my scrollsaw "injuries" were scraped knuckles from trying to swap blades on my Dremel. When I upgraded to the Ex-21 my wife didn't think I was scrolling since she couldn't hear me swearing at it.

I highly recommend upgrading as soon as you can.

--Rob

[Mayo Farmer]

Hi cpowell, try not to lose heart, I think most of us have been there.

When I was using adapters I tried various things to try and make the blade changing slicker. One of the "best" was welding a hex wrench to the adaptor. It was good at changing blades but I ended up with a sharp bar going up and down while I was trying to cut, invariably catcing some bit of flesh on it.

One good thing you understand better than with someone explaining to you the features you want on your next saw.

Good Luck

[jim_mex]

Hi cpowel - you are definitely suffering from a saw rather than a blade problem.

Dependent of what type of saw you are using you may well be able to buy a pair of friendlier blade holders to fix to it or adapt something which is easier for you. Why not take a photo of your existing blade holders, top and bottom, and post it in the thread for folks not familiar with your saw to see if you can get some ideas on how to adapt them.

I'm sure someone will come to your help.

[tvman44]

No problems with my EX-21.

[NC Scroller]

What dgman said. You will be amazed at how much more enjoyment you will get with a proper saw. You will kick yourself for waiting so long.

[Carter-Johnson]

I echo everyone else. You need a new or different saw! Your frustration isn't worth sticking with what you have. HAVE PHUN!

Carter

[ubgoofy2003]

Well, it's experience speaking here. I agree that it is your saw, not the blades. If you can upgrade, that's what I would recomend. It's easy to say that than to do it, if you can't afford the upgrade right now. Just hang in there, things HAVE to get better. Good Luck to you.

[Rolf]

Like Mayo said, look at it as a learning curve for the features you most want on your next saw. The first fretwork I did was on a Crapsman that required an assortment of gadgets to attach the blade. 2 minutes to feed clamp and tension for a 2 second cut.
My G4 hawk now takes just a few seconds top or bottom feed.

[Jim Day]

Hey Rolf was that a Crapsman or a Craftsman? I have had some of those Crapsman tools before that you were talking about!! Jim

[Rolf]

OOPS!
It still amazes me that the maufacturers keep designing saws that are so difficult to use. The designers are oviously not scrollers. They bury the bottom clamp in plastic and make the top clamp out out of pot metal so the screws strip out. I don't get it.

[cpowell]

Okay, you have about convinced me that I need a new saw, however this one is only a few months old so it will be awhile before I can upgrade to another.
What I have is a Harbor Freight cheapie and from looking at the design of some other saws, like the DW788, I can see the design difference. However, I didn't know that at the time.
Getting into this was a bit of a lark, "Well, let's see what this is all about..." so instead of going expensive for a trial that might or might not interest me in the long run, I went cheap. I had no idea that this would turn into an obsession, as it has.
I'm starting to turn out some fair work now and I'll post some pics this weekend I hope. That is unless the wife has taken the camera off to who knows where.
It's been a struggle but I have learned a lot including what I might want in a new saw later. I'll fumble around for the time being, if others have done it so can I.
In the meantime I appreciate all the support and helpful insight from the "experienced hands" around here.
Still a newbie and still learning...

[Powakee]

Cpowell
If you are down in the neighborhood of my part of the desert give me ring and I'll set you up with a used but lovely saw that will probably fit your budget and will leave you with a smile on your face when it comes time to deal with the saw blades.

As the others have said, been there, done that and got the tee-shirt!

John

[SawTooth]

IMHO, all scroll saws have a blade holding problem... and spending more $$ does not mean that get you a better design... but using pin blades severely restricts the projects you can do. We all put up with blade holder design deficiencies because with plain/pinless blades we are unrestricted in the scroll saw projects we can choose from.

Spence