Blade Drifting to the Left

[Bob Gabor]

The last week or so when cutting any pattern, the blade drifts to the left. I've been scrolling for a little over a year and from everything I read and experienced while cutting, the blade normally pulls (drifts) to the right because of the burr on the blade. It's been very frustrating and difficult to get smooth cuts because of the blade reacting the opposite of normal. I've tried several blades of each size that i use and they all seem to have the same problem. Could it simply be a batch of blades that were milled differently, or is something out of alignment with the saw, or is it ME doing sometihing wrong again ? Not sure if it makes a difference, but am using a DeWalt saw with #2/0 and #5 FD-SR blades (which I also agree are the best blades around), and I normally keep the tension around 3.5 Any suggestions would be appreciated !

[Mick Walker]

Blade drifts left

Bob, I do a lot of cutting with 2/0 reverse tooth 28 tpi blades and sometimes get the blade in upside down, they pull to the left. just an idea. Mick.

[Plain_Ol_Ed]

And here I thought I was the only one who made that mistake. My excuse is I forgot my glasses.

[Woodmanplus]

I have had that happen to me also, I hardly ever use a reverse tooth blade . I thought tha it was me as I do turn the blades around and use both ends on reverse tooth blades.
Chet

[Thomp]

fellers ,
i was catching up with email reading the daily digest like an old gabby neibor i had to come add my 2 cents worth and ask the question as to what the burr is ? i have heard about the burr for years, and was told by my scrollsaw savy baby sister that im suppose to sand/hone the back of the blade,. she didnt know why only suppose to do it to make better cuts...

is the bur a manufacturing flaw where the blade is sheered off or when the teeth is sheered?
---
back to the point of blade pulling directions, i started bout a year ago as well with an assortment of differnt packs of vermont american blades i bought when i got my saw, I soon moved to fd blades from mikes,. since then i only use the fd blades unless an occasional shortage of fd blades occurs and i have to use a vermont blade of same tpi which seamed to pull in different direction than the fd blades, harder to fight the line

dont know if i did more than waste your time reading this or not.

[grandpawrichard]

Thomp2,
The burr is made when the blades are manufactured, because most baldes are stamped out. The finest blades I have ever used are Eberle Blades that I order through Wildwood Designs. They are really high quality blades that seem to have less of a burr, to me they are also sharper and stay sharper than any other blade I have used.

The reason you lightly file the back of the blade is to radius it so that it has more clearance for tight turns in your projects. Unless I am using heavy weight wood or a real hard wood and big blades I do not file the radius on the back of my blades. Most of my projects are cut out with size 2/0 to 2 blades, so there isn't any need to do the filing, plus they are so thin that I would probably damage the blades in doing so.

Dick