History Question

[Steve_S]

I have seen the early scroll saws (pre 1950) had a cast solid upper arm with a spring (like a valve spring) where the blade attaches. Under the table is a oil filled casting with a crank shaft mechanism to give the vertical blade movement.

The design concept seems bullet proof and having a blade with perfect vertical movement would be normal.

Anybody know why the change over to the designs of today?

Steve.

[Rolf]

Too many variables in the blade tension as the spring compressed.

[shadowfx97]

The blades were approximately the size of what we now call saber saw blades; tight turns and extremely fine work were not possible. I well remember using one of these machines in shop class- not much fun. A couple of these saws were allegedly modified to use blades of modern dimension, but these machines supposedly broke the modern thin blades too frequently to be useful.

[3_M]

Check this on Steve Good's forum;
History of the scroll saw, plus other information
FD Mike

[Jim Finn]

I remember using a saw like that in shop class in 1953 and we called it a "jig saw". I think the modern, hand held, jig saw had not been developed then, not sure.