Joining the new tool frenzy

[Jo Labre]

I see everyone bragging about their new toys, uh, tools. So I will share that I bought the new Pegas Scroll Bandsaw in May and can say it is a great addition to the shop. I use it mostly for the woods that are a struggle to cut on my Excalibur, like leopardwood, chakte viga, yellowheart. It cuts like a hot knife through butter, with perfectly square edges. The downside is that one bandsaw blade is about $25, compared to $3.50 for a dozen regular blades. I learned the hard way not to overtighten the tension when installing a new blade - twang! there's $25 in the garbage.

[NC Scroller]

Congrats.... I saw Bob Duncan demo those at the Klingspor Show last October. It is one sweet machine. Of course you do know that a picture is required.

[Jo Labre]

My shop is small, the back 8 feet of my two car garage. The bandsaw got squeezed in the corner, sharing the Festool Midi vac with my scroll saw. The magnifier light can be used for either. I got tired of moving the Festool hose between the machines, so built a box with blast gates. Using a splitter plug, the vac starts when either machine is turned on, opening the right blast gate makes it much easier.

[Linda In Phoenix]

Nice set up....and I love the organization you have on the walls!

[hotshot]

I totally missed this, but what a great tool and I'm very excited for you. I was thinking it would great for puzzle boxes where the scroll saw boxes are limited to about 2 inches, this would take them on up to another level.

The blade cost would be a concern if they dulled quickly, so I guess it depends how many miles you can get out of one.

[Rolf]

Very nice! I really like your setup especially for the dust collection. I would have to figure out a way to re-weld the blade.
And Oh to have wall space and organizational skills!

[Jo Labre]

I totally missed this, but what a great tool and I'm very excited for you. I was thinking it would great for puzzle boxes where the scroll saw boxes are limited to about 2 inches, this would take them on up to another level.

The blade cost would be a concern if they dulled quickly, so I guess it depends how many miles you can get out of one.

I cut a bunch of chakte viga and leopardwood pieces for the Viking project and the blade seems pretty good yet. I imagine if I were to only cut softer hardwoods (?) the blade would last quite a long time. Still - $25.00 is a lot more than the cost of standard scroll saw blades.

[Rolf]

Jo, I did a bit of research on the web, and there are lots of videos of people silver soldering broken blades. In hindsight I remember I had made a jig eons ago to do just that, when I still had a small Craftsman bench top three wheeler.

[hotshot]

Jo, I did a bit of research on the web, and there are lots of videos of people silver soldering broken blades. In hindsight I remember I had made a jig eons ago to do just that, when I still had a small Craftsman bench top three wheeler.

The brazing process doesn't look too bad. I have seen the welders built into the industrial bandsaws, so out of curiosity, I looked that up and that process is pretty cool to watch also, though trying that on something this small would probably light the whole thing up.

[Jo Labre]

At the time I thought "Ah, spit!" (or words like that) and just threw the blade in the garbage. It was the #5 size blade. I suspect it would cost more to have it done than the cost of a new blade. The owners manual is not very helpful, the wording is awkward, having been 'translated' into English. The section on adjusting blade tension says "Determining ideal blade tension is somewhat subjective. But you need to know that the best work will be always made with a blade rather too tense than not enough". It suggests pushing sideways on the blade with the upper guide at highest position. "If you are able to obtain an arrow of 3-4mm, the tension is correct."

I have placed a piece of blue tape on the adjustment knob with a black mark indicating Front. I use that to keep track of how much I loosen tension to replace the blade so that I can tighten it back to about the same point. So far I haven't broken more blades. Knock on wood.

[Rolf]

Is the manual written in German?