Scroll Saw Question

[Tom LaRussa]

How thick a piece of wood should I be able to cut with a scroll saw, assuming I have a decent blade installe? Can they cut inch thick hard maple, for example?

TIA,

Tom

[Gary Max]

Most scroll saws made today will cut wood up to 2 inches thick. You need to use a heavy blade to cut anything that thick on a scroll saw.

[Dennis Peacock]

Yes they can....but the key thing is the blade you choose to cut the maple with. Being that thick, you'll need a bigger blade and less teeth.

[Terry Quiram]

Tom

You will find that cutting 2" material with a scroll saw to be EXTREMELY TEDIOUS AND UNSATISFACTORY use of your time and the results will be poor. The problem is that most scroll saws only have 7/8" stroke. The 2" clearance is so you don't tatoo your knuckles when sawing. Its tough to clear dust from a 2" piece with only 7/8" stroke. I am not sure there is a blade that will cut that thickness well. If you do attempt to cut 2" material you will have to feed the material very slow to keep the blade from overheating and distorting. You will be limited to straight lines and generous curves, detail cutting is not possible. Years ago I bought some machine sharpened blades with large hooks and very pointed teeth for cutting thick material on my Hegnar. They worked, but not well. I now saw on an Eclispe and limit my cutting to 1 1/2 max.

Terry