Scroll saw box part 2

Hi All,
Time to make are start on the scroll saw box, if you want to have a go and need any help, just let me know. Before we start, here is a quick reminder about what the finished box will look like.

Right, let's get cracking. The first piece we are going to deal with is the main part of the box. For this, cut a piece of 25mm thick wood, preferably hardwood, into a square of about 90mm. The wood I'm using is maple, but oak would work just as well.

Once the square has been cut, it needs to be tidied up and sanded on each side. I used a belt sander with 80 grade grit first to get it squared up and reasonably smooth. Then I go through another two grades 120 and 180 by hand.

When sandpapering, either by hand or when using a machine, don't be tempted to miss out any grades. It wasn't so long ago that I just used what I thought was a fine sand paper before putting on the finish and I was generally disappointed. However, once I found out about taking my sanding through the grades my fishing results have been much improved.

Right, now it is time to attach the drawing of the heart that will form the hole in the box. This is the bit that I will be cutting out with the scroll saw.

Attaching the design is simple. Put a few strips of masking tape of top of the box, then after smearing glue, I use a pritt stick, onto the back of the design, I then stick that to the masking tape. At this point it is essential to make sure the the positioning is central and square because there is no going back.

The next step might seem a bit odd but apparently it works. Wrap some clear parcel tape, I use Cellotape, around the piece of wood. This doesn't hold anything in place but it helps to lubricate the saw blade. Maple and Oak are very hard woods and lubricating the blade helps the process along.

Okay, now the sawing can begin, well almost. To cut out the design we need to get the saw blade into a position in the inside of the heart, so first we have to drill an entry hole through which the saw blade can be passed.

I use a drill press, but any type of drill will do. The size of the bit for this project can be any size as long as the diameter is bigger than the width of the scroll saw blade. I will be using a plain, number 7 reverse tooth blade.

You can use blades with pins on this project, but you will need to drill the entry hole much bigger to accommodate the pins when passing the blade through the centre of the wood. More information about scroll saws and the difference between plain and pinned blades can be found by clicking the scroll saw tab at the top of the page.

The reason I'm using reverse tooth scroll saw blades is because they leave less tear out at the bottom of the cut. If you look at a reverse tooth blade you will see that most of the teeth angle downwards, but a few teeth at the bottom face the opposite way. This means that the scroll saw cuts in the downward direction, but those few reversed teeth at the bottom cut on the upward stroke and so they keep the bottom edge of the work as clean as the top.

It is possible to buy lots of different blades for a scroll saw, spiral blades and skip tooth blades to name just two of them. However, for my purposes I find that reverse tooth blades do a great job and having a good range of them in their various sizes is good enough.

You will notice that I have drilled the entry hole just to the side of the line that I will be cutting with the scroll saw and there are two reasons for this. If I drilled the hole in the middle of the design it would take longer to get to the line and, believe me, if you are cutting maple, half an inch can make a big difference. On the other hand if you drill the hole exactly on the line it will leave a dip in the side of the heart because the scroll saw blade is flat where the drill is round. Sorry if some of this stuff seems obvious, but that might only be so for those who have done this sort of thing before.

Anyway, I drill my entry hole just to the side of the line and then I can carefully taper into the line when making the cut.

Now it is just a matter of following the line.
Okay, I will leave it there for now, if you want to see what other scroll saw users are talking about here is a link to a great forum that I use under the name of Samfire. It's worth a look just to see what other people are doing with their scroll saws.