Just got my authorization to post - Hi folks!
I learned to scroll this summer and
thought I had a scroll saw - a little Ryobi 16" I got at a discount tool place years ago for around $69. It wasn't bad but trying to do real scrolling wore it out. Of course it wore out in the middle of a project. So I went to the nearby Menards and the best (only) saw they had, their Masterforce 18" for $200.
Much better saw, but flawed. It's 80% great, 15% "hey, it's a $200 saw", and 5% unusable. Most of the cheapness is that the arm doesn't lift and unusable is the way it handles pinless blades. They give you two set screws and an allen wrench. I tried really hard to make it work but just couldn't and had to take it back. If you do metal machining - or have a friend - you could easily replace their 'clamps' with something better. Of course the arm still won't lift.
I went down to the local Woodcraft and bit the bullet in getting a good saw. Looked at the Dewalt but settled on an 18" Jet -
https://www.jettools.com/us/en/p/jwss-18b-18-scroll-saw/727300BThe Jet just felt like a better saw
for me. It's a bottom feed saw but the arm lifts 10" so I don't see that as a problem. The blade holding is slightly weird. There's a lower blade holder (you get three and can even get more on Amazon). You put the bottom of the blade in, tighten it by hand and then use a hole in the side of the saw and flats on the holder to get it really tight. The upper blade clamp is a flip arm. As it comes back a pair of flats cam in and pull up. Once you set your blade tension with knob on the back you get the same tension every time. Very smooth operation and I'm very pleased with my investment.
