spiral blades versus regular blades

[Bzern]

Hello,
I have been scrolling for about a year now, and I've only ever used traditional blades.  What are the advantages/disadvantages of a spiral blade?
Thanks,
Ben

[countryscroller]

I have only used regular blades too, but fretwork or small cuts is easier with spiral. Disadvantage is you can't make as good of a straight line with it. I don't think I will be getting any anytime soon. My FD UR do me just fine!

[dirtrider73068]

I am new to scrolling, been using the plain end straight blades, but have some spirals to try. I didn't like them, hard to keep a straight line, might be good to use to trim up the curved or round areas, but over all scrolling I didn't like the spiral.

[newfie]

i use regular blades all the time but i did use spirals for this project http://stevedgood.com/community/index.php?topic=12011.0 andi like them alot i'm going to make a project in the new year thats 4 feet long and 14 inches wide and im going to use spirals on that as well i'm pretty sure i wouldn't be able to use regular blades on it just for the length of it alone.

[countryscroller]

Actually Todd, I learned if you rotate the blade around so the teeth are facing the back of the saw, you can pull the piece of work and cut it without have the problem of the size throat you have on your saw. Just a thought.

[Judy Hunter]

Hello... Here is my 2 cents worth.  I use nothing but spiral blades.  Straight cuts get easier with practice.  Then the spirals can act as sandpaper if you have a glitch to fix.   My son also uses nothing but spirals.
Here are our sites if you want to see some of what we cut with spirals.
 
ArtisticSawDust.com     or           HuntersHomestead.com

[newfie]

i tried that before to Dustin but i don't think that you well be able to turn the project enough to do any serious cutting.and me eyes any that good to stand back a bit when cutting.i got to be pretty close up to it when cutting.so for me the spirals make it alot better

[GrayBeard]

Go to the top right hand corner and do a search for "spiral blades" and you get more information than you can digest in one night!

~~~GB~~~

[GrayBeard]

Here is a reply to and earlier post...

Mount your spiral carefully.

Plenty of tension...I 'run in' the blade with no cutting for about 10 seconds before I start cutting and often will re-set the blade and tighten up the tension some more.

Keep the saw speed as fast as you can work with,,,on my DW788 I run at about 75% speed.

Once you start to cut DO NOT PUSH the workpiece...just GUIDE it! As always and most important with spirals...Let the blade do the work. Gently moving the workpiece at all times! You will notice that it will cut a bit differently in different directions and I cannot explain why but it just seems that it does for me!

Another important concept is the wood itself. Because the spiral is harder to control having some additional thickness is essential. Trying to cut a single layer of 1/8" BB or even 5/8" Blue Pine is a virtual impossibility if you want to control the cuts! My minimum is 3/8" of BB, whether it is 3- 1/8" or 1/4" plus a 1/8" backer.

You are going to get 'fuzzies' and there is no way around it so assume that your bottom piece MAY be a 'throw-away'. I have been fortunate that almost every piece I have cut using spirals I have been able to sand and file away the fuzzies and the piece was usable.

My wood is usually prepared by sanding to 220 grit on the face, stacking the pieces and using blue tape to hold the stack, pattern applied directly to the top piece using 3M 77 spray adhesive and then covering the pattern area with packing tape.

As I am cutting the piece I drill 20 -25 pilot holes and cut those out, sand the BACK side with the ROS and then drill another group of holes and carry on. This also allows me to keep track of how many cuts there were...just my habit!

I have not researched the video thing but when I went to the SAW expo in Springfield there was a seminar on Spiral usage. I attended it and walked out after 15 minutes. I truly felt I could have done a better job of doing the presentation than the guy actually doing it. Not bragging but I felt he just didn't give enough information of a basic nature.

I hope this helps. If you take your time and follow these steps you should be able to master the spiral...portraits are simply a piece of cake with them.

~~~GrayBeard~~~

One more thing!  Do not be shocked if you feel yourself changing blades more often!  You MUST keep a good fresh blade in the saw!
My blade of choice is the FD New Spiral #2/0.

[GrayBeard]

Here is some more information I posted today...

Spiral Blades will solve your problem BUT they come with their own learning curve and some limitations.
YES they cut in all directions so you do not have to spin the wood. Saying they cut in all directions is correct BUT they do not cut equally well in all directions and you will learn the difference as you use them.
NO they are not well suited for straight line cutting since they tend to wander more than flat blades.
NO they do not make SHARP internal corner cuts like a flat blade will but they are essential for portraits.
You MUST keep your tension set as tight as you can get it and you MUST run your saw at almost the maximum speed. This results in you having to be extremely careful that your "Feed Rate" is very SLOOOOOOW! You cannot push the workpiece into the blade....You have to just GUIDE it and let the blade do what it was designed to do.
The thicker the wood the slower you have to feed and you will use more blades because they seem to heat up faster and thus become dull faster.

So if you can handle the limitations then get some FD New Spiral 2/0 blades and practice!

Good Luck!!!

~~~GB~~~

Addendum:
I have come to treat the Spirals not as a blade but a very thin round  RASP!  They sort of just 'chew' the wood away...
This is not unlike the sculptor when asked "How do you sculpt a statue?"
He replied, "I take a piece of rock and just chisel away everything that doesn't look like the statue I want!"
When doing portraits I take a piece of wood and use my little rasp-like device to chew away everything the pattern designer thought should be removed to make a picture!!!!!!

[julief]

One huge advantage to learning to use spirals it that your piece size can be larger than your saw's throat allows.  I've done an eagle with a 38" wing span and you have to use spirals to get it all cut.