Hello all and thank you Steve for approving my membership... especially since you are obviously overwhelmed with emails and somehow missed mine that asked some very (and probably overly) general questions. Perhaps I can find more information here. I can be a bit long winded at times so bare with me and I might even make you smile, giggle, cry or scream. You choose which of those that make you feel like answering my questions in a simple form that my simple and confused mind can understand.
Let me start by saying... YES! I AM A NEWBIE! That said I will provide you with my short yet, uh, how should I say this, informative history of my scrolling experience thus far. But first let me also state that I am still a bit of newbie to woodworking in general. I began woodworking in January of 2014. But a scroll saw was not my first choice of tools... it was actually a router. Why? I dunno, but I guess if I were to hazard a guess it would be a two part answer.
1. I had never used one and seeing some of the cool things online that could be done with a router I just wanted to try it.
2. It was the tool that scared me the most.
I think I was into woodworking for a year and about $4000.00 before I had found a need for a scroll saw (as I had discovered that there are times when a scroll saw is the "go to" tool for a specific need and was probably the "ONLY" tool) for some project I can't even remember now but I needed to be able to cut into the center of a board without cutting the outside and it was too small a cut for a router and a table saw blade and a band saw just wasn't gonna cut it either. Forgive the pun there please.
So having limited funds of to Craigslist I went looking for a good deal on something used. I found a Ryobi 16" for around $30.00 and thought I was getting a good deal. I got it home and started trying to figure out how to use the thing and discovered it was missing parts for holding the pinless blades and the need I had was going to require that I not drill a whole that a pinned blade would fit. So I called Ryobi only to find that the parts were not even available for it and started trying to find other sellers. I found a site that allowed me to purchase it but then a few hours later received an email stating they were issuing a refund because they could not obtain the parts either. ACK! Ok, back to Craigslist and knowing I had to be honest meant I was going to take a hit and sold the saw for $20.00. I just figured the $10.00 loss was worth the education.
Not wanting to risk getting duped again ( I had asked the owner of the above mentioned saw if all the parts were there and he wasn't as honest as I) I decided to try to find a new one. I ended up purchasing a 16" Grizzly. It arrived and right out the box it had an issue with the tensioner not staying tensioned and had to have it warrantied. But I did finish up my very first project by reaching up and continually tensioning the blade every couple of minutes. I have attached a pic of it ( I think). It took me about a week to get it done and it was fun. I got the new Grizzly replaced and I tested the new one with just some test cuts but frankly I wasn't really all the happy with it as changing the blades on it was a real uhm, Grizzly bear? HAHA So, I didn't really feel right about returning it for a refund just because I didn't like it. There really wasn't anything wrong mechanically and my inexperience really shouldn't be Grizzly's issue. So I just decided to sell it. Off to CL again. I took a small loss on it as well but nothing I couldn't live with.
During all this time I was reading reviews and forums and trying to find out what was considered top of the line. Oh boy did I see! They were priced so far out of my price range that it seemed a pipe dream that I would ever get one. So for several months I kept stalking Craigslist and after going and viewing several such as the Dewalt and finding it had an obvious problem that would have been expensive and time consuming to repair I was sure glad I'd been doing research. And then my prayers were answered!
It seemed that a gentleman had placed an RBI Hawk (the 26") on Craigslist for $250.00. Now knowing that these sold new at the time for $1800.00 (plus shipping) I thought for sure "SOMETHING HAS TO BE WRONG WITH THIS THING TOO!". But I didn't let that stop me and took a ride over to the guys house. He tells me that the saw was actually his father in laws who they recently had to put into a care facility and he was asked to sell it. My heart kind of sunk at the story and I asked him if he was aware what these saws sold for new and he said he was and just wanted to move the saw. Now, I've done my part at being honest and thought ok and after testing it and it seeming to be in great condition I decided to see if I could get for a bit less but thinking "no way he would budge". But I started a sentence and asking "could you help me out and take..." and before I could even finish the sentence he stated "Sure, I will take $200.00." Wow, I was only going to try for a 20 spot off! HAHAHA And to make it an even sweeter deal the old fella that owned it had purchased it before RBI went out of business. Having been afraid that parts would become scarce for it when RBI announced they were closing their doors and not knowing that it would then be purchased by another business that would continue manufacturing the saws and parts for it later he purchased about $300.00 in replacement parts. So I also got a box full of brand new parts and he even through in a stack of scroll saw books.
So that is where I'm at. I made some of the 2D and 3D Christmas ornaments this Christmas and it was fun. Then I started trying a few patterns from Steve. I was finding that I really need to learn more about blades and how to determine blade type(s) and speeds to run them at. I sent Steve an email one day but never got a response and figured he was either too busy or felt that my question was just far to broad to answer in an email. Or maybe even that my email never made it to him or ended up in the "Junk (SPAM) Box". And found my way to this forum.
So here I am. I am gonna read some threads and see what I can learn and I'm gonna ask all you experts every dumb, silly, useless question I can muster the words for.
I thank you all in advance for your help and hope you don't ridicule me and make me feel as dumb as I already feel I am sometimes when doing projects and make my mistakes! And please, if you must make me cry send me something to wipe the tears with too!
