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The Carousel ~ Ed Lovelace ~ Mr. Scroll Saw

2,301 views · Published 11 December 2008 · 4:04 · Indexed 5 October 2026

Channel: djlovelace · 2008 · People & Blogs

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The Carousel ~ Ed Lovelace making "The Carousel"

There are several types of scroll saws. The most common design is the parallel arm, in which a motor is attached near the back of the arms and the two arms always remain parallel to each other. The C-arm variant uses a solid "C" shaped arm, with the blade being mounted between the two ends of the "C". The parallel link type, used by Excalibur and DeWalt, has rods in the upper and lower arms that are "pushed" by the motor to move short (about 4 inches -- 100 millimetres-- long) articulated arms which hold the blade.

The rigid arm scroll saw was popular until the 1970s but is no longer made. It has a single-piece cast iron frame. The blade is attached to a pitman arm on the bottom, which pulls the blade down. 
A spring in the upper arm pulls the blade back up again. This design has a significant weakness in that the tension on the blade changes with every stroke; modern scroll saws are all "constant tension" designs.

A scroll saw is a small electric or pedal-operated saw that is useful for cutting intricate curves in cases where a jigsaw or coping saw is not appropriate. It is capable of creating curves with edges. It is somewhat similar to a band saw, but unlike band saws, in which the saw blade is a continuous loop, scroll saws use saw blades similar to those of coping saws and operate through a quick reciprocating up and down motion.

A scroll saw has two main advantages when compared to a band saw. The first is that the blade can be removed and placed in situ through a pre-drilled starting hole. This feature allows interior cutouts to be made without creating an entry slot for the blade through the edge of the workpiece. Second, a scroll saw can cut significantly more intricate curves.

Many different brands of scroll saws are on the market today. Notable ones include Excalibur (made in Taiwan), RBI (made in the USA), Hegner (made in Germany), Eclipse (made in the USA), and DeWalt (originally made in Canada, but now made in Taiwan). There are also a number of less expensive scroll saws manufactured in Asia, including those from Delta, Dremel (Bosch), Craftsman, Ryobi, and others.

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