[CharleyL]

www.thewoodenteddybear.com is where I buy most of my scroll saw blades. The Flying Dutchman blades are always high quality, cut very well, and last longer than most other blades that I have tried. I usually buy in gross quantities for better prices, but they will let you mix bundles of several blade sizes and still get the gross pricing.

That is a pretty nice scroll saw stand, but you will likely be piling shorts against the front of it in a short time too. Those pockets/drawers on the front are going to catch more saw dust than anything else. I would leave them out of the design if it was me, because that's the direction that saw dust goes if you don't have a vacuum to collect it just below the table. I tend to sit on a stool when I'm cutting, that places my left knee where those pockets/drawers are located (between the front legs of my steel stand). You may find that a similar position works well for you, but those pockets/drawers will prevent you from doing this.

I would ditch the idea of casters as well. You don't want the saw moving around when you are using it. I have pinball machine feet on my scroll saws. They are long wobbly head type bolts so two nuts on the threads of each make adjustment for height relatively easy. The bolt head of these is a large round stamped piece with a dished bottom, so it will slide easily over slightly uneven floors without catching, but will not move unless the machine is pushed or dragged intentionally.

The Pinball Resource is the source for these pinball machine feet.
You want LEG2 or LEG3 farther down the page. A photo of them is there too. At $0.90 each plus shipping, you won't likely find a better foot for a scroll saw at this price. I keep some of these in stock in my shop, because I use them for other things too. Say Hi to Steve for me. He is a friend and former business partner of mine, but I get nothing out of any transaction that you make with him. I just think that pinball machine feet are perfect for scroll saw stands, and available at an incredibly good price from Steve.

I have seen quite a few DeWalt scroll saw stands go up for sale in the past year, and being just a steel frame, there is less surface to lean shorts against it with a steel frame, and it will cost you less in the long run to go with a used metal stand. It can be for a DeWalt, Porter Cable, Pegus, Excalibur, or Seyco saw and it should still fit your DeWalt since all of these saws are so similar. www.scrollsawvillage.com is where you will find all kinds of information about scroll saws. Come on over and have a look around. You may stay if you get more serious about scroll sawing.

Charley

 

[CharleyL]

You don't need a 4" vacuum line to collect the saw dust from a scroll saw. The tiny teeth on a scroll saw blade don't make much sawdust. It's also very small. I have a repurposed central vacuum unit with a Dust Deputy connected ahead of it. The repurposed 1 1/4? " hose that came with the central vac unit is all I use. I used a tyrap to secure it to the lower blade guard of my DeWalt saw so it is near the bottom end of the saw stroke. It catches just about all of the saw dust coming from the lower end of the blade. I have not yet come up with a good way of collecting saw dust from above the table. Any repurposed home canister vac should work as good as what I have, but you will be emptying it frequently if you don't put a Dust Deputy ahead of it.

Charley

 

[CharleyL]

I'm considering adding extensions to the sides of my DeWalt saw, likely at the top of the stand, to provide places for my frequently used tools, the container with the blades that I'm presently using, etc. With the saw and top of the table tilted forward, this is going to require a unique design, because I don't want these extensions to be tilted, since everything on them would end up sliding to the front, and from there likely to the floor. These items are presently on the top of a tool cart located just to the right of my saw, but so much is there that what I need always seems to be behind other stuff and hard to find. I want them easier to find and better organized, so I can get each of them from their same exact position every time without needing to even take my eyes off the cut to get the tool that I want. I guess that already you are realizing that I've put quite a bit of thought into this.

For instance, I keep a couple of 1/8" X 6" dowels with both ends sharpened in a pencil sharpener. These get used to hold down small areas of patterns that begin to lift from glue failure as I'm making the cut. I also use these to push out pieces that are cut free, but won't fall out on their own, like the wood between the legs and antlers of my little 3D reindeer. Long round things like these frequently, and without thinking, end up like pencils in my shirt pocket and I'm trying to break this habit.

I also keep a couple of unsharpened pencils nearby so I can use the eraser ends as "push sticks" when cutting very tiny work, because my fingers are so big that they can obscure my view. It doesn't hurt me when I cut into a pencil eraser either. These also seem to keep ending up in my shirt pocket and I want to break this habit.

A pair of long tiny ended electronics needle nose pliers for getting to and pulling out broken pieces of blades. A good pair of locking surgical foresips, so I can grab and lock onto the end of #0 and smaller scroll saw blade when needing to feed them through holes in the workpieces. Again, because my fingers are too big for this work.

My small block of paraffin wax to lube the blade with.

My small mirror to see the via holes in the work from the under side for threading the blade up through.

A penlight flashlight to use for inspection purposes or checking to see if via holes are clear of debris.

And I'm sure other things that I'm not thinking of.

Charley