On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 13:40:04 -0400, "Michael"
wrote:

the metalworking fret saw blades I have are sold in bundles of a dozen by
No.'s instead of tpi and sell for around $5/dozen. A rough guesstimate with
a screw pitch blade suggests 50 teeth per inch. They are very fine, you may
find them a real treat to use after trying at 15 tpi. Lee Valley used to
sell them but not any more . do some googling to find a supplier.

These are the same 5" blades used for piercing work. They can be used in a
scroll saw or fret saw frame. I never found it a time saver using a power
scroll saw for this work. I had an Excalibur for a while and while it was a
pretty good scroll saw, I don't really miss it. The better feel you have
doing it by hand + not spending half the time replacing broken blades might
even make it faster. If you are new to this, get an adjustable fret saw
frame, its easier to install the find blades, and make up a fret saw board
clamped to your bench with V cut out of it to rest the work on.

here, found a link
http://www.woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FU...ARTNUM=813-064

Michael


"NokNokMan" wrote in message
.net...
I bought a scroll saw to cut some 3/16" 360 alloy brass. I haven't had
much
luck with the 15tpi blades I bought to go with it. My project is WR
Smith's
skeleton clock. He uses a scroll saw to cut his frames; it shows it in
his
book. Unfortunately, he doesn't mention what blade he uses. My scroll
saw
can use pinned and plain 5" blades, so if anyone could point me in the
right
direction I'd probably be able to use any blades suggested.

The only identification on my saw ( jig scroll or whatever you wish)
is a "dunlap" decal on the web of the over-arm; I paid $1.25 at a
church, men's club auction in 1971 for the bare, rusty machine; no
motor, no stand, no blades. All three sons learned about machine tools
on this saw - how much damage will it do to an adventurous five year
old. I moved from cut off coping saw blades to short bits of narrow
band saw blades to actual jig saw blades, sometimes even the mini
hacksaw blades.
When I got into miniatures, I decided to try jewelers blades; to this
end, I slowed it down with a smaller motor pulley and reduced the
blade tension with a weaker spring ( bad Idea - it needs more
tension). with these blades I have even cut 1/8" steel. I have never
tried the tungsten coated wire blades for cutting glass and ceramics,
but I sure have got my money's worth out of this, even considering the
motor salvaged from a worn out sump pump and a bit of scrap wood to
build a stand.
My approach to brass would be to try a fairly coarse blade and light
feed cutting dry.

Gerry :-)}
London, Canada