I need to start with some backstory, because I've meant to do about 3 other blog posts before this one and haven't found the time.
I own a scroll saw. I've done a little bit of scrolling, but it's been about two years (the danger of hobby-hopping like I do), and I didn't do enough of it to develop the muscle memory that usually enables my wanton hobby hopping. I've wanted to get back into it, realizing I would basically be starting from zero, so I started working my way through the first lessons in The Scroll Saw Workbook. So far I've made a bunch of sawdust and scrap wood, and these two little guys:
There's no real point to them except to learn how to work a scroll saw.
Well, the thing is, you can't just put a 4 foot board under the scroll saw and work effectively. And cutting a straight line through 6-8 inch wide wood on the scroll saw itself, just not gonna happen. I need a good way to cut blanks down to size.
Now I do have a circular saw, a relatively new edition to my repertoire. But a circular saw is extremely brute force and some of what I plan to cut is on 1/8" stock. I don't see that working. Even on the thicker stock, the circular saw works lovely up until the last foot of board, but then I can't clamp the wood effectively because the motor sticks out too far to the side and is too close to the foot plate to go over the clamps. A foot is still way too big to be working with when your design is only about 3 inches.
So, I found myself still needing an effective way to cut blanks down to size. After examining various options, I decided to try out a basic, inexpensive jigsaw for this task.
Ooh, where has this thing been all my life? I should have gotten one of these things 10 years ago. In fact, I think I've got a new go-to housewarming gift for creative people. Made a nice clean cut across the 3/4" pine/ash/aspen/something available from Lowes that I've been using. I was running the foot plate against a square clamped to the wood and no problems cutting a straight line that way. Don't know that I'd try it across several feet, but cross-cutting a six-inch board, that was fine.
The circular saw will still get plenty of use for bigger projects and 2X4s, but I think the jigsaw is going to be my go-to for cutting scrolling blanks and other small cuts. :)
