Sometimes when scrolling the blade, being black will blend in with the pattern we are trying to cut. When this happens it is easy to stray from the line.
There are a couple of ways of handlling this.
1) Print your patterns in red ink, or photocopy in red. This way there is lots of contrast between the blade and the pattern
2) Place a light on the side of the saw. This will cast a shadow on the blade.
The point where the blade and the shadow meet is where the blade intersects the pattern, This will act as an arrow and make it easier to guide your work.
I am sure that you have tried cutting a piece of wood in a straight line only to be frustrated by the saw wanting to cut at an angle. I think this is the number one reason people give up on scrolling.
It is not you, nor is it your saw. It is the blade. Many blades are milled out of metal, this makes one side of the blade cut more aggresively than the other.
The best way to correct this is to buy better blades. I like to use precision ground tooth blades or PGT. It doesnt matter so much on the brand you use, as long as they are precision ground. These blades have the teeth sharpend and set like a regular saw.
If you cant get hold of PGT blades dont worry. There is another way you can work around this problem. Cut a test piece of wood and note the direction of the cut. It will probably drift to the right a few degrees.
Shift your seating position in front of your saw. Dont use the back of the saw as a refernce point. The only thing you have to use as a refernce point is the blade.
Once you have offset yourself, take a few more cuts and get a feel for the blade. Soon you will be cutting very straight lines.
There are times when you will be cutting very small items, or doing fine fretwork. The hole on the table where the blade slips through may seem small now but it will seem huge when you are doing the finer work.
I make replacement inserts to slip in the table. I drill a hole in the center of them just big enough for the blade to pass through. You can use Baltic Birch plywood, plastic, or formica. Thin aluminum would also work. Make several at a time, they can wear out quicker than you would think.
Do you ever have a problem with wood splintering under your work? There are a couple of ways to solve this. One is with blade selection, you can buy Reverse Tooth Blades. Several teeth on the bottom of the blade face up, cutting on the upstroke rather than the downstroke.
Another way is to stack cut your pattern, Place several pieces of wood on top of each other. The bottom piece will still splinter but you will have several good splinter free copies of your work.
You can also tape a piece of tagboard....the thin cardboard on the back of a notepad....or a piece of a cereal box.... to the bottom of the piece. the cardboard eliminates the splintering.
When you want to "MASS PRODUCE" or cut out even a few pieces of work that are identical you should use a method called stack cutting. place four or five pieces of baltic birch plywood....or whatever material you are cutting... on top of each other. It is best if the are all the same size. The layers of wood are then held together by any of several means.
The pattern is glued to the top piece, starter holes are drilled through the stack and you cut out several copies simultaniously.
To keep the stacks together I like to tape the edges of the wood with low tack painters tape
you can also run beads of hot glue gun glue up and down the outside edges. Some people nail small brads in the waste area of the cutting, being careful not to penetrate the wood and scratch your scrollsaw table. One more way is to use temporary spray adhesive to paper and layer the paper and the wood like a stack of frozen burgers. Be sure to spray the paper and not the wood....the adhesive isnt so temporary if you spray the wood and not the paper!
There are many ways to transfer the pattern to the wood. You can trace the pattern with carbon paper leaving your original pattern in tact. I like to photocopy the pattern and spray the back of it with temporary adhesive. I cut right through the photocopy and peel it away when I am done.
If the wood is smooth you can transfer a photocopy toner from the original to the wood. This only works once and the transfer will be in the mirror image of the original. Place the photocopy face down on the wood and press a hot clothes iron on the back for several minutes.
I understand you can do the same process by using lacquer thinner on the back of the photocopy too. although that is a little smelly.