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Scroll saw or band saw?

2K views 13 replies 6 participants last post by  woodnthings 
#1 ·
I need to find which saw will help us the most with our project. We want to cut and color pine and balsa for parrot toys. We have a table saw but it is very hard to use for cutting the smaller pieces that we need and we aren't very experienced. Right now we buy most of our pieces but want to make our own. Here is some examples of what we need to do.http://www.thepurringparrot.com/res...d:category=273970&mode=product&product=837135
http://www.thepurringparrot.com/res...d:category=273970&mode=product&product=837148
http://www.thepurringparrot.com/res...d:category=273970&mode=product&product=837195
http://www.thepurringparrot.com/res...d:category=273970&mode=product&product=837152
We need to be able to but the notches and lines in it, so could a single saw type do that plus cut it thin too?
 
#2 · (Edited)
Honestly, a scroll saw is good for cutting very intricate lines in thin pieces of wood. A band saw is good for cutting curves, and resawing. Properly setup with a good blade, those parrot toy parts can be made easily on a bandsaw or scroll saw. However, If you bought a band saw, you could buy a large balsa board or chunk, and resaw it into hundreds of thin pieces. Change to a small 1/8" blade with 14TPI and cut the shapes and notches.

When buying lumber for parrot toys, you ussually need to sterilize it in the oven first.

But you can typically buy thin sheets of balsa wood at any hobby, crafts, or model shop.

If you didn't want to make your own thin stock, the scroll saw would be ideal, but if you would like to save some money, and cut larger pieces, a bandsaw would be ideal.

I would reccomend a bandsaw.

I grew up in a house full of birds, but currently we only have two, a green eclectus and an African Grey.
 
#3 ·
Those must be for parakeets, my late amazon would have chewed them to pieces before he had a chance to get bored with them.

For the pics shown I'd suggest a 10" benchtop bandsaw they run 1/8" to 1/2" bands. It'll do all your nooks and cranies for your parrot toys and more.

If you use the BS for resaw or ripping you'll have some finish sanding or worse depending on the blade and feed rate.
 
#8 ·
I have to agree with these being for parakeets. Even for them the balsa would not last any time.

All hook bills have a very strong bite. I sold these birds (from keets to Macaws and Cockatoos) for many years and would only recommend using appropriate woods and other materials for their toys. 100% cotton rope makes great toys.

If you google "making parrot toys" you will find much material.

George
 
#4 ·
Thanks Colt, Yes it is much cheaper to buy the balsa in large blocks. We have a place nearby that sells it mainly for surf boards. Right now the only balsa for toy making out there is the tiny pieces but our clients really like the larger chunky pieces but with the tablesaw we have now the pieces are irregular and not very uniform looking. Birds don't care but clients do.
Since you have birds you know how they can go through wood.
We use untreated pine we get from homedepot, do you think we should still bake it? The coloring process we use is food coloring mixed with alcohol and let it dry. It dries very quickly with alcohol.
 
#6 ·
Cross cutting- Cutting a straight line perpendicular to the grain
Ripping - Cutting along the grain.
Resawing is essentially slicing a piece. Say you had a board 1" thick, 2 inches wide, and 12 inches long. You could resaw it to have two boards nearly 1/2" thick, 2 inches wide and 12 inches long.

A tool like this would come in extremely handy for rounding corners, and dressing straight edges. I have three of these machines in different sizes I use for everything.
http://www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-x-36-inch-belt-6-inch-disc-sander-93981.html

Since you will be using Balsa wood or just small pieces of wood, a hobby band saw like Ghidrah mentioned would work extremely well.
http://www.ryobitools.com/catalog/power_tools/band_saws/BS903
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...yword=band+saw&prdNo=2&blockNo=2&blockType=G2

Stepping up a notch
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...yword=band+saw&prdNo=3&blockNo=3&blockType=G3


For your needs, a used Band Saw would be easy to find and fairly cheap.


Sanding balsa is really easy, so I wouldn't let that concern you too much. Ghidrah, just wants you to know that it won't produce a perfectly flat edge.
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the definitions. Is that last link a benchtop bs? I'm guessing we would need to attach the first 2 versions to something? We would also be cutting large pine blocks too but I do want to put the grooves in them. I like that sander too. It is good to see that there are bird people on here. We are owned by a grey, bg, gw, be2 and a cape.
 
#9 ·
Hi George,
Yes, the smaller wood is good for the smaller birds and we do have some larger birds that will only use the smaller wood because they are either very old or they just prefer the smaller pieces. Yes they go through it quickly and yes, I could buy it from someone that already makes it but since we work with a large variety of birds and have a retail store it would just save us money in the long run to have our own line of parrot wood. Our business is a cat and bird resort. Here is a link to our resort and storehttp://www.thepurringparrot.com
I didn't put the more simple big block photos up because I know how to cut those. It's the etched and thinner pieces that we need to produce.
A lot of bird owners are wanting to know that their wood is made from bird-safe materials and many of the larger toy makers are importing all their colored wood from China. That coloring may or may not be bird safe. I've already had to replace a lot of metal parts that were made from zinc, and is highly toxic to parrots, with stainless steel or nickel plated with is bird safe.
Oh and just to show my ignorance I thought we had a table saw but it is actually a miter saw so I guess I would need a table saw to cut the larger lines.
 
#11 ·
Another aspect you may want to consider is plastic, (not sure they're plastic) teething baby toys. In many cases they're the same thing and they're cheaper than pet toys in some cases up to 50% and our birds LURVED them to pieces.

Eventually a bird friend of wifey told her about baby toys at "Pick of the Litter" place where people brought things, furniture clothes, old tools, toys, books, etc, at our local landfill. No charge to drop off and no charge to take away.

Our birds had a generous inflow of trim pine to hack on I made a sort of oak branch rope and swing gym for them that sat in our boxed out pic wind. The interesting thing about the baby toys was that Hammer and Lucky had color and shape preferences
 
#12 ·
Yes, we love the baby teething rings and the cool links. They are safe for human chewing so I trust them for my birds plus they are very durable. We use them for some of our toys. I also have a recipe for making gelatin rings that are durable enough for a hyacinth.
Yes we will be investing in a BS first. Any recommendations on brand?
 
#14 ·
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