Scrollsaw for the occasional user

Hi Ian T...writes...

"Please don't take this as criticism Bob Mc - but I break a lot less blades when I use the saw vertically and just let it drop into the work on the down stroke (e.g. let the saw do the work) etc."

No I certainly won't take it as criticism and I am only glad to hear how others tackle these problems... I will give your method a try out and see if it does the job any better, my only concern is that you say you use this method for brass which is a lot softer than mild steel...nevertheless thanks for your post ... if it works I will give due credit.

rgds..Bob.

Yes, mild steel is harder (and slower) to cut Bob - especially when it's quite thick..

I've generally never been able to file/saw straight I'm afraid - but even I can get fairly good results 'freehand' with a piecing saw in brass. Provided you don't force it, it's quite easy to guide the cut. This is 2mm brass and I'm about 0.5mm above that line. All I then had to do was line a toolmakers clamp up with the scribed line, lay it in the shaper vice, remove the clamp and a few strokes later I had a nice edge to final dimension.

However for thicker material, it's much harder to do I agree - so for small straight cuts, I use the shaper to guide a Junior hacksaw blade - which works well - although of course it's not an option for most folk. I've recently made a new 'finger' for my finger plate (thought the "temporary" one I made some 10-12 years ago should finally be replaced with something a bit prettier). It's 3/8ths thick mild steel and using a hand saw I would have been all over the place. Doing it this way, it cleaned up quickly (and to size) - which probably would not have been the case otherwise!.

Regards,

IanT

Or you can do it this way with a junior hack saw blade , and if you use something more powerful that a hot air motor with about 5Watts available it will chew through a bit of 1/2/12 mm rebar in less than 5 minutes, takes about 20 minutes with the hot air motor.

I have used it to cut the metal when building another motor, and when repairing the motor it was first designed for.

Ian S C

Hi Ian S C ...

Are you saying you have an engine driving that saw! ...it does look as if there is a boiler and a flywheel in the picture.

If that's the case its great if you have actually made and engine to do some serious work, would definitely like to see that running...!

Bob...

Hi Bob, sorry no video, but yes it does work, it's something akin to watching grass grow/paint dry, but I like to make my motors work for their living, mostly on an alternator or generator, or a water pump, and one is fitted in a boat.

Ian S C