Elora coping saw - junior hacksaw

One of these coping / junior hacksaw frames turned up in some tools given to the men's shed. I'm just wondering what the point of the odd shape frame is to make it better than a regular bent metal junior hacksaw frame.

You can lock the handle anywhere around the frame so you can get into odd places

I think the explanation is in your link, Bazyle

The handle is adjustable, and the frame shape is part of that adjustability

MichaelG.

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Predictably, Jason beat me to it.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 10/03/2018 20:47:25

yes but if you set the handle at the top of the frame - when could that actually be and advantage? Seems like one of those 'good ideas' that never actually finds a need to fulfil.

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Who knows what awkward situation might present itself ?

Actually, I think the handle is most likely to be set somewhere around the curved region of the frame.

Interesting, to me, is that the catalogue illustration shows the blade inserted as a pull-saw.

**LINK**

https://www.antala.es/admin/upload/Files/Catalogos/Elora/1-%20Herramientas%20Manuales.pdf

MichaelG.

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It's on p246 of the PDF

I almost always use a junior hacksaw with the blade set to cut on the pull stroke. I find it much less likely to grab and kink when cutting stuff such as thin wall pipe.
I normally do the same with a coping saw, due to the lack of rigidity in the frame.

I also have a home made wooden coping saw frame, where the blade tension is applied by twisting some string. This seems rigid enough to use either way round, provided I don't get carried away with the tourniquet and shear the pin off the end of the blade .

My jewellers saw on the other hand usually has the blade forward facing, as the frame is much more rigid, with respect to the size of the blade's teeth.

Bill

Edited By peak4 on 10/03/2018 22:44:30

Out on site I have had to hold my Junior hacksaw by the top of the frame several times when cutting pipes in confined spaces eg. in a boxing or floor void. Either that or resort to just the blade when there is not room for the frame.

Though with the advent the "multi-tool" that is what most tradesmen will now reach for.

With junior hacksaw blades I usually use an Eclipse saw frame(proper mini hacksaw frame), blade in push mode. I have a deep frame junior wire frame, and I use that with the blade in pull mode, and held similar to a fretsaw/coping saw. A coping saw is handy as the blade can be swiveled 360* in the frame.

Ian S C

I've always had problems getting the blade to cut straight in both large and junior hacksaws. I'm sure with practice this could be improved - but frankly life it too short. So I still "hack" (and often also chain drill) with the larger saws - but where I need a truer cut (and my slitting saws are not suitable) I now use this saw frame in my Adept hand shaper. Didn't take too long to do and it works well - so was well worth the effort in making.

Regards,

IanT

The problem of smooth cutting is a mystery to some people, it might be called a "hack saw" but let the saw do the work with smooth even strokes, do not try to push the saw through the job, rather than cutting through.

Junior hacksaw, coping saw and piercing saw I always have the blade on the pull stroke.

The work is horizontal and the saw vertical, though not always with the Junior, and as KWIL says "let the saw do the work"

Roy

Very interesting vice you have there Ian as well as the saw frame. More pictures please.

As Jason implies - that little hacksaw with the moveable handle can be invaluable sometimes in the workshop.
I purchased one some years ago and will usually reach for it in preference to other junior hacksaws. The handle is more comfortable to hold and to control the cut. Additionally, just by moving the handle to the other end you can push or pull the blade as you wish !

The link in the OP's posting shows it @ £20.20; here it's on sale for less than half that @ £9.44:-
**LINK**

That vise looks to be far too small for that shaper! Especially with the shaper in manual form! Perhaps just robust enough to prevent it being ripped away on the power stroke.

I want one, too.​

Edited to ask if the down-feed is gravity, somehow, or manumatic?

Edited By not done it yet on 11/03/2018 12:11:03

If you really want a whacky junior hacksaw you can go this way, 1/2" steel bar in 1/2hr, or about 5 minutes if I use the motor on my Super Adept, or just do it by hand.

Ian S C

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I nearly jumped to buy one at that price ^^^

But the one in your link is the fixed-handle variant

MichaelG.

NDIY - well in my view - it's really too large (or at least too tall) but I'd previously been using a (much smaller) old Myford vice and I really missed the rotary action of the shaper vice on my Acorn 7". I saw this topslide/vice at the Brooklands MEX a few years back and the trader accepted a silly offer (it wasn't priced too high to begin with) - so I had it. I suspect a lot of folk were puzzled by it - but I believe it came off a Chronos combined Lathe/Mill.

It's very accurately ground externally - but most other (internal) surfaces were pretty poor - so I re-surfaced the (reference) bottom face in the Acorn and also added some tapped holes to take various different clamping accessories - either to hold small work pieces directly or to hold positioning/toe pieces to help stop things moving under cut. Since I didn't pay too much for it, I forgave myself any vandalism undertaken.

Bayzle - here are a couple of photos of the saw/vice being used. I wanted to remove some backlash in a feed-screw, so I needed to halve the nut fairly accurately (it was done in two cuts, with packing shims on the second cut). The other photo is just some 1/8" brass where I needed a small bit for a fabrication. The saw wastes very little material and the cut face cleans up easily. The cut face you can actually see was a much earlier 'chop' with a hacksaw - and is not nearly so nice. The T-slot on the top off the vice makes clamping really easy..

I won't put anything more up here - as Neil asked me for an article about Hand Shaping last year, which I wrote covering some of this same ground. At the time I was thinking there hadn't been too much written about Shapers in recent years. Bill Morris beat me to it with his series about rebuilding and using his powered shaper, so I guess my article will now appear sometime after that finishes. I was trying to keep it short (which is really hard for me!) so I'm afraid my 'Words & Music' are a lot more 'terse' than Bills excellent articles. Shaping is quite a large subject to try to cover quickly...

Regards,

ianT

T take things even further off topic, if anyone round Leicester way wants a Kennedy Hexacut, there's one for sale on gumtree

I'd have it myself, but two would seem greedy

Bill

And to go further off topic than that, when I did some engineering training in the early 1970s, the instructor insisted on using stiff hacksaw blades. He said flexible blades were only for amateurs. The thing was, if you started the cut correctly, they just sailed through the work and cut absolutely straight, but even a tiny attempt to steer them and the blade shattered. Anybody remember them?

Edited By Mike on 11/03/2018 17:28:04

I find an all hard blade to be best in a decent frame if I am sawing solid material in a bench vice, sawing conduit in a bender vice you will not stand a chance with an all hard blade, I think it is a case of horses for courses.

Mike