What type of tool can I use for this please?

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Richesse

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Hello everyone,
Could you advice me on what tool to use to cut birch plywood (1mm to 6mm) into different small shapes like in the attached pictures .
Are there any simple tools or saw that will serve this purpose or can I only get it done with laser cutting.
Thank you for your time.
 

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scroll saw, jigsaw or fretsaw for the hoops and scrollsaw, fret saw, jigsaw or bandsaw for the shapes.
 
Hello again,
After my research on the tool options , I decided to go with scroll/ fret saw.
My problem now is as a complete beginner , I am very confused chosing from the many options I have seen on ebay and the other tool sites, I founds this makes within £80-100 budget .( ferm, Titan, Clarke ,dremel, silverline, sealey, and draper) I only need this for hobby craft as to cut 1 to 6mm birch ply wood and balsawood as seen in the pictures in my earlier post.
I need your expert advice on which one to get from listed please

Thank you for your time
 
I would get a half decent fret saw and have a practice sawing to your lines.
If you had a more expensive scroll or band saw, you'd still have to cut to your lines.

Then there's drilling to start the internal cuts and (by the look of it) sanding to finish off. All takes practice but all can be done quite cheaply until you find you need to do it quicker.
 
Jewellers_Saws_Fretsaws.jpg


A jewellers fret saw would be ideal, the red Knew Concepts ones are better, the silver German Pattern saws are cheaper.

Both types are available in different frame depths (the shortest you can get away with will give you the best stiffness and make the blades last longer) and both take standard 5" plain ended scrollsaw blades. For smoothness on the 1mm - 3mm thick stuff I'd go for No.6 regular tooth metal cutting blades, and for the thicker material, No.5R reverse skip tooth blades. The reverse skip blades have extra space between the teeth to clear the waste (skip) and a group of teeth facing the other way (reverse) so you get an entry quality cut on both faces.
 
It looks to me that the curves/lines are such that a fairly wide, fine-toothed blade is likely to be the best - ideally a proper jig saw with a table, though my experience with such has been that it is difficult to fit blade in the upper and lower holders when trying to cut internal curves.

Jeff Gorman
www.amgron.clara.net
 
Thank you all for your replies, I like the idea of working with a jewelers saw, but it loos like it will take forever to get anything done. So do you not think I can start up with a cheap scroll saw, practise sawing to my lines and get a hang of it? It looks to me like the perfect tool to get the job done easy and quick .

Cheers
 
Richesse":2pr4c801 said:
Thank you all for your replies, I like the idea of working with a jewelers saw, but it loos like it will take forever to get anything done. So do you not think I can start up with a cheap scroll saw, practise sawing to my lines and get a hang of it? It looks to me like the perfect tool to get the job done easy and quick .

Cheers

I have read with some cheaper saws it is difficult to see where the blade is in the bottom clamp. They also vibrate a fair bit.
The cheap ones probably would do the job but after a while might make you wish you had spent a bit more.
I'm a novice too, from what I've read a cast iron base is better than the steel type.
Clarke do one if you look on their website. Other manufacturers probably do too.
I also looked at a sip one, a bit over your budget, but I think someone on here has one and gets on well with it.

When you get the hang of it scrolling is really enjoyable so you might find you want to do more than you first planned on.

Hopefully someone more experienced will see my waffling and give you better advice

Rich
 
If you were to be making lots of the same shapes, then a router and bearing bit could be used to follow a template and cut several the same at the same time ?

Cheers, Paul
 
You've posted this in the hand tool section but seem to be asking about making quantities so some answers are about that.

The cheapest, simplest way is a hand fretsaw costing a few pounds or the superior version Matthew showed. You put the workpiece over a horizontal support (with a notch in it) and hold the saw vertical over the notch. You cut by hand.
There is a power tool version of this which can also be called a fretsaw or more commonly a scroll saw. These are much discussed in the Scrolling forum on this site. Electric scroll saws will cost a few hundred according to quality. You could get similar results with an old treadle powered saw if you liked and there has been quite a flurry of posts lately about restoring and using these. They can often be had very cheap if restoration is needed.

Powered scroll saws would cope well with the thicknesses you want and if you did want to make lots you could tape several pieces of thin wood together and cut a sandwich of thin pieces all at once.

Your designs would need some effort and skill to look tidy as control of the line of cut would be manual.

An electric router and template could be used and would give consistency but would be impractical on single pieces of very thin wood which would be too fragile.

If you want to make thousands then other techniques are used in factories but you would probably not be looking to do them yourself.
 
Can't remember where I saw this but have it saved for a possible build some day:
 

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