Hi,
After more than a week (day job keeping me busy) I got back to making sawdust
After seeing so many nice saws, and lacking a proper dovetail saw, I thought about "pimping up" an old and rusty "combination" saw (i.e. one handle, several saw blades - the usual borg junk). The blade wasn't too bad (something like 15 TPI), but the rust got better of it, since it's been neglected in the garage for quite some time....
So, first a bath in some citric acid (easily obtainable here, just ask for "lemon acid" in a nearby pharmacy). About a pint of warm water and 4-5 teaspoons of powdered citric acid, about half an hour in the bath, and the blade cleaned up nicely. Not exactly like new, but definitely better than before.
Now, I really wanted to make a new handle - this forum was very helpful, as usual, and I managed to find some templates.
The wood was another problem - I didn't have a proper piece, so off to the local friendly carpenter, where I got a piece of ash (I think). The only problem was that it was more than 5 cm (about 2in.) thick, so resawing was in order. My puny little bandsaw can't resaw pieces higher than 11cm, and this was about 14cm
Since it was a weekend, no help was around, and I thought I might as well try resawing by hand - the galootish way
No, I don't have a bow saw, and I wasn't about to make one just for this, so I used the log saw I have.
Lo and behold, after about half an hour of sweating, I managed to resaw it!
Not perfectly, but the difference in thickness was about 1mm - good enough for gov't work!
(I won't mention that I also managed to bump my index finger against the plank pretty badly when the log saw "jumped" on me.... A day later, and there's no swelling, nothing serious, doesn't even hurt any more, so not a big deal. You learn something new every day... No blood was drawn, and I still have all my fingers. I learned that you need to be careful with hand tools, too...)
Template was taped to the plank, the outline sawn on the bandsaw, and the rest of the work was done using a rasp (I've got to get a better one!), a scalpel (i.e. plastic xacto knock-off) and some sandpaper.
I don't have the original washers/nuts/whatever, so after some digging in the garage, I found something that just might do for the nuts... (see the photos below - I had to make the slots for the screwdriver with a hacksaw. Never mind the aesthetics - it works...)
Some linseed oil and a layer of wax, and here's the result (finally):
Not bad.... Fits my hand MUCH better than the plastic trash you can find in stores around here.
In short, I'm quite happy with the whole process and the result - first resawing by hand, first serious use of bandsaw, first serious use of the rasps, first use of citric acid bath (useful tip, that one!), etc.
Not really bad.
Now, I won't show you how the kerf for the blade looks - suffice to say it's less than straight
Alf's recent article was quite helpful, but I still managed to botch the kerf. Oh, well, it works, so it's not really a big deal. Yeah, right...
Still, I've managed to affix the handle to the blade, and it does not wobble. I tried the "new" saw on a piece of pine, and it cuts just fine. Well, perhaps I'll have to sharpen the blade a bit, but still it's the best saw I currently have for cutting dovetails and such. (Not that I've made any dovetails as yet, but one's got to be prepared, right? 8-[ )
In short, what's the big deal, you might say, but it's quite an accomplishment for me - I'd still be patting myself on the back if my right arm wasn't still aching from that resawing job - for a workbench I have a sorry workmate knock-off, so any planing, sawing or resawing, particularly on pieces longer than 30cm can be quite a feat... ](*,)
(I think I see a "proper" workbench in my not too distant future. Well, perhaps - I'll probably have to build the extension to the garage first if I continue this way... :shock: )
Denis
After more than a week (day job keeping me busy) I got back to making sawdust
After seeing so many nice saws, and lacking a proper dovetail saw, I thought about "pimping up" an old and rusty "combination" saw (i.e. one handle, several saw blades - the usual borg junk). The blade wasn't too bad (something like 15 TPI), but the rust got better of it, since it's been neglected in the garage for quite some time....
So, first a bath in some citric acid (easily obtainable here, just ask for "lemon acid" in a nearby pharmacy). About a pint of warm water and 4-5 teaspoons of powdered citric acid, about half an hour in the bath, and the blade cleaned up nicely. Not exactly like new, but definitely better than before.
Now, I really wanted to make a new handle - this forum was very helpful, as usual, and I managed to find some templates.
The wood was another problem - I didn't have a proper piece, so off to the local friendly carpenter, where I got a piece of ash (I think). The only problem was that it was more than 5 cm (about 2in.) thick, so resawing was in order. My puny little bandsaw can't resaw pieces higher than 11cm, and this was about 14cm
Since it was a weekend, no help was around, and I thought I might as well try resawing by hand - the galootish way
No, I don't have a bow saw, and I wasn't about to make one just for this, so I used the log saw I have.
Lo and behold, after about half an hour of sweating, I managed to resaw it!
Not perfectly, but the difference in thickness was about 1mm - good enough for gov't work!
(I won't mention that I also managed to bump my index finger against the plank pretty badly when the log saw "jumped" on me.... A day later, and there's no swelling, nothing serious, doesn't even hurt any more, so not a big deal. You learn something new every day... No blood was drawn, and I still have all my fingers. I learned that you need to be careful with hand tools, too...)
Template was taped to the plank, the outline sawn on the bandsaw, and the rest of the work was done using a rasp (I've got to get a better one!), a scalpel (i.e. plastic xacto knock-off) and some sandpaper.
I don't have the original washers/nuts/whatever, so after some digging in the garage, I found something that just might do for the nuts... (see the photos below - I had to make the slots for the screwdriver with a hacksaw. Never mind the aesthetics - it works...)
Some linseed oil and a layer of wax, and here's the result (finally):
Not bad.... Fits my hand MUCH better than the plastic trash you can find in stores around here.
In short, I'm quite happy with the whole process and the result - first resawing by hand, first serious use of bandsaw, first serious use of the rasps, first use of citric acid bath (useful tip, that one!), etc.
Not really bad.
Now, I won't show you how the kerf for the blade looks - suffice to say it's less than straight
Alf's recent article was quite helpful, but I still managed to botch the kerf. Oh, well, it works, so it's not really a big deal. Yeah, right...
Still, I've managed to affix the handle to the blade, and it does not wobble. I tried the "new" saw on a piece of pine, and it cuts just fine. Well, perhaps I'll have to sharpen the blade a bit, but still it's the best saw I currently have for cutting dovetails and such. (Not that I've made any dovetails as yet, but one's got to be prepared, right? 8-[ )
In short, what's the big deal, you might say, but it's quite an accomplishment for me - I'd still be patting myself on the back if my right arm wasn't still aching from that resawing job
- for a workbench I have a sorry workmate knock-off, so any planing, sawing or resawing, particularly on pieces longer than 30cm can be quite a feat... ](*,) (I think I see a "proper" workbench in my not too distant future. Well, perhaps - I'll probably have to build the extension to the garage first if I continue this way... :shock: )
Denis
