Big Ripsaw and Crosscut saw project

[Blacky's Boy]

I've been wanting to build a full sized rip and crosscut saw for a while now. Until recently I didn't have access to large widths of 0.042" steel. But that changed about a month ago.

Along with that steel I also picked up a Beverly Slitting Shear. This little gen allows me to cut spring steel like it was paper. Now that all the pieces were in place I decided it was time to layout a rip and cross cut saw prototype. I used Autocad to design the saw plates to meet the hang line of a couple of my favorite saw handles. The Wheeler Madden & Clemson as well as the old Disston D-7. Once I had these laid out I printed out the plans and went to town on the saw plates.





Using a trick I picked up from Issac, I used blue painters tape to provide a background for my marking lines. Then it was a simple matter to get the slitting shear set up,...



And start cutting. It went a lot easier than I would have thought! It was a lot like cutting paper.



It only took me about 10 to 15 minutes (really took my time here) to cut the saw plates to size



After that I spent some time smoothing out the edges and curves with a combination of files and my grinding wheel.

Before I punched the teeth out I decided I wanted to run a test with a small piece of 0.042" thk scrap. Thanks to JoeMac (and Wilbur for transporting them) I no have a couple additional Foley retoothers. So I decided to use the oldest (and most sturdy looking of the bunch) to perform this test. It was a manual retoother but that posed no problem. It worked GREAT! One by product of this is now I have a small saw plate punched to 9ppi rip. I plan to use this to help me cut the slots in the handles.

Now that this is out of the way I moved onto cleaning/debluing the saw plates with Citric Acid. Hopefully I can punch the teeth tonight

More progress photos to come.

[Timberwolf]

Good pics Dom...keep 'em coming!!

[jossimbyr]

Those things are going to look great. One thing that really stands out to me is the curved heel; I LOVE that feature on saw blades. That metal shear is a nice looker, too.

[Blacky's Boy]

Thanks!

Here are the drawings I made up of each prototype

Crosscut saw


Rip Saw

[Steve Friedman]

Dominic. Very nice. Any reason for cutting them down to 26"? Could you have left it longer or was 25.8" the limit for some reason?

Steve

[Blacky's Boy]

Steve,
Excellent question. See that diagonal dashed line going from the toe to the mid point of the handle? That's a representation of the relationship between the hang angle of the handle and the saw plate. That's what i used to establish the saw plate length. Is it correct? We'll know once I try the saw out!

[Bozz]

Dom,

Looks good! Can't wait to see the finished product.

BTW, what is that nib thing for?

Mike

[Corneel]

Looking very good Dom.

Are you going to try tapering? Metal scraping should be fun I understood from this forum....

I've also tried that trick to find the hang angle of the handle. But I find it's always pretty arbitrary where you exactly draw the line through the handle. A small deviation and you get a way other hangangle.

[BaileyNo5]

Looks great, Dom. You have quite the blend of wood and metal working skills, I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

[joemac]

Oh Man!! Ain't it beautiful when a plan comes together???? I sure wish that I was in your shop to watch the birth of this beauty.

Very nice indeed.