"Charles A. Sherwood" wrote:
I am starting a clock project made almost entirely of brass plate.
Specifically I am building W.R. Smith's Lyre clock.
I need to saw out patterns in 3/16 brass for the main plates,
80 thou brass for the dial and 60 thou brass for the other parts
such as gear spokes.
I tried roughing out the main 3/16 plates with my 4x6 band saw in
vertical mode and quickly discovered the small throat really limits
the work envelope. It also does not allow me to do inside cuts.
Mr. Smith shows roughing out the plates with a table jig saw and
finishing up with a die filer and belt sander.
I believe a jig saw would not work well on thin stock but work work
well on the thick stock. I am wondering if a good scroll saw would
work on the 3/16 plate.
A bit of web research tells me the top of line scroll saws are
Hegner and Excaliber. Middle of the road in Dewalt and everything
else is lumped together.
So will a good scroll saw cut the 3/16 brass plate in a timely manner?
Do I need a jig saw and a scroll saw?
Looking for advise!!
thanks
chuck
The short answer is you can do very good work on even thin brass with a
scroll saw of the right kind with the right setup.
For my work in silver, brass and other soft metals, I spent a couple of
hundred bucks at MicroMark for a specialized Microlux variable-speed
scroll saw that handles metal, plastics, etc. It's really for thinner
stock, but with the appropriate blade and slow feeds, it should handle
3/16 brass.
You can do the same sort of thing, although perhaps not as well, with a
conventional scroll saw. The good ones have enough power to handle 3/16
brass easily.
There are two keys to making this work. The first is that the saw should
have a variable speed control. The second is the blades.
Don't bother with the blades you get from the saw company. Go to a
jeweler's supply store (or order on-line from someplace like Rio Grande)
and get a gross or two of jeweler's saw blades of the appropriate gauge.
These are plain-end blades about 6" long that will fit any scroll saw that
takes plain end blades. The blades are cheap, but you can't buy them in
quantities of less than a dozen and even the experts break them
constantly. Expect to break a lot of blades and don't worry about it.
The usual method of scroll sawing very thin stock is to put something
heavier over the top of it, like 1/8 plywood, and set the presser foot
firmly on the material.
Good luck. It sounds like an interesting project.
--RC
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