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Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
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#1
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Miniature Chop Saw
As part of my mold making business I often have to make insert pins for
various custom projects. Sometimes those pins are odd sizes making them either hard to find or expensive to buy as pins. Frequently I can buy wire of some form or another that is exactly the perfect diameter, but then I have to cut it to length and clean up the ends. One of my common sizes is 3/32. 10lbs of 3/32 stainless tig wire makes a lot of cheap pins for the price. I just finished a mold that requires an insert pin thats a little over 1/16. I found some straight lengths of .064 stainless wire at McMaster that will do the trick. If I use a clipper of some kind the end requires a lot of dressing on the grinder and/or bench sander. If I use a cut off wheel in a rotary hand piece the cut is straighter with just a burr that needs to be polished off, but its awkward and a little hazardous with sparks going everywhere. Also, its hard to get lengths just right when length is important. The answer is to make them a little long and grind them to length. YUCK! Huge time suck ensues. I debated making a little chop saw using a rotary hand piece, and setting it up with a chute (for cut pieces to slide down into a catch box, and a length stop of some kind so I could dial in once for a particular project and cut a bunch of insert pins at once. I may go that way. When I was first learning about CNC machining I built a couple setups to use rotary hand pieces as spindles. One was an adjust dual head setup to cut two molds plates at the same time. ANYWAY, after spending some time thinking about I did a search for miniature chop saws to see if there was anything out there. It looks like there might be a few. Even if I have to modify one or make a tool to go with one for a length stop its got to be faster than making one from scratch. I could, but then instead of using my tools... well if you actually do your craft to make a few dollars you see where I am coming from. I'm looking for a solution. Not a project. So, here are the questions: Do you have a miniature chopsaw or know somebody who has one? If you do (or know somebody who does) how well does it work? If you do (or know somebody who does) how well does it hold up? Is it home made or factory manufactured? If it is factory made what make and model is it? Does it use an abrasive blade or some other type? How easy is it to change blades? Do you (or the person you know who has one) cut metal with it? I also make a few teflon pins. It would be nice to be able to cut them quickly and easily to specific lengths as well. If such a saw had a toothed metal cutting blade or could be quickly changed to a toothed blade it might serve a dual purpose. |
#2
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Miniature Chop Saw
"Bob La Londe" wrote in message news
As part of my mold making business I often have to make insert pins for various custom projects. Sometimes those pins are odd sizes making them either hard to find or expensive to buy as pins. Frequently I can buy wire of some form or another that is exactly the perfect diameter, but then I have to cut it to length and clean up the ends. One of my common sizes is 3/32. 10lbs of 3/32 stainless tig wire makes a lot of cheap pins for the price. I just finished a mold that requires an insert pin thats a little over 1/16. I found some straight lengths of .064 stainless wire at McMaster that will do the trick. If I use a clipper of some kind the end requires a lot of dressing on the grinder and/or bench sander. If I use a cut off wheel in a rotary hand piece the cut is straighter with just a burr that needs to be polished off, but its awkward and a little hazardous with sparks going everywhere. Also, its hard to get lengths just right when length is important. The answer is to make them a little long and grind them to length. YUCK! Huge time suck ensues. I debated making a little chop saw using a rotary hand piece, and setting it up with a chute (for cut pieces to slide down into a catch box, and a length stop of some kind so I could dial in once for a particular project and cut a bunch of insert pins at once. I may go that way. When I was first learning about CNC machining I built a couple setups to use rotary hand pieces as spindles. One was an adjust dual head setup to cut two molds plates at the same time. ANYWAY, after spending some time thinking about I did a search for miniature chop saws to see if there was anything out there. It looks like there might be a few. Even if I have to modify one or make a tool to go with one for a length stop its got to be faster than making one from scratch. I could, but then instead of using my tools... well if you actually do your craft to make a few dollars you see where I am coming from. I'm looking for a solution. Not a project. So, here are the questions: Do you have a miniature chopsaw or know somebody who has one? If you do (or know somebody who does) how well does it work? If you do (or know somebody who does) how well does it hold up? Is it home made or factory manufactured? If it is factory made what make and model is it? Does it use an abrasive blade or some other type? How easy is it to change blades? Do you (or the person you know who has one) cut metal with it? I also make a few teflon pins. It would be nice to be able to cut them quickly and easily to specific lengths as well. If such a saw had a toothed metal cutting blade or could be quickly changed to a toothed blade it might serve a dual purpose. ================================================== ============== How about starting with the littlest wet abrasive tile saw from harborfreight? https://www.harborfreight.com/power-...saw-69230.html, $55, 4.5" cutoff wheel, 5300 rpm. I haven't used it but it's rated 3.7/5 based on 142 reviews. They also have a couple of larger models you might want to step up to, one still under $100. -- Regards, Carl Ijames |
#3
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Miniature Chop Saw
"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
news As part of my mold making business I often have to make insert pins for various custom projects. Sometimes those pins are odd sizes making them either hard to find or expensive to buy as pins. Frequently I can buy wire of some form or another that is exactly the perfect diameter, but then I have to cut it to length and clean up the ends. One of my common sizes is 3/32. 10lbs of 3/32 stainless tig wire makes a lot of cheap pins for the price. I just finished a mold that requires an insert pin thats a little over 1/16. I found some straight lengths of .064 stainless wire at McMaster that will do the trick. I cut the TIG rod needles and rollers for homemade bearings on the lathe, holding the rod in a 5C collet and cutting cleanly with an HSS cutoff blade, very close to the collet face. That may not be the fastest way to cut them but the lengths are accurate and the end cleanup is minimal and easy. -jsw |
#4
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Miniature Chop Saw
On Fri, 23 Jun 2017 16:32:32 -0700
"Bob La Londe" wrote: snip Do you have a miniature chopsaw or know somebody who has one? I have a new HF 6 inch Chop Saw. It's still new in the box, never got around to setting it up. Thought it would be nice for roughing out lathe bits. HF has blades for it but they rarely go on sale. I think I bought some but was really planning on just using the 4.5 inch blades which you can get deals on. I have the older version of this, it was shaped differently: https://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-5...saw-61659.html Sorry I don't have any usage info but it probably don't matter seeing they don't carry that version anymore... They also have a 2 inch mini model, which sounds more like what you are interested in: https://www.harborfreight.com/2-in-m...saw-62136.html I'm pretty sure you can get a version of that from Micro-Mart too... That being said you could probably use a cable nipper. Like a Greenlee 722 Wire Rope & Wire Cutter or the HK Porter version. https://www.amazon.com/Greenlee-722-...dp/B00125KG9C/ https://www.amazon.com/Porter-Pocket...dp/B0009Z88OQ/ These are pretty tough cutters and have a scissors action which shouldn't leave much of a burr... -- Leon Fisk Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b Remove no.spam for email |
#5
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Miniature Chop Saw
On Fri, 23 Jun 2017 16:32:32 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote: As part of my mold making business I often have to make insert pins for various custom projects. Sometimes those pins are odd sizes making them either hard to find or expensive to buy as pins. Frequently I can buy wire of some form or another that is exactly the perfect diameter, but then I have to cut it to length and clean up the ends. One of my common sizes is 3/32. 10lbs of 3/32 stainless tig wire makes a lot of cheap pins for the price. I just finished a mold that requires an insert pin thats a little over 1/16. I found some straight lengths of .064 stainless wire at McMaster that will do the trick. If I use a clipper of some kind the end requires a lot of dressing on the grinder and/or bench sander. If I use a cut off wheel in a rotary hand piece the cut is straighter with just a burr that needs to be polished off, but its awkward and a little hazardous with sparks going everywhere. Also, its hard to get lengths just right when length is important. The answer is to make them a little long and grind them to length. YUCK! Huge time suck ensues. I debated making a little chop saw using a rotary hand piece, and setting it up with a chute (for cut pieces to slide down into a catch box, and a length stop of some kind so I could dial in once for a particular project and cut a bunch of insert pins at once. I may go that way. When I was first learning about CNC machining I built a couple setups to use rotary hand pieces as spindles. One was an adjust dual head setup to cut two molds plates at the same time. ANYWAY, after spending some time thinking about I did a search for miniature chop saws to see if there was anything out there. It looks like there might be a few. Even if I have to modify one or make a tool to go with one for a length stop its got to be faster than making one from scratch. I could, but then instead of using my tools... well if you actually do your craft to make a few dollars you see where I am coming from. I'm looking for a solution. Not a project. So, here are the questions: Do you have a miniature chopsaw or know somebody who has one? If you do (or know somebody who does) how well does it work? If you do (or know somebody who does) how well does it hold up? Is it home made or factory manufactured? If it is factory made what make and model is it? Does it use an abrasive blade or some other type? How easy is it to change blades? Do you (or the person you know who has one) cut metal with it? I also make a few teflon pins. It would be nice to be able to cut them quickly and easily to specific lengths as well. If such a saw had a toothed metal cutting blade or could be quickly changed to a toothed blade it might serve a dual purpose. Greetings Bob, Years ago I had a similar job. I had to cut hundreds of springs that were just a straight rod about 4 inches long. The spring stock came in 36 inch lengths. I had to make rods from two different diameters, 2 mm and 2.5 mm. An abrasive cutoff saw was needed but they were expensive. What I ended up using was a chop saw made for wood. The saw was made for 7 inch saw blades but I put an abrasive blade on it. I put a little air vise on it. I mounted a switch on the saw that controlled a solenoid valve that caused the vise to open when the saw was raised. This setup made for very fast cutting of the spring steel. Eric |
#6
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
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Miniature Chop Saw
wrote in message
... On Fri, 23 Jun 2017 16:32:32 -0700, "Bob La Londe" wrote: As part of my mold making business I often have to make insert pins for various custom projects. Sometimes those pins are odd sizes making them either hard to find or expensive to buy as pins. Frequently I can buy wire of some form or another that is exactly the perfect diameter, but then I have to cut it to length and clean up the ends. One of my common sizes is 3/32. 10lbs of 3/32 stainless tig wire makes a lot of cheap pins for the price. I just finished a mold that requires an insert pin thats a little over 1/16. I found some straight lengths of .064 stainless wire at McMaster that will do the trick. If I use a clipper of some kind the end requires a lot of dressing on the grinder and/or bench sander. If I use a cut off wheel in a rotary hand piece the cut is straighter with just a burr that needs to be polished off, but its awkward and a little hazardous with sparks going everywhere. Also, its hard to get lengths just right when length is important. The answer is to make them a little long and grind them to length. YUCK! Huge time suck ensues. I debated making a little chop saw using a rotary hand piece, and setting it up with a chute (for cut pieces to slide down into a catch box, and a length stop of some kind so I could dial in once for a particular project and cut a bunch of insert pins at once. I may go that way. When I was first learning about CNC machining I built a couple setups to use rotary hand pieces as spindles. One was an adjust dual head setup to cut two molds plates at the same time. ANYWAY, after spending some time thinking about I did a search for miniature chop saws to see if there was anything out there. It looks like there might be a few. Even if I have to modify one or make a tool to go with one for a length stop its got to be faster than making one from scratch. I could, but then instead of using my tools... well if you actually do your craft to make a few dollars you see where I am coming from. I'm looking for a solution. Not a project. So, here are the questions: Do you have a miniature chopsaw or know somebody who has one? If you do (or know somebody who does) how well does it work? If you do (or know somebody who does) how well does it hold up? Is it home made or factory manufactured? If it is factory made what make and model is it? Does it use an abrasive blade or some other type? How easy is it to change blades? Do you (or the person you know who has one) cut metal with it? I also make a few teflon pins. It would be nice to be able to cut them quickly and easily to specific lengths as well. If such a saw had a toothed metal cutting blade or could be quickly changed to a toothed blade it might serve a dual purpose. Greetings Bob, Years ago I had a similar job. I had to cut hundreds of springs that were just a straight rod about 4 inches long. The spring stock came in 36 inch lengths. I had to make rods from two different diameters, 2 mm and 2.5 mm. An abrasive cutoff saw was needed but they were expensive. What I ended up using was a chop saw made for wood. The saw was made for 7 inch saw blades but I put an abrasive blade on it. I put a little air vise on it. I mounted a switch on the saw that controlled a solenoid valve that caused the vise to open when the saw was raised. This setup made for very fast cutting of the spring steel. Eric I've used a cutoff wheel in a table saw for pieces large enough to hold safely. The burrs that it leaves prevent cleaning up the ends on my collet lathe. I put a 1/2"-20 mount Jacobs chuck on an AA/Sears lathe and use it for tasks like that which need high RPMs but not accuracy. -jsw |
#7
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Miniature Chop Saw
On Sat, 24 Jun 2017 10:15:43 -0400
Leon Fisk wrote: snip They also have a 2 inch mini model, which sounds more like what you are interested in: https://www.harborfreight.com/2-in-m...saw-62136.html I'm pretty sure you can get a version of that from Micro-Mart too... Here is the Micro-Mark version: http://www.micromark.com/MicroLux-Mi...er-Cut-Off-Saw They have abrasive blades in the listing which I didn't find for at HF. If you really want to blow some bucks they have a Proxxon model too: http://www.micromark.com/Proxxon-Min...-for-Hobby-Use Looks like that one uses a 3.25 inch blade. Best be sitting down though when you see the price -- Leon Fisk Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b Remove no.spam for email |
#8
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Miniature Chop Saw
On Fri, 23 Jun 2017 20:26:39 -0400, "Carl Ijames"
wrote: If it is factory made what make and model is it? Does it use an abrasive blade or some other type? How easy is it to change blades? Do you (or the person you know who has one) cut metal with it? I also make a few teflon pins. It would be nice to be able to cut them quickly and easily to specific lengths as well. If such a saw had a toothed metal cutting blade or could be quickly changed to a toothed blade it might serve a dual purpose. ================================================= =============== How about starting with the littlest wet abrasive tile saw from harborfreight? https://www.harborfreight.com/power-...saw-69230.html, $55, 4.5" cutoff wheel, 5300 rpm. I haven't used it but it's rated 3.7/5 based on 142 reviews. They also have a couple of larger models you might want to step up to, one still under $100. -- Regards, Carl Ijames http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=...=&r mvSB=true --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus |
#9
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Miniature Chop Saw
Thanks guys. All good suggestions. Still not sure which way I will go with
it. Have some .065 pins to cut today though. Probably have to improvise to get these done. |
#10
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Miniature Chop Saw
"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
news Thanks guys. All good suggestions. Still not sure which way I will go with it. Have some .065 pins to cut today though. Probably have to improvise to get these done. I bought this tool to deburr cut brake line evenly all around before double flaring it: https://www.midwayusa.com/product/38...deburring-tool The inside cone is truncated too large for 0.065" pins but the design is simple and looks promising for a home made tool. |
#11
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Miniature Chop Saw
"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
... On Fri, 23 Jun 2017 20:26:39 -0400, "Carl Ijames" wrote: If it is factory made what make and model is it? Does it use an abrasive blade or some other type? How easy is it to change blades? Do you (or the person you know who has one) cut metal with it? I also make a few teflon pins. It would be nice to be able to cut them quickly and easily to specific lengths as well. If such a saw had a toothed metal cutting blade or could be quickly changed to a toothed blade it might serve a dual purpose. ================================================= =============== How about starting with the littlest wet abrasive tile saw from harborfreight? https://www.harborfreight.com/power-...saw-69230.html, $55, 4.5" cutoff wheel, 5300 rpm. I haven't used it but it's rated 3.7/5 based on 142 reviews. They also have a couple of larger models you might want to step up to, one still under $100. -- Regards, Carl Ijames http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=...=&r mvSB=true That is an interesting variation of the Microlux/HarborFright design saw paired with a measuring jig. It wouldn't work for my application, but it does give me some nice simple ideas for cutting wire pins as needed. Thanks. (Well, and some other saws depending on which one.) |
#12
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Miniature Chop Saw
On Tue, 27 Jun 2017 09:20:51 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote: "Gunner Asch" wrote in message .. . On Fri, 23 Jun 2017 20:26:39 -0400, "Carl Ijames" wrote: If it is factory made what make and model is it? Does it use an abrasive blade or some other type? How easy is it to change blades? Do you (or the person you know who has one) cut metal with it? I also make a few teflon pins. It would be nice to be able to cut them quickly and easily to specific lengths as well. If such a saw had a toothed metal cutting blade or could be quickly changed to a toothed blade it might serve a dual purpose. ================================================ ================ How about starting with the littlest wet abrasive tile saw from harborfreight? https://www.harborfreight.com/power-...saw-69230.html, $55, 4.5" cutoff wheel, 5300 rpm. I haven't used it but it's rated 3.7/5 based on 142 reviews. They also have a couple of larger models you might want to step up to, one still under $100. -- Regards, Carl Ijames http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=...=&r mvSB=true That is an interesting variation of the Microlux/HarborFright design saw paired with a measuring jig. It wouldn't work for my application, but it does give me some nice simple ideas for cutting wire pins as needed. Thanks. (Well, and some other saws depending on which one.) Thought it might be of interest. Btw..these are just about the best ferris cutting blades Ive found. They can be had cheaper if you look around http://www.ebay.com/itm/Norton-47767...-/162093130999 This may be of interest as well: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...lades&_sacat=0 Gunner --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus |
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