Greg, (and anybody else interested)

I am a member of a number of different fishing tackle making forums, and
your post the other day reminded me of a trick one member in Malaysia came
up with due to the difficulty of ordering various tools. He roughs out
blanks for crankbaits, and then hand carves them to finish before adding
bills, hardware, and paint. It's a pretty common skills set practiced by
the hard bait members of the forums. Many of them use a small bench top
band saw for roughing out their basic shapes. A few use a scroll saws.
Neither was readily available where he was located so he came up with a
different solution. He mounted a jigsaw upside down to a small table with
the blade sticking up through a hole. Much like the cheesy table saw
adaptations we see using a circular saw. I don't know how safe it is, but
he claimed it worked really well for roughing out his wood blanks, and was
much easier than using a jig saw in a conventional manner to cut a blank out
of a board.

I hope I didn't just cost somebody a finger for passing this on.

John Smith
LOL

On Monday, June 2, 2014 12:06:30 PM UTC-7, Bob La Londe wrote:

... He mounted a jigsaw upside down to a small table with
the blade sticking up through a hole. Much like the cheesy table saw
adaptations we see using a circular saw. I don't know how safe it is

I've done that. For thin material (1/4" plywood) it gives good control
and excellent cut visibility. In a pinch, just clamp the saw in the
vise, lock the power switch, and go! I use a power strip, the
cutoff switch there serves in an emergency.

"Bob La Londe" wrote in
:

Greg, (and anybody else interested)

I am a member of a number of different fishing tackle making forums,
and your post the other day reminded me of a trick one member in
Malaysia came up with due to the difficulty of ordering various tools.
He roughs out blanks for crankbaits, and then hand carves them to
finish before adding bills, hardware, and paint. It's a pretty common
skills set practiced by the hard bait members of the forums. Many of
them use a small bench top band saw for roughing out their basic
shapes. A few use a scroll saws. Neither was readily available where
he was located so he came up with a different solution. He mounted a
jigsaw upside down to a small table with the blade sticking up through
a hole. Much like the cheesy table saw adaptations we see using a
circular saw. I don't know how safe it is, but he claimed it worked
really well for roughing out his wood blanks, and was much easier than
using a jig saw in a conventional manner to cut a blank out of a
board.

I hope I didn't just cost somebody a finger for passing this on.

John Smith
LOL




The Shopmate Sabre-lathe Model 2610T0 used a jigsaw blade in such a
manner. There was apparently a table that came with the saw, and a
jigsaw blade would be mounted on the rear oscillating piece using a set
screw.

Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.