Thread: Anyone built a roubo frame saw?

Originally Posted by woodPixel

What about getting Henry Bros to chop you a section of appropriate blade?


edit: Ive seen these kinds of blades in some big mitre box saws.... e.g. Frame Saw Blades Archives - Peck Tool

OAM, dammit Delbs. Stop posting these kinds of things... now I want to make one!

I forgot about them. I'll give them a call on Monday to ask if they have something suitable. Thanks!

Ha well I'm just trying to get resaw ability without a bandsaw and less than $100 for specifically for this saw.

Come along and make one!

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Originally Posted by delbs

I forgot about them. I'll give them a call on Monday to ask if they have something suitable. Thanks!

Ha well I'm just trying to get resaw ability without a bandsaw and less than $100 for specifically for this saw.

Come along and make one!

Id be interested in what Henrys comes up with. A saw blade, correctly chosen - right pitch, teeth, and wide (2 inches!) would make a lovely frame saw.

Its interesting you should have brought this up at all. I have my Laguna 14" SUV in storage and absolutely zero opportunity to use it. Ive also a huge japanese ryoba, but its not quite the right tool..... but a frame saw that can be broken down into a small box between uses is perfect.

Maybe we should make this into a project? Designs and a deal with HB's to supply the "Frame Saw Chunk" as an orderable element? Maybe they can round the ends and drill the holes too? (worth asking)

Just throwing it out there....

Ev

Yes absolutely, my question to them will be if I can get holes drilled also if they have something suitable. I'll get back to you once I know more

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Originally Posted by delbs

....Yes absolutely, my question to them will be if I can get holes drilled...

delbs, making some holes in the blade is the least of your concerns. It's quite easy to drill holes in them if you use those carbide-tipped 'universal' bits. They are available in most hardware stores & cost little more than a regular bit. You could probably do it with a (new) masonry bit if desperate.

A regular HSS bit will make one hole, maybe two if you really force it, but will be thoroughly wrecked by then & in dire need of sharpening.

Another trick is to take a bullet-head nail & chuck it in your battery drill or drill press with the head sticking out. Run that on the spot where you want to make your hole 'till it gets red hot & let it cool. The thin metal will cool quickly, but it will be enough to temper the metal so you'll be able to drill it with a regular HSS bit easily.

Cheers,

Soo I called Henry Bros today to finally speak with someone about a straight bit of blade for a frame saw. The first person said I lost them and transferred me to another person.

Then the second person said he understood what I was referring too but assumed it was a handheld oscillating type of saw but when I suggested it's could he up to a 1m in length he make comments that I was out of my depth etc haha.

I did add in it was hand operated and manual not mechanical at all. So he then said why bother and that sounds like a heap of work just buy a bandsaw haha.

So in the end he asked me to email him with specifics of what I'm looking after, they haven't responded yet but they think it is within the realm of possibility so I'm keen to hear what price they come back with.

I'm confident I'll source the metal and threads to tension if I can just get a source of blades will let you know what they say @woodPixel

Cheers


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There are too many goddam businesses like this.

If they cant make a sale by picking up a box off a shelf they want nothing to do with it.

All. Too. Hard.

They criticise us for being imbeciles, but its the opposite.

I get this CONTINUOUSLY when sourcing materials/fabrics and wanting specific things like metals.

I just shake my head and end up ordering it off AliExpress or AliBaba ... I'm doing that with hinges right now.... TRIED to get a bunch of fabs here to even listen to me.. nope, nope, nope, cant be done, naaaaa mate, wot dat?, naaaa mate..... Talked to ONE company in China... here you go Mr Evan! Our lowest-grunt tech banged these out overnight for you.... $5.50 a set. Delivered.....

We. Are. Utterly. Doomed.

Um, to be fair to Henry Bros. (they do have a good reputation for service in the area they know best, which is blades for things driven by 'lectrickery), I wouldn't expect any whippersnapper in the place to have heard of a frame-saw powered by potato power. So I'm not surprised they were somewhat nonplussed. I think this is a situation where you would do better knowing what you want & asking for it than relying on them to tell you - they are unlikely to know what's needed.

Just sayin'....

I did say that I just needed a length of blade similar to. Bandsaw blade approx 1m in length by 1" thick and left open the tooth count per inch just to see what they had.

Definitely not trying to diss them in any way shape or form it was just a funny conversation to have is all. Keen to see what they come back with

Nice hinges Ev. Very nice

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What they've come back with is.

41mm x 1.27 x ¾ or 4/6 tpi in a bi-metal band design for cutting steel $50.00 p/mt + gst

We have no 40 or 50mm wide saws with a 4tpi




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I made a frame saw a few weeks ago. It was very fun.

I picked up some 0.80mm X 250mm X 1147mm SAE1074 H&T @ $120.00ea from Dawborn Steels Trading Pty Ltd

The saw I want to make is a 60cm saw that was 1 inch wide. I wanted a 5tpi tooth.
Its already heat treated so I have to be very careful not to cook the temper in the blade.
I first cut near the line and then filed down to dimension. Filing down to dimension took so long.
IMG_4785.jpgIMG_4791.jpgIMG_4794.jpg

IMG_4787.jpg

Then I used a template from blackburn tools (Blackburn Tools - Saw tooth spacing templates)
I first filed through the paper, then took the paper off and kept filing.

IMG_4796.jpgIMG_4803.jpgIMG_4813.jpg

This was the first time filing teeth into a saw. It went okay. Its 'sorta' 5tpi but I'll just call it progressive pitched. It works really well. I made a cabinet with it the other day. Cut heaps of mortise and tenon joints with it. Yesterday I resawed some 19mm x 90mm pine into two 7mm x 90mm pieces for a drawer bottom.

The only downside when making it, was that I used 6 slim taper files to make the saw teeth. The frame was not too bad to make. Used some american oak and meranti and whipped up a frame.

IMG_4812.jpgIMG_4814.jpgIMG_4816.jpg

I've tried the saw that Bernard made and it cuts incredibly smooth and straight. It was a real pleasure to use.

I'll make some too but I'm procrastinating on cutting out the blank. As it is such a big sheet I've been thinking about finding a place or person who can cut roughly 10-20 pieces out of it, neatly and without ruining the temper. If this happens to be successful, we could post some out to others on the forum...

As well as getting some of the same spring steel, I got an old saw from the Hand Tool Preservation Australia sale a couple of years ago. I can load up a photo if needed. It had a very basic western saw style handle. The frame has the same layout as as a basic hacksaw and looks to be made from aluminium bar, or something cast. The frame is twisted and I think that I'd probably crack it if I try and straighten it. So I'll take out the blade (roughly 10tpi, 460mm), sharpen it up and make a frame to suit.

So... just another idea - some people may chance across an old saw like that and use the blade.

Perhaps I could put a special order in with my China mates? Get 10 or 20?

Example: Tungsten Carbide Tipped Frame Saw Blade For Hard Wood Cutting

I've a full AliBaba business account. The numbers might be low, but I could always ask for a packet of them. They are really good with small orders if we dont stuff them around.... perhaps someone could tell me exactly what it is that we are after?

I saw this video (below) as well, he used a 1" bandsaw.... Clever chap also makes a "Kerfing Jig" that keeps everything aligned... very clever.... Resawing with a frame saw - YouTube




Screenshot_2020-12-06 Resawing with a frame saw.jpg


edit - Found these dudes and sent an email - Thin-cutting frame saw blades by Wintersteiger Here is their PDF too... geez the Europeans know how to present a company....

interesting.... https://www.thewoodworks.com.au/shop/saw-blades/bowsaw

Would longer be better?

I made one with scrap wood, screws and scrap sheet metal from a belt guard off of a junked old jointer.

I did use fresh .042" thick 4" tall 1095 spring steel and filed teeth slightly finer than 2 per inch.

If you're going to use this thing for resawing, it needs to be close to 4 feet long unless you're only resawing wood you could just resaw with a hand saw

https://i.imgur.com/uCQ1VZ7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/k1ypKgy.jpg (cutting to the left of the line)
https://i.imgur.com/Wk0Llab.jpg

When I threw this together, I was just seeing if it would work and "i will build a nice one if it does". Well, it works great and I don't know if I'll ever get around to building a nice one.

If you're intending to resaw medium hardwoods and *really* hard woods, then you may want to have a second blade for the really hard woods as this thing with teeth just finer than 2 per inch would stop you in your tracks trying to resaw something like purpleheart.

Thoughts on the kerfing plane? Waste of money. The saw can be steered accurately (it doesn't go off course very quickly and you just give it 25 or 30 strokes, then walk to look at the back side of the cut to see how you'll bias the next 25 or 30 strokes. If that sounds like it's too much interruption, pushing aggressive sharp teeth through wide wood is like running through sand - you'll be looking for a short break every 25 or 30 strokes.

When and if I ever build a replacement for this frame, it'll be narrower. It doesn't need to be this wide - I didn't look around, and just built it wide. Not sure what I was thinking.

Now, let's talk about practicality with all of the smaller saws on youtube and saws with bandsaw blades - you can't steer them accurately. You need to have a saw that changes tracking slowly and that can be steered like this one and like the saws from Isaac smith, etc. If you're going to be one man resawing, you should build something of this pattern with a tall strong blade. The first blade that I filed was 2" spring steel .03" thick. It was useless. It didn't have the structure to stand up to the weight of the saw pushing it around.

I've sawn wood with this saw up to 14" wide (easily) and have never lost any project wood due to blade wander. I've also sawn at least 100 board feet with this saw so far. When I had a powered bandsaw (long gone now), the saw that I purchased (jet) had a defective top wheel and I never knew what was wrong with it until I was giving it one last look over while selling it. I ruined a fair amount of wood with that saw due to a wandering blade (that would wander both at the cut line marked on the wood and inside the wood).

Staying within a 16th of an inch of the mark with this saw is easy and a bigger rigid blade means that while you're steering the saw, the blade won't wander inside the cut on a wide board.

The cost to build this saw was about $90. $75 for a 10 foot coil of spring steel (I gave away the amount that I didn't use, probably should've rethought that), and I found a dozen 8 inch NOS heavy taper nicholsons on ebay for $25 just before I took this on. I used 3 of them to cut the teeth in a blank plate (took about two hours of heavy physical filing due to the size of the teeth).

I have two maebiki also - they are not intended for resawing wood the way is being done here and have a very fat tooth line with a fair amount of set. They're intended for logs laying on their side and while you can use them to resaw, the frame saw is WAY better, and it's pleasant to use.