More saw scraps

**IanW** · 18th January 2010, 11:41 AM

This project was a bit more ambitious. I have long wanted a really large trysquare – one that can span a 12” board with room to spare. I picked up an old Rosewood stock type 10” many years back, but it’s too big for everyday cabinet work & too short for the jobs that need a long blade. The really annoying thing about the old square is that it was out of whack when I got it. I managed to get it close to square, but it just isn't reliable when close tolerances are called for.

It occurred to me that a chunk of the 0.8mm Bunnies scraper I've been making some saws from would make an ideal trysquare blade, so I thought I would try my hand at an adjustable large square using the pushrod & screws principle Colen Clenton has made famous. I’ve had one of his 6” trysquares for about 12 years, and I love it. It's my everyday setting-out square – just the right size for most jobs, and easily recalibrated when necessary. So I sez to meself, it must be pretty straightforward to make something like that.

I assembled the required bits & pieces (pic 1). Attaching the wear plates to the stock was simple enough. I took great care to get the stock square & parallel, then attached the wear plates with epoxy & brass screws driven into shallow countersinks. The heads were peined down hard & filed off, the idea being that they would disappear, but the Philips head screws I used had very deep driver slots, which went deeper than the head of the screw, so my wear-plates have little stars on them.

Mistake # 1 was NOT drilling for the pushrods & threaded rods before wasting all that time & material. The Sheoak I used has huge medullary rays, & I think they threw the drill off. One hole managed to contact the edge of the blade slot – the other was so far off it missed entirely. So back to the start. This time I selected a piece of Bull Oak (Casuarina leuhmanii) which has small, very regular rays. I set up very carefully (as I did the first time!) and also backed out & cleared the drill more often. Whether it was that or the better choice of wood, or both, this time everything met up nicely, so I went ahead & applied the brass. I cut the brasses off the original stock & found the epoxy had made a really good bond, which is reasuring. I have had mixed success gluing brass to wood with epoxy – sometimes it works well, other times it just doesn’t seem to want to hang onto the brass.

Because of the stuffup with the original stock, I got carried away & didn’t do any WIP pics until the trial fitup. There really isn’t much to show, anyway – it’s all pretty simple, but requires care – particularly getting the wood right, & the blade square, straight & parallel. I did the final trueing of that with 180 paper on the sawbench – it’s as close to parallel as my dial calipers can measure, & accurate enough for me. For the trial fit, I used steel push-screws, which you can see sticking out the bottom in pic 2, then switched to brass once all was working smoothly. The screws go about 10mm past the threaded inserts, and the rest of the way is taken up by 3/16” brass rod. I had to reduce the rod diameter a bit to make it slide smoothly in the drilled holes, which I did by chucking it in the lathe & sanding it down a fraction. Using threaded rod for the whole thing would probably work, but might bind when the threads catch and would also require a lot of srewing to get them in & out.

When all was right, it was just a matter of nipping off some brass screws so they would take up just as they enter thr deep countersink in the stock (oic 3), then a cleanup & polish of the brass & woodwork, & a pretty spiffy tool is ready for use (pic 4). Adjusting this behemoth to perfect squareness is a bit fiddly – the meerest fraction of a turn of the adjustment screws moves the outer end of the blade a mm. so it takes a fine touch & a few well-chosen words to get it spot-on.

I like the blued blade, but it’s not very robust blueing, & it got a few minor scratches during the cutting-out, trueing & fitting stages. I’ll see how it goes, & if it starts looking too manky I will either get used to it (most likely) or get some blueing compound & re-blue it (some day, perhaps...)

It was a fun project, with a few challenges. But I’m certainly no danger to the established toolmakers – making this square has made me realise why they ain’t cheap!

I'm making a small bevel square with one of the last bits of scrap - have taken a few more pictures of it in progress, so will post it when finished.

Cheers,

**wheelinround** · 18th January 2010, 01:04 PM

Very nice looking square

look forward to seeing the bevel square WIP.

**RayG** · 18th January 2010, 03:34 PM

Hi Ian,

As WoodWould said in the other thread "STOP IT" I already have too many things to do without you coming up with all these great ideas!..

On the obscure subject of drilling end grain in figured woods, It's amazing how much a 1/4" twist drill bit can wander.

I have been chasing that one for a few years now... A friend who makes gun stocks has the problem of drilling through figured walnut end grain. There are a number of solutions, a parrot bit, which is assymetric removes the tendency that a conventional twist drill has for the point to follow the grain. I found it referred to on a website that was describing making flutes and bagpipes. The standard lamp makers use a shell bit, fed through a hollow tailstock on a lathe, but that won't work where you can't spin the work in a lathe.

The current solution is to use a gun drill, it's an assymetric bit pattern that is used for drilling gun barrels. Works a treat for drilling figured endgrain.

Regards
Ray

**IanW** · 18th January 2010, 04:06 PM

Originally Posted by RayG

.............
The current solution is to use a gun drill, it's an assymetric bit pattern that is used for drilling gun barrels. Works a treat for drilling figured endgrain.

I confess to complete ignorance of such drills, Ray - piccy please!

The holes are actually 3/16", not 1/4", which means more flexibility & an even greater tendency to wander. I read somewhere that twist drills are the best of a bad lot (of the common types) when it comes to wandering, & my own experience tends to back that up, but they still manage to get wildly off-course on occasion (like when drilling the long bolt hole in a plane tote, particularly if it's rare & expensive wood!

). Are these gun drills available in sizes like 3/16, and do they cost something less than a king's ransom?

Cheers,

**Basilg** · 18th January 2010, 05:29 PM

Ian

Nice work. I think these Bunnies scraper blades could be useful, and I would like to get hold of some, where in Bunnies would I look for them.

Regards

**IanW** · 18th January 2010, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by Basilg

Ian

Nice work. I think these Bunnies scraper blades could be useful, and I would like to get hold of some, where in Bunnies would I look for them.

Regards

In the tools section, Bas. At least in all the stores I've seen them. Ask for 'floor scraper blades', & the bloke in the red shirt might know what you mean

.

They used to have 2 thicknesses, 0.65mm and 0.8mm. The thinner ones were often a bit bowed, but the thicker are generaly dead flat, so depending what you want them for, check which one you have found. The stores round here only have the 0.8mm blades, now, & I get the impression they have replaced an older line. Pity - the thinner ones were ideal for medium to larger saws. The thicker material isn't good for teeth finer than about 12 tpi.

Just in case you haven't been following all the sawmaking threads & don't realise material for the saws above is NOT from Bunnies scrapers. They are all made from 0.5mm material - that has to be bought from exotic places, you can't buy that in Bunnies, only the thick scraper blades suitable for larger saws.
Cheers,

**RayG** · 18th January 2010, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by IanW

I confess to complete ignorance of such drills, Ray - piccy please!

The holes are actually 3/16", not 1/4", which means more flexibility & an even greater tendency to wander. I read somewhere that twist drills are the best of a bad lot (of the common types) when it comes to wandering, & my own experience tends to back that up, but they still manage to get wildly off-course on occasion (like when drilling the long bolt hole in a plane tote, particularly if it's rare & expensive wood!

). Are these gun drills available in sizes like 3/16, and do they cost something less than a king's ransom?

Cheers,

Hi Ian,

Do a google image search for "gun drill" should give some idea as to the shape. If you can figure out how it works, please explain it to me. But they certainly work.

I bought a few off ebay, they come up every so often, usually $15-$20 or so..

The parrot bit, is fairly easy to make and works pretty good as well, you need a starter hole however .. see .. http://www.bagpipeworld.co.uk/MakingBagpipes/Drill.htm

Please don't get distracted and start making bagpipes!..

Regards
Ray

**Saw Crack** · 18th January 2010, 08:37 PM

This guy also uses gun drills in flute making as seen in the photo on the webpage below. Some interesting information on his site....

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/making.html

**Basilg** · 19th January 2010, 08:53 AM

A couple of decades or so ago, I was making some hinges out of NSW Rosewood for a chisel box, & could not get the 1/8" holes for the hinge pin to run true, in the end grain. I bought some 1/8" dia tool steel & ground & honed half the diameter away for part of its length, then ground the end to a fingernail shape. I then started the hole with the usual drill bit and changed over to my bit & it worked ok, but as there is very little room for the shavings you have to frequently back out the bit to get rid of the shavings. I think this would be best described as a scraper bit rather than a drill bit, but it got the job done. & the hinges are still working.

Regards

**Christos** · 22nd January 2010, 01:56 PM

Very nice.

**pmcgee** · 7th December 2012, 05:47 PM

From ... The World of Bagpipes ... (!)

Drilling: Long Hole Boring

**wheelinround** · 8th December 2012, 08:12 AM

Think it was this thread which came up in a discussion yesterday had forgotten all about it.

and something about a saw Ian made. I'll have to go find that thread again too.

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