Dumb newbie question

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mranum

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Well I'm thinking about trying my hand at making a couple backsaws, like a small carcass saw and a dovetail saw. The backs on a lot of them are made from soft brass and are either bent around to sandwich the saw plate or they have a slit cut in them and then locktite the plate into the back.

My question is, since I don't have a mill, can I build a jig from wood and cut that slit with my drill press?

Where would I look for a slitting saw?

The plates I'm thinking about are .020 in thickness.
 
OK first the only dumb question is the one you don't ask.
Besides looks why do you want a brass backbone ?
I have 3 or 4 backsaws with no frills {Backbone} and they work fine.
But to answer your question a drill press will not give you the results you are looking for.
*********Just Saying**************Gator************
 
eBay is a good place to get slitting saws. I suppose you could try the drill press but, it's not going to be easy and your fingers will be at risk -so much, that I'd be apprehensive of doing it. Brass is a lot harder than you might think. A job like that would best be done on a mill and the piece would be held firmly and guided into the blade.
 
Main reason I thought about brass was the workability of it. 360 free machining brass.
 
Do you have a router or a table saw? You can cut brass on a table saw with the proper blade. There are table saw blades to cut ferrous metals on the market and these should cut brass. Also router bits. You can mount the brass onto a flat surface and use that surface to guide a router. The router bit would need a bearing to limit depth of cut. If you have a router table, depth of cut can be limited by the table fence.

BE CAREFUL CUTTING SMALL THINGS!! KEEP YOUR FINGERS WELL AWAY FROM THE CUTTER AND USE A JIG TO HOLD THE BRASS. There are several jigs on the market and you can also make one.

Also, cut a small part of the depth at one time, and use an appropriate bit/blade.

If you want to make this out of aluminum, it is easier. I have cut aluminum on a table saw and also with a router. Cuts like butter. If you use an aluminum (or brass) plate, you can first cut several grooves and then cut the back strips from the plate. This way you do not have to use a jig to hold a small work-piece.
 
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Why not reverse the handle and cut on the pull, takes care of the flex and you dont need a hard back.
 
Brass might be soft, but cutting tools also get very 'grabby' in brass - - so much so that I would never attempt to do what you are proposing in a drill press. If done in a mill, the gibs have to be plenty snug or the saw can grab the work and try to pull it through, and the table will move the amount of backlash present if they are not, possibly ruining the work. Myself, I snug up the table locks just a bit if I have to do climb milling like that just so that I have to push the table and the work through the slitting saw. The best is to push the work through the saw so that it is not attempting to pull the work through.

Aluminum would be less 'grabby' and a whole bunch less expensive than brass.

If you don't have a mill, check around the area to see if you can find someone near you that would be willing to help you out. I might be a little far away from you, but I would be willing to do those for you, I just need the right slitting saw and the arbor for it. I have some slotting saws, which are wider, and cut on the sides as well; they all fit on a 1" arbor. I have been looking for some thin slitting saws, but they are not at the top of my list right now.

Another option (depending on the size of the saws you wish to make) may be to use a razor saw to cut your slots. It would be slow and time consuming, but it is a method that may work in your situation.

PS: Like somebody else already mentioned: there are no dumb questions here. Nuff said.
 
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mranum said:
Well I'm thinking about trying my hand at making a couple backsaws, like a small carcass saw and a dovetail saw. The backs on a lot of them are made from soft brass and are either bent around to sandwich the saw plate or they have a slit cut in them and then locktite the plate into the back.

My question is, since I don't have a mill, can I build a jig from wood and cut that slit with my drill press?

Where would I look for a slitting saw?

The plates I'm thinking about are .020 in thickness.
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That would be rough on a riged mill. Look in hobby shops that deal in trains. I have seen u chanell in brass and SS that would work for what you wan't.
 
I'd either bend it, or make it out of two flats, spaced and silversoldered together. Sawing it would be pretty rough.
 
You could cut a slit in a pices of hard wood on a table saw, lay your brass over the slit and use an old hacksaw blade to drive into the slit to form the u shape.
 
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