Thats the valve rod casting!!

By minature hacksaw he probably means a junior hacksaw which would give a narrower kerf than a standard hacksaw.

The thinner slitting saw blades can wander a bit if you are not careful, run them at your mills slowest speed and use some cutting fluid even with bronze.

I would cut it from te end but have the teeth in contact come across the work at about 45degrees, much the same as this

Edited By JasonB on 27/12/2013 20:29:08

Have a look Bob at picture 53 here **LINK**

Harold

I tried one of those multisize slitting saw arbors in a R8 taper: basically useless as it didn't hold the saw anything like concentric or perpendicular to the axis. It went in the bin.

Even thick saws (>1/16" ) are prone to go walkies with any depth of cut on a single ended arbor. So I'd use the smallest diameter saw possible. I'd also go for coarse teeth. Fine tooth saws are ok for slotting screw heads but not much use for anything else, as the gullets get clogged.

If at all possible I use slitting saws on the horizontal mill. That's what I call rigid and I'll happily take cuts up to 15mm deep in one pass.

For the job in hand I'd use a junior hacksaw.

Regards,

Andrew

Edited By Andrew Johnston on 28/12/2013 11:22:46

I have no experience with these type of parts, but making an accurate long cut with a (junior)hacksaw is not something I am succesful in, if it needs to be reasonable accurate a slitting saw is the way to go. Niko.

I've never had much success with those wavy blades that are usually fitted to Junior Hacksaws. Does anyone sell a high-quality straight blade for jobs like this ??

MichaelG.

Hi Bob. Don't forget to drill taping size holes in the casting BEFORE you cut. Hope I am not teaching my granny to suck eggs here.

Cheers Derek.

FWIW I cut the eccentric strap for my 10V with a junior hacksaw as the only slitting saw I had at the time was 1/16" thick. There is plenty of metal for cleaning up the cut surfaces, even if a thin slitting saw wanders a bit.

Neil

You could use a jewlers saw also available from a popular modellers' knife supplier. Will work on brass though it may seem cruel but even if you blunt the blade it is a minor 'consumable' cost. Don't try it on steel or especially piano wire – that is what the junior hacksaw excells at. Sometimes available at the ME and Ally Pally show on the shesto or other small tools stands. Also available from model railway shops and exhibitions.

When I make a con rod for one of my Stirling Engines, I drill the big end to take a bit of bronze for the bearing, and drill that under size, and drill the bolt holes tapping size, then I cut the bearing, drill the cap holes to size, and tap the big end, and fit the studs, now bore, or ream the bearing, the outside will be oval, and will stop the bearing from moving in the big end. If you like, a bit of Loctite will stop the bronze falling out. This works on any metal used ie., steel, aluminium, what ever. For a 10 mm/3/8" bearing, and above, an ordinary hacksaw/ band saw is OK.

Ian S C

Hi Bob

You should not have a problem with slitting saws, i use all sizes down to 1/64" its the same as useing a hacksaw dont force it let it cut itself and you wont have any trouble. You need to drill the bolt holes first then saw all the way through bolt it back together and then bore the hole to fit crank.

Regards

Stan

Hi Bob

This from a complete novice's point of view – slitting saws strike me as potentially being one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment I have come across in Model Engineering should anything go wrong, I've only tried it a couple of times (although without any problems I should say) and is the only activity I have come across when full face protection screams out at you or me anyway! Definitely go slowly I would say – just something to think about…

Cheers.

Allan.

Edited By Allan. on 17/02/2014 16:52:42