Cutting thin liner material

C

Cubane

Joined
Apr 16, 2007
Messages
242
Hi everyone,

I am having some problems cutting out the liner material for a slipjoint folder I am making. Previously I have used 0.050 Nickel Silver and 410 for liners and I haven't had any problems. However I am making a much smaller knife than I usually do and figured the 0.050 would look out of place on a smaller knife. I have some 0.030 410 SS I was planning to use but every time I got near it with the band saw it just curls up. I tried some 0.040 and it got a bit bent out of shape too. Before I waste any more liner material I thought I would try to find out what I am doing wrong. I have the finest tooth band saw blade I could get. It is running on the fastest speed should I be running it slower? Any other ideas? Or anyone got a good way to straighten out a curled up liner?

Al
 
I just cut out some .040 ss on my cheapie bandsaw. What I needed to do was to make the blade hole in the saw "zero clearance". Easy enough to do.

I took a piece of 3/4" plywood and slowly ran it across the blade. When the plywood got to a position where it covered the entire bandsaw table I stopped, turned off the saw and left the plywood in place. Clamp the plywood down and you now have an auxiliary table with zero clearance. The thin metal is now supported much better from underneath and is less likely to bend. For the record I also put a bi-metal blade on my bandsaw; worked perfectly. Another trick is to use double stick tape and attach your liners to a 1/4" wood "carrier". Run both through the bandsaw together and after cutting separate the liner form the wood. A bi-metal blade will likely burn your wood. Slow speed is better for metal.

If this gets too troublesome jeweler's saw would work too.

Michael
 
Last edited:
i use .020 nickles silver alot for fixed tang liners, and i cut them on the band saw, with no problem.

I have a harbor freight cheapo, and i threw the factory table out, and made a new one from 1/8'' mild steel, and just counter sunk the wholes like the origional table. but i kept the slot just the width of the blade, and like mpphoto said zero clearance.

every once in a while, i have to replace it, with a new one, due to the zero clearance, the slot becomes worn from the blade passing through. But it's no big chore, just a few minutes and deffinitely worth while, you can even make up 3-4 of them when you do it, so you dont have to stop in the middle of a project, to replace if needed.

im sure there's lots of ways of accomplishing what you want to do, this is just how i do it.

andrew
 
Simply fix your liner material, no matter how thin, to a piece of plywood or MDF board with a non-permanent glue (I use spray Photo-Mount by 3M) and cut it with a fine toothed blade. Cutting the liner WITH the board supports the liner material completely and prevents it from wrinkling, bending or distorting while you cut. Leave the finished piece stuck to the board and grind both together to get your final shape, as the board supports the work-piece at the grinder too.
Once you peel the wood backing off the work-piece you have a handy template of the final piece to use for future projects too ;)
 
Thanks everyone. That has given me a few things to try out. The 0.030 is very thin it bends quite easily in the hand. I think it might really be too thin for liners.

Cheers,
Alistair
 
For .030 material you could use a pair of heavy shears.

Pean all the edges to reflatten the slight curly that occurs when cutting with shears.

Nickel silver over .030" will be almost impossible to cut with shears though.

Mike L.
 
I use a 24 TPI blade on my bandsaw for cutting thin brass (and everything else.)
A jeweler's saw works very well. Use a board with a slot in it to cut on. 3/0 blades work pretty well. Remember- they cut on the pull (down) stroke.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top