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Last year, when I was starting on the electro-mechanical goggles, I needed a way to cut out the frames. Ideally I would have done it on a CNC mill, but that just wasn't an option. So I finally explored a technology that I had been putting off for a long time: jeweler's saws.
They are, basically, a very delicate hacksaw. The blades come in a variety of sizes, with the smallest having teeth that you can barely even see. Which means that they are very, very easy to break. Blades are sold by the dozen -- or by the gross. Depending on the material (thin, hard materials can shear through a blade very easily) you can break a blade every few minutes. But with that in mind, if you're careful, you can cut very precise curves with very little kerf or tooling marks.
I was happy enough with the results cutting out the goggle frames, even if it was rather slow. It was a great tool for a very minimal, very urban shop like I was reduced to at the time. But I've been finding it far more generally useful ever since, to the point that I now consider it as fundamental a tool in my shop as the drill press. (And if you know me at all, you know what a fan of drill presses I am!) This was because of two applications I discovered.
1) Not only does it work for precision cutting, but it works great on soft sheet metal as well. I've hated working with sheet metal all my life. Even if you have a real shear and brake (which I don't), the edges are sharp. And if you're stuck using tinsnips, they're sharp, imprecise, and ugly. Using a jeweler's saw with a coarser blade can go pretty quickly, with minimal tooling marks, and the edges are no longer deadly. This has lead to me using little custom bent sheet metal brackets in all kinds of applications I never would have thought of before.
2) Cutting threaded rod. When I first started cutting bolts, I used a hacksaw, and the thread was always seriously messed up, requiring a lot of touching up with a triangular file. Later I switched to a Dremel cut-off tool. This was a lot faster and cleaner, but on really small threads it still tended to need a lot of touch up. When I started working with all the #2 and smaller threads I've been using over the last year, I needed a better way of cutting them. It turns out that a fine jeweler's saw is perfect for this task. Only once or twice have I needed to touch up the cut thread beyond a slight tweak with a fingernail.
Jewler's saws: two thumbs up! They're pretty cheap, they can be used in just about any setting, and most cities should have a jeweler's supply store to pick one up at.
They are, basically, a very delicate hacksaw. The blades come in a variety of sizes, with the smallest having teeth that you can barely even see. Which means that they are very, very easy to break. Blades are sold by the dozen -- or by the gross. Depending on the material (thin, hard materials can shear through a blade very easily) you can break a blade every few minutes. But with that in mind, if you're careful, you can cut very precise curves with very little kerf or tooling marks.
I was happy enough with the results cutting out the goggle frames, even if it was rather slow. It was a great tool for a very minimal, very urban shop like I was reduced to at the time. But I've been finding it far more generally useful ever since, to the point that I now consider it as fundamental a tool in my shop as the drill press. (And if you know me at all, you know what a fan of drill presses I am!) This was because of two applications I discovered.
1) Not only does it work for precision cutting, but it works great on soft sheet metal as well. I've hated working with sheet metal all my life. Even if you have a real shear and brake (which I don't), the edges are sharp. And if you're stuck using tinsnips, they're sharp, imprecise, and ugly. Using a jeweler's saw with a coarser blade can go pretty quickly, with minimal tooling marks, and the edges are no longer deadly. This has lead to me using little custom bent sheet metal brackets in all kinds of applications I never would have thought of before.
2) Cutting threaded rod. When I first started cutting bolts, I used a hacksaw, and the thread was always seriously messed up, requiring a lot of touching up with a triangular file. Later I switched to a Dremel cut-off tool. This was a lot faster and cleaner, but on really small threads it still tended to need a lot of touch up. When I started working with all the #2 and smaller threads I've been using over the last year, I needed a better way of cutting them. It turns out that a fine jeweler's saw is perfect for this task. Only once or twice have I needed to touch up the cut thread beyond a slight tweak with a fingernail.
Jewler's saws: two thumbs up! They're pretty cheap, they can be used in just about any setting, and most cities should have a jeweler's supply store to pick one up at.