Piercing saws, electric

[Larry Gordon]

Hi, I am fairly new to silversmithing. However, I have decided my chosen route is going to include a great deal work with a piercing saw. I am getting slowly better, but I am now thinking that I could save a lot of time with a powered piercing saw, but I have yet to find such an item on the internet. I found the odd Dremel saw, but I am not sure they are what I'm looking for, i.e. sawing patterns into 1.5mm silver sheet.

I would welcome any comments and advice.

Kind regards,
Larry Gordon

[josef1]

I guess it depends how big your items are, I would recommend just sticking to your saw once you get a bit more used to it it will be quicker to cut them messing with powersaws. I had a demo at cooksons with the 100w laser that cut 1.5mm sheet but its very expensive. If its straight cuts you need to do maybe have a look at bench shears

[Dennis]

Hi Larry, what you are searching for is a scroll saw. There are many available online, and often used for cutting out patterns in plywood, for instance jigsaw puzzles.

When it comes to piercing sheet metal, the blades available are rather thick, setting up is slow and fiddly, and of course one end has to be released each time you want to start on a new hole.

When I first began some 26 years ago, I splashed out on a Proxxon one, but got so fed up with that and the frequently broken blades that I soon put it on a top shelf and let it gather dust ever since.

The truth is that professionals just learn to improve their skills, and sometimes upgrade their frame to a Knew product, which they say is kinder to their wrist.

What has helped me for intricate piercing is to have a large flat fancy bench peg, like the biggest one here https://www.cousinsuk.com/search?searchTerm=Wooden%20Fancy%20bench%20peg

Eventually also used for my acrylics. Dennis.

[ps_bond]

When it comes to piercing sheet metal, the blades available are rather thick, setting up is slow and fiddly, and of course one end has to be released each time you want to start on a new hole.


As someone who occasionally uses a Hegner scrollsaw on metal - mine takes pinless blades, so I use the normal jewellers blades in it. A far bigger issue is the short stroke length: You end up blunting a small section in the middle, rather than the full length of the blade as you would sawing by hand. Starting a new hole is the same as with a sawframe, albeit with the issue that you can't easily manoeuvre the scrollsaw into a more convenient position to thread the blade through...

The only electric sawframe I've seen on the market is the Knew Concepts one; I'm still fidgetting with my own design when I have time.

[Larry Gordon]

Sorry, I should have said - I'm focused on cutting patterns into silver cuffs. About 30mm x 180mm with lots of curves and shapes

[Larry Gordon]

Yes I saw several scroll saws online but concluded that the blades were probably too thick as you mention

[Larry Gordon]

Spookily enough, I've come to the same conclusion. I'm going to experiment with mounting a hand saw on a 'piston' and gearing it to do long slow strokes. I may be wasting my time but its worth a go. The cuffs I am currently making are taking me about eight hours to just complete the sawing, never mind the filing. I am hoping that I might make more accurate cuts with a power saw. Having said all of that, locating the correct blades was a breakthrough - I broke about six on my first attempt. Now I can use one until its blunt.

Thanks to everybody for the tips

[Dennis]

Obviously spending 8 hours piercing a cuff is not on, but speeding things up with a mechanical saw can only make it less accurate.
My solution was to use soldered wires. Dennis.

[nicks creative stuff]

If you are a bit commercial and cutting a lot of these cuffs, have you thought about looking into the possibilities with laser cutting. My local laser cutting services charge per time taken if you supply materials … N

[Petal]

If you are a bit commercial and cutting a lot of these cuffs, have you thought about looking into the possibilities with laser cutting. My local laser cutting services charge per time taken if you supply materials … N

who do you use Nick? Could you give me an idea of costs please?

[nicks creative stuff]

At Work we use a company called L W. Jenkins in bristol. Laser cutting was a suggestion as another option to look into. We have a lot of components cut but it’s all mild steel and stainless steel. I’ve heard some lasers will cut silver. As Josef said even some small laser cutters are capable of cutting 1.5 mm silver. So there must be many companies out there offering a competitive service. I think it’s a matter of ringing around a few local to you to ask questions and get a price. I think the hardest part of the process would be coming up with a digital CAD file of your design suitable for the cutters to use. I think once you have a design file sorted, you may be able to email it to them to get an accurate price … hope this helps … Nick

[china]

Re scroll saws There is fellow who has a YouTube channel called Cickspring, he uses a Hegner

[ps_bond]

Ah, I'd forgotten about him - been subscribed an age!

https://youtu.be/a3V42KwLTeE?t=431 for example - but it also shows what I don't like about using the Hegner on metals.