For those who have not seen the Knew Concept piercing saw

[Moon Willow]

I notice that there's a awful lot of glancing going on in my last statement (Best keep off the red wine for a while) I like the Idea of cross drilling, Ideas in jewellery are so simple if someone first points them out.

Yes I couldn't get my hands on the 125mm quick release frame I think I need a good few hours to test the lot, and what in blue blazes was that wierd one ? It looked like a torture instrument and someone informed me you actually saw towards yourself huuuuuh !!! he was having a laugh I'm sure :-(

Thanks for the info James I'm going to march into Suttons on Tuesday and sound like I know what I'm talking about (That will shock them):-)

Carlton

[knewcoincepts]

Sorry for being away for so long, but a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum.
Suddenly everyone in the world wanted one of the knewconcepts saws, and I have been going full tilt seven days a week without let up. Peter contacted me and asked me to reply to a question about a retrofit lever tension kit for the original saws. At this point, I have worked out the idea, and made a working prototype, but do not have costs back yet from the laser folks. We are working on getting ready for the Soc. of N. Amer. Goldsmiths Conference toward the end of May, so I will not have any product until after that. What it consists of is a bridge that straddles the vertical slot (where the screw goes). The cam and lever sit on top of this in the square window. To make room for all of the mechanism, you will have to saw away the spring perch and the upper corners of the window. There will be no room for the spring anymore. I have not contacted Suttons, Palmer Metals or Tamizan Savill as yet about this (or any of the distributors in the U.S. so if you call about it they will be totally baffled.
Depending upon your amount of piercing, you may choose not to upgrade. The knurled tension knob works perfectly fine "as is", but there are those who have the need.

[knewcoincepts]

In scrolling through the thread, I noticed in passing that someone was referring to the Precision Saw Guide, and that the blade was designed to be placed backwards in the frame, so that the teeth are facing you. Whoever posted the comment evidently has never used a band saw. Personally, I find that the band saw teeth facing the user is easier to see exactly where the cut is going. Pretend that the hand saw frame in this instance, where it is guided top and bottom) is a band saw. The only difference is that you become the motor, and it is not a continuous circular band, but is a short strip of teeth with about 4-1/4" length of tooth available for sawing. You push the metal into the teeth and have instant response and accuracy of cut. Also, the metal hold-down acts as a rear support for the blade as the back side of the blade does not have teeth, and it is able to be supported only 1/16" above the metal being cut.

Remember folks...I am a toolmaker, not a metal smith, so I do not have the typical mindset that more traditional metal smiths have. I am not bound by the fact that the traditional saw frame has not been changed as long as we can remember. When I created the truss frame design for the knew concepts saw frame, I was able to start with a clean sheet of paper.

As an example of how I think I will be introducing a new bench-pin at the SNAG conference toward the end of next month. Some of its attributes:
I have a steel bench pin that drops onto the Bench Mate dovetail plate, has a multiple angle tweezer mount for soldering, a brass back bar that indexes at 0-15-30-45-60 degrees for angle cuts, has a hickory wood ring post that swivels from the front to the side, and mounts on either the R or L hand side, a Mini Rose Engine that can use a CD as the basis of the pattern plate (if you choose to make your own), and a "broken arm" fully articulating five axis mount for the flex shaft. The spindle for the Rose Engine mounts a barbed arbor that is heat set into the wax to hole the wax securely. Imagine a simple Heart pattern on the pattern plate. Set the burr of the flex-shaft s short distance above center line, and rotate the spindle. Without making any other changes, raise the flex-shaft slightly and cut another heart that is concentric to the first.

This is a very simple example of what can be done. There is also a dividing plate that will allow creating pockets for stone setting. How about a multiple sided raised Dais for a large stone on the crown of a ring? Remember, I said Five Axis movement of the flex-shaft. The "broken-arm" freely articulating motion of the flexshaft allows total freedom of movement, but provides exquisite precise control down to tehth of a mm with the touch of a finger.

Oh, and yes...it is steel, and you can nick it with your blade. That is what magnets are used for...to remove filings from the sweeps.

Anyway, I better get back to work.

Lee (the saw guy).