Your Sawing Wounds
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CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT I have for some time been wondering how - A wider blade like the junior hacksaw much acrylic is being wasted in technology blade, which aids straight cutting. classrooms country-wide by frustrated children Finer teeth mean that there is less vibration, breaking it to pieces when trying to cut key slower sawing and less likelihood of cracking fobs, electronic faces and intricate jewellery the acrylic or thin MDF. Just by changing the using a standard coping saw and a workshop blades on your coping saw, you could prolong vice. the enthusiasm of many pupils in working with Teachers may cry "Careful - not too much resistant materials. If you combine changed force, keep it down in the vice, support the blades with laying the material down flat and material with your left hand on the tricky supporting it well, the cutting table enables bits ..." but it seldom has the desired effect for quite fine and accurate work. With a fine blade long. And yet few teachers will admit that in you can cut copper or aluminium for jewellery. First make fact we are showing our pupils to use the But remember, fingers behind the saw blade, or wrong tool under the wrong conditions. pupils will soon end up with minor flesh your sawing wounds. They may also need to be seated to table ... Don't misunderstand me - of course it can be work at the saw table. done, if you exercise ultimate restraint, control and care, and if you are a trained adult who The cutting table itself is an excellent project knows where the tricky bits are, how not to for pupils to make in Year 7 and may be useful apply pressure and yet saw, and if you are for home use as well. The skills involved patient enough to 'rasp' your way back on would fall into the focused task category, prior track before the carefully drawn figure's most to developing competence. The cutting table Are we sometimes teaching important parts are severed from the rest. But can of course be made without the mitre block pupils to use the wrong tools then, how many craftsmen would cut sheet at the back, but its presence makes it much in the wrong way? Jan material in any shape or form locked upright in more versatile. Hudtloff Nielsen suggests a vice? The answer is 'None'. And yet that is Ideally you should use hardwood, but 18mm two ways of improving the way that we show pupils to do it, and by chipboard is a more realistic option. The total practice and outcomes and doing so may be responsible for generations of cost should be approximately £1.50, including saving money too children who after leaving school confidently the clamp. Final designs can obviously vary, and with a 6 points per inch saw attack a brittle but options include a fixing to join it to a vice piece of nasty sheet metal in a vice and get rather than a table, methods of straddling a flying splinters in their eyes. worktable, and variations on the mitre block When did you last cut hardboard or chipboard (although the larger this is, the smaller the standing it up against a door frame? Having other work area). Depending on the final tried this method, you would either have given design, pupils will gain the following up or settled for a very shabby sawcut. Sheet experiences: material should lie down, be well supported Measuring out correctly and cut with a suitable saw. For a small Sawing straight lines for the V-cut in application, a fretsaw and a cutting table as front (using a tenon saw or a coping shown in the figure will give children a chance saw with a wider blade) to achieve a reasonable result. You will get good results with a coping saw too, although Drilling out two small holes and unfortunately coping saws are not readily sawing a hole for the clamp available with a variety of blades like the Making a chisel groove for the clamp fretsaw. Coping saws with finer teeth or wider (or drilling 4mm down in four places blades for a straighter cut do exist, however: I with a brace and tidying up with a finally managed to track down some blades partially retracted Stanley knife) from Draper Tools, but they are not sold loose Gluing together two pieces of to the public in shops. In all I have seen four chipboard for the mitre block; using a different blades: pilot hole and two screws The standard blade Sanding the bottom edges at right Finer blades which could be used for angles for the mitre block before acrylic fixing it to the cutting table (manual Finer blades which could be used for sanding and the use of a set square aluminium or copper CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT works, but a sanding disc is more The time it takes varies from five to ten hours, effective) depending on the final design and how much Gluing and screwing the mitre block preparation is done in advance. What you end to the baseplate (with a pilot hole in up with is an item that can be used in the the baseplate you could demonstrate workshop or even in an ordinary classroom, the use of different screws to find and which may be taken home and used for which is best) working on hobbies. Two things are necessary to achieve the cutting table - the first is Placing the screws so they do not coping saw blades with fine teeth, and the interfere with the saw cuts second is the desire to make it a priority in Sawing straight across the top and at Year 7. Finally, you can buy cutting tables, or right angles to the baseplate when course, usually without a mitre block but making the cuts in the mitre block sometimes including a fret saw and a fretdrill, (you may need to 'start' pupils off in but these cost about £8 each and in buying one order to achieve a good success rate) you miss out on the fun of making it and using Sawing at 45 degrees it afterwards. Sanding and finishing..