Do-it-yourself hacksaw sharpening
How to sharpen a hacksaw on wood with a file
For sharpening, the hand saw blade must be clamped between the plates of the equipment in such a way that the teeth rise above them by one and a half to two centimeters. For various types of canvases, sharpening a hacksaw on wood is carried out in its own way.
To properly sharpen the cross hacksaw, the blade should be set at 45 °, The file should be selected with a triangular cross-sectional profile. To ensure the proper sharpening quality, the following sequence of steps must be followed:
- sharpen the left edges of the even (farthest from the master) teeth;
- turn the canvas over;
- sharpen the left edges of the even teeth;
- form sharp cutting edges and sharpened tops of teeth
To sharpen a longitudinal or universal hacksaw, it must be fastened at a 90 ° angle. Here you need a file with a diamond-shaped cross-section. The file moves in the plane of the desktop. The sequence of sharpening the teeth is the same as for cross hacksaws. During work, burrs usually appear on non-sharpened edges, which are larger or smaller depending on the thickness of the hacksaw blade. They should be smoothed with a “velvet” file or an abrasive bar of minimum grain size. Sharpening quality can be checked in two ways:
- To the touch. Should feel sharp, should not feel burrs.
- By color. No x glare occurs on properly sharpened edges under illumination.
The quality is also checked by a trial cut. The hacksaw should not be pulled to the side, the cutting surface should be smooth, without soaked wood fibers.
How to sharpen a hacksaw on wood
Despite the widespread use of circular saws, reciprocating saws and electric jigsaws, the traditional wood saw is preserved in the workshop of every household. With a small amount of work or in hard-to-reach places where it is impossible to crawl with a power tool, a hand hacksaw still helps out. In order for the tool to work with sufficient performance, accuracy and quality, it must be sharpened on time.
Tooth setting
The teeth deviate from the plane of the blade in a checkerboard pattern, for example, all even ones to the left, all odd ones to the right. Only very experienced carpenters are able to cut saws in wood “by eye”. This skill comes after several hundred diluted saws. For less experienced craftsmen, it is better to use a special tool. wiring. The simplest version of the tool is a flat plate made of strong metal with a slot, into which the blade goes in tension, with minimal clearance. The saw blade should be clamped in a locksmith’s vice. The teeth should protrude slightly due to the jaws. The teeth, one by one, are clamped in the groove of the tool of the plate and bent in the middle. The routing angle must be constantly monitored. First, all even teeth are bent in one direction, then all odd ones are in the other. At the end of the wiring, you can spread the sponges to the width of the wiring and stretch the canvas between them. If any of the teeth are bent more than necessary, they will touch the vise. They need to be fixed.
Canvases with hardened teeth are not subject to spreading.
Height leveling
With different heights of the cutting teeth, the efficiency of woodworking is greatly reduced. The higher ones take on a greater load and are subject to accelerated wear, while the lower ones do not participate in cutting. The broach becomes uneven, jerky. Both the accuracy of the cut and the quality of the cut surface are reduced. Alignment of the height of the teeth should be carried out before sharpening the blade. The height is checked as follows: the canvas is pressed against a sheet of paper lying on the table. The profile is printed on the sheet, and the height of a particular tooth can be determined from the print. To align teeth of different heights, the blade must be clamped in a locksmith vice. Prongs protruding above others must be filed down.
Tool for leveling the height of the teeth
Requirements for wiring a hacksaw
The spreading width of the tops of the teeth corresponds to the kerf. Experimentally, it was found that the best width of the setting exceeds the thickness of the blade by one and a half to two times for hard varieties of wood and two to three for softer ones. Considering the most popular saw blade thickness for wood, one millimeter, we get a divorce value of up to half a millimeter for hard varieties and up to a millimeter for soft.
When setting, it is also very important that all teeth bend at equal angles. Teeth set wider than the rest will increase pulling resistance and wear out quickly. The teeth that have already been set apart will not participate in the sawing process, and their tops will slow down the broach and reduce its uniformity, making it difficult to work.
Attention: the bending of the teeth is carried out starting from the middle part. An attempt to bend the tooth at the base leads to a decrease in the strength of the blade and to its destruction.
How to determine when it is time to sharpen a hacksaw
An experienced carpenter can tell when the saw is ready to sharpen by:
- the sound of sawing a tree changes;
- teeth change shade.
A number of signs are also available to the less experienced:
- increased material resistance;
- it is difficult to maintain the perpendicularity of the cut;
- the blade does not adhere well to the mowing line of the cut, the line deviates or bends;
- the blade gets wedged in the wood.
Before sharpening the saw, it is imperative to separate the teeth, that is, to ensure that they are deflected from the plane of the blade at a certain angle. Correctly set teeth ensure a kerf wide enough to prevent the blade from getting stuck in the material. If the teeth are too set, the kerf will be too wide, this will increase the loss of material, the pulling force, and also reduce the accuracy. If you sharpen the saw correctly on wood, it will restore its working qualities.
During sharpening, the following geometrical characteristics of the teeth are restored:
- step;
- height;
- profile angle;
- bevel angle of cutting edges.
Important: Blades with hardened teeth must not be sharpened. They are easy to distinguish. they are black with a blue tint. Regular blades can (and should) be sharpened in a timely manner.
General requirements for sharpening
Two rectangular isosceles triangles and a steel plate 20 × 3 mm are attached on a base of wood measuring 2 × 5 cm from a bar with a thickness of 2 cm or more. A support plate-support made of plywood or OSB with a thickness of one and a half centimeters with dimensions of 15 × 40 cm is attached to the triangles and the same clamp plate is fixed to it from below on hinges. The plates are tightened with screws or studs with wing nuts. If installation at an angle of 45 ° is required, the plates are fixed to the hypotenuses of the support triangles, and if 90 °, then to the legs.
Will It Sharpen | Hack Saw Blade Backside
To sharpen the saw, you will also need several files that differ in section and pitch of the notch. All of them must be serviceable, without knocked down or clogged with dust lines of the notch. To sharpen a saw on wood, the file must be moved smoothly, with constant pressure and at a constant angle. The working movement of the file is carried out “from oneself”. It should be easily pulled onto itself, practically without touching the metal surface.
Required tool
To quickly and efficiently sharpen a hacksaw on wood, you should prepare a set of equipment for setting teeth and sharpening. Required:
- crafting table;
- locksmith vice;
- pliers;
- whetstone;
- sandpaper;
- measuring tool: protractor and caliper;
- metalwork hammer;
- equipment that allows you to fix the canvas at angles of 90 ° and 45 °.
- cross-section in the form of a triangle;
- cross-section in the form of a rhombus;
- flat;
- needles.
The notch is necessary whole and not clogged with metal dust. If you sharpen the hacksaw in time and correctly, it will be easy and convenient to work with it. Such a tool will last much longer, delighting its owner with an even and accurate cut and high quality of the surface of the saw cut.
How to determine when it’s time to sharpen a hacksaw?
How to tell if it’s time to sharpen your tool teeth.
An experienced owner knows when and how to sharpen a hacksaw, but it is not difficult for a simple layman to determine this moment on his own. Typically, the operating sound and the color uniformity of the cutting edge change.
Sharp cutters feature even cutting edge wear.
The following signs indicate the need to “tweak” the saw:
sawing is hard and uneven; the cut is uneven; the web often gets stuck; it becomes difficult to maintain a given trajectory.
In addition, a blunt hacksaw often gets stuck and requires a lot of effort to complete the process.
How to sharpen a hacksaw with your own hands
How to properly sharpen a hacksaw yourself, if the need arose?
First you need to decide what material the working blade is made of.
Ordinary steel can be corrected independently, and teeth with victorious solders can only be processed on specialized industrial machines.
Some craftsmen, at their own peril and risk, undertake to sharpen a hacksaw with an angle grinder. but this is an unreliable and dangerous way.
To tidy up an ordinary hand-held hacksaw at home, you need to determine the shape of the teeth, prepare everything you need, and be sure to observe safety precautions.
Requirements for setting the teeth of the hacksaw
Bending the cutters through one on both sides of the blade, observe a certain value, which can be set on a homemade device.
The width of the wiring depends on the type of wood.
Soft and damp wood requires a higher incline angle than dry wood.
Generally, hand tools work effectively with an average of 0.2-0.3mm.
Sharpen a Saw with the Help of a Hacksaw | Paul Sellers
At the same time, the total value should not exceed the width of the web.
In addition, the same bend pattern is observed on each side.
The hacksaw set is checked visually or with a vernier caliper.
Pay attention to the size of the tooth. the height of the incisor is especially important.
Checking the height of the hacksaw teeth
Check the height of the teeth before sharpening the tool.
To do this, lay a sheet of plain paper on a hard and even surface, and press the cutters tightly until a clear print is obtained.
If there are teeth protruding from the general row, traces from them will be reflected in the print.
If there are higher teeth, they are carefully cut with a flat file to the general level.
General requirements for sharpening
There is not a special machine for sharpening hacksaws in every garage or workshop, but it does not hurt to tweak the tool with your own hands.
There are, of course, exceptions. hardened teeth cannot be sharpened.
Diamond drills and other tricks won’t help.
Such a saw has an increased resource and cannot be repaired, but replaced with a new one.
It is easy to identify hardened steel. it is black with a blue tint.
A grinder or a file and file is usually used as a hacksaw sharpener.
A prerequisite is to first perform the correct setting of the teeth, because the thickness of the hacksaw blade affects the cutting width, so the edges must be bent to the required width.
Required tool
Sharpening a hacksaw with a sander or angle grinder requires skill.
Sharpening a hacksaw mechanically is much safer and easier.
Before starting work, prepare a vise or clamp, a caliper, a hammer and other necessary tools:
Cross saws sharpen at an angle of 60 degrees with a triangular fine file.
Longitudinal with an angle of less than 60 degrees. a large file or a diamond file with a fine abrasive is used.
For the mixed type, you will need a coarse cut file or a fine cut diamond file.
For this operation, a special sharpening device is useful. a wooden block with a cut out socket to protect hands from cuts.
To sharpen a hacksaw using a grinder, you need a cutting wheel with a thickness of 1.2 to 1.4 mm, 115 or 125 mm in diameter. The angle grinder should have a speed control in the range of 5000. 8000 per minute. Installing protection is a prerequisite for using this method. Typically, a homemade transparent plastic visor is used.
How to Sharpen a Saw in 5 Minutes | Paul Sellers
Correct sharpening of the hacksaw should maintain the working tooth profile.
It is determined by the following parameters:
step and height; taper angle; radius of curvature.
The sharpening angle can be set in the range of 30 to 60 degrees, depending on the material.
So, for soft woods, the optimal indicator will be 50 degrees.
It is important to properly fix the blade in a vice. do not clamp it tightly, as the steel will vibrate under the file.
With the help of a workbench and a clamp, you can conveniently fix the hacksaw.
Sharpening is done by alternating double-sided sharpening. first, one row is passed along the left edges of all teeth.
Then the tool is turned over, and the pass along the right half of the cutters is repeated.
The one-sided method for dressing hand saws is not used. it is applicable only in relation to some types of knives.
Grandfather’s way of sharpening
The method of sharpening hand saws with your own hands has not undergone much change since the time of our ancestors.
Below you can see a video of how it was done “on the knees” using a needle file and pliers: