Fixing saw mis-set? Two teeth leaning the same way.
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Tools and Tool Maintenance/Restoration / Fixing saw mis-set? Two teeth leaning the same way.
- This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 5 years ago by Ed.
-
AuthorPosts
-
I have an old 5 TPI Disston that I’ve been practicing my sharpening on. Somewhere along the line, I must have mis-set the teeth and I have two in a row leaning to the same side, then alternating for the rest of the way. The saw does usually bind at that spot; it is towards the middle of the saw, slightly to the back.
What is the best way to correct this? I am worried about breaking off teeth if I have to go through and reverse the remaining third of the saw. Would I be ok reversing them?
I think that you have, in the main, answered your own question.
Obviously the saw does not work as it is, so leaving it as it is doesn’t make sense and reversing the least number of teeth has its inherent hazards – teeth breaking off.It is an old saw, as you said, with large teeth and as well as the danger of snapping them off there is also the fact to bear in mind that many old saws that have had many decades of hard work, followed by inexpert sharpening (if any at all) and often come with a degree of work-hardening in the metal at the root of the tooth from the gullet either side. You don’t know what the quality of fairly old steel is at this time. I’ve had many old saws break off teeth through just routine resetting so that is a point to bear in mind should you need to re-set the teeth in later years. It is usually fixed by stripping off 1/4 inch or so of steel at the teeth and starting again.
You may be lucky and that, if the shape of the remaining good section are OK, you can tap the others flat then re-set them in the correct direction, but be prepared for a complete re-cut (if the remaining plate allows, of course) if one breaks. Consider also that this may be necessary at a later date.
Good luck and let us know how you fix the issue.
31 March 2019 at 8:10 am #555708A less drastic method might be to Try just having less set in the saw. Maybe reduce it a bit and set the first “wrong” saw tooth to a neutral set.
After that, sharpen a couple more times without setting the teeth to get to steel that hasn’t been work hardened before you try to change the set on any other teeth. Just lubrications a lot.
I’ve managed to change the tooth set on an 1870 Bishop 6 point saw where the same mistake was made by the previous owner without breaking any teeth that way. You may be as lucky.But it depends on how much you value the saw and if you mainly cut green wood. A saw for that requires more set.
Just going for it and reseting now might work, and the worst is that you will have to retooth it.You said it was a practice saw…
31 March 2019 at 8:16 am #555709A little crutch I use to avoid loosing track is to put a red sharpie dot on alternating teeth as a target for the saw set.
I’m wondering whether this really ought to be a problem. Think of it as two saws joined at the middle. If they have the same set, each should ride in the kerf of the other smoothly. I wonder if what’s really going on is that the two halves of the plate have different set, perhaps because one side was set from being forced over from the other side, so it relaxed more.
I’d be very tempted to mark the plate at the doubled tooth (so that you remember where the error is) and just set the two halves of the saw again. In other words, don’t fix the double tooth. Just get the set uniform on the two halves. Maybe peen out some of the set as Paul shows, then set again, but keeping the doubled tooth. See what happens.
This is a rip saw, right?
Wild guess on my part, but that’s what I’d try.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.