Hacksaw blade holder
Sometimes it is necessary to cut narrow grooves in shafts for circlips or E clips. Normally such grooves are not deep. Tools can be ground from HSS tool steel but it is quite difficult to freehand grind a well defined cutter. The thin tip on such tools is very fragile.
Thin, hard steel strip is readily available as broken hacksaw blades. This can easily be ground to make a cutter. The holder shown above was designed to hold a piece of broken hacksaw blade ridgidly so that it could be used to cut circlip and E clip grooves. It is designed to fit into a toolholder.
Thin, hard steel strip is readily available as broken hacksaw blades. This can easily be ground to make a cutter. The holder shown above was designed to hold a piece of broken hacksaw blade ridgidly so that it could be used to cut circlip and E clip grooves. It is designed to fit into a toolholder.
The holder is made from two pieces of 3 x 25 mm steel 50 mm long. These sandwich the hacksaw blade to provide support.
A 6 mm square bar is attached to one of the plates so that it can be gripped in a toolholder. Note that the top edge of the hacksaw blade is roughly the same height as the top edge of the square bar. This ensures that the hacksaw blade is at about the correct height with the unit clamped in the toolholder.
A 6 mm square bar is attached to one of the plates so that it can be gripped in a toolholder. Note that the top edge of the hacksaw blade is roughly the same height as the top edge of the square bar. This ensures that the hacksaw blade is at about the correct height with the unit clamped in the toolholder.
The backplate is drilled and tapped M4 in the four corners. The holes are centred 4 mm from the long edges of the plate and 8 mm from the short edges.
The 6 mm square bar is held to the backplate using two M4 countersunk screws.
The top clamping plate has M4 clearance holes drilled to match up with the tapped holes in the backplate
The blade is a piece of broken hacksaw blade. The teeth were ground off on a belt sander and the end ground to provide about 8 degrees relief.
The 6 mm square bar is held to the backplate using two M4 countersunk screws.
The top clamping plate has M4 clearance holes drilled to match up with the tapped holes in the backplate
The blade is a piece of broken hacksaw blade. The teeth were ground off on a belt sander and the end ground to provide about 8 degrees relief.