Frame Saw on the Cheap
So I haven’t got a bandsaw. I could find the space for a small bench top one, but that wouldn’t actually meet the resawing needs I would want it for. Instead, I’m taking a lesson from them olden days and making a frame saw to help me resal the reclaimed wood I mostly use. I have a normal rip saw but to resaw big pieces of wood with a one handed saw is not at all fun and having a two handed frame saw that uses the larger muscle groups of the back might make it all a bit easier. Then again it might not. Let’s find out.
Supplies
The kits run hundreds of pounds and I want to find a cheaper option so I’m going to see what I can do with things from the big box store and some standard wood.
Tulip wood - enough to make whatever size frame you want. The size of the frame will limit the size of wood you can resaw.
Mitre saw blade or frame saw blade - I couldn’t find a high quality enough mitre blade so ended up getting this one: ece replacement blade https://www.fine-tools.com/gestell.html
m12 carriage bolt, nuts and washers - needed to be pretty big to make it possible to cut a slot in and drill through
Tulip wood - enough to make whatever size frame you want. The size of the frame will limit the size of wood you can resaw.
Mitre saw blade or frame saw blade - I couldn’t find a high quality enough mitre blade so ended up getting this one: ece replacement blade https://www.fine-tools.com/gestell.html
m12 carriage bolt, nuts and washers - needed to be pretty big to make it possible to cut a slot in and drill through
“Planning” the Project and Making the Frame
So apologies for the terrible drawing but that was about as much planning as actually happened! The length of the saw was driven by the blade I got and I decided on the width basically so the handles were wide enough for me to hold comfortably and without being cramped.
I did watch the Paul Sellers vídeo on making a bow saw (here: https://paulsellers.com/knowledge-base/framebow-saw/) and read some blogs about frame saws. For clarity, this is not all my idea. I’m shamelessly ripping off this, https://www.simplecove.com/406/an-inexpensive-frame-saw/, although his is better I think, as I couldn’t find wing nuts of the right size.
So the first thing was to cut the wood to length. With a 700 mm blade I made the stretchers for the saw an extra few for the bits to hold the frame, plus the length for the tenons too so around 800mm. To get the width, I held a broom stick in front of me and checked where I could comfortably hold it shoulder width. That would give me the width I needed for the handles. Yours will be different and as you are making a saw for yourself, I highly recommend you make this small concession to ergonomics. For the other end of the saw, use the same broomstick to work out how much wood you need to make comfortable handles for your hand size. Again, as you are making a custom saw, at least make sure it fits your body.
So having got the bits to length, it time to cut the holes and joints. To make sure the holes lined up, I taped the two pieces that would make either end and then marked them up together. In the same way, while these two pieces were taped together, I drilled the hole for the blade holders through both pieces at the same time.
With the holes drilled, the mortise and tenons could be cut. There are a million tutorials on how to do this (here is one from Paul Sellers https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aBodzmUGtdw) so won’t go in to detail other than to say a back saw cut the tenon and I chopped the mortise with chisels. I did not cut the mortise all the way through. It went about two thirds through the piece. With hindsight, I couldn’t say why other than it seemed like a good idea at the time.
With this done, that is the joinery finished. It’s a very simple saw!
I did watch the Paul Sellers vídeo on making a bow saw (here: https://paulsellers.com/knowledge-base/framebow-saw/) and read some blogs about frame saws. For clarity, this is not all my idea. I’m shamelessly ripping off this, https://www.simplecove.com/406/an-inexpensive-frame-saw/, although his is better I think, as I couldn’t find wing nuts of the right size.
So the first thing was to cut the wood to length. With a 700 mm blade I made the stretchers for the saw an extra few for the bits to hold the frame, plus the length for the tenons too so around 800mm. To get the width, I held a broom stick in front of me and checked where I could comfortably hold it shoulder width. That would give me the width I needed for the handles. Yours will be different and as you are making a saw for yourself, I highly recommend you make this small concession to ergonomics. For the other end of the saw, use the same broomstick to work out how much wood you need to make comfortable handles for your hand size. Again, as you are making a custom saw, at least make sure it fits your body.
So having got the bits to length, it time to cut the holes and joints. To make sure the holes lined up, I taped the two pieces that would make either end and then marked them up together. In the same way, while these two pieces were taped together, I drilled the hole for the blade holders through both pieces at the same time.
With the holes drilled, the mortise and tenons could be cut. There are a million tutorials on how to do this (here is one from Paul Sellers https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aBodzmUGtdw) so won’t go in to detail other than to say a back saw cut the tenon and I chopped the mortise with chisels. I did not cut the mortise all the way through. It went about two thirds through the piece. With hindsight, I couldn’t say why other than it seemed like a good idea at the time.
With this done, that is the joinery finished. It’s a very simple saw!
The Metal Bits
I’m not going to lie, I really don’t enjoy metal work, even the simple bits that this takes. I suspect it’s because I don’t really have the right tooling or workstation. Having said that, doing something like this makes it a necessary evil.
So I’m sure it’s clear what needs to be done from my marvellous drawing, but just in case it wasn’t clear enough I’ll explain here.
So to hold the blade we will use a bolt at either end with slots cut in them for the blade. We also need to drill a hole through for the retaining screw for the blade.
One of these bolts is otherwise un modified but the other one must also have the head cut off and a nut threaded on to tighten against the frame. Tightening this bolt will tensión the blade and push the stretchers into the mortises tightly, stabilising the whole saw in case your joinery isn'tas tight as it could be (surely not?!). Finally, there needs to be something to spread the pressure on the wood so the nut or head of the bolt doesn’t bite into the wood. I have simply used large washers which are inset slightly so they stay put. And that is it, all very simple!
In order to work on the bolts, it helps to make a jig to hold them. Again, simplicity was the approach I used. I just drilled a hole through a square of wood, put a nut on either side to keep it in place and locked the wood in the vice.
So the first time I did this I used m10 bolts but they failed so I had to use m12. First thing was to remove the head off one of the bolts with a junior hacksaw. Next, was to drill a hole for the retaining bolt for the blade. Make sure it’s in the right place to hold the saw in place. I found it hard to start the hole on the bolt and so took a file and flattened one of the sides of threads first. This really helped with getting the drill to bite as I could much more easily punch a starting point.
Once the hole was through I needed to cut a slot for the saw blade. I was just going to bolt it to one side but this did not give the security I needed and hand filing the threads away would make it difficult to align the blade correctly. I used a dremel with the appropriate cutting disc to make the cut and then widen it. This was not as trivial as I made it sound and I broke two cutting discs making this slot. The picture shows what the blade and metalwork looks like when complete.
Once cut, it was time to assemble the saw. This again is straightforward and you are ready to cut.
So I’m sure it’s clear what needs to be done from my marvellous drawing, but just in case it wasn’t clear enough I’ll explain here.
So to hold the blade we will use a bolt at either end with slots cut in them for the blade. We also need to drill a hole through for the retaining screw for the blade.
One of these bolts is otherwise un modified but the other one must also have the head cut off and a nut threaded on to tighten against the frame. Tightening this bolt will tensión the blade and push the stretchers into the mortises tightly, stabilising the whole saw in case your joinery isn'tas tight as it could be (surely not?!). Finally, there needs to be something to spread the pressure on the wood so the nut or head of the bolt doesn’t bite into the wood. I have simply used large washers which are inset slightly so they stay put. And that is it, all very simple!
In order to work on the bolts, it helps to make a jig to hold them. Again, simplicity was the approach I used. I just drilled a hole through a square of wood, put a nut on either side to keep it in place and locked the wood in the vice.
So the first time I did this I used m10 bolts but they failed so I had to use m12. First thing was to remove the head off one of the bolts with a junior hacksaw. Next, was to drill a hole for the retaining bolt for the blade. Make sure it’s in the right place to hold the saw in place. I found it hard to start the hole on the bolt and so took a file and flattened one of the sides of threads first. This really helped with getting the drill to bite as I could much more easily punch a starting point.
Once the hole was through I needed to cut a slot for the saw blade. I was just going to bolt it to one side but this did not give the security I needed and hand filing the threads away would make it difficult to align the blade correctly. I used a dremel with the appropriate cutting disc to make the cut and then widen it. This was not as trivial as I made it sound and I broke two cutting discs making this slot. The picture shows what the blade and metalwork looks like when complete.
Once cut, it was time to assemble the saw. This again is straightforward and you are ready to cut.
In Use
OK, so if you have made it this far, I’m guessing you want to know how it is to use. In one word, difficult. I don’t think I have the setup quite right yet and there is a definite technique to getting a good result.
So a couple of things I would definitely recommend is that you sharpen regularly, turn the blade around so it is a pull saw, when you tensión the blade make sure it is really tight and check it hasn’t come undone fairly regularly during use. Making it a pull saw helps with tensioning the blade and helps keep it on track. This is by far the hardest challenge. It cuts very, very quickly but can wander if you aren’t paying attention. It is important that a deep line is scored around the piece to be ripped. There is something called a kerfing plane that has apparently been use during for this purpose but I haven’t made one yet and have so far been using a back saw for the job. Scoring a 5mm or so deep line around piece really seems to help.
In addition, pay some attention to the set of the blade. Ripping narrow pieces, this is less important, but trying to resaw wider pieces (for instance, I have a 160mm wide, 1600mm long piece I’m resawing) the balance between a wide enough set so the blade doesn’t get stuck later in the cut and keeping it narrower so it’s easier to control is harder to find.
Nevertheless, it is definitely workable, is better than a traditional saw, by which I mean I don’t feel like my arm is going to fall off, and I am improving with my process and technique each time I use it. If you haven’t got room for a bandsaw, I think this still makes resawing possible and allows access to more and different material than if I didn’t have one. It’s cheap to make and takes up no room so why not try it?
Hope this is helpful.
So a couple of things I would definitely recommend is that you sharpen regularly, turn the blade around so it is a pull saw, when you tensión the blade make sure it is really tight and check it hasn’t come undone fairly regularly during use. Making it a pull saw helps with tensioning the blade and helps keep it on track. This is by far the hardest challenge. It cuts very, very quickly but can wander if you aren’t paying attention. It is important that a deep line is scored around the piece to be ripped. There is something called a kerfing plane that has apparently been use during for this purpose but I haven’t made one yet and have so far been using a back saw for the job. Scoring a 5mm or so deep line around piece really seems to help.
In addition, pay some attention to the set of the blade. Ripping narrow pieces, this is less important, but trying to resaw wider pieces (for instance, I have a 160mm wide, 1600mm long piece I’m resawing) the balance between a wide enough set so the blade doesn’t get stuck later in the cut and keeping it narrower so it’s easier to control is harder to find.
Nevertheless, it is definitely workable, is better than a traditional saw, by which I mean I don’t feel like my arm is going to fall off, and I am improving with my process and technique each time I use it. If you haven’t got room for a bandsaw, I think this still makes resawing possible and allows access to more and different material than if I didn’t have one. It’s cheap to make and takes up no room so why not try it?
Hope this is helpful.