Thursday, July 17, 2008

Cutting Steel With a Jig Saw - Making a Simple Pauldron: Pt. 1

Over the next Month I will be posting a series (about 4-6 posts) on making a simple Pauldron. This seres will lead in to more tutorials on making a simple set of steel plate armor. It will not be a true pauldron, as it will only cover the top of the shoulder, and be only one pace with no articulation. Now, without further delay, lets get on to part one, cutting 16 gauge steel with a jig saw!

You will need:
  • Clamps
  • Jig Saw
  • Work Gloves
  • Goggles
  • Some steel to cut
  • A work space (preferably out doors, and that can be banged up and cut by accident)


Here is the big secret to cutting steel. You will need a jig saw blade that says on the package: Metal Cutting I got this set of two from Totem for $5. There were several sizes, I got the most hard core one, for cutting the thickest steel that I could finned on display.

You will need to Make a pattern and put it on your steel. I will make a tutorial for this later.

Here is the pattern I will be using. Simple.

Clamp the steel to your work space.

And clamp it well. Everything will shake.

Leave just a bit sticking off the end of the end of the work space. Depending on how big a peace you are cutting, you may want to have only a part of the pattern hanging off the edge of the table, though this will increase the risk of accidentally cutting the table, it will make the steel more stable.

Put on that Safety gear now! Little peaces of metal flying at your face, and the gloves will help absorb the vibrations from the steel so your hands wont go numb! (Note: if you are cutting galvanized steel it is advisable to wear a little wight mask as well)

Start by lining up the blade wit the line, and pressing firmly down on the steel wit he jig saw.

Leave wee bit of room between the blade and the steel when you start, star the blade moving fast, and then move forward to cut.

You may need to aply a lot of pressure to the jig saw or you will find thath e blade is simply lifting the sheet of metal up and down instead of cutting through it.

When you start getting close to the table, of the saw and steel are vibrating ridiculously instead of cutting, you should change the position of the steel and re clamp it down.

Nothing to do with the picture, but, the blade may be shaken loose with al that vibrating and fall out of the saw. Turn off the saw and unplug it before putting the blade back it. It would suck to have to no be able to finish cutting because you lost you finger.


And here is the finished cut out.


And here is a video of me cutting out the other pace.

Also? I have never cut steel with a jig saw before this. Yes this was my first time, so it can't be that hard! Can it? Check back next week for the next step!

9 comments:

jacky jan said...

Great article information thanks I like this post thanks again

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Unknown said...

Is it worthwhile buying a jigsaw that's specifically designed for cutting metal? First things first, if you're going to cut any sort of metal using a Steel cutting rule. its helpful for you. thanks

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Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Hy
Hope you are doing well
I am having one question can you answer that for me my jigsaw is helding And heating while working in this jigsaw i mention the problem but didn't get it.
Regards