WoodNet Forums: New Product input requested: Saw Templates

Hi Gang,
After completing some saw plate orders for customers I was puttering around in the shop last night and started working on some saw teeth templates.

If you don't know what a saw tooth template is, here's the skinny on it.

Say you have a saw and you want a new pitch to the teeth. Like it's set for 14 ppi rip and you want 12 ppi crosscut. What do you do? Well you can send it to someone

with a Foley Retoother and have them punch new teeth in it. OR you can file down all the teeth and then file in the new ones using a paper template that has the correct spacing on it.

Another solution is to use a another saw (that has the filing you want) as a template. You simply clamp you old saw plate and the "template" right on top pf one another and "transfer" the pattern from one to another.

But what if you don't have a saw with the proper filing? Well, that's where these come in. I'm thinking of offering a set of saw tooth templates for sale. I have these pieces of 2" wide x 27" (ish) long x 0.020" thk 301 SS that would be just about perfect for them.

Why 27" and not 28"? Well, 28" is the limit of the Foley Retoother. And you need a bit of wiggle room on each side to make it easier to center on the carrier bar. Making it exactly 28" means you have to place it EXACTLY dead center each and every time you punch it. And if you screw up you've ruined the template. Not fun. Not fun at all.

I used 301 SS because it's rust resistant,......and I have a bunch of it.

I could probably use 0.025" thk. But that's not as available. And these are just templates. They don't need to be "beefy".

Here's one I made up last night.

It has 15 ppi Rip on one side and 15 ppi Crosscut on the other.

My questions are:

Do I really need a crosscut AND a rip version? Wouldn't one be sufficient to enable you to transfer the spacing?
I would assume that lower number PPI templates (4ppi to 12 ppi) would need to be 27" long. Would making the higher number PPI templates (13 ppi to 16 ppi) 16" long be sufficient?
Anyone know of a set of punches that can emboss spring steel? I want to punch the filing for each template into them.

Any (realistic) suggestions or recommendations would be welcomed.

Thanks,

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See ya around,
Dominic
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