Hi All, I have very recently acquired a fly press with tooling for cutting saw teeth. The fly press originally belonged to a saw doctor. I haven't cleaned it or bolted it down yet, but I thought I'd give you a demo and show you what it can do. The guides are adjustable so you can cut any size tooth at any angle. It's a Norton No 1 fly press. Here is the tooling and guides. I'm cutting some copper here just to show how it works, as I haven't bolted the press down yet. You slide the toe of the saw up against the stop guide. This shows the tooling about to cut the blank. After cutting. Slide the blank forward so the cut tooth meets the stop guide. And here is another tooth. Repeat the process. The end result, you will note the flat spots to the points of the teeth, this allows you to file the teeth and maintain the straight edge. These are 5 ppi. At the moment I'm looking to use it to retooth some of my more way-ward saws. But I'd like to have a go at making some rip and cross cut saws. Where is the best place to get quality saw steel? Hope the above was interesting. regards lui
Lui....wow...that's amazing! I have wanted a fly press toother since I read about Andrew Lunn's....I am jealous man!!! Please keep us updated on how it goes in use. -Matt
Hi Lui, Nice acquisition! I can see how that would beat filing hands down, having seen that, I'm going to keep an eye open for a fly press. I actually bought one last year on ebay for a customer whose company purchasing policy didn't permit ebay purchases. It was a larger one but it was missing the arm. I'll see if I can get a picture in the next week or so. Regards Ray
The presses can be quite cheap, but the tooling isn't. I was lucky, mine came all together. good luck with your hunting lui