Stair saw finished

[tw]

I made a stair saw for myself. The blade comes from a tenon saw which was almost complete, only missing the back and the handle
The wood is home grown birch, and the hardware costed me 1 euro at a hardware store.

[fredbelknap]

TW that looks good. Now how about explaining how it works. I am drawing a blank.

[TDHofstetter]

It's used for cutting dados & sliding dovetails.

Nice saw, Tor!

[sawduster]

I found with mine that it is a lot easier to start if I set it up to cut on the pull stroke. Of course, I may have cut the teeth a little steep on mine because I made the saw when I was first learning to file saw blades. ;D

Nice one, TW.

[dcarter636]

"The blade comes from a tenon saw which was almost complete, only missing the back and the handle..."

It looks like you have corrected that minor problem very nicely.

[sawduster]

Feb 17, 2010 14:10:15 GMT -6 fredbelknap said:

TW that looks good. Now how about explaining how it works. I am drawing a blank.

Fred,
Those were originally made for cutting a groove into a stair in which the riser would sit. They are great for cutting grooves and dados into boards. The depth of the blade is adjustable as there are slots cut into the blade through which the bolts you see in the picture pass. You adjust the blade to the depth of the groove you want to cut. You can then use a scrap wood fence clamped to the board to start your cut, or cut a shallow trough shaped like this "|/" using a utility knife making the slanted cut on the waste side to get the cut started. Cut you two edge cuts for the groove by sawing until the bottom of the handle bottoms onto your wood, make a kerf cut or three depending on the width of the groove, then waste out with a chisel

[fredbelknap]

Ah ha a knuckle dragger's dado blade.

[TDHofstetter]

Feb 18, 2010 8:03:23 GMT -6 fredbelknap said:

...knuckle dragger's dado blade....

Yep, that's exactly the one. Minus the rakers, though.