When sawing patterns in sheet metal I’ve always been bugged by the swarf from the saw obscuring the line that I was trying to cut to. Today I had a sawing task to do and struggled to keep the line clear while cutting. In the past I tried using some small tubing and lung power to blow the swarf away from the line but had problems with saliva plus the distraction from sawing.
Remembering that I had an aquarium air pump that I had purchased for bubbling the solution in my etching tank I thought of trying that for an air source. With the pump and a couple of feet of 1/8th inch ID tubing I put a tab of tape near the end of the tubing and clamped it in my 3rd hand soldering clamp and positioned the end about an inch from my work piece. It worked very well. Just enough air flow to clear the cut line but not so much as to blow the swarf all over the place (most of it went into my catch tray.) I’m sure that this is not an original idea but it is something that just simply works.
Here is the pump I used (the smallest (10 gallon)) size: Tetra 10 aquarium air pump
– alonzo