Hi Anne,
Dar Shelton here , the pancake die guy. I have used the KC power saw , but I was never particularly fond of it. The main reason is that , years ago, Lee Marshall made me a saw that I
like better, and is, in fact, the only power saw I’ve ever liked for pancake dies. That’s great for me -as I’ve cut many, many thousands of dies with it over the years- but of no use to anyone else. That’s because it’s a one-of-a-kind prototype , that never made it to production , because of what we determined were safety issues . It’s powered by a gear motor, and is designed like the original Bonny Doon Saw Guide , that accepts a normal jeweler’s saw frame into it’s spring-loaded clamping arms .
I’ve always said there’s something …advantageous about being able to incorporate the (learned) natural pressure/motion cycle of hand sawing into machine sawing, and that’s what the saw does, as opposed to the KC power saw where you have both hands pushing on the die. I’m sorry I can’t help you with using your saw, but I became spoiled using my custom saw. maybe I can offer some encouragement, however, because my saw was frightening and dangerous for a good while, until I developed a feel for it’s quirks and qualities. For years, I didn’t use it on anything intricate, or anything that had to be precise. I was simply already too good and intricate, delicate designs with my other saw - an old BD saw guide that I’d adapted to leg power- so that I used the gear motor saw for bigger, thicker, simpler designs/dies . I did get better and better with the motor saw, and now I can be as “perfect” as with my manual saw on most designs. So I do know that it takes time to get good at sawing dies. I knew that ever since I started , in 1986, when I was already extremely good with a jewelers saw, but I had never sawed tool steel dies with a device that held the saw straight , while the work was turned around to follow the design. It took a couple years to get really good at it . It’s hard to be accurate, even on the best of days; sometimes blades just go where they want to go
Oh yeah, PS, I only use Platinum blades (Pike Platinum, and I got some Platinum from Contenti recently (great price, exact same blades) . They are the hardest blades , and are brittle, but they saw the fastest/easiest , and sometimes amaze me at how far they go. If you ask me, no other blades are suitable for sawing tool steel.
Dar
sheltech@yahoo.com
DogBoyDar channel on youtube