Hello,
I have done very little sawing… The reason is I have hand problems.
Can I get some advice on the electric New Concept Saw… Will it be
hard to learn using one, or is the learning curve to great for a
beginner…
Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
Reagrds,
Rosanne
Can you clean a baby with your feet? I can’t but I saw a nice young
unarmed women doing this in a heartbeat and even better then I can.
Other then that, she can drive a car, cook, do the laundry and much
much more.
If you want to learn it then one can only be stopped by himself
Rosanne! Everything is hard before it becomes easy. If you’re
dedicated enough then you can. Believe in yourself and not in what
people believe that you can do. It all begins with the first step.
Have fun and enjoy
Pedro
Hello Rosanne,
Preface this by acknowledging that I do not own the saw - I HAVE had
the opportunity to put my hands on and use one at the Rio Grande
Catalog in Motion, formerly held in Tucson. (Such a disappointment
when the CiM went by the wayside!)
If you can operate a sewing machine, you can successfully operate
the electric Knew Concept Saw. The learning curve is modest and I
found it a joy to use. Smooth variable speed sawing action. As with
any saw, you need the appropriate sized blade. Perhaps if you share
your general location, there might be an Orchidian nearby who owns
the saw and would allow you the chance to try it out for yourself.
Judy in Kansas, who would love to own the saw, but is balking
because of the price. sigh.
I have done very little sawing. The reason is I have hand problems. Can I get some advice on the electric New Concept Saw. Will it be hard to learn using one, or is the learning curve to great for a beginner.
The learning curve is not difficult, but there are limitations. you
can only cut a flat piece of metal. And the thickness is limited. I
own one and really like using it, but I can’t saw round or half
shell pieces on it.
Jennifer Friedman
Ventura, CA
Rosanne - the saw is easy to use and is intuitive on how to
manipulate. You might need help setting it up on a bench, it isn’t
small. It has a lot more capability than just straightforward sawing.
It is terrific for cutting pancake dies.
Judy Hoch
Hi Rosanne,
Speaking as one of the guys who makes them, I’m a bit biased, but
they’re very simple to use.
We joke about them being an ‘unsewing’ machine.
You have control over the blade stroke speed, all the way from dead
stopped, to about 200 strokes per minute. How good the control is
depends on which foot pedal you use. It uses standard flex-shaft
foot pedals. It doesn’t come with one, because we figure most people
have a couple of extra foot pedals kicking around anyway. Why add
another $150 when you’ve probably already got one?
Personally, I recommend the little Lucas Lo-Boy pedals, they’ve got
a very good low end. They’ll let you creep along, with the blade
just barely moving, if that’s what you need.
I would also recommend getting the optional work light. As I’ve
gotten older, I’ve discovered that more light is always better.
As for the saw itself, it has several advantages over hand sawing.
(A) blade supports: it has tungsten carbide blade supports that
brace the blade just above and below the table, so the blade is
better supported than a hand saw, which gives more accurate cuts.
(B) hold-down: the saw has an adjustable hold down pin which keeps
the material from jumping up as you saw, making life much easier.
All you have to do is guide the material.
© Precision and repeatability. The power saw never gets tired
after a long day, and it never tilts to the side (unless you want it
to), so your cuts will remain very consistent. If you do a lot of
piercing, it will definitely help keep your hands happier.
As far as your questions about learning curve, and the state of
beginner-ness, no, the learning curve isn’t too bad. It’s basically
just ‘sit down and cut’. You’ll probably break a few blades to
start, but that’s par for the course.
The good news is that the design is such that there is no risk of
the saw jamming a broken blade into your finger. Once the blade
breaks, the cable system that drives the blade goes slack, which
stops the motion immediately. You could have the motor at full
speed, and the blade bits wouldn’t move at all.
If you have any other questions, or if there’s some way I can help,
feel free to contact me directly.
Brian Meek
Knew Concepts.
Hi Jennifer,
There is a ‘bowl’ foot for it, so it will do piercing on largeish
domed forms. (spoon bowl or bigger, more-or-less)
Lee prototyped it, and then made up a couple of test pieces, and
that’s as far as it ever got. As soon as we get some machine time
for them, I’m going to make up a bigger batch, and make them
available. No clue on cost, or ETA yet, but they are coming. The
problem with the bowl foot is that you have to take the table off.
Not a big problem, it’s just two screws, but it’s a thing to know.
I’ll drop you a line as soon as I have any to play with.
Regards,
Brian Meek
Knew Concepts.
Hi Rosanne,
The electric Knew Concept saw is very helpful to people with hand,
arm, and/or shoulder problems, because strength is not needed to use
this saw. You can guide the metal into the saw blade with two or
three fingers. One of my students had a stroke, and she has found
this saw to be immensely helpful.
It is used much like a sewing machine— there is a hold-down foot,
so that you don’t need to work to hold the metal down. The speed is
usually controlled by a foot pedal like the ones used with flexible
shafts and sewing machines.
It is actually easier to learn to use this machine if you have NOT
done a lot of hand sawing, in my opinion----no un-learning to do.
Using it is also a lot like using a band saw, since the teeth of the
blade face the user.
People who are already efficient and proficient with a hand saw may
not find that the electric Knew Concept saw makes them saw faster,
but when they have learned to use the machine, one finds the quality
of the cuts to be superb. The cuts are perfectly vertical (unless
you are cutting a die at a slant) and the cuts are smooth and even,
requiring less filing. I usually use a blade that is coarser than I
would use hand-sawing.
I hope that this is helpful.
Best wishes,
Cynthia Eid
[snip] The good news is that the design is such that there is no risk of the saw jamming a broken blade into your finger. Once the blade breaks, the cable system that drives the blade goes slack, which stops the motion immediately. You could have the motor at full speed, and the blade bits wouldn't move at all.
I own one of these saws, and while I think they are perfectly safe, I
have had a blade give me a shallow puncture wound when it broke. I’ve
also had them ding up metal with the broken blade as well. They
certainly don’t stop immediately, but neither does my saw frame when
I am sawing by hand and a blade breaks.
Jason
Hi Jason,
Sounds like you’ve got one of the early white (clear aluminum) ones?
The return spring that brings the lower blade clamp back up was
stronger on some of the early ones. That can cause the lower clamp
to come back up harder than we’d like when a blade breaks. Easy
enough fix: shoot me your address, and I can send you one of the new
springs. Just swap it into the clamp you’ve got now.
The ‘up’ motion of the lower blade clamp is caused by the upper
cable pulling ‘up’ through an intact blade. If the blade’s gone,
there’s nothing (besides the spring) to pull it up, so it can’t come
up at you. It will always come up a little, because of the spring,
but the newer springs aren’t strong enough to do any damage. They’re
just there to keep the lower clamp ‘up’ so you can get a blade into
them easily, rather than trying to fish them out of the bottom of
the track.
Regards,
Brian
I have done very little sawing. The reason is I have hand problems.
Unless you are willing to endure it, your affliction, whatever it
is, may preclude you from going very far with jewelry.
You alone will be the judge of that. At the least, it may slow you
down.
In trying to think of a tool that doesn’t come in contact with your
hand - i’m drawing a blank. .
Just about the only jeweler’s tool that doesn’t fit in or work from
your hand is your brain.
Could you work with play-doh? If so, then maybe the medium called
precious metal clay might be your thing.
You’d still have to manipulate it ie: bend, carve, stamp, cut, file,
polish, etc…
but cutting it to size would be lots easier while it is still in the
plastic state.
steve.
Hi Brian,
There is a 'bowl' foot for it, so it will do piercing on largeish domed forms. (spoon bowl or bigger, more-or-less)
A ‘bowl’ foot sounds great. I have one of those aluminum (first ones
out) saws. And yes, the broken blades can make the frame pop, but it
is easy to learn how to handle the saw and prepare for the worst.
No, really, great saw, especially if I don’t really like piercing in
great quantities or small ones.
Hello All,
This group is great and I thank all of you for all the comments and
info on the saw…
Do I understand it correctly that the saw only saws straight ?
For instance if I’m cutting out a circle or a lighting bolt shape,
that I can’t do that ?
Or I can do it, but I have to make adjustments?
Again any and all info would be greatly appreciated…
Rosanne
Hi Rosanne,
No, it cuts curves and squiggles with the best of them. Anything you
can cut out of a sheet with a hand saw, you can do with the power
saw.
The original comment (?from Jennifer?) was that it only cuts flat
sheet items, which was true, so far as she knew.
Lee developed a domed cutting foot for it, to allow it to work on
bowls and larger curved things, but in the crush of getting the hand
saws out to market, the domed foot got forgotten on a shelf. I just
dug out the remaining prototype, and set it up for production. Just
exactly when we get them out will be an interesting question, but
they’re coming. (As soon as I can figure out how to hang on to the
blinking things. Doing one, once for prototype is one thing. Doing
lots of them is entirely another.)
On the subject of sawing straight though, we developed a miter guide
that lets you set cutting angles in increments of 15 degrees, so
that you can get a straight 0,15,30,45 degree cut with it. The miter
gage has been shipping as a standard part of the saw for the past
year or so. (45 degrees across the table, in addition to the 45
degrees of R/L tilt that the frame itself allows.) They’re not
available on the website as a separate item, but if you’d like one,
contact me directly, and we can go from there. They’re $30
($25+$5SH).
Regards,
Brian Meek
Knew Concepts.
Hello Roseanne,
The Knew Concept power saw literally saws rings around. whatever. I
cut out the outline of a cat - not a straight line in it. Easy
peasy. The speed can be as slow as you like for cutting complex
shapes, and faster for the ‘straight away.’ I really liked the
’presser food’ which holds the sheet down and allows the blade to saw
away while you use both hands to guide the sheet through your design.
As I said before, you will find using this saw is like using a
sewing machine. YUP, wish I owned one!
Judy in Kansas