The first cut.... Abrafiles to the rescue

So how do you cut out shapes out of thicker metal? Having been used to 7mm scale where a piercing saw suffices, 16mm needed a rather more substantial solution:

It took a while to track these down, but Reeves2000 sell Abrafile - or radial - file "blades" which are a bit like tile cutting saw blades but thinner, and fit into a standard hacksaw frame using a pair of special adaptors. You can buy these if you can find them, but I cobbled a couple out of some scrap strip.







Here we see the first cuts into the frames of my de Winton. These are 2 1/16" strips bolted together, the left hand cutout was started by a piercing saw and is a bit wayward but the second cut is much smoother and it is so much faster than using a piercing saw. A further bonus is that the blades are much stronger - I'm still on my first.....








Another closer view: This also illustrates well the old dictum: Measure twice, measure again, check it and then cut - I almost forgot where I was measuring from - several weeks having elapsed since I started this piece - felt tip lines are easy to remove but not saw cuts!










And this fuzzy affair is the reversing lever stand - my first tapping job too:























More to come soon.