Adam Savage's One Day Builds: Mini Chop Saw!

I moved into baseball cap zone to handle the  hair. Wait a second, is the light not great   on me? Ah, that's bad. Ah! Welcome to another one  day build and this one is another tool mod because   once I finished the standing bandsaw it kind of  inspired me. It really did. I'm so happy with   how that tool turned out and how useful it's been  I've been using it multiple times every single day   I thought let's look for some other tools and  I mentioned this on the live feed a stream a   couple of weeks ago that I might do this build so  this right here in front of me is a mini chop saw   this is a model making tool Harbor Freight sells  one micro mark sells one procs on also sells a   really nice high-end one and so you can buy these  for somewhere between 30 and 200 bucks depending   on who you buy it from and the quality of the  parts inside and this is a really useful tool   it uses these uses two different kinds of blow  I'd actually like to hold the thing up it uses   metallic blades for like plastic and soft metals  and it also has these Emery blades which will cut   through hardened steel and frankly in cutting  hardened steel shaft and other like hard things   here in the shop this is a critical weird little  bit of infrastructure because the only other way   to do it was is with an air cutoff tool right now  and that frankly that's not a very delicate tool   this one has a little vise it's got a little  angle finder you can go up to 4 to 5 degrees   and look this is a cheap tool it's a cheaply  quickly made tool and I think I can make it   better so the first part of replicating this is  to replicate the vise I want to make a new vise   and a new spinny thing for the vise and then  I'll get around to worrying about how to make   this hinge work yeah that's why we're go I have  two of these actually because I ended up with two   over the years I took the vice off the other one  so here it is here is the Vice you can see it's   got this turning handle it's threaded rod yeah  I am going to try and replicate this first and   foremost there's a lot of water that's going under  the bridge like four or five days of work between   me saying I wanted to build a vise and the vise  now if you remember this was the here is the vise   of course your mergansers in the previous shot  here's the vise I wanted to replicate here's   the vise that I made oh yeah okay look at this  thing look look at this thing oh my god it is   so pretty it is so beautiful I am I I have spent  about 12 hours on this mill slowly putting this   thing together taking chunks of cast iron I had  in my storage cutting them with a bandsaw then   building a reference surface turning chunks of  cast iron into billets squared off billets of   cast iron then cutting those squared off billets  into chunks using my new bandsaw chucking them   into the mill getting things to dial into each  other literally plus or minus about a thousandth   of an inch in almost every every permutation in  many cases slightly less than a thousandth of an   inch I've got a front cha here with a keeper  on the bottom made of bronze inside that jaw   there's a notch in the front of my lead screw  that I lathe and that not just captured by a set   screw that I machined this tiniest little pin it  was so satisfying to make all these parts and to   slowly assemble a working beautiful tool using  my own hands I know that I'm a machine I know   that I'm a machine operator I know I know how to  use this machine within you know some parameters   but the full marrying of my mechanical skills  with my aesthetic skills has made the journey   of making this vice something that is almost like  a new lens with which I want to look at the world   yeah it has just increased my understanding  of what's possible for me to do and that's   kind of an intoxicating feeling so now I don't  just want to like add this vise to the base of   this chop saw I want to make the entire thing be  beautiful so I'm gonna start taking it apart all   right time to start taking apart this chop saw  and I'm gonna bring the other one over - I kind   of prefer its color scheme yeah let's take  these both apart let's figure out how to uh how to remake them in our image oh look at  that that's nice I never realized that that   comes out like that so it's a belt-driven  system here see these are basically the   same tool a few years apart both made  in the same factory probably using the   same exact tooling you can see that the parts  are interchangeable give or take yep totally   interchangeable you know what maybe I should  pull this off okay okay that's the pin holds   it up and yeah we've got this heavy dude  a little spring in there okay so that's   the base of one greige the other one all  right we can also pull off the blades see this process of taking tools and making them  better honestly I've been doing it since I was   a kid there's nothing more fun to me than  taking something that's useful to you and   adding stuff to it to make it even a little  bit better those guys all right second ah I've taken apart parts of both of these saws and  I have a pretty good idea about my basic idea   here is that I want to utilize this structure  I don't want to try and reinvent the wheel here   I think this is pretty fine and robust thing  I've used this for a better part of a decade   the bearings feel fine they really do oh I see  that's what that's for nice the bearings really   do feel fine I think there's I'm gonna pull  this belt off and just see how it feels all   right I have to pull it off that one okay take a  look all right I'm gonna do some cleanup on this   and then I'm gonna do some measurements so I can  make my vise work with this whole business yeah that sounds fine nice and quiet actually this  one has a heavier duty cord let's just see what   this one sounds like I like this one better in  general I will tell you I don't think I need a   more robust cord alright so uh I think I'm gonna  go with this now I got a I want to clean this   business yeah I'm very pleased with the fact  that the one whose color scheme I like is also   the quieter running motor I don't want to have to  swap those out and whenever now I have a parts one seriously I got these from Harbor Freight and  they have served me well for more than a decade totally worth your investment as a tool to  have in the shop I've had them in a bucket   up on a shelf for the longest time simply  because I wasn't doing a lot of that fine   model work but then I recently had to cut  a hardened shaft a steel shaft and I was   like oh right I forgot about that like at ILM  this is what we use for all those kind of cuts solder back in the switch let's get these silvered by definition this thing will be filled  with metal dust and you don't want that   anywhere near your electronics pretty  sure so let's spread some heat-shrink   on there we can use that to seal  it up later right all right ah nice simple switch like this not really a way  you could wire it up backwards to contacts   connect them you get power a little better  view on this I might consider like painting   the whole outside of this but frankly  given that I've used this tool for a   long time I'm kind of inclined just to sort  of put it back together steel Woollett and   see how aesthetically pleasing it is and  I already have a screw in there one of the   nice things about having two tools is as  I was saying earlier that you end up with   one for parts and a tool for parts is always  good when a tool is important to your system we're definitely improving the overall look of  this thing oh let me get the belt back on alright   does the belt have a direction it wants to go  in it does not the belt seems crisp feel like   we're good on that front so I discovered  something in here in here there's a pin and that pin allows you to tighten  oh I see great great great okay so in order to actually change the blade it's  not then you've got to actually engage with a   hole in the spindle shaft here that's  so hard to see there we go now it's   easy to swap out the blade because the shaft  won't turn that's the direction it's goes in okay one more screw all right so that's the  base as is and the this went into this base   using this pin I can actually set that up we  can do the official assembly later but this is   just to get it just to do some measurements  about it's critical measurements all right   so that's the blade right and as long as that  Springs back up so good so then the question   is the vise is here that device is here let's  see what kind of clearance the blade gives to   the Vice yep okay it just clears the bottom  of the vise there so the question is does it   clear the bottom of my vise and the answer  is yes so this goes up and down like this since their yeah it's just yeah there we  go that's where it does it clears yeah okay   so it's the same thing work with my advice  and the answer is yes right cuz I made it a   basically the same height but I'm gonna want  some more structure underneath this little   place that entire base so my goal is here to  mount the Vice this is the if I match up the   hinge point here and the pivot I end up with  it's sitting here like this and the pivot goes   right underneath the apex of the 45 cut and a  straight cut that sits like right about there   and so that sits there and tilts to a 45 I'm  gonna do this thing where I mounted on a big   piece of maybe Delrin yeah with an arrow there  and a knurled knob or maybe this is a piece of   half-inch aluminum that I cut down and then that  sits on and then that's it's on a bigger base and   I make nice big markings for all the angle  measurements but in order to fit this with   a hinge I've got to I got to make the hinge  yeah I basically have to build the structure   first and then I have to figure out exactly  how high the hinge is that's that's the goal all right I've just finished doing some layout  this right here is the plastic piece that I'm   going to cut out that the vise mounts to that  arrow will point and indicate the angle that   you are cutting at really it's mostly zero  to 45 vise will sit here I think I'm gonna   cut this out on the mill I think it's a  nice looking part it'll be really cool there yeah nice I'm pretty pleased with that got  to be pretty pleased with that that's great all   right getting ready to drill this but first  I just want to make sure I'm totally square well tap fluid and tap these holes a little bit of tap oil for every hole all right now I want to mount the vise to this so  that I can officially measure out exactly where   the pivot should go the pivot point is going  to be placed at an exact orientation between   that 45 and that 90 and in order to do that  I've got to mount the vise to the arrow so I   could figure out where that apex is and put my  pivot in the back of this thing right where it   needs to go oh look at that that's wow I had  that whole shot you were watching everything   happened below frame I'm really sorry there  we go I've attached the vise to the arrow now   it's time to do some marking okay so obviously  that's one apex and then this is the second one yep good I like that okay pull  that off oh look at that dueling   screwdrivers doo doo doo doo doo  doo doo doo so if that's the apex how does this work it goes like this comes  up here so the pivot wants to happen at the   bisection angle there seven for half of 0.7  for is half of 75 is thirty five plus four is   thirty seven point three seven right today  okay so that's the angle and now I want my   pivot need a steel pin for my pivot so I go  over here to my steel drawer we're gonna go   find a problem that I like I don't like  that one if it's too small I mean that's   I'm hard to beat it's nice and positive  everything I cut something off that before I've decided to go with the pin that's  basically the size of theirs it's really   close I'm gonna place it in almost  the identical spot you can see it is   literally just behind the apex I've got my  measurement so that pin is gonna go right   there when so I drilled this hole out with a  fractional drill bit but I am reaming it out   with a number drill it's exactly 0.18 when you  want to make a hole really exact you use one   of these things it's called a reamer it's  got these long straight chisel blades it's   not meant for cutting a hole it's meant for  refining it and you just slowly feed it in there we go let's get a little cutting fluid  there now that should be a very close whole   to this pin oh and it is ah that's great okay  so we're in really good shape here it's we've   got the we've got the arrow we've got the  vise now it's time to cut out this guy the   base and we're on our way I think I cut  the base out of quarter inch aluminum to   start cutting out a piece like this I'm  just gonna use raw stock 6061 aluminum   and I need it to be four and a half by seven  inches and that's what I'm going to cut out that is my new base before I've cut it out but now  we've got to do what we call lay out on this guy   ah my hair layout is a machinists technique for  precisely marking out on a piece of metal where   all the cuts are supposed to happen I'm going to  spray this with a blue lacquer dye called dye comb   or marking fluid and I'm gonna then scribe in the  cuts so that I know exactly what material I want   to remove from this aluminum Chuck all right  now I've got a nice blue piece of aluminum let   me let that set and we'll start our marquee all  right let's say that's 0.25 great so we'll do a we'll make that the cut side and we want to bust out  exactly quarter-inch from there yep okay so then rate will have  that be just wrote Oh dad let's   use this one oh that no that's about the same so now I can cut all that out right now but I'm not  going to now what I'm gonna do is I'm actually   going to put the hole in here for the pin I'm  gonna install the pin I'm gonna put the vise   on and I'm gonna work out the hinge of the saw  because I want to make sure I've got a functional   machine before I work on the aesthetics here  so we're doing really good I really like this   base cutting it out and filing it down will be  awesome but for right now I got some machine   work to do so that is vying oh oh oh yeah when  you when you drill a perfectly vertical hole   ah and two things are joined forever that's  really lovely okay so yeah I find this bit   of the narrative entertaining because I have  to cut this pin and this is a bit of hardened   steel in order to do it well I should be able  to use my chop saw but I can't so I'm going to   use this my air-powered cut-off saw which I  don't like using so let's get a mark on here oh it's getting lovely it's gettin it's gettin  it's gettin kind of lovely yeah alright let's   get a 45 out here and let's get it out one  more bit of engineering which is I want to   be able to take it from zero to 45 pretty  cool and then I want to be able to lock it   at each of those or at any of thing in between  because I'm gonna make some marks along here so   the question is how to do that and I think the  answer is I'm gonna have some feet built into   this thing one two three four right have some  feet built into this thing and I'm thinking of   a brass nut right here yeah I'm thinking of  a brass knurled nut right here so I want to   bisect this arrow for a brass nut right there  again I can worry about the actual positioning   in a little bit you know what I'm wondering I'm  wondering about actually cutting off this part   of the hinge mmm and literally utilizing this  engineering by bolting it down to this there's   no yeah I can totally do that save me a couple  steps oh it's getting lovely it's gettin it's   gettin it's gettin kind of lovely yeah alright  let's get a 45 here and let's get it marked out one more bit of engineering which is I want to  be able to take it from zero to 45 pretty cool   and then I want to be able to lock it at each  of those or at any of thing in between because   I'm going to make some marks along here so  the question is how to do that and I think   the answer is I'm going to have some feet  built into this thing one two three four   right have some feet built into this thing  and I'm thinking of a brass nut right here   yeah I'm thinking of a brass knurled nut  right here so I want to bisect this arrow   for a brass nut right there again I can worry  about the actual positioning in a little bit can i let's see here you know what I'm  wondering I'm wondering about actually   cutting off this part of the hinge mmm  and literally utilizing this engineering   by bolting it down to this there's  no yeah I can totally do that save   me a couple steps could eat ah this is the  one I like this is the slightly newer one yeah then I can clamp it in place get it  all working great so this means I gotta do   that angle first all right now you see how this  is gonna work I'm gonna have a nut under here   that I do that with right and that should  allow me I'm gonna cut this on Wow what am   I gonna cut this on that'll be a thing okay  I'm trying something I've never tried before   which is kind of a live cut you see it this  way right so what I'm gonna do is I'm going   to plunge the milling bit its carbide bit  in right here and then I'm going to slowly   use this arm to make that cut all the way  down yeah yeah no yeah something like that whoo okay I'll admit that was scary but once  I got a handle on it it was actually pretty   reasonable I would not recommend you try my  technique this is not don't take this as gospel   but I'm very pleased with how that turned out  and yeah my layouts not too messed up by the   spinning yeah I've got eight yeah that's great  that's great I am super pleased so I think all   right we got to figure out how to mount the hinge  and then we're close to starting to do some hinge   mounting and then cutting out now I'm going to  cut this using the bandsaw I modified last week now that pivot point should help me figure  out where my where my hinge actually mounts   all right I know it doesn't look like  much but this plate is now properly   prepped so that I can do the cutting out  and then I'll do the file off there we go I think it's gonna take too long so this is very exciting rough assembly  there are still a lot of parts to build   for this still a few parts to build for this  we're not quite across the line but we've got   another 90 minutes or so of this day okay so  now now we need a pin all right that was a bit   of a [ __ ] fight use a technical term but here's  where at I got that going on we got that going on we got that going on uh-huh yeah  yeah and we have that going on it   cuts up to 45 and it cuts there that  is beautiful now there we go yeah so okay I don't have to remove a little bit of  material on that thing right there yep that's   fine yeah okay a knurled nut so here's what  we've got the saw is sitting on its old hinge   sitting nicely above this it's beautifulest  we're gonna really nicely I have a little bit   of a clearance issue and that the saw doesn't  quite reach all the way to the bottom literally   off by about 20,000 material on the underside  here the vise my beautiful vise is sitting on   top of now my beautiful arrow and all of this  is being held in orientation by a single pin   on the underside there and look at that look at  that and the nut you tighten this nut tightness   knurled nut ah and now it doesn't move yep so  oh yeah look at that oh so there's a few things   I still need to do this is a very vibratory  machine I need to put it on some rubber feet   I need to I think paint the very tip of my  arrow red I need to start basically coming   up with exactly what the markings are and  then how I'm going to embed them in the base   of this machine but I have to say for a rough  assembly I am really really pleased with that okay I am proceeding apace with the miniature  chop saw it's been a few days but as you can   see we have a vise we have a vise carrier and we  have a arrow and the arrow is eventually going to   point at the markings of zero degrees 10 degrees  20 degrees 30 degrees 40 degrees 45 degrees yeah   so I am about to add some a little more structure  to this guy and actually let me turn the camera   around and I'll show you what I'm talking about  so here is the chop saw as it's currently set I've   got an Emery blade in there it totally covers  whatever sits in the vise which is fantastic I   think it covers it almost to the vise being all  the way open let's just double-check that look   at that this is a tiny little sorry there we go  look at that yeah I can't have almost device all   the way open and still chop all the way through  and the vise sits on this carrier and when you   loosen this knurled nut you can move the carrier  and eventually I will have angle markings punched   into the outside of this plate but there's another  feature I want to add right now and it's a really   fun one careful Watchers might notice that I have  a little bit of a slit right here and I actually   cut an old ruler that I had and it fits in that  slit and that's going to be a stop I'm going to   put a brass stop that I'm going to machine here  that will be adjustable so you can put work in   here and the stop will give it a consistent length  so you can cut out many pieces of the same length   using this and I think over here is where I'll  have I'm still not sure about how the stop is   going to actually stop stop but we'll get there so  next step is I'm going to actually do some layout   on this little piece of this brass or bronze  doesn't really matter which for my purposes and   I've already painted it with a blue marking dye so  it's time for some layout all right so I've done a   bit of layout and this is what layout looks like  I've made some markings I draw a hash marks where   I know I'm cutting stuff out and next step is to  check this into the mill and start cutting it down okay so here's my stop mostly cut out and  need some polish and some burrs removed and   stuff like that now I want to make the slot  for the little ruler and that's that little   business right there and I'm going to cut  that with a slitting saw this is a totally   cool milling procedure and I'm going to show you  how it works this right here is a slitting saw   blade and it happens to be the exact thickness  that I need it to be and I'm going to chuck it   into an arbor Chuck this piece into the  vise over there and I'm going to slowly   use the slitting saw to make this perfect cut  right through there you're going to love it almost there one more pass that's right ladies and germs it's time to  bring in the big guns yes I am going to clamp   this puppy into my stitching phony yes so let's  see here if I grab it like this yeah that gives   me the angle that I want actually here let's  try it like this oh yeah there we go awesome   okay so let's see if this guy really cool come  on gives me the accuracy that I'm hoping for mm it's a little bigger than I would like it  to be but I can live with that and slot fits   perfectly in that that it let's go there we go  there is my stop I'm gonna glue that yeah I'm   gonna glue that in there mm-hmm and then I'm  going to set its its adjustability this is one   of those shots from clickspring here or it puts  down a part and can't believe how clean it is I'm   pretty happy with that okay I have my stop it's  now mounted to my steel measuring rod which I'm   very excited about it looks great and it sits in  this little slot right there hold on let's see if   I can get that yeah there we go it's rough yeah  sorry about the focus thing ah ah okay okay it's   gonna sit in this slot and I think I know how I'm  going to make it titanoboa and that is I'm going   to take this slitting saw here and make a little  slice right above the slot and then I'm gonna tap   a hole for a small like 440 screw and that will  be my tightening screw yes I'm gonna use a little   flap of flexible steel to hold on to this without  marking it that's the theory let's see how I do so all right I had to finish that one off camera  but you can see a little flappy flap so what   I'm gonna do is that should have just a tiny bit  of flexibility and I'll clean up its burrs I'm   gonna put a hole right down there and a tightening  screw with a lever arm and I'm hoping one quarter   turn that's my goal is that there's a little  lever up and I put it down and I clamp and I   bring it back up and I'm not clamped and the way  I'm hoping to do that is by actually modifying a   little allen wrench but we'll see okay I have  this was intense I have a hole tapped in the   back of this vise this is the slot in which my  my stop here will ride and it's back stop is the   bottom of the mount for the vise this guy here  now I have taken a 440 screw and I have machine   the end of it to be a little bit of a relief so  that I'd used a plug tap on this I use a bottom   tap all the way right up until my little flappy  flap but I have no idea right like I couldn't get   all the way to the bottom so I machined a little  pull-up I machined a little bit of a relief on   the end of the 440 just to provide a little better  registration and this should cinch almost all the   way up okay so that moves now let's see here  if I have it facing up like this so what I'm   planning on doing is actually cutting this allen  wrench down to right here and braising it right   to the Allen if I bring it down like this not  quite ooh it's a little bit but it's more like it's more like from here no there there it  doesn't move so it kind of needs to go kind   of used to go right there geez it's like past  center I don't like that okay that's not moving   and if I bring it up then it moves down no move  up move that's great down no move up move yes   at the 90 it can't move at zero it can okay  that is awesome I got to cut this I'm think   I'm gonna try and slaughter it right in place  okay how do you cut an allen wrench well use   a grinder all right got my soldering iron cut  down I'm going to a little bit of flux on there and let's just double-check I got my  measurement yep 90 is no move zero   is move okay so one two three four the  issue here is that the device it sells   gonna act like a heatsink but hopefully I  can get the whole thing hot enough before   it does that I mean it's good act as a heat  sink no matter what question is can i yeah   I just don't want to end up soldering it  all to itself whoo hey that doesn't work yep okay let's get that little more flux let's get a little more  heat Oh running out of fuel great I feel like that's wedding all the  way around good I don't think that's gonna   go anywhere okay I'm gonna bring this all the  way out I'm gonna clean this guy up yeah this   is this part while it seems like tedious to  assemble and disassemble your main machine   like a million times it's actually great it's  actually really lovely the more you do it the   more comfortable you get with it the more you  start to understand the idiosyncrasies of your   machine and exactly what it wants from you you  understand which side of which things to tighten   which sides to tighten first and second I  mean it's just all these ways okay that's   the front that's the bottom so these guys live  like that yeah okay and these tiny little 440s it's great wonderful registered I'm shooting right  hey I'm shooting you don't know how many times I   looked up and realize I haven't been shooting you  wouldn't believe how I yeah this thing was 1000   mm thicker on one end than the other I filed  it I didn't video it you're welcome okay so   that moves that doesn't that moves that doesn't  bang on that is cool okay so if this guy lives   here like that and this comes up oh man yeah it  can't be it can't be taller than the body of the   Vice that's for sure so I am going to I've got a  thing in addition to making wonderful cutters my   pecs makes some really intense cutters these are  like bolt cutters for your hand so I am going to   literally watch this this is hardened steel yeah  point that's great now I want to I want to put   something on there some little doohickey I think  I know what I want to do all right this is uh   we're getting close here so this is the little  loosening arm for the stop and it moves in and   out quite freely and then this is the Titan look  at that I managed to get all the tightening within   90 degrees I'm super happy about it I have it  clamped into square right now what I think is   square so the next step is the next step is to cut  this piece of brass in here and see how accurate   the cut is and adjust accordingly so here we  go bring it right up to the stop Oh actually   I don't need to cut off that much cut off just a  little bit there we go yeah great yes I'm there excellent here we go I don't for the record I'm cutting a wide piece of  brass here this is not the kind of thing   you'd often cut on here to be more like  cutting kns brass engineering plastic but all right okay this is the position I  was sitting in when I made the cut and   I'm about to just check Square is City on  this guy oh it is ever so slightly barely   so it's this way needs to come this way  okay here is my mini chop saw 20 some-odd   completely custom parts and pieces everything  fitting together okay after about three weeks   of work the longest one day build in a while  I have finished my mini chop saw all the parts   are here and I'm about to assemble are you  guys ready here we go let's do an assembly there it is my mini chop saw with a vise it's  got a movable stop it's got adjustable angles so   freakin satisfying let's got something then well  done here we go this is a piece of brass square   kns brass stock which is exactly the kind of  stuff we'd be cutting with this and we turn it on ladies and gentlemen let us check  square wait a second stay here yeah   I call that respectable let's do  a 45 here we go doing a 45 cut I know the motor sounds just a little bit  anemic but I don't mind that okay let's   take a look with our 45 ladies and germs aside  from a burr I think we have a new tool in the   shop oh so excited and I just can't hide it oh  my gosh alright thank you guys for sticking it   out with me on this incredible one-week build  oh here I also have some of the parts that's a   knurled nut I made that turned out to be too  short I had to remake the vise jaw because I   got some of the relationships just a little  bit off by literally like ten thousandths i   remade the under carrier that goes underneath  the jaw let's see i remade the lead screw twice   I remade the plate that this sits on there  there was a huge amount of trial and error   and then some unqualified success I am so  pleased with this thing and yes I know the   motors anemic and maybe I will replace the  motor if I can figure out its specs and size   and buy one that's faster and quieter and  smoother but that's project for another day   this has been maybe my favorite one day build  thanks for joining me I'll see you next time

Channel: Adam Savage’s Tested

Views: 1,325,502

Rating: 4.9054732 out of 5

Keywords: tested, machining, vise, machine, adam savage, one day builds, one day build, tested adam savage one day build, tiny tool, small tools, micro tools, adam savage one day build, one day builds adam savage, workshop ideas, one day build adam savage, adams one day builds, how to, metalworking tools, Mini Machine Vise, machine vise, cast iron, chop saw, mini chop saw, micro chop saw, miter saw, mini miter saw diy, mini miter saw for crafts, best mini miter saw, benchtop chop saw

Id: ritwf-_iOlg

Length: 68min 55sec (4135 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2020