Printer's or Trimming Saw

I have a Hammond Trim-o-saw, also called a Glider saw in my shop. Outstanding for cutting small pieces. Solid cast iron. If you like I could take some pictures and post them

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the offer but I did find some info on the Hammond Trim-o-saw on the OWWM web site. There's also some mention of other brands but noting at all on the ATF saw. The Hammond looks like a pretty nice saw. Too soon to tell on the ATF yet as it will need some work to get running. It just has V-ways, whereas I gather that the Trim-O-Saw had ball roller ways.

If you've ever cut plastic or thin metal with it, I'd appreciate a recommendation on saw blades. At present, I'm thinking of buying one or two Tenryu blades, assuming that I can get them to fit. BTW, what size blades does your Trim-O-Saw take?

Mike

"Mike Henry" wrote: (clip) Has anybody heard of this particular brand? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Yes. ATF was one of the oldest in the business. They made the "Chief," and even though they went out of business several years ago, the Chief remains one of the most popular small presses ever built. I vaguely recall that one of the founders was Benjamin Franklin.

I've seen them back when I was in the printing business. ATF stands for American Type Founders. I also left behind a shear type slug trimmer that was very handy for trimming wood miters to fit. The saw was quite thin and had a lot of teeth. It cut lead clean as a whistle. Bugs

Is it possible that you are thinking of the Hammond Trim-O-Saw? They also seemed to be sold under the Ben Franklin label based on this quote from the OWWM site:

"Since 1881. Now known as Hammond Roto-Finish. The Hammond "Glider" and "Ben Franklin" Trim-O-Saws were small precision tablesaws originally designed for metal, and were popular with printers for cutting metal type. Since not many people still use movable metal type, Trim-O-Saws have re-surfaced in woodworking shops. There was a Fine Woodworking article that discussed converting these saws to woodworking uses; be sure to read the discussion in the oldwwmachines mailing list first, e.g., this message from John Marotta. We hear that for a modest charge, Forrest will bore their blades to fit this saw."

I'm hoping it will do the same for thin plastic and metal stock. Time will tell - this saw needs a few things fixed before it can tested.

My saw takes a 7" blade, 40 tooth carbide. A special blade for this saw, the blade slips on a 3/4" shaft and is held on with 3 screws, it has 3 3/4" holes in it for 3 cutting to poke thur for smoothing the lead type.

I have a Curle Mfg saw made in San Francisco (quite some time ago I'm sure!). It took a 6" or so blade originally. Those were hard to find locally with very limited selection. While I liked the sliding bar with adjustable stop, I ended up adapting an old Rockwell table. By putting it on risers and making a new spindle, I can run standard 7" carbide blades and I've found the fence more useful than the original setup. But it's a very very nice compact and solid little saw. These saws beat the heck out of small woodworking table saws of recent vintage. And, I have all the parts to return it to original.

Jon

Thanks for the info. I think that this one originally had the same arrangment. The seller included a couple of blades which some idiot left behind when the saw was picked up and it looks like it the blade mounted on a disk with 3 bolts. It looks like this one has a 5/8" arbor so it may be possible to install standard blades on it.

BTW, there was an article in one of the WW magazines about modifying the Trim-O-Saw. The OWWM site has it in their archives, I think.

I'd like to see pictures of your saw, especially closeups of the sliding table/ways, fence, and blade mounting. Posting them here would not be a good idea, but email or uploading them to your web site would be nice.

Nice web site, BTW. It looks like you do Good Work.

Mike

Take heart - the new small battery saws have blades in the 5 1/2" range. The worm drives are 6 1/2 IIRC blades.

Martin