Lever upgrade to Knew Concepts saws

by Alberic on April 21, 2011

Greetings all:

I’m putting this here on my Orchid blog to make it easier to find.

The following are Lee’s comments.  Mine will follow.

————

Brian and I have been working on a solution for some time on how to retrofit the cam-lever tensioning to the spring/knurled nut saw frame. It was never my intention to make orphans of the original frame, and leave the first adopters in the lurch.

We now have a kit available that can be retrofitted. It entails some sawing however, so you can be glad that you still have your old frame.

You have to cut away the upper spring perch and the area on both sides to make room for the brass nut. The lever is installed along with a bridge piece, your old upper clamp is re-installed, and you are now back in operation.

As always, it looks simple after the fact. Pricing is still being worked out as we just put the first one together this afternoon, but it is looking like the $25.00 range for the kit.

Lee (the saw guy)
———–

Brian again:

The photo above is the first successful prototype of the lever upgrade for the Mark I Knew Concepts saws.  (Screw tensioned, with spring.)  The final version will probably be all red.  The white aluminum lever was just an unfinished one we grabbed to experiment with.

It will be at least a week, probably two or three before we have any of these ready to ship.  It will be at least a week before we really know how much they’ll cost, but we’re aiming for $25, less if we can.

There will be an announcement over the orchid list when they’re ready.

I guess this is a classic example of the virtue of coming at a problem again from a different direction.  Lee and I spent a day or two several months ago, beating our heads against the problem of trying to retrofit a lever onto the older frames, with so little success that we gave up on the notion.  Coming at it again today, from a slightly different direction, worked wonders.

Regards,

Brian

Alberic

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

alberic April 21, 2011 at 9:36 am

Hi Jamie,

The lever’s intended more as a quick way to do large scale tension adjustment. “Open/Closed” as you put it. The fine tension control comes from the brass tension knob. It works exactly like the screw tensioned saws.
In effect, it’s a screw tensioned saw with a “quick load” lever. That said, you can do fine adjustments with the lever by simply not rotating it all the way home, but it’s not easy to get it to repeat that way. Far better to just dial the screw knob in.
Regards,
Brian

Jamie Hall April 21, 2011 at 7:17 am

I’ve been wondering whether the cam system allows fine control over blade tension, or is it just “open/closed”?

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