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Best way to cut a new screw driver slot in a rod

gladsaxisme

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If you were to replace a rod and you cut one down to the right size to fit what is the best way to cut a new screw driver slot, a nice techy question for you here ....John
 
A fine saw.

I don't think it's that easy trying to cut a slot in the end of a small rod, I was wondering if the techs had an easy way of doing it like a small block with a hole in it to suit the rod with a guide slot already cut in it and some way of clamping the rod PERHAPS ???
 
Here's my nice "techy" answer: :)

For years I did it by cutting the slot with a jeweler's saw and eyeballing the location. It helped to cut a small notch with a Swiss file to start the saw blade. A few weeks ago someone on a repair website turned me onto this Screw Slotter. I bought one and they work great. It's a tool well worth the price if you make a lot of hinge rods. Of course you need the correct size die to cut the threads and the knowledge of how to cut the "shoulder" just above the threads if you are going to make your own.
 
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A bit expensive for a one off. It's probably not that hard to make one out of wood. I have some thin, fine saws that fit the dremmel. I still have a steady hand but two pairs of glasses helps these days.
 
Here's my nice "techy" answer: :)

For years I did it by cutting the slot with a jeweler's saw and eyeballing the location. It helped to cut a small notch with a Swiss file to start the saw blade. A few weeks ago someone on a repair website turned me onto this Screw Slotter. I bought one and they work great. It's a tool well worth the price if you make a lot of hinge rods. Of course you need the correct size die to cut the threads and the knowledge of how to cut the "shoulder" just above the threads if you are going to make your own.

Thanks for that info jbt,I thought there might be a jig available to do it, it's pretty much what I had in mind to have a go at making but I was thinking of going across the bar rather than along it,but it seems very reasonable on price,

What's the thing about making the shoulder that would be very interesting to know, I had thought about this myself and considered you would have to cut a grove near the end of the rod with a mini lathe then cut the thread.

I actually bought a set of rods off eBay from China for about £9:00 if I remember rightly because a sax I was playing around with had one or two damaged and one of them was a perfect match for one of the damaged ones the others were too long so I was going to cut and slot one to fit, they were quite nice rods too with shouldered threads.

I have noticed that not all the saxes have rods with shouldered threads and I tend to look upon this as an indication of the quality of that particular sax but maybe this feature might not be considered so important by various manufacturers, your thoughts would be very interesting jbt.....John
 
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A bit expensive for a one off. It's probably not that hard to make one out of wood. I have some thin, fine saws that fit the dremmel. I still have a steady hand but two pairs of glasses helps these days.

I think wood might be too soft a material but had considered making a jig out of a piece door handle square link bar but I do have a friend that works with metal that might be able to give me something better to use, I didn't think the price for the jig was too bad but didn't look at the postage cost yet ...John
 
I make all of my hinge rods using a bench motor with a hollow shaft. You chuck the rod into the motor with just the amount of rod you want to thread exposed. Then you spin the rod against a fine tooth file to bring the diameter down to the size required to cut that size thread. Next you use a die to cut the threads as far as you can and use your file to round the end slightly. To form the shoulder you spin the rod and use a jeweler's file to make a small cut using the front of the chuck as a guide. Too deep a cut will compromise the strength of the rod. The last step is to pull the rod out a bit and sand or file the small burr created by cutting the shoulder and filing the rod down to size.

For relatively short rods an electric drill in a bench vise works ok. For longer ones a motor with a hollow shaft is a must.
 
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