You don’t need a bigger saw frame…. Just twist the saw blade!

How to cut metal with a piercing saw when the frame stops you

Have you ever been sawing out a sheet of metal and the saw frame bumps into the edge of the sheet to stop you from staying on your desired cutting line?

Very annoying.

One solution is a deeper saw frame (see above), but there is another way which doesn’t involve buying anything new...

You can twist the piercing saw blade at the top and the bottom (the toothless sections) so that the frame goes off to one side, out of your way.

Just make sure you twist both the top and bottom sections the same way and to the same degree. Use parallel pliers if you have them, or wide flat nose pliers (not sharp snipe nose). Do this under tension in the saw frame (see pic) and you can really go for it, it feels like twisting it a full 90 degrees, but it bounces back a bit.

When you start sawing with a twisted blade, it takes a moment to get your eye in and adjust to the angle, so it’s a good idea to practice on an offcut or something not critical. Watch the blade, and observe the cut you’re making, ignore the frame (as always!) and adjust the angle until you are cutting the line you want to cut.

Simple, yet so effective!

I have a super deep saw frame that I found at a car boot sale, and it works fine, but it does require careful handling. It’s much easier to break blades with a long heavy frame than with a standard one, and the balance takes a bit of getting used to.

Twisting the blade is another option, and you can always keep the twisted blade separate from your others, labelled with a tag of tape, there for when you need it.

Feel free to pass this on to anyone who might be interested.

(This post first appeared on my Hammer Rack email of December 2024, please sign up for more like this)