# Segmenting with metal question



## Marnat3 (Jan 28, 2014)

I have done the search thing and found all the instructions on how to but my question is do you always need to match the saw kerf with the material you are adding or am I missing something? 
What is the reason for this? Maybe a newbie question, but trying to understand. Thanks


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## Dalecamino (Jan 28, 2014)

If you're close, like within a few thousandths it will work. The idea is not to remove more material than you have to replace it with. Otherwise your parts may not have a good fit when it's gluing time. Hope that makes sense.


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## Marnat3 (Jan 28, 2014)

Ok, so as long as you (I) still have the length required for your (my) chosen pen and you (I) have everything lined up right, you (I) should be good?


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## mredburn (Jan 28, 2014)

What happens when your material doesnt match the saw kerf is that when you do multiple  segments the grain or pattern gets farther and farther out of sinc. If your doing multiple segments that cut through previous metal segments they wont line up with each other. I will see if I can find some examples


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## Dalecamino (Jan 28, 2014)

You (I) want to do your (my) cutting and gluing BEFORE you (I) cut to final length.


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## Dalecamino (Jan 28, 2014)

mredburn said:


> What happens when your material doesnt match the saw kerf is that when you do multiple  segments the grain or pattern gets farther and farther out of sinc. If your doing multiple segments that cut through previous metal segments they wont line up with each other. I will see if I can find some examples


That's exactly what I meant to say :biggrin:

Seriously, I was thinking of the sheet metal segmenting. My blade on my bandsaw is .010 thick, and the metal I used was .014 It worked for me.


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## mredburn (Jan 28, 2014)

Here is a picture of exactly what happens, notice the metal in the scallops.


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## Marnat3 (Jan 28, 2014)

Yes , I see what you mean. Thanks to both of you Dalecamino and Mredburn. 
I am seeing a band saw or scroll saw in my immediate future. 
Right now I am using a compound miter saw. Pretty thick kerf on it


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## mikespenturningz (Mar 13, 2014)

Those scallops were made on a bandsaw. I don't know how you can get them any finer than that with this method? I have tried that is for sure. When you make a cut through the aluminum the kerf of the saw cannot be replaced. So when you put the pieces back together you are missing the aluminum that you cut out. There is no way to replace that part.


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## plantman (Mar 13, 2014)

mredburn said:


> Here is a picture of exactly what happens, notice the metal in the scallops.



Jim: Wasn't that just a last minute design change????


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## plantman (Mar 13, 2014)

Marnat3 said:


> Yes , I see what you mean. Thanks to both of you Dalecamino and Mredburn.
> I am seeing a band saw or scroll saw in my immediate future.
> Right now I am using a compound miter saw. Pretty thick kerf on it[/QUOTE
> 
> Funny, I see both in your future!!!  I find that a full size miter saw has to much power for the job you are tring to do, plus ,unless you have some very sturdy jigs that you are using, I don't like my fingers that close to the large blade. You need to make to many cuts with it and can't afford to loose track of what you are doing, surprized, or be distracted     Jim  S


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## mredburn (Mar 13, 2014)

It cant be done without matching the exact width of the aluminum to the exact width of the blade kerf, anything else and they start to move apart. If your aluminum was thicker than the blade width it would move the other way. THe closest way would to be to use a scroll saw with the aluminum as thick as the kerf of the blade.


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## Krash (Apr 16, 2014)

I am hot on the trail of a procedure to rectify this offset. I have it all planned out and the math done, just need to do a trial run to verify. 

Stay tuned. I will probably post it in the Segmenting forum.


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