Jigsaw Jiggery Pokery

The next step of Elephant construction; transfer the leg, hip and backbones to the ply, cut out bones.
The goal of this part of the project is to cut the shapes into manageable sized pieces so they can be moved to my Brother's house.  My Brother has a lot of specialised tools that will be essential to a well finished Elephant.  More importantly, he can also explain how to use them correctly and safely.

This process starts out promisingly, and by early afternoon Boxing Day, the shapes have all been transferred.

Transferring legs etc.

Next step, to cut them out using a jigsaw.  This went well for the first sheet of ply, but for the legs, which will have to support more weight, we need the extra thickness of two sheets glued together.   This is likely to be harder on the tools.  Glueing two sheets together at the outset would the proper way to do this, but it would be a major task and would involve several helpers.  I decide to hold the two sheets of ply together with screws as I can move a single sheet of ply on my own even with an injured elbow.  The bone in my elbow has not properly healed from a bad break 2 years ago, but apart from a few recent twinges it has been fine for the last few months, so I am hoping it won't hold this project up.  Once the shapes have been cut from the plywood I will be able to carry each one without difficulty.

Drilling pilot holes

At this stage in the process I am still full of bravado, I have almost everything I need and a month before the performance.  Although there are still a few details to be worked out, but at this stage it is just a case of liberating the elephant from some very large pieces of plywood.

Those painful twinges in the elbow that have been happening for a couple of weeks, we'll just ignore those for the moment, although the photographs reveal that I am, at least, wearing an elbow support.

Time is pressing on so I fire up the Jigsaw.  This is my second favourite tool, although it would be fair to say I haven't treated mine well.  The previous project involved cutting a metal owl from corrugated iron, which isn't what Jigsaws are intended to do.  Cutting through wood, even quite thick pieces, should be fine though, and my saw cut the ribs out quite happily.

If I can catch him once upon the hip...

So, with two sheets of ply screwed together, and a new, slightly coarser blade, I start cutting out the hips.  The jigsaw seems quite happy at first cutting through two sheets of 25mm ply, until moments after this picture was taken, when the blade simply pulled itself out of the saw.  I try tightening it up.  It drops out as soon as I turn the saw on, before I have even started cutting.  I try a different blade.  It cuts briefly and then drops out of the saw.  After several attempts to get further with this cut, it becomes obvious there is something wrong.  A closer look at the small aluminium parts that holds the blade in place shows is twisted and deformed.  There will be no more Elephant Liberation until the jigsaw is repaired.

One of the problems with summer holiday projects, especially on Boxing Day is that everywhere is closed, so even if it was possible to buy a spare part, the parts supply place is closed.  The blade holder shouldn't be too hard to fix, given the appropriate tools, so I take the small bit of aluminium over to my brother's workshop to see if it can be straightened.  Using a vice, large hammer and adjustable spanner we manage to get the holder to something near true.

After returning to the elephant, the blade is no longer falling straight out of the saw, but it is getting too late in the day, so cutting will resume in the morning.  The goal, at this stage, is to get the bones seperated so that the Elephant components can be transported to my brother's workshop, where there are bigger and better tools.

Next morning I start off, intending to use a combination of my jigsaw and a larger, faster, but slightly unwieldy reciprocating saw I have borrowed from my brother.  I intend to use the jigsaw on the difficult curves, and the reciprocating saw on the longer straigher cuts.  This method is faster, but not very friendly to my elbow, so I'd rather use the jigsaw.  The blades are staying in place in the jigsaw for longer, but now it keeps behaving erratically, and not always starting when I pull the trigger.  I do one long cut with the reciprocating saw, which is a bit uncomfortable.   Fortunately, at this point my brother arrives with a second jigsaw, so everything is expected to happen really quicky.

A few seconds into the first cut, the little wheel behind the saw blade on my brother's jigsaw falls off.  The tiny circlip has flown off into the ether.  Incredibly, his saw is the same brand and almost the same model (slightly more powerful) as mine, so we can take the little wheel from mine and get one working jigsaw between us.

We proceed taking turns cutting out legs, and opening up my dead jigsaw to see what might be wrong.

Inside a Ryobi Jigsaw.  No operator serviceable parts inside.

It seems the screws holding the wires have shaken themselves out of place and by the time I'd cut a couple more ribs out my brother has fixed that.

There was the slightly worrying issue of the bit that was left over.  There's always a bit left over, this is some kind of a rule.  Anyone who has taken a car apart knows this.  Usually a small insignificant bolt.  In this case a tiny spring clip.

We each puzzle over the location of the clip in turn while the other carried on cutting more elephant parts.

Then my brother's jigsaw starts cutting out, a similar problem to the one mine had experienced.  So, we dismantle the second jigsaw, carefully noting the position of the mystery spring clip.

At this point, my jigsaw starts up, but has no little wheel behind the blade, and my brothers saw doesn't start.  So, we swap wheels back and cut a few more legs with the one remaining working saw before calling it a day so I can go off to a relaxing jam session and barbeque with some rather good musicians surrounded by native bush, birds and some exotic plants.

My arm is feeling a little unfomfortable after all this effort and vibration, but it has only done something disturbing and painful a couple of times, and still seems to be working.   Tomorrow should see a lot more progress.