OccupantRJ
Well-known member
I needed to make a spooning die a while back. I had to machine a piece of round tool steel stock to 1.865 diameter, then split it lengthwise on the vertical bandsaw to get half to use as part of the die. Using a straightedge and a scribe, I marked a line down the length of the material, then went to the saw to perform the cut. This must have been a day when I was in "the zone" for the freehand cut to come out this well. If you have never tried to equally split a piece of cylindrical material freehand on a bandsaw, while keeping the halves equal, and with a flat plane on the cut, then you just won't appreciate what it takes to do this. The pics below show the piece. It is 3 inches in length. The blue end measures .9135 thickness, the middle is .915, and the far end is .918. The face plane is flat enough that the part will not teeter when placed face down on a surface plate. I feel that I will never make a freehand cut of that quality again. I can die a happy man.
