# Meccano scroll saw



## martinka (28 Sep 2013)

I was in St Albans today and called in at the St Albans Model Engineering Society show, and spotted this scroll saw. The blade was all over the place until he started cutting then it steadied up and cut OK. I want one!


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## Bryan Bennett (29 Sep 2013)

Martin the word has taken me back a very long time,in my days the colours were green and red.I t must have shaken a little because of its construction,it is certainly a good piece of kit.The person that worked it out has certainly got my admiration.Thank you Martin for taking the pics for our interest in the Hobby that we all love. =D> 

Bryan


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## bassethound (29 Sep 2013)

That's amazing, thanks for the pic.

Ted....


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## redmoorphil (29 Sep 2013)

Bit of useless trivia for you: the phrases bog standard and dogs boll**ks both come from meccano.
Many years ago they had 2 sets, the box standard and the box deluxe, both of which eventually transformed into the phrases used. At least that's what I heard on QI and I am not going to argue with mr fry.


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## Glynne (29 Sep 2013)

I always thought the "dogs boll**ks" was a printing term for the charcters "* :-*"


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## boysie39 (30 Sep 2013)

Glynne":1dr9rwyx said:


> I always thought the "dogs boll**ks" was a printing term for the charcters "* :-*"





redmoorphil":1dr9rwyx said:


> Bit of useless trivia for you: the phrases bog standard and dogs boll**ks both come from meccano.
> Many years ago they had 2 sets, the box standard and the box deluxe, both of which eventually transformed into the phrases used. At least that's what I heard on QI and I am not going to argue with mr fry.


https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/posting.php?mode=quote&f=19&p=802700#

The local hunt has it's Kennels down the road from me , I am sure there are quite a few inmates who would love to debate this with you . :lol: :lol:


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## scrimper (30 Sep 2013)

redmoorphil":30zshwbz said:


> Bit of useless trivia for you: the phrases bog standard and dogs boll**ks both come from meccano.
> Many years ago they had 2 sets, the box standard and the box deluxe, both of which eventually transformed into the phrases used. At least that's what I heard on QI and I am not going to argue with mr fry.



Not true, if you do a search online you will find that the QI story is nonsense.

Regarding a Meccano fretsaw, around 1989 the late Bert Love made a superb full size Meccano model of a Hobbies A1 fretsaw which worked, I actually had a go on it!

Bert Love was one of the people who wrote for the Meccano Magazine under the pen name of Spanner, I visited him at his house when he lived in Hall Green Birmingham several times, he had the most amazing collection of Meccano that you can possibly imagine. anyone who knows about Meccano will know of the No 10 set in a 3 or 4 drawer cabinet, well Bert Love had over 30 of these apart from the most massive collection of Meccano parts one could imagine, in fact he had so much that he hired a small hall a short distance from his home where he kept much of his collection.

As you might imagine I am a fan of Meccano myself and have a collection of my own, some of which I bought from Bert Love.


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## ChrisR (30 Sep 2013)

Martin.

Thanks for posting the image.

Take care.

Chris R.


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## chrispuzzle (20 Mar 2017)

Four years late, I know, but that's my Meccano fretsaw - I built the first version, oh, about ten years ago now, while waiting for an auction for a Diamond scrollsaw to come around. I failed to secure the Diamond so I bought an AWFS18 instead.

Since then I have toured the Meccano saw at many Meccano exhibitions and probably made more money out of selling the puzzles than I have from my "grown up" saw. It's still in harness; it has had a few improvements but the action is still essentially the same.

As martinka said, the blade leaps around a bit until you start the cut, then the kerf keeps it honest. I use Niqua 2.0 from Hobbies for it which have a gentle cut; Flying Dutchman blades are too aggressive for the very light plywood I use for these puzzles. After all, the saw is only powered by a 12v DC motor, so you need a light, soft wood or you'd be cutting for ages to do just one piece.


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## NazNomad (20 Mar 2017)

[youtube]Rza9Uif69wo[/youtube]


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