Power hacksaw

[Lx460]

Caught this on CL and thought it was neat. I've never seen one before. Any idea as to age or manufacture? Asking $50 so I might go check it out. Thanks.

 

[johninct]

If it works , is complete and is not all worn out I think it is a steal.

 

[iajonesy]

Looks to me like it's home built and kind of small. That said,it might serve your needs just fine for the price.

Mike

 

[zkling]

Tinker toy. A bench vise and a decent hacksaw would be more useful.

IIRC those were supplied in kit form of raw castings.

 

[chrisbowles]

Does a industrial size power hacksaw offer any benefit over modern horizontal bandsaw

 

[zkling]

Not really. Especially if one has a blade welder and buys their bandsaw blades by the roll.

 

[tool_scrounge]

Caught this on CL and thought it was neat. I've never seen one before. Any idea as to age or manufacture? Asking $50 so I might go check it out. Thanks.

Made in kit form by Casting Specialties (C. F. Struck Corp.) up until the 1980's?. I grew up with one of these saws. They work well on stuff up to about 2" diameter max but they take a while to cut. I am not sure if cutting by hand is any slower but the saw is a lot less tiring. I would like to find one of the kits to put together with my kid, but I have not been able to find one.

The only downside is they use 8" hacksaw blades. I used 10" blades as a kid and held it in the front groove with a rubber band. These days I would have done something better. 8" blades can be found on Ebay.

 

[organ]

I own a Sawmaster... bought it off Craigslist too. $100. I love it... it's really neat. Not as impractical as one may think. Cuts pretty well.

 

[larry_g]

I also have a saw master and use it quite a bit. The one shown above I would pass on, that is a lot lighter than the saw master, and the SM is small.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Tronyadorable]

Tinker toy. A bench vise and a decent hacksaw would be more useful.

IIRC those were supplied in kit form of raw castings.

Go ahead. I'll turn on that hacksaw, drink a beer, and watch you do The Flintstone.

 

[doan]

Digging up an old thread....

I found one of these in my great grandfather's barn. Here's the state I found it in:

These were sold as DIY kits in the late 60's though sometime in the 80's. In 1968 the kits sold for $18.95. The kit came a raw castings, the owner had to drill every hole and file everything to fit. I think this is why the few that are around look like they have been Macgyvered.

After a bath with Phosphoric acid and some wire wheeling it looked like this:

The chain was clearly too short to go around a sprocket (which was missing) on the 1/2" shaft. With some more research I found this pic in the Jan. 1968 Popular Mechanics:

This clearly showed a reduced shaft and a 9-tooth sprocket (I added the annotations). I guessed that the sprocket was 1/4" bore and I actually found a 9-tooth 1/4" bore sprocket. The reduced shaft had broken off of mine. I rigged it up in my drill press to drill and tap a 1/4" hole for a bolt to hold the sprocket:

Here it is fully assembled and temporarily rigged to a motor for a test run:

Video of the test run here:

It sawed through that 1/2" conduit in about 20 sec. It uses 8" blades, I just punched a hole at 8" in a longer blade and broke the remainder off.

Edit: Big socket on the end of the arm acts as a weight to make it saw faster.

 

[silentpoet]

I have a power hacksaw, but ten inch blades are a bit hard to find.

 

[doan]

I have a power hacksaw, but ten inch blades are a bit hard to find.

buy 12's, punch a hole at 10 and break the excess off

 

[DMAR]

Cool novelty tool, but I've got one word; Sawzall...! Getting stuff done must have sucked before there were Sawzalls.

 

[Brad54]

I've got a mid-sized one in the basement (I say 'midsized' because there were some BIG industrial models). I've heard the real benefit from them is the clean, perfectly square cut, which you don't always get with a horizontal bandsaw, and definitely don't get with a hand-held saw.

I've got a project that I can see it would work well for...
-Brad

 

[doan]

I set it up more permanently tonight, squared it up and cut a piece of 1/8" thick 1-1/4" angle iron. It zipped through the vertical part, then took like 15 min to get through the 1-1/4" flat part.

I would have never bought it. I thought one of my relatives had made it, but I think it's more likely that it came from an auction or farm sale. Either way it had been in the barn on the farm since at least the 80's. I just get a kick out of fixing old stuff.

 

[ZRX61]

I own a Sawmaster... bought it off Craigslist too. $100. I love it... it's really neat. Not as impractical as one may think. Cuts pretty well.

Pulled mine out of a scrap pile for free. Got it home, plugged it in & it worked just find

 

[Ohmthis]

Doan, cut the vertical and then flip it to cut the vertical again. I don't have one, but it could work???

 

[doan]

Doan, cut the vertical and then flip it to cut the vertical again. I don't have one, but it could work???

Yep, that would be faster, I was checking the squareness of the cut in both directions, so I just let it go.

 

[ZRX61]

damn thing must weigh 300lb....3rd pic is after the initial clean up.... it was BLACK when I dragged it home.

 

[Brad54]

I set it up more permanently tonight, squared it up and cut a piece of 1/8" thick 1-1/4" angle iron. It zipped through the vertical part, then took like 15 min to get through the 1-1/4" flat part.

I always cut angle from the back... put it down so the point is facing up, so the blade hits it first.
It's easier to clamp this way, and it always cuts much, much faster--at least it does on both my horizontal band saw and my chop saw.

-Brad

 

[tool_scrounge]

Digging up an old thread....

I found one of these in my great grandfather's barn. Here's the state I found it in:

These were sold as DIY kits in the late 60's though sometime in the 80's. In 1968 the kits sold for $18.95. The kit came a raw castings, the owner had to drill every hole and file everything to fit. I think this is why the few that are around look like they have been Macgyvered.

After a bath with Phosphoric acid and some wire wheeling it looked like this:

The chain was clearly too short to go around a sprocket (which was missing) on the 1/2" shaft. With some more research I found this pic in the Jan. 1968 Popular Mechanics:

This clearly showed a reduced shaft and a 9-tooth sprocket (I added the annotations). I guessed that the sprocket was 1/4" bore and I actually found a 9-tooth 1/4" bore sprocket. The reduced shaft had broken off of mine. I rigged it up in my drill press to drill and tap a 1/4" hole for a bolt to hold the sprocket:

Here it is fully assembled and temporarily rigged to a motor for a test run:

Video of the test run here:

It sawed through that 1/2" conduit in about 20 sec. It uses 8" blades, I just punched a hole at 8" in a longer blade and broke the remainder off.

Edit: Big socket on the end of the arm acts as a weight to make it saw faster.

You will probably get better blade and saw life if you slow if down some. That is running way fast.

 

[doan]

You will probably get better blade and saw life if you slow if down some. That is running way fast.

So if i go slower, can I use more weight?

 

[Fretters]

So if i go slower, can I use more weight?

No need to add silly amounts of weight. As long as the bow isn't skipping on the cut, it's weighted fine.

 

[Fretters]

I've got a mid-sized one in the basement (I say 'midsized' because there were some BIG industrial models).

Photo's?

I've heard the real benefit from them is the clean, perfectly square cut, which you don't always get with a horizontal bandsaw, and definitely don't get with a hand-held saw.

Less phaff, definitely. Provided there's no notable wear on the mechanism, a quick blade swap and tension and they're ready to go again. No worries over blade tracking or such.

I've heard that they tend to be more reliable in keeping a square cut too, but I can't really see how a bandsaw in good nick and correctly set up can be as bad as some make out.

 

[gm54210]

I've been really happy with mine. It's a Craftsman/Atlas. Bought it as a "kit" - guy got in over his head. Thankfully all of the parts were there, though one was broken and luckily still in stock new! I built the base to enclose the motor and make the unit portable.

 

[tool_scrounge]

So if i go slower, can I use more weight?

That is a light weight saw. It will work wonders if you keep it oiled (30wt non-detergent) and let it take its time. I would not put put more weight on it personally.

 

[organ]

damn thing must weigh 300lb....3rd pic is after the initial clean up.... it was BLACK when I dragged it home.

Hmmm... only vaguely resembles my Sawmaster... first of that model I've seen.