Honey, it just jumped into the truck...

I've been searching for a reasonably priced, local bandsaw on and off for a number of years now. In the meantime, I've bought two power hacksaws at auctions - only to sell one of them, and list the other recently for sale. After using bandsaws, I can't say that the power hacksaw is a good comparison in my opinion. I'm sure there are good arguments for each, but ask me after I've owned my new toy for a while.

If you're in SW Ontario, Canada and looking for an old gem...
http://owensound.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-tools-equipment-Craftsman-Power-Hacksaw-W0QQAdIdZ135133483

Anyway, here it is in all it's glory. Waiting patiently to be moved into it's new home.










It looks to me to be a pretty run-of-the-mill 4x6 bandsaw, and I'm told that it's at least 15 years old. Not sure what the spec'ed weight of these are, but if I were to design such a thing, I'd surely not put that much weight on top of those little stick legs. I had a bit of a chuckle when I saw that one of the bends on each leg is done with hinges - no doubt to make them fit better on the boat (correct me if there's a better reason for these).

Considering that these currently list for about $250 US (plus S&H, plus tax, plus, plus), I was content with my haggled purchase price of $120 CAD. It definitely needs a bit of cleanup and care, but that's part of the fun, isn't it? The front handwheel was broken, and I've read that these are pretty useless anyway and should be replaced by something heavier.

The funnier thing I noticed was that the blade is mounted in reverse. Despite that big arrow on the top casting pointing the other direction. No doubt the reason for this is that the motor is turning the wrong way too.



Now, I'm pretty sure that you can't just switch the wires on an AC motor like you can on a DC motor... so can anyone tell me if there's an easy way to change the rotation direction of a motor like this? I have another motor that would probably mount, but I'll have to check it's direction first.

-Sparky

No, you can't just reverse the AC leads. You'll have to reverse the starting windings -- no idea how you might do that.

Given that it looks like an old washing machine motor that has seen better days, with far too many openings in its case just begging for chips to fall into them, I think I'd work on getting a replacement motor before I spent too much time worrying about that one.

And you're right -- the legs on those things leave something to be desired, although I have a similar bandsaw I got around 1985 and the legs haven't collapsed yet.

I bought my identical (Taiwanese rather than Chinese) saw in 1979 and although it's starting to get a bit tired it still works fine. One thing - take those wheels off it and throw 'em as far as your good arm will allow - probably in the same direction you throw the motor. Then bolt the bottoms of the 'legs' to the floor with some bits of angle - makes a big difference. Another mod I did was to remove the cover on the box that houses the worm and pinion drive (after it had gone dry and destroyed the pinion) and replace it with a piece of clear acrylic, with a filling plug installed. Also, an outrigger roller, a foot or so to the left of the vise, is helpful.

The reason for the hinged legs is that they are shipped in pieces in a box that is at 25% smaller than the largest piece. Take any piece out of the box and it will never go back in.

Your motor is obviously and old appliance motor (probably a wringer washer 1/3HP) that is not reversible without some knowledge and a lot of work. The problem is that it is too small for the saw in the first place. I have a 1 HP industrial motor on my 4X6 and it gets pretty warm after a couple of cuts in 3" 1018. The factory 3/4 HP chinese motor smoked on the first 4" cut. If you have ever hacksawed steel with a coarse blade you can visualize a lot of power on the bandsaw blade at a lot of FPM.

Stan said:

Your motor is obviously and old appliance motor (probably a wringer washer 1/3HP) that is not reversible without some knowledge and a lot of work.

Click to expand...

That's probably why the blade is on backwards...non-original motor. The motor the previous owner picked out of the junk pile turned the wrong way. Instead of re-wiring, he simply installed the blade the other way. Other than the poor choice for motor, I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Andrew

Andrew,

Yes they will work either way around but the body of the machine and its' weight distribution is such that one way loads the blade correctly and the other does not. Bigger machines have a hydraulic damping system which helps control the rate of descent and hence the blade loading.

Hope this helps. ???

Best Regards
Bob

Good find Bob

Hey does that meen you have a powered hack saw for sale if so pm me with price and Ill see what the minerster for war and finance says ???

Cheers Wayne

I'm only down in the Mt Gambier and go your way Quite a bit

I was able to go through my inventory pile today, and borrowed the motor off the hacksaw that I have for sale. It turned the correct direction for the bandsaw, and it's a very old and heavy 1/2 HP brute. And as was suggested, it's all closed up for better protection against chips.

The weight of it seems to help counterbalance the saw much nicer than the other one. It also looks more appropriate, if you ask me.



Although the blade had some light rust, it was still sharp and looked like it had done very little cutting. I took a cut through a piece of 2x2 CR, and I'm impressed with the cut. It was very smooth. It's not cutting totally square, maybe 1/32" - 1/16" out of square over the 2" piece. More in one direction than the other. Even that's going to be good enough for most of my work, but I do plan to try to tweak it a bit better.

Thanks for all the useful suggestions! I had already made a mental note to check the oil inside the gear box, but the suggestion to put a "site glass" of sorts on it is great.

Wayne, just to clear up any confusion, my power hacksaw that's for sale is in Ontario, Canada... unless I'm missing something else that was said here. Doesn't seem worth it to ship to Australia, eh?

-Sparky

Sorry My Mistake

I was looking at 2 theads at once silly me

Wayne

I wish I could come and pick it up LOL

Sparky, you might consider building a good stand for your saw. I found that the stands that come on the saws made it very difficult to keep everything in alignment and cutting square.

My stand makes it easy to move the saw around without changing the alignment of the saw.

There are PDF prints that can be downloaded.

its amazing what items can and will jump into pickup trucks :big:

Arv,

Thanks for posting the photos of the stand. I've seen a few so far, but haven't been too keen on any of them yet. I like the height of the one you built, as well as the apparent stability of the wide footprint and 3-point support. The only thing I'd like to ponder a bit more is how to set it up to take a bit less space. Like many people here, my work space is at a premium.

It would be nice to be able to store it parallel to the wall and be able to swing it out perpendicular to the wall only when I have longer pieces to cut.

Has anyone seen a stand that might fit the bill here? I'd hate to redesign the wheel...

-Sparky