fitting hydraulic cyl to 4x6 saw

I have a about 2 foot long hydraulic cylinder lying in my garage, military surplus.

My saw is a bit bigger, but I got my cylinder there, new. It was the smallest of one of the new series. See

Grant

Look for a pneumatic cylinder, more compact and using oil in them is not a problem. A metering needle valve is easily plumbed in.

Tom

Go to:

It has an article on just that. It uses a cylinder from Surplus center.

Chuck P.

You want one of these Item# 1-1554

Our Price $8.99

And one of these flow control valves. Item# 20-1149

Our Price $7.99

I put them on mine and it works great. The flow control lets you lift the saw without changing the spring setting. Fast up slow down. Someplace in the dropbox I put some pictures of it about 5 years ago. Glenn

Look for an air cylinder. They work just dandy for this, when filled with ooil

Look for an air cylinder. They work just hunky dory filled with ATF. Thats whats on my Emerson bandsaw, apparently since it was built.

Gunner

"Considering the events of recent years, the world has a long way to go to regain its credibility and reputation with the US." unknown

Unfortunately Surplus Center and American Scientific, both of whom used to have tons of those adjustable cylinders on hand are now totally sold out.....and neither of the places seem like they are going to be getting any more in.

I modified a saw for a friend and used a metering valve with an air cylinder, and used DOT type / sized air lines to plumb it. I filled it with baby oil and it works just fine. Look for a Bimba brand or other pneumatic cylinder. I am not sure what type of seals the various pneumatic cylinders have, but I found out from personal experieince regular petroleum based fluids will eact seals out of HOnda rack and pinion units, but baby oil worked fine, so that ws my decision to go with baby oil........

Fortunately pneumatic cylinders are smaller, and in good supply both used and new, and not expensive...not as cheap as those surplus cylinders but with in reason.

============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! "The original frugal ponder" ~~~~ } ~~~~~~ } ~~~~~~~ }

And you add fluid to this 1-1554 gas cylinder?

I see someone selling a saw cylinder on Ebay for the rather rich price of $90 & S/H.

Can anyone say this is a significant improvement? To me it seems a bit odd. What should matter is limiting the maximum force on the blade. A spring system adjusts the force applied to the blade. A hydraulic system simply lowers the blade at a defined rate with no relation to the blade pressure. How do you tell if the needle valve / rate of descent is adjusted correctly?

The hydraulic lowering provides damping against "bounce", and prevents the saw from hogging in thin materials. It's an adjuct to spring or gravity feed, not a replacement.

With thicker material, the cut rate limits the drop rate. With thin material, the cylinder limits the rate. You separately adjust feed rate and weight on the blade to accommodate the material and blade pitch/speed.

LLoyd

Really big expensive saws use a hydraulic downfeed that's basically just like these. You adjust the needle valve until the saw is cutting correctly.

Grant

Actually it is not a gas cylinder. It is hydraulic and is surplus from a stair stepper. At least all 3 of the ones I bought came with oil in them. They have a plain needle valve in them and I changed it out for a flow valve.

Yep thats the one, but they have been out of stock for a few months now......inventory is still showing a big fat "0"

============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! "The original frugal ponder" ~~~~ } ~~~~~~ } ~~~~~~~ }

So they call it an "Adjustable Gas Spring" but you can tell it isn't?

Are you interested in parting with it? What is the bore, etc? I dont think I need a really huge one, but would be interested in hearing what you have on hand.

Thanks for the link, I will check it out.

$90 is way to rich for this project. I cant imagine not being able to do it for under 20 or 30 bucks with surplus material.