Coolant and slideway oil for a power hacksaw

I've bought a power hacksaw and spent a couple of weeks stripping it rebuilding and converting it to single phase. I finally got round to making some proper cuts with it today, but have a question on what coolant to use. The machine has a suds tank in the base that holds about 5 litres and since I don't plan on using the machine that often, maybe once every couple of months I bought a can of neat "cutting fluid" from machine mart thinking this would be preferable to soluble oil. However it has a (unpleasant to my nose!) strongish smell of sulphur (I think?) and is so thick it barely dribbles out. I don't want to use soluble oil as I'm very worried by the water content and it growing things due to the low usage, but have heard that sticking an air pump in the tank helps a lot? Also there is a oil resovoir on the arm for lubricating the slides, do I have to use a special slideway oil or will any oil suffice e.g. engine oil?

Many thanks Graham

Reply to
Graham M
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If your hacksaw is the normal Rapidor type like mine and you only use it occasionally, I wouldn't bother with coolant. I use mine dry with a squirt from an oil can if I'm cutting large sections. The same oil lubricates the slideways and other oiling points. These things are built like you know whats and it's unlikely you will wear it out.

John

Reply to
John

I too have one of these and find that the water evaporates from the suds between uses so I also use an oilcan, however I do find that blade wear rises so I am looking into using straight cutting oil via the pump. If you have sorterd out the damper/ pressure spring/ releif system, I would like to hear from you. Peter

Reply to
Drawfiler

It's on my to do list, albeit, very low down that list. I've used 2 blades in about 12 years so it's not a hard worked machine.

John

Reply to
John

I did think about running it dry but I figured that since it was set up for coolant I might as well use it, however it makes cleaning it after a cut a bit more of a chore! I hadn't thought about evoporation with suds, that would be more a problem than the biological one since the tank is buried in the base with no quick way to the level. As for the neat oil, the stuff I've got is too thick to pump properly. I wonder if something like soluble oil and parafin would work or presumably there is a neat cutting oil designed to be pumped?

As for the arm lube I guess it's not really that critical?

The damper on mine works works although it didn't rise under power when I got it due to the top lever almost falling off and the square / diamond bit under it being locked solid. I happy to take photos of it for you if that's any help.

Many thanks all Graham

Reply to
Graham M

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