Small Power Hacksaw

The Rapidor ones are worth looking out for, that's what we have at home, very well built and often from schools.

Haven't one to sell though...:-((

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

I 'd advise you not to go for the Blackgates kit - it's a poorly produced pile of poo.

Caveat Emptor - inspect _EVERY_ casting by completely unwrapping it from the paper surround in which it has been cunningly wrapped and sellotaped over and over, berfore parting with any cash in their direction.

Blackgates should be renamed as, "Blackguards".

Avoid Blackgates like the plague.

Do not part with any cash in their direction until you have unwrapped every single casting from the over-sellotaped excessive newspaper wrapping in which each casting is cunningly sealed.

Caveat Emptor.

Blackgates should be renamed as, "Blackguards"

There you go again Gareth, blaming others for your fu** ups. Just like your software..........

To Blackgates: Airy Bean is really G A Evans of Chippenham.

Hi Charles.There is a Rapidor in London for £50.It`s three phase though.If you are interested email me and I`ll give you the number. regards,Mark.

Arc Eurotrade are selling a small power hacksaw these days.

Regards, Tony

Charles, Keep a lookout for a Kennedy Saw on ebay etc. There is not one there at the moment but there is a small picture of one here

AFIAK they make (made?) two sizes - both use standard hand hacksaw blades. Both would fulfill your 'under the bench' criterion That is where mine lives!

Good Luck Bob

Thanks Bob. Sadly it turns out that a Rapidor will be too big (Peter Forbes was kind enough to measure his machine for me). So it's either a Kennedy, Blackgates or make one.

It would appear that two designs have been published recently. One in Model Engineer volumes 168 and 169 by R J Cochrane. Anyone know anything of that design or have spare copies/volumes for sale? The other was in MEW issue no 1. I used to have all the MEW's but issues 1-5 got lost in a house move so if anyone has a copy of the article (I don't expect an issue 1 of MEW to be available!) I'd be grateful.

Thanks

Charles

Charles

I've also been looking for a similar small machine, and one that caught my eye is available as a kit from Woking Precision. Take a look at:

Regards

Mike

Mike

I suspect this *might* be the one described in issue 1 of MEW. I have a copy of the article coming to me through the ether (thanks to a friendly stranger). However in issue 6 or 7 of MEW there was a footnote about finding the right parvalux motor with the reduction gearbox which makes me suspect that this is the MEW version. However it doesn't look much for 130 quid - but does show how easy it could be to fabricate one.....

Charles

Knowing that 'most' Parvalux motors are fractional induction types, it makes me wonder what sort of size material this would handle?

The Rapidor has a 1/2 or 3/4 hp three-phase motor, and will cut up to about 5" round, the smaller kits may be Ok if you don't need to go to those sizes.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

Note that this appears to be designed for 10" hacksaw blades. Finding an ongoing supply of these might be difficult.

I have a Kennedy which is certainly of the right size. I do have a couple of complaints; it has a smallish work size envelope (< 2 inch round and mine at least starts to struggle well below this), and the in-built vice is poor (hard to grip many objects and it works itself loose).

Before I bought the Kennedy I was contemplating a self-build and found a number of pictures and designs online. There are several within the Yahoo group archives including some scans of the ME articles. Also I believe the Gingery book series includes one on a power hacksaw.

HTH

Charles,

I have a couple of Parvalux motors with 90 deg o/p drive. The motors are three phase though. They are 1/12 HP and look about the right size. It might be the reduction drives could "re-cycled" I'd need to check but from memory they are 9:1.

Steve

Charles, I have a home made hacksaw powered by a 1/4 hp motor driving via a worm gearbox. It uses standard hand hacksaw blades & will happily cut through

3inch square bar, which is as big as the vice will take.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- snipped-for-privacy@boltblue.com John Lloyd - Cymru/Wales

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Thanks to all -

Neil - The Blackgates design also uses 10" blades which does seem an oddity these days. And which Yahoo archives are the ME articles in?

John - 1/4 HP seems to be the requied power (that's what the Woking version uses aswell.) And I have a 1/4 HP motor on the shelf unluckily not with 90 degree gearbox though.

Steve - Thanks for the offer - when I've sorted out the best plan I'll come back to you.

Regards

Charles

I have a Kennedy Benchmaster, and found it very useful, cuts around the 4" mark never too sure. Much used and would suspect much modified in its life, no catch to keep the blade up and does not have the raise and fall movement as seen on some of the bigger Manchester power hacksaws but it does me. Certainly saves the arms.

Now I may be wrong here but I have seen a smaller Manchester power hacksaw or Rapidor hacksaw of around the same size as the Kennedy. Also seen the big three phase monsters with the rise and fall that could go through 6 " plus of steel bar, noticed that GabdM have a range of hacksaws so would suggest they are out there to find.

I will ask the dealer I bought mine from to see if there are any more to be found.

Adrian

After posting my last message I had a look at the Eng Pages provided by Chris Heapy. Have a look in the September adds and you may find two adds at least of interest.

It may be worth while just giving them a ring to see if any are still available.

Adrian

Charles, not sure if it was the one Neil refers to, but try the mwsmalltools group as this seems to be where the hacksaw stuff lives.

There's a family of mw**** groups which have materialised as separate groups because of the Yahoo limit on file space. The others are not directly related to your hacksaw query, but well worth a trawl round them when you have time (mwmills, mwmills2 etc.)

The mwsmalltools site has several plans as mentioned by Duncan.

also

Some other links for inspiration :-