Edgar Westbury powered hacksaw castings.

[Martin CottrellParticipant @martincottrell21329]

Hi,

 

I’ve just been reading the construction notes on the Westbury powered hacksaw elsewhere on this site and was wondering if anyone knows if castings are still available for this machine?

 

Regards, Martin.

[Martin CottrellParticipant @martincottrell21329]

[H DavidsonParticipant @hdavidson]

 

No idea about castings, probably not would likely be the case .

it looks like itcould be fairly quickly made up from plate,

I have been wondering what the motor size would be , SD 19 as decribed in the text is not very helpful.

So in  hp   1/8 1/6 1/4?

thanks

[RichmondParticipant @richmond]

Hi,

 

I’m guessing from the size of the motor on my Kennedy hacksaw it would probably be 1/6 or 1/4 hp.

 

Seems the posting of the article has created some interest……. great to see.

 

Rgds

Keith

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Few yrs back shared a hospital room with the owner of an NZ company that built power hacksaws,and his oppinion was that the hacksaw was one of the few machines in which it didn’t matter(within reason)what power you use,just that the less power the longer you wait,on my home made,from scrap machine I used 1/4hp with industrial 12″ blades.IAN S C

[BrianParticipant @brian]

Try Hemingway, in discussion with them yesterday regarding castings for a Dore Westbury Mill, they indicated they do have the patterns for the Mk1 Dore Westbury and the Westbury Hacksaw but casting production cost and the call for the kits is limited, so sorry not in the Hemingway product range. >>

Regards Brian

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Interesting. If the castings were available, I’d seriously consider making the hacksaw. Maybe I should tell Hemingway?

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

SD series motors were by Parvalux, SD range was up to 190 watts. Check with Parvalux site for current products

[MichaelRParticipant @michaelr]

Don’t know how it compares with the Westbury machine, but Blackgates Engineering do a casting set for a 3″ Hacksaw machine. Here.

Stick

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

If you are going to the trouble of making a saw, I suggest making a bandsaw rather than a power hacksaw. It is easy, and far more versatile than a power hacksaw. It is no more complex to build than a power hacksaw. If you would like some details of building one please PM me.

 

If you have or know someone with a stick arc welder and a wood jigsaw you can make a really useful bandsaw with no castings at all.

 

JD

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

A quite respectable power hack saw can be fabricated with scrap metal, and about all thats bought in is the blade, just requires a good nose for finding the bits and pieces. I built one years ago, its moved on now and I did’nt take any photos. It took about three days to build it, because I had to cut the metal with a hand hacksaw.Ian S C

[Keith Wardill 1Participant @keithwardill1]

I’ve got to agree that a bandsaw is better than a reciprocating saw, and much easier to build. (I have both) – the only advantages I can see with the reciprocating saw is that they can use standard blades – it seems to be very difficult to obtain good quality bandsaw blades (metal cutting), and the reciprocator can generally be left to itself to make a cut. (on second thoughts, most hacksaw blades these days seem to be made of Woods metal…..)

 

My dad built a bandsaw (for metal cutting) many years ago, using bits and pieces from a scrapyard. Might not be so easy in these days of of the Health and Safety Terrorists, because they won’t let you browse around scrapyards like you used to be able to do, to see if there is anything useable.

 

There are a couple of small reciprocating metal saws in some early copies of ME that I have (circa 1950) – from memory, one uses a 1/8 HP motor through gearing.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

I,v got one that uses a junior hacksaw blade, and it’s powered by a hot air engine that developes at a maximum 5 wattsat the crankshaft, only takes 20 minutes to cut through a 1/2″ steel bar. It has been used to cut steel for making parts for other hot air engines, and it works very well when its powered by the 180W motor that I have on my Super Adept lathe, must modifie some bits of full size blades(or broken band saw blade). Ian S C

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

At last someone has found a use for those awful hot air engines, but  20 minutes for 1/2″ MS bar, 30 seconds on a bandsaw seems an age!

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Posted by Jeff Dayman on 13/11/2010 17:52:44:

If you are going to the trouble of making a saw, I suggest making a bandsaw rather than a power hacksaw. It is easy, and far more versatile than a power hacksaw. It is no more complex to build than a power hacksaw.

I’ve seen a few of the DIY bandsaws, and they are pretty impressive. We have an old bandsaw that I rebuilt at work. The only real problem with it is that it’s a right pain to use to cut lengths off long stock, and won’t do it at all with anything larger than its throat capacity – which is when we have to revert to the powered hacksaw. Now, I fully appreciate that for the average model builder that won’t be a problem, and the versatility thing is certainly a major consideration, but I still like things that reciprocate…

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

I’v got one of the little horizontal/vertical bandsaws, a much used machine. I was thinking that a home built machine should perhaps be a three wheel type, to give it a good deep throat, and may be not too much gap between the blade guides(say 3″-4″). The Chinese saw that I have has a 1/2hp motor, but for a light saw 1/4hp might be OK, I’v seen that used on a home made wood working bandsaw with much higher band speed. Ian S C

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Hi Ian SC,

 

On two wheel homemade bandsaws, if there is enough room vertically between wheels, the blade guide can be made so it can be twisted 30-45 degrees to allow long stock to clear the frame.

 

Three wheel saws I have used (woodworking type mostly) frequently have really small wheels ie 3″ dia or so  and drop the blade at the least provocation. I am not a fan of them. Very difficult to get the wheels and blade aligned.  Good metal cutting blades will not bend over small wheels easily. A rigid frame for any bandsaw is a must and all three wheel saws I’ve seen have frames too light – everything shakes and moves.

 

A homemade bandsaw on the other hand with 10-12″ wheels is a doddle to get working well. Out of the box you get 10″ or greater throat, and again if you make the blade guide so it can angle the blade, ANY length long stock is no issue. If you don’t want to bother angling the blade you can always angle the stock, cut halfway, flip the stock over, and finish. Then make a straight cut to square up the work. It only wastes a little stock. Operation with two big wheels is smooth and quiet. Plywood wheels are easy to make and will last years, even with a lot of metal cutting.

 

JD

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Unfortunately the nature of some of the material we cut up means that if we did it on the angle, we’d waste about 25% of the stock – which the management would say was unacceptable. (It’s quite wide and tall U-channel). And we’d have to make 3 times as many cuts…

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

For stock chomping give me a decent power hacksaw any day over a small, import, bandsaw.  A Manchester Rapidor does the donkey work for me but I do have a fair bit of space.  Was always impressed by the little Kennedy in the lab at work.  The crafty use of hexagonal material for blade carrier and guides gave impressive stability for a simple design.  I’m surprised that none of the home build designs have stolen the idea, or the equally simple Rapidor square bar system, as the plain rectangular plate slide-bar is a right pain to get shake free and free moving as well as being very intolerant of small machining errors.

 

Worst thing about the small horizontal / vertical imports is getting a decent blade.  Some right rubbish about and even some allegedly name brand blades can be very fragile.  The small wheels seriously don’t help, 10″ or even 12″ diameter would be so much better, but then the whole thing starts getting large.  Had a right shock when trying a new commercial supplier for a 64 1/2 by 1/2 blade and being advised to get a 5 to 8 tpi varipitch at £38 + tax’n carriage as the one’n only blade.  Hard to believe that something this sophisticated is made for the baby saw or that its appropriate.  Using in vertical mode on thinner stuff might be “interesting”.  Does the team think I should try?

 

Picked up a three wheel saw “cheap” which had clearly had the improvised repair gang at it.  Wheels were right size but plastic with treaded rubber tyres!  An experimental buzz suggested they might actually work but the “improved” blade guides were hard on the nerves.  Maybe the El’fins do have a point.  Axminster do some nice roller bearing guide upgrade kits, two will be going on this when I figure out how.  The annoying won’t quite fit problem so no space for modified mounts.

 

Clive. 

[Flying FiferParticipant @flyingfifer]

I have an old 3 wheel Burgess bandsaw (Service mod. as per ME Vol 170 Iss 3944 & the Wilton Mod Vol 172 Iss 3962 embodied) & my own version of the Cochrane reciprocating Hacksaw ( original articles in ME. Volume 168 issue numbers 3920 & 3922 & the last part is in Volume 169 issue 3924)

My preference for most jobs is the Recip. as its just a case of putting the material in the vice with the length required projecting, switch on & b***** off & do something else as the saw will stop automatically via the microswitch when the cut is finished. The Burgess I mainly use for sheet metal cutting & small bar sizes as you have to feed the metal to the blade, hence my aversion to cutting large bar & also the throat depth is 12 ” maximum or should that be 300mm in “new speak”. Also if you “twist or angle” the blade it usually breaks!

I do know that the more modern 2 wheel bandsaws can cut on their own as well BUT when they first appeared on the market yonks ago there were so many comments & articles in ME on how to fix them they rather put me off buying one. However they seem to have improved over the years. 

Cut at an angle & waste material no way, unless the material needs to be cut at a specific angle for the job.

 AlanB

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

The small hor/vert bandsaws were originally designed and built in the USA for one of the large retail stores from what I can find in an artical on the web that I have since lost.

I have a book here-Popular Mechanics “Forty Power Tools You Can Make” (its dated 1944), there are a number of designs for band saws, the first chapter covers a saw built mostly of wood, with a 22″ throat. The drive pully is only 4 1/2″, but the other two are 8″. It has an 80″ blade, does’nt say the width, and for metal cutting it would need a jack shaft to drop the speed from the 1/4hp motor. Ian S C

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

I had a varipitch blade on my standard far eastern bandsaw once, as I recall there was no particular advantage in performance or life over more ordinary blades.

 

I do like the bandsaw since the low cutting load makes holding awkward jobs a lot easier.

 

regards

John

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Hullo Clive,

I have a habit of doing what I call “looking over the fence to see what others are up to.”

By this I mean that I will often pick up woodworking or other hobby mags in newsagents to see if there are any bright ideas in other hobbies which could be useful in model engineering. Sometimes I actually `push the boat out` and BUY the mag! Anyway, I have learned one possible reason why my far eastern bandsaw occasionally `drops` its blade. The woodworking version by well – known makes have rubber tyres on the wheels, but my metal – cutting one doesn`t. I have also seen plenty of recommendations to buy/make a BS with the biggest wheels you can as the blade doesn`t then have to bend so much and will last a lot longer. Another is to splash out on a decent blade costing bigger pennies – like most things quality pays in the end. I kept having the blade jamming between the roller bearing guides because said guides wre free to move sideways due to excessive clearance. This was cured by turning up large fat washers to fill the clearance.

John.  

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I remembered to look at my Rapidor today, and it has a 0.37kw motor which in old money is about 1/2 HP. The wonderful thing about my rapidor, FMPOV is although it is designed for 1 inch x 14 inch blades, it will accept 1 1/4 x 14 inch blades. Which I acquired six of, at a staggering price of £0.00, should keep me going for a day or two. The biggest solid lump I’ve cut so far was 6 x 2 inchs, and it cooped with that OK, although it did take about 20 minutes or so to get through.

 

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 16/11/2010 17:47:23

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

I like the varipitch blades, but the difference may just be down to the better quality.

 

Neil

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