Power Hacksaw

[JAParticipant @ja]

I have a cheap, horrible, Chinese band saw. It is about 17 years old, flimsy, not reliable and pretty unsafe. It also takes up quite a bit of floor space in a crowded workshop (about half the floor area of my Myford on its stand). It is used about once a week just to cut lengths of bar etc.

I want to replace it with a small, new, reliable, power hacksaw that can cut up to 4” diameter mild steel bar. However looking at the market power hacksaws seem to be out of fashion, none of the usual dealers stock them. I don’t want to make one (I have a Hemingway kit which is too small) and I do not want to waste time refurbishing something like a Rapidor saw.

If I remember well someone a few years ago posted a thread about buying a rather nice Italian saw but I cannot find it.

Please can anyone advice me?

JA

[JAParticipant @ja]

[AJAXParticipant @ajax]

I wouldn't discount the possibility of finding an old but perfectly serviceable trapdoor power hacksaw. Apart from rewiring the motor I did nothing to mine and I've been using it for years. It was probably 80 years old when I got it!

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

JA,

I remember a bench mount bandsaw somewhile ago. It looked a smart jobbie but I thought very expensive and why do I want another when I had the floor mount Warco bandsaw, still in use today. Didn't follow it up as 2 seemed extravagant and lack space. Lots of designs on internet, one simple design I'm thinking of making to utilise my large stock of hacksaw blades. Kennedy hacksaws look attractive but they are probably all knackered and need refurb.

AJAX,

What do you mean by "trapdoor" hacksaw? I take it that means reciprocating frame?

John

[peak4Participant @peak4]

Posted by DMB on 26/08/2020 12:04:30:

What do you mean by "trapdoor" hacksaw? I take it that means reciprocating frame?

John

The perils of autocorrect.
I'm guessing Manchester Rapidor; quite large though.
I do have a Rapidor Minor which uses 9" blades and takes up a bit less room.

Bill

[Simon CookParticipant @simoncook82779]

You could build one……

Hemingway kits have a very nice one if that floats your boat. See here:- **LINK**

Usual disclaimer here, just a very happy customer. I've actually built this, and it's a very nice kit and drawings.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

The Italian manufacturer Femi make some highly regarded compact bandsaws, Stakesy supply in the UK. They have been mentioned in threads on this site.

Mike

[JAParticipant @ja]

Thanks Mike.

I think that is what I vaguely remembered.

JA

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Kennedy 90 ( the one with the reinforced vice) is your only bench top hacksaw option, but quite rare and some are junk

[JAParticipant @ja]

Just had a look at Femi and Stakesy web sites. They no longer sell hacksaws but Femi make some rather nice small portable band saws.

Food for thought.

JA

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

For all practical purposes a 14" blade, 6" cut Rapidor takes up the same space as the common 6" x 4" cut horizontal / vertical bandsaw. Near enough 3 ft x 1 ft 6, my bandsaw is a touch narrower than the Rapidor I use but I built a cabinet on wheels to replace the inadequate stand and managed to shave an inch or so off the width. For me its more about having somewhere to poke the long bar than saw size per se.

Seems that Rapidors are almost impossible to wear out so long as they see a dash of oil occasionally. Pivot pins in the blade return relief system and in the clutch gubbins on older flat belt ones seem to be about all that does routinely wear. Both my Rapidors suffer so. Got two 'cos I tripped over a complete, late one in full running order at a price too low to ignore about a fortnight after obtaining an older one in need of a motor and darn good scrub for the proverbial 3 pints and a packet of woodbines if you pull it out from the old greenhouse! 5 barrow loads of dried leaves later … Should a bought a camera.

Kennedys do wear over time and most are now past their best. Realistically more of a saw for heavy duty plumbers, building site, tube et al work than bar cutting in the shop.

Clive

[AJAXParticipant @ajax]

Posted by peak4 on 26/08/2020 12:07:29:

Posted by DMB on 26/08/2020 12:04:30:

What do you mean by "trapdoor" hacksaw? I take it that means reciprocating frame?

John

The perils of autocorrect.
I'm guessing Manchester Rapidor; quite large though.
I do have a Rapidor Minor which uses 9" blades and takes up a bit less room.

Bill

Manchester Rapidor. Auto correct on my phone strikes again!

[IanTParticipant @iant]

"It is used about once a week just to cut lengths of bar etc. "

I have the Aldi bandsaw which sits nicely on the bench and (apart from the crappy vice) seems to work very well for 'light' work. Your use sounds fairly 'light' to me JA?

I also have an old McMaster power hacksaw, which needed some effort to become usable. It will chew through just about anything – day in and day out – and the vice is large & very solid. It's on castors and doesn't take too much room. It's big and heavy and not exactly 'delicate' in use – which is not a problem for most things.

I wanted the Aldi mainly for use as a small 'vertical' band saw and I've built a holding frame for that but not made a replacement table as yet. The supplied vice generally works but occasionally doesn't – and whilst it's only "un-gripped" on me once, that was once too many. So I've fitted a 'clamping' plate instead of the sliding jaw and I'll see how that works out in practice but really I need to finish the vertical table where the vice isn't required anyway.

So there are very good (but more expensive) bench band-saws out there, the Aldi is OK for light duty (and less than half the price) and there are big, old power hacksaws that will probably need some time and TLC spent on them. As usual, you pays your pennies and makes your choice.

Regards,

IanT

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

My Rapidor was a bargain, £27 and advertised as 3 phase, it was single phase and still wearing its original paint in good condition from 1974, it had the latest motor gearbox and made by Alexander. Very pleased with eBay purchase.

Mike

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

JA,

I use one of these weekly and it will cut 4" steel. It is compact, sits on top of a milk crate as a stand and can be picked up with one hand.

Paul.

[JAParticipant @ja]

Paul

What make is it? I am thinking of buying a small Femi saw.

JA

[Craig BrownParticipant @craigbrown60096]

JA,

I suspect Paul's saw is a Femi but rebadged. I have the same saw badged up as Clarke, originally sold in Machine Mart. I purchased it second hand and I first thought it was probably a knock off of a Femi but the original sale sticker price was still on it of over £300.

The saw is very compact but very capable

Craig

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

Hi JA,

Not sure of the make. I biught it about 6 -7 years ago from an ebay seller in Australia and the name has come off. There are a few advertised on ebay.

The round item in my pevious post is a tube of bees wax, used to lubricate the blade.  The saw had done a lot of work and still performs well. Only had to replace the blade guide rollers which are only standard ball bearings.

I paid about A$350 but now they are normally selling for about A$650.  Just found this one advertised for A$396.

**LINK**

Paul

 

 

 

Edited By Paul Lousick on 27/08/2020 23:31:56

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Bit late to this but I find my Femi very good Cuts all metals with ease eg 2" dia EN8 in just over 60secs with less than a 10thou cleanup cut needed to face it off. I got mine from Stakesys others have had issues with the likes of Amozon supplying from Europe.

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

I have the small Femi SN105XL, although compact it has 4 inch capacity and I have found it to be excellent, very good vice on it to.

Also got mine from Stakesys.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

+1 for Femi, excellent.

[JAParticipant @ja]

I have decided to buy a Femi 782XL saw from Stokesy. However they now have no 230v saws in stock.

I really do not want to use Amazon after one of their delivery drivers decided to take a short cut across my garden.

JA

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I recommend waiting for Stakesys to have stock. I bought from a website that appeared to be UK based but turned out to be in Italy and had quite a lot of grief. They didn't have the table so I bought that from Stakesys and they were quick and efficient.

[JAParticipant @ja]

I emailed Stakesys and got a very quick reply. Femi saws will be available soon (I am not saying when).

I will wait.

JA

Edited By JA on 28/08/2020 14:12:12

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

I know just how you feel JA, I too have one of those horrible cheap flimsy Chinese 6×4 bandsaws.

Dont know why I put up with for the last 20 years, maybe because it just keep working, no matter what I feed into it.

4" round, 6×4 R,S,J, 3"X3" sq ect,ect, all the same and as for being reliable ! that,s a joke. No matter what I do, it will not cut off square, neither will the blade fall off.

I think I must have got a real dud, a Monday morning job.

PS Just asking, why did you keep it for 17 years ? If it gave me that much hardship, I would have dumped it long ago.

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