# Restoring an old powered hacksaw



## MrCrankyface

Figured I'd share my restoration project!
I've always found these old machines quite cool and when a neighbour offered me a defective one for free, I couldn't say no! 

This is the machine as I got it, it runs but won't lower the sawblade so you have to manually push it against the work piece, which becomes quite the challenge and dangerous as heck when it's moving back and forth.


The thick bars protruding on the side are from an automatic feed system that's been cut off.
By pure chance I came across a previous owner of this saw and he gave me these two pictures of how it used to look.




At first I was just going to get the downfeed to work again and leave it at that, not spend too much time on it because I have quite a lot of other stuff that also needs doing.
But just trying to understand how the machine is built and what could be the problem, I was already in waaay too deep to not do something more serious.
Just trying to get the downfeed mechanism out I somehow ended up with this after like 14 hours of work ... Many of those were just shoveling out old sludge and nasty cutting oil.


Every little mechanism is completely packed with old grease that is long overdue for a cleanup, this picture was after I scooped handfuls of it out.




Eventually after a lot of beating I managed to get the entire hinge mechanism off and the parts are starting to pile up.



One really interesting thing is this motor. It's 2 motors in one, double shafts and everything.
There's a smaller shaft, inside the bigger shaft, powering the smaller pulley.



With everything stripped it was time for it to travel outside for some major cleaning.. Quite a big of degreaser, scrubbing and high pressure washer.
By now you can even see that it has some color underneath all the crud.


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## MrCrankyface

Continuing on.
Using a mix of sanders and wire brushes, I got most of the old crud off.


Both sprayed and brushed on a layer of epoxy primer.


And ontop of that a layer of grey polyurethane.
It looks quite light in the pictures, as it hardened it became a bit darker.
I did so many mistakes here that really ****** me off. Stupid mistakes like how I somehow forgot to mask the top and floor, sprayed way too much paint on and so on.
I will have to get back to this and sand down the runs and do a final top coat again.



I did a quick brushjob on the legs, I think the black should constrast nicely.


To get away off from the frustration of the bad paintjob(I don't like painting but I like a good end result..), I started working on the pump which was the initial problem.
To the left you have the "lid" of the main piston and to the right is the main unit I guess.
The big rod on the lid has a smaller rod inside it, and the big piston has a smaller piston inside it that gets act upon from this smaller rod.
Basically as the saw runs, it acts upon the smaller rod, transfering the motion to the smaller piston down inside the bigger piston.


A closer look on the main piston and the smaller rod.


With the bottom taken off the main piston, you can see this smaller piston. I have taken the seals off it for the photo.


Eventually all that was left to take apart was this part on the lid.
Aaand here we find a completely busted seal.
Hopefully this is all that was keeping it from working as intended.


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## Martin W

You have a great saw there! Nice job.
Cheers
Martin


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## Nogoingback

Not sure I understand what the dual pistons do, but it looks interesting.  Great work.


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## brino

This is very interesting, I have never seen a unit like that.
Thanks for sharing this.

I bet all your photos will come in real handy as it all goes back together!

-brino


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## mattthemuppet2

wow, that's a serious power hacksaw. You'll have a very useful machine on your hands when you finish working on it.


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## MrCrankyface

Thanks all!



Nogoingback said:


> Not sure I understand what the dual pistons do, but it looks interesting.  Great work.


I find it hard to explain! 

At the top of the hydraulic piston unit, there's an axle with an oval part on it. This oval part keeps pushing and releasing the smaller rod inside the bigger rod.
The smaller rod transfers this pushing motion down inside the bigger piston, thus making the smaller piston move back and forth(it's spring loaded in one direction).
Somehow this pumping creates pressure to push the big piston down, bringing the entire saw down onto the workpiece.

There's a seperate adjustment where you can adjust how much to bottleneck this system, thus controlling how fast or hard it pushes against the work piece.

Hopefully that makes more sense.


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## Nogoingback

Hmmm...   So the little piston creates the hydraulic pressure to move the large piston as well as acting to regulate the pressure?


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## Chipper5783

That seems similar to the Kasto power hack saw.  I suspect the dual piston provides for a blade lift on the return stroke.  The small change in volume from the smaller (inner) piston, which is controlled by the oval mechanism on top, allows the main cylinder to apply the blade down pressure on only the forward stroke.

I'm not sure if the Kasto is the same (I've never pulled mine apart), but it also uses a rear cylinder to force the blade down.  I know on the Kasto, if it has been sitting for a long time, you have to bleed the hydraulics before the feed system will function.  That had me stumped for a while - as always, it is an easy task - once you know how.


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## MrCrankyface

It's indeed a Kasto, a VBS 202A according to Kasto themself.
Definitely sounds like that function would make sense!
The pressure regulation is done seperately elsewhere on a big rotating plate, there seems to be like a bleed function.
There more you tighten it, the more it constricts the flow. Since I haven't gotten it running yet I'm not sure if tighter means faster or slower downfeed.

On this version there's only this main piston that controls feed.
On the back there's a spring which I assume is to help pull it back up and there's also a big damper/spring combo on the front, next to the piston unit.
The one in this picture:


			https://www.hobby-machinist.com/attachments/img_2037-jpeg.331840/
		


Hopefully I can get back to working on the saw this weekend.


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## brino

Thanks for the manufacturers name, I was about to ask......

The only reference I found to Kasto on Vintage Machinery is this, under the "Racine" section:


> In about 1979 or shortly before, KASTO, Inc. purchased the assets of Racine; they changed their name KASTO-Racine, Inc.


http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=1085&tab=0

They do still exist and have a web site:
https://www.kasto.com/us/

This Racine document:
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=16557
mentions a very little about a couple different hydraulic feed systems they had.




....but neither looks like the one being dealt with here.

Any idea the age of this machine?

-brino


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## MrCrankyface

The machine is from 1970, it still had a (very worn) sign on the rear.
When I was in contact with kasto about this machine they managed to find this manual in their archives.
They seem to be generally hard to find information about.. I guess bandsaws are a lot more popular.

My german is definitely not good enough to read it so I've mostly been checking the schematics when taking it apart, trying to figure things out.


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## MrCrankyface

Alright so if I'm going to be positive about having to redo this, at least I can make the finish a lot better with the thick polyrethane and primer acting as filler.
You can see just how rough it was, lots of highspots.



After several hours of sanding...



Of course I managed to screw this up again by applying too much paint and getting quite a lot of runs again. Ah well, at least I'm learning stuff.. 

So a second, much faster, sanding session followed by another try at painting it.
This time I really took care with setting up the spray gun by spraying at a steel sheet first, adjusting the paint flow and pattern etc.
I was also super careful when painting, I think I might've put on a coat that was too light but it looks alright!


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## brino

Personally, I HATE painting!

I know that prep is the majority of the work, I do that.
I know that many light coats are better than a single "too much" dripping coat.
I know to keep a wet edge!

All that work and it still comes out so-so at best
I HATE painting!

Your results look better than I have ever achieved!
I like the colour too.

-brino


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## Nogoingback

That's probably as good or better a paint job than when it was new.  Looks great.


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## MrCrankyface

Thanks!

Brino, I couldn't agree more.. I don't mind the prepwork but applying the paint always feels like throwing a dice, never knowing if it's too much or too little. I'm very happy about the results though!


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## middle.road

There's folks that can paint and there are those who can't.
Guess which camp I belong to?
Now my Son can rattle-can with the best of them. Me? I get runs no matter what, even if the surface is flat and level.


brino said:


> Personally, I HATE painting!
> 
> I know that prep is the majority of the work, I do that.
> I know that many light coats are better than a single "too much" dripping coat.
> I know to keep a wet edge!
> 
> All that work and it still comes out so-so at best
> I HATE painting!
> 
> Your results look better than I have ever achieved!
> I like the colour too.
> 
> -brino


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## MrCrankyface

Hardly any work but WOW, getting it back on the feet was super motivating!
Still awaiting a reply from kasto about the spare parts I need.


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## mattthemuppet2

middle.road said:


> There's folks that can paint and there are those who can't.
> Guess which camp I belong to?
> Now my Son can rattle-can with the best of them. Me? I get runs no matter what, even if the surface is flat and level.



the trick is always to do lots of light coats, rather than a few thick ones. That's the best way to get a good even coat and enough layers to be durable in my experience.


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## MrCrankyface

I find that if I do light coats the end result is always gritty, like the paint doesn't flow out together in a nice surface.
And if I go too thick, it obviously starts running away from me. 

It's a hard balance and super hard to judge how much paint you've applied..

What seems to work for this paint is to use a lot of light and use the reflections to judge how "prickly" the surface is.
If the surface is smooth then you've already applied too much paint and it's gonna start running in a few minutes.
Leaving it VERY slightly prickly seemed to work, that way it would flow together after a little bit.


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## MrCrankyface

Finally had some time over to work on this again, but it's 32c outside so work isn't fast..

I went over the miserable saw-off support.
The bottom limit has been incorrectly set so this thing has been sawn into over and over again.
If you look close there's a removeable piece, not sure if that's a stock solution or if someone has "fixed" this before.


Chamfered the horrible cut in the mill and also smoothed over the back plate to remove those half-holes.
Gave everything a little sanding to remove burrs and various places where someone had probably used this as an anvil and created a lot of raised edges.



I took the old round bars that were chopped off and chopped them off even more and faced them in the lathe. They were a real hazard before when sticking out with sharp edges ...
They do serve a function in the sense that they plug up some holes where the coolant would leak out.


Looks a lot nicer than before I think.
It doesn't really show up in the photos but there is a slight chamfer on the outside.


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## Papa Charlie

Wow, what a great find. I much prefer a power hacksaw to band saws. Hope to find one of those myself. 

My compliments on your work. Very nice. I am with you on paint. I can fab just about anything in metal or wood, but when it comes to painting, I can screw up a wet dream.

Looking forward to following this thread. Thank you.


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## MrCrankyface

Thanks, glad to have you along on the journey!  

Since I'm still waiting to hear from Kasto on the spare parts(they were going to send me a price for the stuff I need) I decided to take a look at the motor.
It's a pretty beefy unit ... Tried to carefully wash it with degreaser and high pressure washer to get the worst off.


Like most motors it has a fan behind the back cover, pressed onto the shaft.


Just trying to take the thin aluminium fan off.. Having to split the motor up so I can put the shaft in the press.
This is the rear motor that runs the inner shaft. The front motor runs the outer shaft.


Finally got it off here so now I can start cleaning this thing properly.
Still contemplating wether to paint the motor in the same color as the base or just go with black.
I've already spent a while cleaning the fan and cap at this time.


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## Papa Charlie

Did you test the motor before disassembly? Interesting design. The windings and stator look in good shape, just a lot of build up from years of use and some very old grease.


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## MrCrankyface

Yep! I've run the machine before picking it apart. The only defective part is that it doesn't lower, which is most likely that broken seal in the hydraulic unit.
When running it I didn't know it was a dual motor but as far as I can remember, both pulleys spun around as they should.

I'm actually suprised how nice it seems inside. Even the bearings are smooth as butter.


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## Papa Charlie

Nice, having the motor rebuilt can get expensive.


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## MrCrankyface

Well that was ... Messy.
Scraped the worst of the mess off and used IPA and wirebrushes to get the rest.
Cleaned up pretty nice, my arms were black up to my elbows though.

Had to lathe out a little adapter to pull the inner pulley off, gotta love working with plastics.
Even on a small lathe like mine you can run some pretty high speeds and feeds!
Just machined a shoulder that was a loose press-fit into the shaft so the "adapter" wouldn't fall out too easy when pulling the pulley off.


There's also one cooling fin that's been busted, I didn't want to risk welding on the motor out of fear of warping so decided to just smooth it out.



It should now almost be ready for paint!
I did clean out all old grease and dirt before applying new and putting the motor back together.


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## Papa Charlie

Looks almost new. Nice job. A lot of satisfaction after going through all that to see the end product.


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## MrCrankyface

Feels like I'm starting to get a grip on painting!
Incredibly pleased with this, way over expectation.
Unfortunately I splashed some paint on the tiles so if you don't hear from me again, the wife found out.


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## Nogoingback

It's OK, just leave the saw in your will to one of us.


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## Papa Charlie

Man that looks fantastic. Great job. 
Hopefully, there is enough dust and dirt on the patio that it will most likely easily clean up. If not, get your wife a patio throw rug as a way to enhance the patio, maybe some new lounge furnature and she won't suspect a thing.


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## MrCrankyface

Thanks! She hasn't noticed yet so I think I'm good. 
I'm gonna give it a runover with the pressure washer, hopefully the paint is just stuck tot he dirt and dust.

Put the engine back together and onto the base.


So now I've started tackling the hinge part, so much crud in this.
Washed every little part in degreaser with a toothbrush then rinsed and dried em.
The bearings has had fresh grease pressed through them to make sure every trace of old crud is gone.
Things actually got a quite a nice shine despite their age.


The main part has gotten stripped of everything that can be stripped. Need to clean out the grease fitting/route somehow and then a proper clean and repaint.


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## MrCrankyface

Back at it! The parts got quite a bit of degreaser, lots of brushing and washing.
Didn't go as hard with sanding as I did on the base as I didn't feel it was needed, hopefully I don't get problems with the paint sticking to the old paint(roughed it up everywhere at least).



Started with these two parts and put on a pretty thick layer of epoxi primer, it's much easier to lay on thick than the paint ..
You can see the finish is a bit rough but there was plenty of material for me to sand it smooth to compensate for the rough castings.




And I'm so glad I sanded it smooth, this came out amazingly nice..
There's a couple of dots but that's expected from painting outside.
Now I just gotta figure out a way to mix the right amount of paint..
The primer was barely enough and the paint was enough to paint these at least 4 times...


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## MrCrankyface

Was comparing some pictures ... 



Realized I needed this little piece otherwise I can't mount the hinged part properly.
It was so rough cast that I felt the need to smooth things over.
Came out decently after some primer and paint.





Also went over the saw bar or what it might be called, apparently the primer summoned the entire neighborhoods flies. 
After some sanding and applying the polyurethane paint it came out really nice, just a tiny run on the front.


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## john.k

Kasto is a top quality saw....interesting they took over Racine....when I started out,I had a Racine Oilcut.....thing never worked properly ,I had to sit on the arm!......I wasnt even sure in the end that it was going the right way!........Bought a bandsaw.


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## MrCrankyface

Sitting on the arm sounds OSHA approved!    
I did use my saw a few times with a long bar to manually force the arm down, would not recommend...

Started putting some stuff back into the hinge.


This is next on the list, it's responsible for the reciprocating motion of the saw.
But first disassembly, cleanup and reassembly.


First 3 bearings(ball bearing, roller bearing and another thin ball bearing) came out away from the gear, somewhat easily once I ground the puller down to fit between the bearings..
I tried to get the big bearing off this way but I started feeling like something was going to break by the amount of force I was using so time for another approach.


I was quite scared of this but I pushed the shaft out of the gear, took around 10 metric tons until it started moving with a big bang, always terrifies me.
More worried about getting it back into place though.


Behind the gear I found a clip!
After removing this, I could somewhat easily press the bearings off the shaft, the opposite way of what I tried before.


It's quite a big wall preventing the bearings from going the other way, didn't realize this with the bearings in place.


This is the side where I removed the 3 first bearings. You can clearly see the non-concentric part here that I suspect pumps up the pressure to lower the saw. Need to verify when I reassemble.


So after a lot of work I have a bunch of nice parts that need some grease and hopefully less messy reassembly.


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## hman

It's them thar !!_(&^^#)&^!! hidden fasteners that'll get you every time!


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## MrCrankyface

Yes! Incredibly frustrating when you can't figure it out.  

I was just going to quickly reassemble the shaft, but I should've known better.
After pressing on the last bearing, I tried to give it a spin ... It felt like the balls were hexagon shaped..
I spent probably 75 minutes trying to get the bearing off, getting angrier and taking worse and worse decisions before finally giving up.
As you can see I did damage the shaft a bit in my frustration, sad but it happens.

Coming back a few days later with a calmer head I broke the ballcages inside the bearing, moved all balls to one side and took the outer ring off.
This let me get some good measurements on the inner race.


Again, I was going to "quickly" mount the 4 jaw on the lathe to make a bearing puller. Brand new asian chuck, apparently the factory hadn't even properly tapped the treads in it so I had to start with modifying brand new parts. 
I guess you get what you pay for, but still.


Starting off with a piece of scrap, regular hotrolled.


Gave it a facing pass and drilled a large hole before I started boring out to final size, leaving a small flange that would grip tightly onto the bearings inner race.
Before I cut them apart I drilled all the way through so I could thread it for M8, after cutting it apart I then drilled out one half to 8.5mm.
Two M8 bolts then clamp this onto the bearing race.


After spending like 3 hours on trying to get this bearing off, the success felt really good...
Again, everything is easier if you're calm and methodical about it, still trying to teach myself this... 


With a new bearing pushed on, a bit more gently this time, it was time to assemble the rest.
Explanation of the bearings .. The two big bearings on the left mount against the big hinge casting so the entire shaft can spin.
The thinner bearing and the smallest bearing lets the steel socket rotate around the shaft itself.
Between the thin and small bearing you have a wider roller bearing which is mounted on the non-concentric part of the shaft.
The non-concentric part and it's roller bearing aligns with the hole in the steel socket, the piston will later connect here.
The piston is threaded into the steel socket but also has another shaft inside it, which goes against the non concentric part and somehow pumps up pressure to lower the saw arm.


On topic of being calm, I was about to have a seizure just getting this shaft back in....
No idea how it's supposed to be done, maybe taking the entire hinge casting off and using a press?
I spent 45 minutes with a rubber mallet, drenched in sweat by the time it was in.
Each hit, with all my strength, would move it a few thou..
There's no real access from anywhere else either.



With the big gear in place, it was time for the small driveshaft.
It's just a long shaft, gear on one end and a slot for belt pulley on the other end.
This one slid into place real pretty easy.



The shiny shaft extending on the left is the place for the belt pulley.



Inside the hinge casting, you can see the previously mentioned steel socket with the thread for the piston that will later lower the saw arm.



Just an overview photo. Next piece to go on would be the saw arm itself and the endpiece.
But before I mount those big and heavy pieces I want to install both the hydraulic piston and a second piston that I think only consists of a very large spring.
Having these to help the hinge stay up will greatly help with remounting the saw arm.



Hopefully I'm not posting too many pictures, I just find that they tell so much more than my words.


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## brino

Great progress!



MrCrankyface said:


> Hopefully I'm not posting too many pictures



There's no such thing!



MrCrankyface said:


> No idea how it's supposed to be done, maybe taking the entire hinge casting off and using a press?
> I spent 45 minutes with a rubber mallet, drenched in sweat by the time it was in.
> Each hit, with all my strength, would move it a few thou..



Could a large c-clamp have been used against the end of the shaft and the housing. With a soft pad to protect your paint job.

-brino


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## MrCrankyface

Well, I might have reason to try that out very soon, found out that I did a boo-boo. 
Pressing the shaft back into the gear, I didn't think about orientation.
The yellow circle is the part that drives the saw arm back and forth. The upper red arrow is the non-concentric part of the shaft.
I am FAIRLY sure this ~90 degree shift from how it was is going to cause issues... Every day is a learning day. 
*Note: Old pictures, shaft is still in the machine. This is why taking pictures is so valueable.*


The largest clamps I have, that might have the slightest chance strengthwise of doing this job, are too small at 500mm/20" BUT you gave me a hopefully great idea Brino.
I have some really beefy angle iron in my stockpile that I should be able to build a fixture(if that's the word for it) around the casting, to both let me press the assembly in and pull it out.
Sure it's some extra work but I would probably "have to" play with my mill to make it! 

But first I'm going to struggle on with assembling the piston that raises and lowers the saw, once that's in and working I can get a better idea of how it's cutting cycle works, so I understand exactly how that pin wants to sit relative to the non-concentric part.


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## MrCrankyface

The saga continues, prepare for an onslaught of pictures as usual.

Starting with the oil reservoir(assumption on my side), only problem here is that the threads are so full of crap that the cap won't go on.
Easy fix with a tap.


Quite a lot of gasket making... Outside diameters are easy by putting things upside down, insides I use a dirty glove to scrape against the edge through the gasket material, quick and easy way to get an outline.


This is is the bottom of the hydraulic-ram-thingy(I'm sure that's the technical term for it).
Removeable bottom(previous pic) with what I'm assuming is oil drain for changing oil.


Lid loosely placed ontop to show how it sits together.
Oil reservoir from first picture sits at the red circle.
Yellow and green are oil connections,I think green is inlet and yellow is outlet/return.
Orange is supposed to have some kind of springloaded valve inside of it, by rotating a big disc on the outside of the machine, this sets the amount of oil that's allowed to return through the yellow port and thus controlling the lowering rate of the saw arm.
The hydraulic ram is supposed to come through the hole in the top casting.


Lid got it's main seal replaced, I think this was the original problem since the old seal came out in several pieces whilst this is very soft and malleable..


Lid removed to show how the big pistons sits, the smaller rod in my hand runs inside the bigger rod.

The small rod then actuates this smaller piston, that runs inside the bigger piston.

These springs that load against the bottom of the casting push small piston back up.
The tiny spring with ball there is some kind of one-way valve.



And the piston all assembled.


Sounds really straightforward right?
Well, I had to spend almost an hour looking at photos and drawings with my favorite paperweight, Stella, to figure out how it was all supposed to go back together. 
You can NEVER take too many photos when disassembling machines, video would be even better..


After this the whole assembly just needed to be pushed down into the casting, quite tricky with those ring-seals but I managed eventually with some hoseclamps carefully holding the rings together.
At first I wasn't going to repaint it but I might as well, why cheap out at this stage?
So I masked all sensitive parts up and will take it outside for sanding, degreasing and painting.


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## hman

Nice looking boss!


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## Papa Charlie

Project is coming along. Always a challenge when reassembling a complicated piece of machinery that we have not experience with. The devil is most certainly in the details.


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## MrCrankyface

Unfortunately had to remove some pictures for privacy reasons due to real life harassment, sorry about that. But the project continues!

Since I had messed up the positioning on the main shaft when pressing it apart and back together, I made a jig to take it back out again.
Same jig also let me push it back in. A lot better than attacking it with a mallet for 30 minutes straight..




The whole hydraulic unit got a paintjob and was carefully put into place, it's quite a heavy unit so really difficult not chipping the paint when going through the small holes in the side of the base.




Unfortunately I forgot to attach the spring and cover so had to take it back out again ... Good practice I guess.   



There's also this second thing, just a spring basically, that helps the saw move back up.
There's supposed to be 2 springs, but over 40 years it has snapped in quite a few pieces...
I don't have the funds to replace it so I just cleaned it up and hope it'll do it's job.
The shaft was bent and pitted but I managed to bend it back and clean it up in the lathe.





With those prepped and also remounted the saw arm it looks like this!



Not as visible is the pressure adjuster on the right side(from previous photo)
It also received some paint on the visible parts, didn't bother with the backside.


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## MrCrankyface

As I was working on the parts for the vice, the housing for the old crank drive was annoying me, so it had to go.
It was too big to fit in my lathe to took a part off with the tigersaw first.



Managed to get some fun slowmo of the carnage.





Left is the profile it used to be, right is after I had some fun in the lathe and also primed it.



Next on the agenda was the flimsy old handle. Replaced it with a thick and heavy piece of steel. You can now spin this and it'll keep spinning, generally just feels a lot more heavy duty.




The belt pulley got some paint, and so did the cover. Also started remounting the vice parts.




So with all that done it's really starting to look like an entirely different machine...
Left to do is the control box and cutting fluid system.


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## Papa Charlie

Looking good. A lot of work.


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## mattthemuppet2

very nice. That will be a super useful tool when it's up and running.


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## MrCrankyface

Thanks! A lot of work indeed... My patience with the machine is starting to run low but I'm so close to getting it finished!

Here's the pretty massive old control box, almost a meter tall.
I spent some time contemplating wether I should just plug it back in "as is" but didn't feel right.



This is what I ended up doing instead, gave me a chance to practice on sheet metal work
This new size will be plenty for the functions the saw has remaining, and should make it look nicer.





Checking through my scrap pile, I started on a control panel in a decent height. I will use any excuse to play with the mill for a bit! 





A good visual comparison of new/old.



Some weld and paint later.
I added quite a lot of wires after these photos were taken... 
Fuses on the main 3 phase inlet, motor protectors for the 3 motors(2 sawing motors and the coolant pump), 12V powersupply and some relays for latch functions.
When you hit start, the saw and coolant pump starts, then hit feed to make it start feeding down. Stop will stop everything at anytime.
The lever at the front will set the speed between 1 and 4 since the two motors are dual speed.


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## MrCrankyface

Ladies and gentlemen, it's finally alive!   
If you just wanna see it cut, jump to 10:15!


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## Papa Charlie

Really nice work. She looks like she just came off the showroom floor. How long does it take to cut through that square stock?


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## brino

Fantastic!!!!

I watched the entire thing, and even though many of the photos looked familiar I am glad I did.
It was a great summary of the entire project.

You have an amazing saw.
Thanks for sharing the journey.

-brino


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## francist

That’s a great job on the rebuild, really nice looking machine now   Interesting to see that it cuts on the “push” side of the stroke though, I’ve only ever seen power hacksaws cutting on the “pull”. Once again, beautiful job.

-frank


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## Nogoingback

Powered hacksaws are very cool to begin with you've done a great job on yours. Congratulations!


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## MrCrankyface

Thanks everyone!
I never meant to make a video on it so it's a lot of reused photos.

Papa Charlie:
At the lowest speed it took 4 minutes, at second lowest it took 2 minutes. What really slowed the cut down was going through the top and bottom where I imagine it would've gone much faster with a higher cutting pressure. Both tests had 2 out of 9 on the cutting pressure dial since I'm a coward. 
As I get more comfortable with the machine I'll try to ramp things up and see how it cuts.


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## NC Rick

I so much enjoy reading about and looking at the wonderful craftsmanship you invested into your interesting saw!  you have done a great service to the machine and I am sure you will really enjoy using it.  I have seen smaller power hacksaws but have never seen one work in person, let alone use one.  I would enjoy hearing and learning about the comparative advantages and disadvantages of such a saw over a band saw.  I have always assumed (obviously incorrectly) that those were made before band saws were available or due to some cost benefit.  Your beautiful machine shows many signs of my ignorance.  Thank you for sharing.


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## Papa Charlie

I thought the control panel was exceptionally well thought out. I particularly like the STOPP button.


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## Boswell

Thanks for bringing us along on this great restoration!


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## Tim9

That’s a very nice power hacksaw. I have a Keller power hacksaw but unfortunately it’s in storage right now. I just don’t have the space for it. But I wish I did because I find the power hacksaw cuts nice straight 90 degree cuts whereas my 4 x 6 bandsaw has a habit of always cutting angled cuts. I have to make sure I leave a little  extra on my stock and then true it on my mil. Plus, my hacksaw has a coolant pump which is nice.
Anyway, my Keller is nothing compared to your hacksaw. You have an Industrial power hacksaw in my opinion. Very nice.
PS-So…I’ve now confirmed to myself that my memory ain’t what it used to be because I just reread 6 pages of posts to find that not only did I already read this thread, but I also was the last to comment. 
  Anyway I did read it more thoroughly this go-round. Great restoration on a really fabulous hacksaw. (I miss my hacksaw  )


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## jitlikhari741

MrCrankyface said:


> Continuing on.
> Using a mix of sanders and wire brushes, I got most of the old crud off.
> 
> 
> Both sprayed and brushed on a layer of epoxy primer.
> 
> 
> And ontop of that a layer of grey polyurethane.
> It looks quite light in the pictures, as it hardened it became a bit darker.
> I did so many mistakes here that really ****** me off. Stupid mistakes like how I somehow forgot to mask the top and floor, sprayed way too much paint on and so on.
> I will have to get back to this and sand down the runs and do a final top coat again.
> 
> 
> 
> I did a quick brushjob on the legs, I think the black should constrast nicely.
> 
> 
> To get away off from the frustration of the bad paintjob(I don't like painting but I like a good end result..), I started working on the pump which was the initial problem.
> To the left you have the "lid" of the main piston and to the right is the main unit I guess.
> The big rod on the lid has a smaller rod inside it, and the big piston has a smaller piston inside it that gets act upon from this smaller rod.
> Basically as the saw runs, it acts upon the smaller rod, transfering the motion to the smaller piston down inside the bigger piston.
> 
> 
> A closer look on the main piston and the smaller rod.
> 
> 
> With the bottom taken off the main piston, you can see this smaller piston. I have taken the seals off it for the photo.
> 
> 
> Eventually all that was left to take apart was this part on the lid.
> Aaand here we find a completely busted seal.
> Hopefully this is all that was keeping it from working as intended.
> View attachment 331861


Hi is it easy to find such parts for these old machines or are these standard accesories?


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## MrCrankyface

It's a bit of both.
Some of the parts I've replaced have been standard parts but others(Like some bearings in the saw arm) are impossible to find and I had to rebuild things so I could use other bearings there.


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## kb58

To the OP, I had to laugh when your neighbor offered it for "free."

This is the same sort of neighbor who offers seeds to his neighbors, saying "I just can't seem to get these to grow", figuring correctly that pride will take over, the neighbors will grow them, ending up with too many to eat, and end up giving him some "in payment."

In your case, your generous neighbor ends up with someone who has a fully functioning saw, so he'll probably be showing up eventually with this or that to cut, so that you can "show off" the saw to him. Pretty clever on his part... and he doesn't have a big, barely-working saw cluttering up his shop


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## evan-e-cent

I mentioned to an engineering friend that I was going to the "Men's Shed" to use their electric hacksaw.  He said he has one that he never uses because he orders all his stock cut to length. Is he gave it to me. The thick layer of dirt was testament to the fact that it had not been used for decades. I didn't take a photo until after cleaning the thickest layers of dirt.  I tried to buy some orange epoxy paint but could not get anywhere near the right colour. So I used the Epoxy Ultra-Blue that I had used to paint my Boxford lathe and drill stand. So now they all match. 





Here it is cutting the 80mm diameter stainless steel bar that I used to make the ball turning attachment that I posted today. Apparently in South Africa they call this a "Strongarm". 

Cast into the arm is "HAWKINS CH-CH".  The abbreviation CH-CH is for Christchurch in New Zealand.  I did some research and found that Hawkins Foundry in Christchurch was advertising this kind of equipment from 1932 to 1946.  He was the maker of postage franking machines and NZ was one of the first countries in the world to use the system starting in 1905. 

In the last photo, at the bottom you can see a white pill box. It contains a microswitch. the bar through the middle is spring loaded to push up. There is a larger sleeve on the shaft that turns the switch off then the blade gets to the bottom.

Originally this had some kind of lifter mechanism to raise the blade on the backstroke. It would have been hydraulic, but it is missing and I have not yet made a replacement. It also needs a guard on the belt and moving parts.


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## evan-e-cent

I am new to Hobby-Machinist.  I posted a long reply with photos of a hacksaw I restored, but there is no sign of my post after 24h.  I wonder why??


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## evan-e-cent

Oh as seen as I submitted the question the post appeared like magic!


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## Ski

Nice work!


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## luap

MrCrankyface said:


> Figured I'd share my restoration project!
> I've always found these old machines quite cool and when a neighbour offered me a defective one for free, I couldn't say no!
> 
> This is the machine as I got it, it runs but won't lower the sawblade so you have to manually push it against the work piece, which becomes quite the challenge and dangerous as heck when it's moving back and forth.
> 
> 
> The thick bars protruding on the side are from an automatic feed system that's been cut off.
> By pure chance I came across a previous owner of this saw and he gave me these two pictures of how it used to look.
> View attachment 331838
> View attachment 331839
> 
> 
> At first I was just going to get the downfeed to work again and leave it at that, not spend too much time on it because I have quite a lot of other stuff that also needs doing.
> But just trying to understand how the machine is built and what could be the problem, I was already in waaay too deep to not do something more serious.
> Just trying to get the downfeed mechanism out I somehow ended up with this after like 14 hours of work ... Many of those were just shoveling out old sludge and nasty cutting oil.
> 
> 
> Every little mechanism is completely packed with old grease that is long overdue for a cleanup, this picture was after I scooped handfuls of it out.
> View attachment 331841
> View attachment 331843
> 
> 
> Eventually after a lot of beating I managed to get the entire hinge mechanism off and the parts are starting to pile up.
> View attachment 331845
> 
> 
> One really interesting thing is this motor. It's 2 motors in one, double shafts and everything.
> There's a smaller shaft, inside the bigger shaft, powering the smaller pulley.
> View attachment 331846
> 
> 
> With everything stripped it was time for it to travel outside for some major cleaning.. Quite a big of degreaser, scrubbing and high pressure washer.
> By now you can even see that it has some color underneath all the crud.
> View attachment 331847
> View attachment 331848


----------



## luap

MrCrankyface said:


> Continuing on.
> Using a mix of sanders and wire brushes, I got most of the old crud off.
> 
> 
> Both sprayed and brushed on a layer of epoxy primer.
> 
> 
> And ontop of that a layer of grey polyurethane.
> It looks quite light in the pictures, as it hardened it became a bit darker.
> I did so many mistakes here that really ****** me off. Stupid mistakes like how I somehow forgot to mask the top and floor, sprayed way too much paint on and so on.
> I will have to get back to this and sand down the runs and do a final top coat again.
> 
> 
> 
> I did a quick brushjob on the legs, I think the black should constrast nicely.
> 
> 
> To get away off from the frustration of the bad paintjob(I don't like painting but I like a good end result..), I started working on the pump which was the initial problem.
> To the left you have the "lid" of the main piston and to the right is the main unit I guess.
> The big rod on the lid has a smaller rod inside it, and the big piston has a smaller piston inside it that gets act upon from this smaller rod.
> Basically as the saw runs, it acts upon the smaller rod, transfering the motion to the smaller piston down inside the bigger piston.
> 
> 
> A closer look on the main piston and the smaller rod.
> 
> 
> With the bottom taken off the main piston, you can see this smaller piston. I have taken the seals off it for the photo.
> 
> 
> Eventually all that was left to take apart was this part on the lid.
> Aaand here we find a completely busted seal.
> Hopefully this is all that was keeping it from working as intended.
> View attachment 331861


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## luap

Great job on your restoration.It seems to be  the way to go.Im a local too.


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## evan-e-cent

My hacksaw (seen above, first with its original orange paint and later in blue epoxy) has been working quite well. I still haven't replaced the blade lifter mechanism which I assume was a simple hydraulic ram that lifted the blade on the backstroke. The gear wheel that drives the crank mechanism has a cam cast on its inner face, which would have operated the lifter, moving it about 1/8 to 1/4 inch with each stroke.   I have added a heavy weight at the end of the moving arm to apply downward pressure. This works but the blades wear out fast, and tend to chatter, especially cutting the 80mm diameter stainless steel.  I have been thinking about the easiest way to make a lifter mechanism. So far the easiest solution has been to replace blades frequently! Any suggestions?  Right now the saw is still in New Zealand and I am currently in Tennessee so it won't get done immediately!


----------

