I need advice on a Racine Power Hacksaw restoration.

[RRT]

This Racine model 66-??2 has been quietly hiding in the barn for 30 years after having been retired from a defense contractor. It was bought with several truckload of scrap. That may be all it worth, but a power hacksaw thread on this site made me look anew at this ugly thing. I have never used one, but I understand the basics of what it does.

I ditched the 3 ph motor and am working by hand for now. After a little clean up and lub the arm reciprocates nicely. The problem seems to be with the hydraulic lowering of the arm. There is a cam on the main shaft that drives a pump in the base that has a line going to the slave cylinder attached to the arm. I think the first few times I cycled the machine the arm lowered itself with each revolution. I cannot get that response now. I can manually lower the arm by overcoming the pressure of the springs in the base. But no combinaation of settings of the three controls on the slave cylinder base will move the arm. The hyd tank is full. I cant get to the hyd line with out major disassembly to see if the master cylinder is producing pressure which I think is the problem. Getting to the seal on that pistion will require an almost total disassembly.

Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated.

Any link to a users manual of a simular machine would be helpful.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[GK1918]

Ill give a try, what I see there is much like my Robertson my eccentric oil pump is only for dripping oil
on the saw blade. Second mine uses gear oil in a cast iron sump not light oil. I use #80-90. Third
somewhere around the piston there should be a little control rod size of a clothes hanger that enables
this piston to lift up on the backstroke or disable it. Downfeed usually controled by a sliding weight.
Basically they work like that, I mean the well built ones. And also the piston has no rings or anything,
it just depends on thick oil so when the arm is lifted it will take a few minutes for it to creep down, so
there should be a piece that will keep it up.. Mine was line shaft driven when I got it and all its got
is a run of the mill washing machine motor works pefect goes through anything. I wouldnt trade this
for anything and that means bandsaws. It cuts so sweet, walk away it shuts itself when done. sam