Tired Of Hacksawing - Can A Slitting Saw Help Me ?

Eddyde said:
When I was an apprentice, my mentor a master tool and die man showed me one could indeed cut and shape steel with woodworking tools. He used a router bit to mill slots and round over edges, in a mill, not in a router of course. He said while not ideal to use such tools but in a pinch....It's matter of feeds and speeds.
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Thanks - you have verified an impression that I had from reading various old books/magazines/internet posts.

cascao said:
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Thats a very good thing you have built - is there any possibility that it might damage or cause excessive wear to the lathe headstock and bearings ?

wawoodman said:
Harbor Freight has a portaband on sale for $129.

That being said, my advice is to beg or borrow the funds to get a stationary bandsaw. You know you will get one eventually (!) so why spend extra money to "make due" in the short run?
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Yes, I will get one eventually - am constantly scouring ebay and gumtree for appropriate tools. Australia is far more expensive than US for brand new tools and my location is a bit awkward so a lot of what I see on ebay is not accessible.

kvt said:
I have been thinking of making a power hack saw, or trying to convert one of my 9 inch band saws into a metal cutting band saw.
I know I would have to slow it way down without loosing power, I was thinking something like a tread mill motor with speed controller would work for either..
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One of the things I have considered is reducing speeds from a couple of motors I have 1500 &1400 rpm.

One of the giant aha ! moments in the past week has been that I don't have to do it in 2 steps which would involve something like 10"&2" = 5 times reduction x 2 = 25 times reduction

You can do it in 3 steps ie 2.9 x 2.9 x 2.9 and this means something like 3 x 6"&2" which occupies much less room and would be much easier to find/make the pulleys.

I dont know why I was so focussed on doing it in 2 steps.

I often think about those old workshops with overhead shafts and one big motor - as opposed to my shed with 4 x 1-2HP motors that spend a lot of time doing nothing at all. Drillpress, Mill, Lathe, Wood Bandsaw.

Am also aware of wormscrew reductions but dont know much about how practical this might be - I have seen several diy wormscrews on the internet for rotary tables but not any for or power transmission - it does seem complicated with immersion in oil required for lubrication ?

The video above showing the hacksaw driven by the lathe makes clever use of the lathe reduction mechanism.

You also have a reducing mechanism in the top of an old belt driven drill press - mine goes down to 250rpm and I have wondered about cannibalising that as I no longer use it much due to acquisition of Mill/Drill. At its simplest you could just lay the drill press down horizontally and hanmg an extra belt off the drive mechanism to be reduced 4-5x before powering a hacksaw.

Kernbigo said:
this is my craftsman that i converted to metal cutting, thread mill motor and my welded up metal cutting blades, works greatView attachment 113327
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So that is a modified Fretsaw/Jigsaw ? Interesting. Will do some further investigating - I never thought of that - could I visualise the mechanism as being similar to a power hacksaw but it goes vertically instead of horizontally ?

Many thanks for all responses.

Bill
 
And if you use an gate motor with worm reduction incorpored. They are cheap
 
I'll toss another alternative out there. I used a sawzall with metal-cutting blades. It is slow, but way better than a hacksaw. I already had the sawzall, otherwise the used portaband would have been a better buy.
 
I will have to check on the gate motors, as the last time I had to work with one a few years ago they were expensive as hell. I would be able to bay a horizontal band saw for what was paid for the last one I worked with. I'm trying to figure out what HP is needed, and if a DC motor will work, like a windshield wiper motor.
 
I've tried a portable bandsaw as a better, quicker alternative to hand hacksawing on thicker pieces of steel. Disappointing - a lot of noise and not so much cutting. (HF saw with Milwaukee blades).
My preferred tool is now a reciprocating saw with Milwaukee "The Torch" blades. A lot of noise and a lot of cutting! Only downside is the accuracy. It's tough to precisely start the cut, so I usually start with a triangular file and/or hacksaw. Angle grinder works well too.
 
BillWood said:
Have run out of budget for any new toys this year so cannot get a bandsaw.

Am tired of hacksawing metal and have tried abrasive 14" saw and thin blades on angle grinder.

Have just made a slitting saw arbor, but I get the impression that I wont be able to cut significant thicknesses with a slitting saw - is that correct ?

I get the impression that although textbooks and safety officers in big companes would frown on the practice, many people use 3.5" carbide tipped woodsaw blades as slitting saws on milling machiines - I will try this - any known traps with doing this i.e. I'd guess 200rpm for a 3.5" carbide tipped woodsaw blade for cutting mild steel ?
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Go to the Gringry work shop and they have a 7"x12" band saw that will cut most any thing you will run into and depending on how good a scrounger you are you can make it for very little money but that is not the time involved.
 
It was a ko lee cutter grinder that i turned in to a surface grinder turicted the ways and scraped it in. The accuracy is ok but not tool room quality.
 
I thought their cutter grinders looked a lot different than that. But, I've only seen the A600 and one of the B models. Your conversion looks like a factory-produced benchtop surface grinder!

I guess I'll be shopping for a Sanford SG48, but I was hoping there were other makers of small surface grinders.
 
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