saw building idea's

[ataiter]

i want to build a metal cutting saw, i have blades used in steel rail

cutting saw, from rail maintenace group. anyone have plans

or can give info..

from south alabama , beginning metal work, hobby shop.


ataiter

[Dave Hammer]

It's not clear what type of saw you want to make. What type of machine are the blades you have used in? Abrasive, band saw, cold saw .... ?

Unless you are just interested in a challenge for a project, and already have all or most of the parts, I would expect it would be cheaper to buy a metal cutting saw than build one. For occassional use, even the cheap saws that Harbor Freight sells work fairly well.

[evfreek]

Like this?

Make sure that the backstroke is pulling down.

[Avadon]

I know you said you want to build one but you can buy a real bandsaw 14" for about $1,800 from MSC. They had them on sale for a while MSC Item Detail maybe they still do. I use starret blades on it and the saw is incredible. I cut everything from thin sheet to 3" billet stock on it. There is heavy duty fence you can get on amazon that works great with it. There are a lot of little things I add to it like the mobile base with raisable machine mounts. I also modified the doors a little by taking out these stops they had, this way I can run 3/4" blades no problem. Good saw, I use it daily! Before bandsaw everything was hacksaw and angle grinder, and that gets old quickl!

[ataiter]

thanks for reply. evfreek this is what i need! i have bandsaws, want to build power hacksaw to cut 6" round material. this is a design i can use to build a saw.

ataiter

[Oak Hill Forge]

The saw in the picture used regular hacksaw blades, so if you have blades heavy enough to cut track with, you are looking for a lot heftier saw. By the way, I build that same saw when I was 13 ! The plans were in Popular Mechanics if I remember correctly.... back when magazines like those actually had PLANS to build reasonable stuff ! It was always fun for me. I have a large reciprocating hacksaw about like you are thinking about building , but right now it's burried in the garage with no motor on it. It was build in the early 1900's so it's a beast. Pobably weighs 1000 lbs. A farmer friend gave it to me.

[irnsrgn]

I built one in high school for the school shop, used an old old Maytag square tub washing machine gearbox and motor.

I built this bandsaw when I got outa the Navy in 65, gearbox is from the checkout turntable from a grocery store, 50 to 1 reduction, idler pulley bearing is a chevy water pump bearing, piece of channel for main bed, legs are the tapered pieces from the outside of a house trailer frame I made into a beaver tail round bale moving trailer for a farmer, motor is a maytag washing machine motor. blade guide bearings are generator bearings. it also works as a vertical saw.
Band saws about 3 to 5 pieces in the same time it takes a power hacksaw to saw one.

Edited December 29, 2008 by irnsrgn

[divermike]

Have you looked into the Alabama Forge Council yet? One of the nicest groups of people a man could ever want to meet! Just google em and go see what's up, these guys are the best!!

[LarryM]

ataiter,

Below is another site to visit. The thing about this design is there is no slider bar to build. The connecting rods could also be replaced with more suitable pivots. These plans could also be scale up to make a larger verion. See want you think

Larry

[Will. K.]

I acquired a small power hacksaw and about 400 blades at an estate auction a while back that looks similar to the one pictured in the link posted by evfreek. I think it might have been built from a kit or plans. It works extremely well. I like using it better than my bandsaw. It is slow but I just let it do its thing and check it every once in a while. I'll try and snap some pics tomorrow if I remember.