Hercus power hacksaw

[Gavin Newman]

Having sold my Royco saw to Brian I decided to extract the digit and get to work on getting it's replacement working. I managed to get a 3-phase Hercus saw which I've now mounted on a trolley so I can move it around the workshop. It's built like a steam train, heavy as lead (it's very hard to move even on the trolley) and will probably outlast me.

The green tray is not part of the setup, it's there temporarily in case the coolant tank leaks after I re-tapped the drain plugs.

Does anyone have any information on these saws at all, all I've managed to find is a reference in a 1955 McPherson catalogue which means it's probably as old as I am.

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Rgds - Gavin

[tinkera]

Hi Gavin,
That's a mighty looking saw, I have always found that power hacksaws are great tools to watch, but I see that you already have the comfortable chair ready for that. :)

[Godzilla98]

Hey Gavin,

I have also procured a similar machine and been unable to find any data on them

Mine is very similar in the cutting area, but is Hercus Green and drives from the other side down to the motor. When your bored take the pump apart and go figure how it works,

A good machine that as mentioned also good fun to watch

Enjoy

[Woodlee]

Good machine ,cant tell you much about them ,except that where I did my apprenticeship they had a few of them and they certainly were worked hard by the staff.
IIRC the one in the toolroom where I worked suffered from wear in the slide bushes and on the shafts .We finally got around to repairing it by replacing the rods and line boring the bushes and making bronze bushes to fit the carriers .I seem to remember that the bushes were just cast iron and run directly on the steel shafts.
Been 40 years since I've seen one of these so the memory is dim.
Kev.

[Gavin Newman]

Thanks for the input gents.

Kev, I see what you mean about the slides running CI on the steel shafts. I suspect mine originally came from a TAFE or similar as it had non-standard guards on the belt drive and a disk over the holes in the pulley, presumably as a safety measure. There doesn't seem to be any slop in the carriage which is surprising as it must be 50 years old.

Godzilla, I haven't been game to touch the pump yet as it works. In fact all I had to do to get the saw operational was fill the hydraulic tank and flush out the coolant tank (a number of times!!!). As a matter of interest, could you see which way up the oiling hole on the end cap of the hydraulic pump push rod faces on your saw. On mine the hole is at the lower end of the cap which means it's almost horizontal - I would have thought it should be near the top, I'm wondering if it's been installed upside down at some stage.

Does your saw have the length stop fitted? Mine has a couple of holes in the tray that are shown as holding a stop fixture but the picture isn't good enough to see the details.

Rgds - Gavin

[Godzilla98]

Hi Gavin

My saw has had the slide bushes replaced with what appears to be nolothane of similar white plasticy stuff.

I had to remove them and ream them out a bit to stop them binding and causing a significant kiniption in operation.

I'll check the hole - I recall I did change it to oil properly from the top

Also have to adjust the bleed adjuster on the piston a few times to keep a good feed rate. Basic but effective

I only have a threaded rod which runs through the holes under the bed. Another project to make the other bits for it,

I'll check those point and take some pics on the weekend.

Cheers

Ian

[anglesmith]

Hi, Gavin,
It is listed in the 1951 and 1949, McPhersons Catalogues,But no Hercus PHs in the1937. Hope this helps.
Graeme

[Gavin Newman]

Also have to adjust the bleed adjuster on the piston a few times to keep a good feed rate. Basic but effective

Ian

Thanks for the answers, where is the bleed adjuster on your saw? As far as I can see on mine the hydraulics just provide a blade lift on the return stroke, it doesn't seem like there's any down-feed control but I could be missing something.

Rgds - Gavin

[Godzilla98]

Hi Gavin,

If you look at the rod that connects to the piston that drives off the main shaft and causes the lift on the return stroke.

You should see where the rod screws into the piston body and it has a lock nut on it. I think I can just see it on your photo

If you pull this piston out you will see a hole that allows the oil to bypass and bleed back.

Depending how far the piston is advanced in or back, controls this flow.
Adjusting the 'length' that rod by screwing it in or out changes that bleed

Very basic but works well.
From memory screw out (shorten) to slow lower rate, and in to increase rate.

Again I'll get a pic of that for you.

You wouldn't think there was so much to learn about such a simple machine.

I;m envious - yours has oilers too. I gather it has brass bushes Can put you onto a source of these oilers if any are not working.

My Father in Law used to work for Freighters in Ballarat and he said they had half a dozen of these things lined up side by side working all the time with a full time hacksaw operator...


Cheers

Ian

[Stustoys]

Does this hacksaw need much of a bleed adjuster with so much adjustment available with the moveable weight?
Stuart

[Gavin Newman]

I;m envious - yours has oilers too. I gather it has brass bushes Can put you onto a source of these oilers if any are not working.

Ian

Thanks for the pointers re the lift, I'll have a look on the weekend. The photos will be very handy.

The top slides don't have bushes as far as I can see, I think it's just cast iron running on the steel. There's no perceptible play in those so I'm going to leave that part alone for the time being. I did a cut of some 2" round the other day and it cuts quite straight so that's a good thing. As I said in an earlier post, I suspect that at least part of it's life has been spent in a TAFE or something similar - there are non-standard belt and spoke guards on it - so maybe it hasn't done as much work as would be expected from such an old saw.

I haven't had much time to poke around, I made up the trolley so I could move it around and it's been put to work. Once the current jobs are out of the way I want to strip it right down and clean everything up a bit.

I'd appreciate a source for the oilers if you know one. There are the 4 oilers on the slides, the rest seems to be oiled by squirting oil into holes in the various bushes.

Rgds - Gavin

[Godzilla98]

Hello again Gav,

1/ - I was slightly incorrect in my previous explanation - The bypass is a hole in the side of the cylinder and the amount the piston is set back controls the bleed out of that back into the tank.

At least that's how I understand it works

2/ - FYI the cut direction depends on the rotation direction. I rewired some 3 phase plugs recently and it stopped cutting. Reversed the motor direction and all was well. So you can cut either direction but I don't really know which is correct. Mine is set to cut on the pull back.

Be interested in others experience or knowledge here.

3/ - Photos. Should be be able to see the adjuster and lock nut.
Also can see the synthetic bushes.

4/ - As you can see mine drives from the left side as you look at it from the front. There is a big cover that fits over the pulleys which looks original

5/ - I had to fit a new seal under the oil return shroud on top of the oil reservoir tank. Seems a bit strange that this return should be exposed to the dust and possible filings - maybe there should be a cover over it.

As always a lot to learn...Love ya trolley = as you can see mine has small solid steel wheels with screw down lock bolts which works OK to move it but involves a bit of energy.

I couldn't find any numbers or ID other than the name Hercus in the casting.

Never know someone may have that info somewhere.

Cheers

Ian

[Gavin Newman]

Ian

Thanks for taking the trouble to get the pics, should help me with mine.

Rgds - Gavin