Are power hacksaws obsolete ?

[morrisman]

I have two : A Herless made in Taiwan , paid $50 for it at a car swap meet - it's untried and very heavy . The second is a Peerless I bought off a neighbour for $100, I fixed it up and it works well . With drop saws being common these days you don't see that many hacksaws in use ? The Herless has a helical gear drive and coolant pump and auto off , the Peerless is belt driven and simple with 12" blade which was hard to find replacements for .MIKE

[Dengue]

All the steel merchants use them for cutting to size

[morrisman]

All the steel merchants use them for cutting to size

Hi Jill . The steel merchant here uses a drop saw with a slow rotating disc ... My power hacksaws are rather slow in comparison to the dropsaw things . :2tsup:

[Bryan]

My supplier has a cold saw ("slow rotating") and a bandsaw. I think the answer is yes, power hacksaws are largely obsolete in industry, and no, they are still used in home workshops. Like mine. And yours, Morrisman. Mine is the same as your Herless, but with a different name. It lives on a stand I built so I don't have to bend to operate it. If you do a search you will find a few threads discussing them.

[Dave J]

Someone gave a link to cheap blades here a while back and he would post them as well, but not sure if they where 12 inch ones.
My local Metal land used to have cold saws for years, but have now changed over to bandsaws.
They still make power hacksaws because I have seen them on the Indian websites.

When I bought my bandsaw it was advertised as a power hacksaw for $150 at a deceased workshop. I was interested but when I got there in the afternoon, I found it to be a small bandsaw and thought I would take a chance as the price had dropped to $100. No one was interested because they where all looking for a hacksaw as advertised, not a bandsaw.

Dave

[matthew_g]

I don't believe they are obsolete, I have a large hydraulic Parkinson with coolant, and I have seen many of them in use in engineering shops all over the place. My Parkinson is way more accurate than my bandsaw and not all that much slower..When I say way more accurate I mean it. I can cut a piece of stock then take it to the lathe for a facing cut, And I reakon I could near get away with out the facing cut sometimes...There is no way the bandsaw will even come close..
There are a few engineering shops around here that use them all the time as they get a cold cut(so no work hardening) and they get an accurate cut..I suppose if you can afford a cold saw you would be in the ball park..
Just my 2 cents worth...
Matt

[matthew_g]

Someone gave a link to cheap blades here a while back and he would post them as well, but not sure if they where 12 inch ones.
My local Metal land used to have cold saws for years, but have now changed over to bandsaws.
They still make power hacksaws because I have seen them on the Indian websites.

When I bought my bandsaw it was advertised as a power hacksaw for $150 at a deceased workshop. I was interested but when I got there in the afternoon, I found it to be a small bandsaw and thought I would take a chance as the price had dropped to $100. No one was interested because they where all looking for a hacksaw as advertised, not a bandsaw.

Dave
Dave the blades you are referring to are from APEX Machinery in Mordialloc in the eastern suburbs of Melb..He will post them and they are $2 bucks each. They are also a really good blade...
Great place to have a wander through as well.:2tsup:
Matt

[morrisman]

Bryan

Is your saw a good workhorse? I am wondering If its worth restoring my Herless to running condition ? Or is it a bad design ?

BTW I did eventually find some 12" blades at a place in Dandenong... its on the Sth Gippy Hwy just up from the Greens road intersection towards Dandenong , in that row of industrial shops where Thomas Warburton is ...I paid about $12 each for them .

The Mordialloc place sounds good

Mike

[Dave J]

Matt,sounds like your bandsaw is not setup right as mine cuts true. It does take some fiddling to get right though.
I have never owned a power hacksaw, but that is what I went to buy when I bought the bandsaw. If I came across one cheap I would buy it, as I cant help myself buying tools and machines. LOL

Are those blades the 12inch ones Mike is having trouble getting? If so that is a big saving for him.

Dave

[Bryan]

Mike that design has been around a long time and I believe is still in production. There must be millions of them out there. They are somewhat crudely made but it doesn't matter much because they're so simple. I did have a fiddle with mine when I got it, to get the backlift working a bit better, and just to go over it. There really isn't much to go wrong. Despite visible wear on the ways, it cuts pretty damn true. Just get the basics right, give it lots of oil and it will go forever. I had some longer blades (long story) from ebay so I cut one down to 14". I cut it off with an angle grinder and ground the hole will a dremel. Easier if your blades are bimetal. Haven't needed to do another one yet.

[Pete F]

I'm not sure about the statement that all steel merchants use hacksaws. None of the ones I buy my material do. Also not too sure about the accuracy statement I'm afraid. A coldsaw is quite accurate. There's no reason the big CNC bandsaws aren't also spot on, for example there's one used by the supplier from whom I buy steel and I've been led to believe it's the ducks-guts in terms of accuracy!

There's no reason not to still use a hacksaw if you want to. They're not as versatile, nor as fast in my experience, as a bandsaw. But hey, it sure beats doing it by hand!! I have a cheap bandsaw and it cuts as accurately as I need. I'm sure I could make it even more accurate if that was important however it typically never is so it works just fine out of the box.

Pete

[China]

Mine certainly is not, may steel suppliers still use them, one great thing about them is they will cut a 6'/150mm billet just ast easy as 1"/25mm billet and you can set it going and walk away and do something else while does it's job

[Anorak Bob]

I have a cheap Chinese bandsaw and a neat little Lotze power hacksaw. The hacksaw is mesmerising to watch but the bandsaw is more efficient. It chopped through a piece of 4140 this afternoon that quickly that I thought the blade had snapped when I heard a bang. It was the offcut hitting the floor.

BT

[Woodlee]

I restored a big old Parkinson I paid 70.00 for it from the local scrap yard .It has hydraulic lift , down feed and auto shut off, and two speeds .It takes a 12 ,14 and 16 inch blades ,although the 12 is plenty for what I use it for and I reckon it would be hard to get the larger blades these days. It cuts very accurately and makes cutting large stock a breeze. I have done some cutting of stock for a local bloke here .
Kev.

[Abratool]

Woodlee
You have a real winner with the Parkinson Hacksaw machine.What a great job you have done in restoring it.
I have in the past visited the Parkinson Engineering facility in Victoria.They made quality stuff.
regards
Bruce
ABRATOOL:)

[Stustoys]

I'd say they are obsolete in the production sense.
I would think they cost more to buy.(unless of course you can pick one up for $70:2tsup:)
They require more maintenance.
More than half the time they are doing nothing ;)
They generally have a wider cut.
Most of the time they only use a small part of the blade.

The only down side of a bandsaw I can think of is blade changes would take longer.

Having said all that I'd be happy to have yours in my shed Kev. Looks to be very heavy. Nice color as well, I have to come up with a color for my machines or at least my T&C grinder).

One tip for the hacksaw guys. Make a false jaw about 4" wide to put against the fixed jaw. On smaller work this will move the section of blade being used. Dont get to greedy though or you might hit the work with the frame. Not sure its even worth the trouble if the blades are $12 each given the small amount of work most of us are likely to put through one in a year.

Stuart

[Dave J]

I restored a big old Parkinson I paid 70.00 for it from the local scrap yard .It has hydraulic lift , down feed and auto shut off, and two speeds .It takes a 12 ,14 and 16 inch blades ,although the 12 is plenty for what I use it for and I reckon it would be hard to get the larger blades these days. It cuts very accurately and makes cutting large stock a breeze. I have done some cutting of stock for a local bloke here .
Kev.

That saw has a modern look to it Kev. More like something you would buy today if they where still selling them.

Dave

[new_guy90]

I love power hack saws the place I used to work had one and it was brilliant for cutting the tough tool steel we machined there, they are great when the cam works if not you are just chucking money and time away. My old boss came to me once "can you take a look at the hack saw please?" she put a plate of aluminum flat and tried to cut but since it was longer than the stroke the chips didn't clear and it snapped the blade and a dowel lol my new boss came to me with a bit of stainless half cut through "take a 16mm turbo and cut right on the line to cut this bit off" me "didn't the band saw cut it?" "na the blade is screwed and we dont have any more blades" lol

[aussiejoeblow]

I have both. And I much prefer the power hacksaw.

[Woodlee]

Dave ,
I reckon it was manufactured just after the second world war , the ball bearings that were in the drive were Australian made Echuca brand .I spoke to an old guy that worked for CBC and he said that that brand of bearing hasn't been made since the end of the war .Of course the bearings could have been in stock for many years. I reckon this saw was of late 40's or early 50's manufacture .The base , beam , bow and drive housing are cast iron .The later models were fabricated , but still used the same pump for the hydraulics .It weighs at least 500kg ,the oil tank for the hydraulic pump take about 16 litres of oil .
I have been in contact with a couple of fellows who have later fabricated models and we have compared components and compared the differences of the models.

In the side of the base mine has the name Theo Park and Sons Melbourne cast into it. Possibly before the name change to Parkanson for the business . I've tried to get more info on the company , but have had no luck so far.
Some machinery company in Melbourne still markets Parkanson machinery but are not exactly forth coming with any historic information.

Ive attached some pics of later model with a fabricated base , it is a chain drive from the main motor which is housed under the machine ,mine is a gear driven affair with a large fly wheel and the motor is mounted on the rear of the machine .This later model still has the cast iron drive housing , beam and bow .The hydraulic pump , auto cut off for the return of the beam to the up position and the drive housing are identical to my machine.The vice screw is totally different , mine has a quick adjusting moveable jaw , although the vice jaws are very similar.

Kev.

[morrisman]

During WW2 a bearing manufacturing facility was built at Echuca ... I don't know more than that .

Was the Parkinson factory in Highett ? SE suburb of Melbourne .

PS found this Echuca Ordnance Factory, Ball Bearing Factory, Echuca, Victoria, during WW2 (http://www.ozatwar.com/civilian/echuchaordnancefactory.htm) Mike

[Woodlee]

Mike thanks for that .maybe I should have kept the old bearings , perhaps they would be collectors items.
I would hazard a guess that they were the original bearings ,they were still in pretty good condition ,but a restoration is a restoration so I replaced the lot .
I'm not sure where the factory was ,the casting on the machine only says
"Theo Park and Sons ,Engineers ,Melbourne"

Kev.