Thread: Age of Hyco Bandsaw

Can't help with any info or the age, but I have a similar machine and would also like to know it's age. Mine is a 14 inch, and has a gearbox with a back gear for metal cutting, and came on a wonderful cast stand. It's currently sitting waiting restoration. There appears to be a dark green under the lighter paint if that helps anyone put a date on it.

Graham.


IMG_5997.jpgIMG_5999.jpgIMG_6002.jpg

Goodall & Co illustrates a 12" in their 1955 catalogue. Check out 'Trove' newspaper archive for earlier. A quick search suggests at least 1945.
cheers,
Andrew.

Hyco was taken over by Woodfast.
I don't think they continued with the 12 inch bandsaw but the 14 inch with the gearbox was rebadged as a Steelfast.
A coworker had a 12 inch Hyco and it may have had a gearbox?
Was only about a dozen years ago but the memory on that saw is fuzzy, he did get the wheels redone and it was a great saw for its size.
H.

Well that stand is nice but not original.It did remind me of another saw that like that which belongs to one of my mates.I will try to get some photos of it.From memory it had been painted up cream colour but was on it's original base.

Michael,
Were these saws typically sold on stands? Or as benchtop machines?

I'm wondering what colour to paint mine. The light green/cream that it's got now looks OK but is not the original. But I'm not sure how it would look in the dark green that's underneath.

Andrew, thanks for the lead on the Trove archive. I can't find any reference to a 14" Hyco bandsaw, but there are plenty of mentions of the 12".

Graham.

Originally Posted by AndrewOC

Goodall & Co illustrates a 12" in their 1955 catalogue. Check out 'Trove' newspaper archive for earlier. A quick search suggests at least 1945.
cheers,
Andrew.

Well I have learnt something today.Thanks for the newspaper archive tip Andrew.Your prize is a free workshop tour if you are ever up my way.
I looked at quite a few ads. and find them all the way back to 1946.They were available either as a bench mount or on a steel stand ,Graham.
This screen shot is an advert. from Sept. 1947.
Screen Shot 2015-08-10 at 8.13.22 am.jpg

Mine appears to be in original finish and is a dark greeny grey, maybe gunmetal is the correct name for it??

First of all a correction, my Hyco bandsaw is not 14", it's got 12.5" diameter wheels so allowing for the left blade guard it's about 12" useful capacity. I was told 14" when I purchased it and never actually checked So it's probably the same frame as Michael's.

DSEL74, Yes, it looks like the original colour on mine under the lighter green is the same dark greeny grey. I have a Hyco benchtop saw that had what I think is the same colour and from an unfaded section under the brass nameplate I found it to be very close to brunswick (British racing) green. I'd be tempted to paint this bandsaw the same, but I'm a bit concerned about large expanses of such a dark colour. Any thoughts?

Michael, I hope you don't mind the thread hijack. Let me know if you'd like to keep this thread to your machine only and I'll put my questions elsewhere.

Graham.

All good info so far Graham and I don't consider any of it off topic.
Here are some more pics. to confirm colours.My first Hyco 12" bandsaw and a Hyco Scroll Saw.Similar colours with varying degree of fading.
The Wadkin is my 36" saw used here for scale for the 12" Hyco.

Hyco Scroll saw.jpg 12 Hyco front.jpg 12 Hyco on stand.jpg 36 Wadkin and 12 Hyco.jpg

Michael,
Ah, I see we have similar tastes. I'd dearly love the original colour of my Hyco bandsaw to be that grey, as it would match my Speedax 20" (gratuitous pic below). I purchased the Hyco because the art deco styling matches the Speedax. I used White Knight machinery grey for this, which as best as I could tell was a reasonable match to the original but faded colour.

IMG_6005.jpg

But the colour on my Hyco has much more green in it, it's definitely not like a machinery grey. But still, that grey does look good on yours. Did you paint that? What colour and paint did you use?

Graham.

The colour is definitely a bit green not grey.I will buff a bit up and have a better look when time allows.
The 2 top guards have just faded a bit differently I think.

IMG_2098.jpg IMG_2099.jpg

I'd say that what yours is mounted on is an aftermarket stand and not an original.
Here's my 12" Hyco.





Some of them have had the motors mounted under the main frame - others like mine with the motor mounted behind.
Notice the splayed feet.

It seems to be a Hyco thing but there appeared to be two versions. Mine with the legs simply splayed for the lower 150mm and the others splayed not so much but with an almost club foot at the bottom. Which one precedes the other ?


Here is another one for sale a while back and you can see the difference in the legs.

The soft grey/light blue colour seems to be more prevalent too as a standard Hyco colour although my little Hyco 7 & 1/4" tablesaw is the darker green as previously mentioned.
Maybe the different colours and legs heralded a change in manufacture ??
As for age , I don't have a clue. The guy I bought mine from thought it was from the sixties.
One thing I'd like from you guys is some measurements of the rail on the left side that the sliding guide runs on. As you can see mine doesn't have either but a fitter and turner mate can manufacture something for me so I'd like to keep it exactly the same as the original ones if possible.
Here also is a cutting from a mag I looked through online a while back for an original ad which shows the original specs for a 12".



Cheers, Stewie

My stand is definitely home made not by me.The Scroll saw is on it's original stand and has the slightly splayed feet.
I have a Paul Call radial arm saw that has the club foot type stand so possibly they were available as an aftermarket item at that time.
I will be copying the rip fence as well for my other saw so will measure it up for you.
Of interest as I have started to strip the new one a bit I have found that most of the small castings are brass.The blade guides and the rip fence casting for sure.

You may be right about the aftermarket stand with the splayed legs. I've just had a quick browse via Mr Google and it seems there were a lot more around for those era machines than I originally thought.
They may have been an optional accessory made elsewhere seeing as some of these machines were marketed as a bench mounted item.
From what I've seen of the rip fences for the bandsaws they are identical to those on my Hyco tablesaw so maybe I can just swap that back and forth.
Thanks for having a look at the guide rail and fence for me too.
From the same catalogue I downloaded a while back there is also this about the Hyco 24" Scrollsaw although they call it a jigsaw.
http://archives.dcemulation.org/www.titaniumstudios.com/titaniumstudios.com/tooljunkie/paper/MC1955-Woodworking.pdf
On page 2.

It is also a publication from 1955 ( MC1955 - Woodworking ) so we can assume that the Hyco 12" bandsaw and scrollsaw were probably made around that time.


Cheers