Thread: Any one seen a McPherson's Powerhacksaw???

Originally Posted by robbo37

I'm a bit late on this, but I have one of these. Same motor as yours ( looks like) and flat belt pulley on motor.
Doesn't the screw adjust the rate of down feed? At the moment my motor is not working and I'm trying to decide...new motor or get this one repaired.

Where is the photos??

I'd love to have the flat belt still on mine or convert it back.

I think the weight is the down feed adjustment. The oil tube and screw I think has something to do with the amount the blade lifts on the backstroke. That is my guess, I could be completely off on that.

Does yours have a cover on it? Mine is open on top.


I imagine it be cheaper to replace the motor but less authentic if that matters to you.

I will get you a photo of the motor pulley, just might take a few weeks, you got my interest and I had a student start to clean it up Friday but it is a bit awkward as there are 50 chickens in a brooder that are in the way at the moment

Maybe you can dunk the chickens in turps and they will clean it for you???

If you can coat the machine with canola oil my dogs will lick it clean. They do this to my chainsaw bar and chain.

I picked up some cutting fluid (water soluable) I think this also acts as coolant, and a box of blades. The blades are 18" which are too long but at $2.20 ea I figured I'd cut them down and drill a new hole with a carbide bit. The off cuts may turn into marking knife tips or something.

I am thinking to get a short extension lead and cut the end of to replace the existing cord, and will need to try and find a NOS switch at some stage. In the short term I'll just switch it off/on at the wall.

The idea is to get her working nice and use her for some urgent jobs before giving her new paint etc.

As an update:

I cleaned out the sludge and gum leaves from the coolant tank…how the hell all that got in there is a mystery and makes me wonder where it has been sitting and for how long??? I can't see how to remove the tank/tray so I just tilted it and worked through the gap.

I the jaws on the vice were siezed. I scraped away a bit of crud in the under the ways either side of the thread. Ended up taking the thread all the way out then realising that I wasn't scraping the bottom of the casting it had about a 10mm deep layer of cement that was hard enough to be mistaken for the cast iron. I guess oil, coolant, rust and iron filings had along time to bond and solidify. All cleaned out.


This leads me to my next question…
Can someone take a photo and provide some dimensions for the bolts that hold the pivoting jaws please. Mine has odd bolts and they are obviously not the correct size. I suspect the bolts have a large shank and a stepped down thread or a sleeve goes on the outside of the bolt. One on mine is just a piece of all thread.


The new switch is in, I cut down and re-drilled a new blade, then I did a test cut and she bit in and stopped cutting the belt was slipping at the motor. I re-tensioned the belt by lowering the motor and she cuts fine. The auto stop switch doesn't work now and it did before. So I either changed something with the installation of the new switch or the old hard wires have broken someplace.


Lastly the blue paint is very old and looks original. What color is yours??