Power hacksaw home built diy

Power hacksaw, got tired of making cuts by hand and didn't have the cash for a bandsaw, so I built this, works OK, if a little slow. Quicker and straighter than by hand. The motor and gears are a windshield wiper motor assembly I picked up at Princes Auto (Canada) and everything else is just Angle Iron and flat stock from the metal superstore. The bushings are cut from a cutting board from a restaurant. The motor isn't built to run like this and gets very hot, hence the big fan.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• hacksaw
• power
• gearbox
• metal
• princes auto
• lathe
• mill
• cnc

[fupersly]

How did you make the rotating joints? The way I've done it is to use bushing and screws. I don't have a reamer so my bushing is loose which gives a loose joint. I tried screws but got the same result. Does it even matter once the motor kicks in? I.E the weight keeps the cutting blade true?

[riffraff60]

@fupersly The joint bearings are pieces of nylon from an old cutting board. The shafts are 1/2" steel tubing, I took a piece of the tubing and cut teeth into it with a dremal cutoff tool. I mounted that in a drill press and used it to drill the holes in the nylon blocks. perfect fit

[SoundsLikeOdie]

This is brilliant. Thanks for posting the video.

I see you have a fan cooling the wiper motor. I have built a CNC machine using 3 wiper motors and also concerned about how warm the motors get. I tested one by leaving it running for about 1/2 an hour and it got equally warm. I have to assume that they actually do operate at a "hot enough so you can't hold it for long" temperature.

Is your machine still working? If not what failed?

Has play developed on the screw gear inside the wiper motor?

[riffraff60]

@SoundsLikeOdie, still works, i don't use it that much however. No play yet. I'm sure there will be sooner or later. Frankly I built it more to build it then to use it. :) The fan does keep the wiper motor cooler, it might run fine without it, but why risk it.

[voidmansions]

Well using a dc motor from a wheelchair certainly saves on parts, but I doubt you'll have much teeth left if you start sawing an HSS dril bit!

[riffraff60]

@voidmansions Needed the bit to be about 1/8 inch shorter to clear a part in the lathe, worked well actually, the shank ends of these cheap Chinese bits don't seem to be hardened and I was using 4 for a buck blades. It's not a wheel chair motor, it's a windshield wiper motor. It's a kludge, but it works.

[apatientspider]

A windshield wiper motor? Lol, I knew I recognized that sound and rhythm! Sounds like my old 1980 Ford pickup truck in a rainstorm. :-)

[junekentucky]

Wow, you're cutting a drill bit with a hacksaw? No wonder it's slow, drill bits are hardened, probably almost as hard as the hacksaw blade.

That would probably work great on soft steel.

[fupersly]

@riffraff60 I think I get it. The weight of the shaft is not supported by the nylon? You turned the shaft into a screw I guess and screwed the nylon onto either end like a cap?

[tarmacdemon]

Seems to me like it does exactly what it was built for ....cutting might be slow but it saves getting cramp in the arm .Nice one