I realized i posted about this saw probably the wrong category over in "Atlas / Craftsman / Dunlap / AA". My saw is none of the above, though it was often sold through Sears with the Craftsman brand on it, then Covel was purchased by Atlas. Anyway, to the point . . .
I picked up an old, somewhat tired Excel hacksaw. My brother and i had been looking for something small to fit in a basement shop. We're both learning basic machining on our benchtop lathes, and i have a benchtop mill. Shop space is a premium, so keeping things small was important.
This one had some issues, but nothing we couldn't handle. The stock movable vise jaw was missing, and a previous owner had made up a replacement. The only problem was that the jaw wasn't attached well to the main screw, and it had broken off. Also, the blade tensioning arm had been replaced with a piece of aluminum, which wasn't up to the task and had bent. The bronze bushing bearings were worn out, and it had been set up with a variable speed pulley, which put too much tension on the saw's drive shaft bronze bearings.
I took a bit of time to make up a pivot / swivel connection for the jaw vise and made a new handle for it that didn't conflict with the saw's blade when running.
I made up a new blade tension arm with some steel, pressed in new bearings, installed new oilers, put a fixed pulley on the motor, and gave it all a paint job.
This thing works great. Capacity is only 4" x 4", and it takes a 12" blade. It rolls right under the work bench when not in use, and works perfectly for what we do.
I picked up an old, somewhat tired Excel hacksaw. My brother and i had been looking for something small to fit in a basement shop. We're both learning basic machining on our benchtop lathes, and i have a benchtop mill. Shop space is a premium, so keeping things small was important.
This one had some issues, but nothing we couldn't handle. The stock movable vise jaw was missing, and a previous owner had made up a replacement. The only problem was that the jaw wasn't attached well to the main screw, and it had broken off. Also, the blade tensioning arm had been replaced with a piece of aluminum, which wasn't up to the task and had bent. The bronze bushing bearings were worn out, and it had been set up with a variable speed pulley, which put too much tension on the saw's drive shaft bronze bearings.
I took a bit of time to make up a pivot / swivel connection for the jaw vise and made a new handle for it that didn't conflict with the saw's blade when running.
I made up a new blade tension arm with some steel, pressed in new bearings, installed new oilers, put a fixed pulley on the motor, and gave it all a paint job.
This thing works great. Capacity is only 4" x 4", and it takes a 12" blade. It rolls right under the work bench when not in use, and works perfectly for what we do.
