Member postings for Cymro

I bought a Kennedy saw last week from an advertiser on Facebook Marketplace. The description said that it was 'in need of TLC . . . It was only 10 minutes drive away so I went to see it, a small amount of money changed hands and I went home to examine my spoils.

Everything was locked solid so I started stripping bits off and freeing and cleaning them up until I got to the crankshaft which really was frozen solid. Nothing ventured, nothing gained so I got a big spanner on the crank and gave it a good heave. It let go with a crack and suddenly everything was moving. I removed the crankshaft and found 4 rusty needle roller bearings which had seized up in their cages so I took them out and had a squint at them with a loupe to find their part numbers, found them through a Google search and ordered replacements that same evening.

They turned up yesterday in the post and I set about fitting them. I wasn't sure how deep they were fitted in their housings; should they be butted up against each other to prevent any sideways float of the crankshaft, or should there be a clearance between them, I wondered . . . ??? So I Googled, 'Rebuilding Kennedy Hacksaw' and ended up on this thread. Imagine my surprise though, when I saw the description of the plain bearings everyone else was using . . .

Looks like mine has had some major alterations - the housings have evidently been line bored to take 1" OD caged bearings and I can see that they would work well without wearing out as others seem to have done.

Meantime, I've cleaned all the alloy mange off the parts and painted them ready to put it all back together. When I stripped the saw, the belt was actually stuck to the pulley so I'm going to need a new belt. I'm interested in using a poly V-belt and wonder if anybody can suggest where I would find a belt with an internal diameter of 533 mm as best I could measure it?

TIA for any help

I bought a Kennedy saw last week from an advertiser on Facebook Marketplace. The description said that it was 'in need of TLC . . . It was only 10 minutes drive away so I went to see it, a small amount of money changed hands and I went home to examine my spoils.

Everything was locked solid so I started stripping bits off and freeing and cleaning them up until I got to the crankshaft which really was frozen solid. Nothing ventured, nothing gained so I got a big spanner on the crank and gave it a good heave. It let go with a crack and suddenly everything was moving. I removed the crankshaft and found 4 rusty needle roller bearings which had seized up in their cages so I took them out and had a squint at them with a loupe to find their part numbers, found them through a Google search and ordered replacements that same evening.

They turned up yesterday in the post and I set about fitting them. I wasn't sure how deep they were fitted in their housings; should they be butted up against each other to prevent any sideways float of the crankshaft, or should there be a clearance between them, I wondered . . . ??? So I Googled, 'Rebuilding Kennedy Hacksaw' and ended up on this thread. Imagine my surprise though, when I saw the description of the plain bearings everyone else was using . . .

Looks like mine has had some major alterations - the housings have evidently been line bored to take 1" OD caged bearings and I can see that they would work well without wearing out as others seem to have done.

Meantime, I've cleaned all the alloy mange off the parts and painted them ready to put it all back together. When I stripped the saw, the belt was actually stuck to the pulley so I'm going to need a new belt. I'm interested in using a poly V-belt and wonder if anybody can suggest where I would find a belt with an internal diameter of 533 mm as best I could measure it?

TIA for any help

I'm interested because I have a lathe which had no screwcutting capability from new and I keep getting a hankering to fit it out so that it does.

It's a Hector (you can see one like it on Tony Griffiths' site) which I bought a few years ago as part of a 'bundle' with a milling machine. I'm working to improve the lathe a bit at a time, as the mood takes me - I converted the feedscrews to ball thrust bearings last week - and think that it would be a much more versatile machine with screwcutting facilities.

I had thought to build a miniature screwcutting gearbox based on the Norton-type gearbox on my 12 x 36 Atlas, but the idea of an Arduino-controlled leadscrew appeals more, hence my wondering if the article had ever made it into print.

Thanks for the info about your setup Neil, but I've got some way to go before I'll need anything like that!

Hi all,

Sorry to resurrect an old(-ish) thread but I wondered of anything ever became of Bob Mc's Arduino controlled leadscrew article? I gather there was one published in Issue 240 of MEW but I understand it was from a different contributor.