Cutting up bits of metal

Stuart, that’s really interesting. I used a diamond blade too. Now the blade seems true when at rest, but seems to wobble when running, and won’t cut a kerf-width hole. I didn’t really consider it could be repaired, like many modern consumer tools I considered it was basically disposable. Did you buy the new bearings, or make them?

thanks

Steve

Steve

It sounds like your saw has exactly the same issue that I had with mine.

As you say, it’s unusual nowadays to be able to dismantle and repair stuff, but it was straightforward enough. You can download an expanded parts diagram for your particular model from evolution power tools.com: **LINK** .

There were two standard shielded ball bearings on the main shaft on mine. I replaced them both with ones from bearing boys. **LINK**. ‘6002-ZZ Dunlop Shielded Ball Bearing 15mm x 32mm x 9mm’ and ‘607-ZZ Dunlop Shielded Miniature Steel Ball Bearing 7mm x 19mm x 6mm’.

Hope this helps

Stuart

Just bought the HV115 Bandsaw from Chester Hobby Store. For £295 (inc' delivery) it cut straight as a die out of the box. Assembling was a bit of a faff, including the stand, but got there in the end. With the vertical cutting mode as well, it appears so far, to be reasonably good value for money. As gets said many times, a bi-metal blade is a good investment. The stand might be considered a little lightweight, but if it doesn't get moved around too much, it should be fine.

Bo'sun:

You could weld up the hinges on the stand to increase its rigidity. I did this on my ancient Warco 6 x 4 which lives under the bench and despite being moved every time it is used the stand is still holding up.

Thanks ega, that's not a bad idea, but I don't have a welder. If I do need to do anything, some bolted on cross braces should do the trick.

I use a Warco 6x4.5" bandsaw for mild steel and soft metals, an angle grinder to cut tool and high tensile steels (to save the bandsaw blade) and a horizontal mill to cut steel plate that won't fit in the bandsaw. Colin

I have a standard 12 inch hacksaw driven by a 12 volt windscreen wiper motor. Been using it for over 5 years to cut all my large pieces of stock metal . Has a fast stroke, much faster than I could saw. Some of the thicker pieces can take up to half an hour to cut, but I do not have to be present as it has automatic stop when the job is done.

Mike

I'm all for horizontal mills. They're obsolete in industry but still useful in the home workshop. Mine was an impulse buy, albeit cheap at £175 plus £200 delivery. It has turned out to be more than useful. I use a lot of hot rolled steel on my engines and the horizontal mill is great for slicing up longways with a slitting saw. Once one has one it can be used in lots of applications:

Spur gear cutting:

Helical gears:

Horizontal borer:

Flycutting:

Compared to a vertical mill they can shift metal:

My horizontal knocks my Bridgeport into a cocked hat in terms of metal removal and rigidity.

Andrew

Oh no, I wish you hadn’t posted that. Can you do surface grinding with them too?

Is there a relatively small one that’s any good?

Gary Wooding, a very neat solution to a common problem with the 6 x4.5.!

Now if you could add a fence!

Thanks

John

Not really suitable for surface grinding. The top speed on my horizontal is 1200rpm and highest feedrate is 450mm/min, both of which are too slow for surface grinding. Plus I've got a Brown and Sharpe surface grinder.

I don't think there are any new far eastern hobby size horizontal mills; presumably as the market is too small. So you'd be limited to secondhand. In the UK Centec and Tom Senior seem to be popular. I have no practical experience of them, so I'll let others comment good or bad. i would be wary of smaller US secondhand models as some of them use proprietary tapers which are expensive at best and often non-existant.

Andrew

Centec owner here!

I've had two of them, an Automill Mk1 converted to manual X direction feed and now an Automill Mk2 which has presently still got its original hydraulic feed and is in the throes of being converted.

I reckon the Automill is much more interesting than (say) a series 2 or 2a, it's more heavily built and - presumably because of the hydraulic to screw feed conversion necessary - a whole lot cheaper to buy.

Centec Automill on Lathes.co.uk

Tom Senior made a nice machine or two, but the price they attract is according.

Have a look at the little Harrison horizontal mill

Harrison Horizontal Mill on Lathes.co.uk

HTH Simon

edit : I wouldn't chance my arm going grinding on any of these machines, although the top speed on my Centec is 3000 rpm it's far too vulnerable to getting grinding dust in the dovetails which would wreck it.  Andrew's comments about the feed rate are also relevant.

Edited By Simon Williams 3 on 15/11/2021 22:47:57

Michael, I like your idea of using a wiper motor to drive a 12" hacksaw. Have you a photo of your setup.

Here's mine, based on articles in MEW some years ago:

That's the motor and linkage from an MGF( which comes complete with Rose joints), and the base out of my scrap bin. It's not fast, but that time can be spent doing other things

Awesome.

Most of my cutting is done with a Manchester Rapidor, fitted with 1/2 hp single phase motor,and integral coolant pump, the 6 inch saw will just take 61/2 ins diameter. blades are quite expensive,and the supply of blades at autojumbles has all but disapeared,I used to buy 17 inch blades which were cheap as no one wanted them and cut them down to 14 inches and drill a new hole . I have bench shear which gets only occasional use,my industrial bansaw will cut through anything,eg mild steel up to six inches.though do not cut steel plate off cuts which have been,initially cut with plasma or flame any hard particles ruin the blade in seconds, start a cut with an angle grinder.I now use An angle grinder with a 1 mm cutting disc more often nowadays, though do it out in the open,I do not do any grinding in my workshop,grit will destroy any tools. the thin disc can also be used to cut HSS tool bits too length ,and then again used to rough out the cutting rake and clearance angles of lathe tools.The cordless angle grinder is very useful,I have a de Walt which takes a 5 inch 1mm disc,that extra 1/2 inch can be very useful at times plus no cable to get in the way ,and useful around my out buildings where getting a very long extension cable out for a few second job can be annoying,A good jig saw with metal cutting blades is useful. Now getting to Andrews Adcock and shipley mill,I had one of these and they are very good,whenwas training in ancient times one job was cutting up brass bar about 21/2 by 3/8 into four inch lengths in batches of 200 on a victoria horizontal the cut finish was good enough not to require further finishing so there was little waste of expensive brass, the only issue with cutting up long lengths is that the bar has to clear the arbour support bearing ,so a large saw is required. Small plain horizontal mills come a lot cheaper than the vertical ones,though the lowest speed must be considered,is it slow enough to drive the largest slitting saws,remember a 4 inch saw on mild steel should run at 100 rpm ,on stainless a lot slower. My 00 elliot omnimill suffers from this problem lowest speed is 100 rpm so it would ruin a 6 inch saw on steel,as slitting saw must not be run too fast or it will soon wear out. I got over this problem by driving the horizontal spindle via a couple of long v belts from the vertical spindle motor which has electron ic speed control, it takes a bit of swinging the head around ,it works and candrive the horizontal spindle down to 10 rpm. As others have said ,if a horizontal mill is purchased make sure it has an arbour that fits , a set of collars, and the bearing sleeve that fits the overarm support, most arbours are one inch dia.all mill with an30 or 40 int tapper is best,3 mt arbours can be difficult to find,theres lot of 40 int tooling around. so thats it get cutting.

Keith

Will post some pictures tomorrow as its in shed at present.

Mike

This is my powered hacksaw, not the best looking machine I have made but it does the job. Needs about 5 amp @ 12 volt which I get from my 30 amp power supply. When I first tried it it tended to jam, especially on aluminium , I soon discovered that it works much better with the blade reversed , cutting on the backward stroke. It has never jammed since but it does benefit from a little lubrication when cutting softer material.

Mike

When I first wanted to make a reciprocating saw, it was o0ff putting thatb the kit catered form 10" blades, which, by that time, were getting scarce.

To use a normal hacksaw frame is splendid idea!

Years ago; WHY didn't I think of doing that?

Howard

Thanks Michael.