Kennedy Power hacksaw

Jez , Look at " Clearance" on Tracy Tools web site . Also , l have a blade ( may be used , l can't remember ) in stock somewhere . If you PM me your details , l will post it to you if you feel it will help you along . Trevor

Hi Jez

The pull down spring is fitted between a peg on the base of the saw and the part of the L shaped dashpot rod that sticks out on the right-hand side of the saw frame. It looks like 16g wire with a free length of 5 inches x1/2 inch diameter. No idea where you could get one I'm afraid apart perhaps from looking at old garden furniture.

My saw came with a bimetallic blade that wandered all over the place, but it cuts straight and true with all-hard HSS blades. The spacing of the clamp bolts is a bit of an issue when it comes to deeper blades, I have used 1/2" and 5/8" blades in mine but it looks like 3/4" blades would fit as well. (The 1/2" blades needed the hole drilling out as the pin is larger on the Kennedy saw than on a hand frame).

Confusingly, Cromwell list power hacksaw blades under hand tools HSS All Hard Power Saw Blades but If you buy from them, check the price on both the Cromwell and Zoro websites, as sometimes one is much cheaper than the other,

Brian G

Thought I'd dump some photos of mine on here.

I confess I bought the saw with two blades. You can see you need to grind down the blade to fit it in the clamp.

The auto off lever is a wire coat hanger that goes in a convenient hole in the bottom of the arm rest.

i got sick of short bits not staying level before you can get the vice tightened so I used some scrap angle iron to support the work closer to the blade. What I should have done was use a longer bit and let the saw cut it's own clearance gap so the cut off piece is also supported.

I have just got some SAE 90 to top up the dash pot. Is there a simple way to top it up?

thanks in advance.

Through the gap in the gaiter, this is where the axle/gearbox filling bottles come in handy, or just an oil can

Hi,

I am now in the process of building the dash pot “bellows” from scratch. I think the Kennedy 60 is smaller than the Kennedy 90 which is my model. Does any one have any specifications for the Dash Pot plunger for the larger model? I think the internal diameter of the pot is 38mm.
I also wondered why the plunger has 2 rods? I can see one is the linkage to the saw assembly - I think that is the central rod. What does the second do and do I need to make it? Thanks very much in advance.
jez

The second rod works to push against the disk underneath the plunger, it's supposed to adjust the resistance the oil makes against the pull of the spring. The disk is slightly loose on the bolt, it is to allow the oil to flow easily through when you lift the saw arm up, otherwise most of it will pull up into the gaiter.

When the arm is coming down against the oil the disk pushes against & blocks the holes unless the adjuster thread protrudes a fraction to speed it up. I probably have the wrong grade oil in mine as the adjuster does very little.

Here is mine speedily cutting a bar

Vic's Kennedy saw

Hi Jez,

Someone sent me these pics when I was doing up my Kennedy, as I was missing the adjuster rod. Also for the gaiter I struggled to find something to fit the pot, but found a bit of an old bike inner tube worked fine to stop anything getting into the oil. Hope that helps,

Jamie

The gaiter is not really there just to keep anything getting in the oil, it's to stop oil overflowing when you lift up the arm

Thanks Jamie, brilliant clear guidance.

Vic, your saw is awesome.

just wondered if anyone has the specifications of the tensioning spring that opposes the dampener? I will buy a few but rough Renfrew and diameter would be very helpful. I think the gauge is 1.5??
Thanks again

Jez

You can just see mine in the last photo, liberated from an old armchair in the 80's. I knew it would be useful one day.

Someone asked on my Kennedy Youtube video if the felt oilers are missing on the top hex bar?

I have no idea about this, has someone got a photo showing what they look like?

Vic,

I saw the comment about the felt oilers and wondered the same. Mine is set up as yours is. I have had a look at a few of the manuals I have and I cannot see any reference to the felt oilers.

Jez

Never seen any on either model, including the factory sales documents nor are there any holes visible to fix them. The Hexacut is not very sophisticated or it would have a better vice and a belt tensioner.

That doesn't exclude one or two owners retro-fitting them, after all how many have the auto off removed or the damper messed with / pull down spring removed.

At least I know nothing is missing on my saw then I think the poster les dc on Youtube lives in the USA , I wouldn't have thought any of the saws would have ended up over there

Update on my Kennedy resurrection - from a very unskilled operator.

Here is what I have achieved and learned so far with all the generous advice from you all….

The lever to keep the boom elevated was simple and quick to make with 6mm and 8mm mild steel rod, articulated with a small bolt, an 8mm compression spring and a handle. Works perfectly.

The machine switches itself off now using a flat piece of alloy which presses against the switch when the boom is fully lowered. This was a simple design but quite tricky to get right. It’s not perfect and I would not leave the saw completely unattended.

The saw did not cut straight - I tried a 1” and 1.5” width blade which did the trick but could not source one with any more teeth than 14tpi and this kept getting stuck as it was too aggressive. 18tpi is definitely the sweet spot for my machine even with pulley belt dressing to make it stickier. I changed the belt from lathes.co.uk which did not solve the slippage problem and cost £28. The off centre cuts stopped when I rebuilt the dash pot and put a 96mm x 8mm tension spring between the dashpot arm and a 6mm bolt whose tapped hole I found on the main casing. I bought the spring from eBay for £3.96.

The dash pot bellows was equally simple but took me a few goes as I do not have a metal lathe. I butt welded 2 sections of 25mm flat mild steel and then cut out a 20mm depth disc using a 40mm diameter HSS hole cutter. This made the diameter 37mm which was just right to slide up and down the pot cylinder. It was easy to drill out 3 x 8mm and 3 x 6mm holes which provides the route for the oil to flow. I found that all 8mm holes and there was too little resistance. I found any bigger disc and the plunger caught. There is much scope to improve this if I aligned the rods better but it works. I made the bottom washer from 0.8mm alloy in a similar way. The two rods were made from 8mm mild steel with a length before bend of 4 and 4.5 inches respectively. I used SAE 90 gear box oil and found, thanks to a mate of mine, that the a Clio steering rack boot acts as a perfectly sized rubber cover. I had to fill the pot pretty full for the dampner to work from top to bottom of the cut.

My last job is to construct the depth gauge stop so any pointers most appreciated.

I am also looking for a 45 degree vice that Kennedy made as an optional extra if anyone knows where to source

Thanks once again - such an enjoyable project.

Jez