Build a Powered Hacksaw Like a Band Saw

These Popular Science plans are for building a powered hack saw, similar in function to a metal cutting band saw.

Hacksawing is the one onerous shop job, and before the band saw there was no inexpensive and readily available power tool to ease the sweat. Commercially made power hacksaws are costly and aren’t found in most home shops. Here, however, is a new answer.

After several years of building and experimenting, Popular Science experts have come up with a simplified design for a homebuilt power hacksaw at a cost that makes it a practical power tool for any shop. All parts, except for the motor land pulley drive, can be assembled for less than $20. Any 1/2-hp. motor will run the machine. Any standard 12” hacksaw blade can be used in it.

In speed, accuracy, and capacity, the saw rivals even big commercial machines. It will cut stock of any size and shape up to 3” high and 4” wide. In tests, it proved so precise it sliced off disks from a solid steel bar as thin as .050”. The secret of the saw’s low cost is the use of stock materials plus a pair of old automobile connecting rods for the main rocker arms-the heart of the machine.

Rocker-arm action is key to the saw’s simplicity and accuracy. It keeps the blade rigid and at the same time lets it move back and forth parallel to the base.