Thread: My new Johnson Power Hack saw

Last night my dad called and told me about a Johnson power hack saw listed for sale on Craigslist. It isnt something I was looking for but i was curious about it. Ive never seen one in person. The add claimed it was in great shape if worked good. So i called the guy today and talked to him about it. He was a very interesting older man and invited me down to his shop to look around. What an interesting place it was. it was like a pickers paradise. He had the walls lined up with all sorts of antique items ranging from tools to Americana stuff. I could have been there all day talking about all the stories of every item he had. But I was there to see this little power saw he had. So he rolled it out of the corner and proceeded to show me how this little guy worked. He clamped a small piece of aluminum tube in the vise, turned it on and I was amazed at how well the little saw cut. Since we have our DoAll saw for sale(and sale pending) I knew I was going to need something in my new shop to cut. Soo I decided to buy it from the old man. I paid $150 for it. The thing is just too cool. It cuts nice and staight too.It uses iether 10 or 12" saw blades. I know its not somethintg Im going to use for big stuff, but for smaller pieces it will work fine. i can mount it right on my existing workbench and it wont take up any floorspace.
Soo anyways, I just wanted to share with you guys my new find.




Heres a video too...

Abom79,
Cool little saw. I got a Kennedy Hexacut a few weeks back but I haven't had time to hook it up to a motor yet

Kennedy

These are neat too, bit smaller than yours though, at least the 60 is. I'll post some photos when I get it going.

Jim

Abom,
Nice handy little machine for the home shop, &the blades are cheap, nice looking as well, & saves a lot of hard work.

A little surprised you would buy a saw like that for your job shop. I had the power hack from hell- a Marvel #6 as my primary metal cutting machine for a couple years and didn't know how much it was costing me until I got a real 1" blade mitre bandsaw.

Just saying I'd have a real hard time adjusting to benchtop hacksaw after using a Doall for any length of time. Hope it does what you need.

Originally Posted by Garwood

A little surprised you would buy a saw like that for your job shop. I had the power hack from hell- a Marvel #6 as my primary metal cutting machine for a couple years and didn't know how much it was costing me until I got a real 1" blade mitre bandsaw.

Just saying I'd have a real hard time adjusting to benchtop hacksaw after using a Doall for any length of time. Hope it does what you need.

I understand your concern. I'm having to sell the Doall because I won't have room for it in my new shop. I do plan on buying a miter band saw sometime in the future though. They don't take up as much room as the Doall style. This hack saw is something I can have on the bench to help me make cuts when I need until I can get me a new saw. Until then I still have the big Kalamazoo at work and my friends welding shop right down the street if I need to make any major cuts.
I just really liked this little hack saw and had to have it.

Another great find! What’s more interesting was that you got the story behind that nice little saw.

We had a power hacksaw very like that Johnson in the main warehouse in Williamsburg for many decades. They finally bought a little 4"X6" bandsaw,and then sawing off a piece of metal got much faster.

I'm working up a Craftsman power hacksaw of similar size, using a variable speed transmission to set the sfm. The biggest problem w/ these simple saws seems to be they don't use the whole blade and the max workpiece is about 6" because thats the fixed length of the stroke. We have a snazzy lineshaft hacksaw at Tuckahoe which features a magic linkage between the movable vise jaw and the blade driving mechansim so that the stroke length is adjusted for the length of the kerf and the entire blade is used. Its a little reminiscent of the stroke length adjustment on a shaper.

Even so this little saw will be a big improvment over a hacksaw.

Greg

I didnt ever think the thread would be resurected, but glad to see a couple more people interested in it. Ive actually used the saw a few times already to make some cuts in my new shop. I used it tonight to cut a couple small pieces of wood for some shims. Yea it would have been faster to use the Dewalt miter saw but its fun watching this little machine work.

Fun is an important issue if money isn't the driving force!! I do a lot of things the hard way!!

Could you have mixed up your presidents? I have the same saw but mine is a Jefferson, Eau Claire Wis.
Mine is missing the vise screw. Another little project for some day.

I'm not gonna lie, I think these are crude, archaic devices the egyptians would be ashamed to use; best left for museum viewing, but I would think the racket and back and forth motion would be a great convert to a steam powered motor, or a hit n miss engine.

Tell you what, next time I have a 3" diam piece of 1085 bar to cut, I'll invite you over and give you a hacksaw, a couple nice new blades and let you go to it. I did that once and my crude, archaic saw will let me avoid doing it a 2nd time.

Hey, I certainly can't argue with that. Work smarter not harder, right?