Hi Derek,

I have a Model 60 with similar wear, and I have been trying to figure out how to fix it too. Recently there was another thread about a Hexacut 90 where someone showed pictures of milling the guides. I have not worked out how to mount the guides and frame on the mill so have not tried it yet.

I have been considering fabricating a new blade frame that at the top has a plate wider than the guides. Then on the plate create guides that work on the outside of the rails. For the guides, I am thinking of using small ball races.

My concern with this approach is the increase in the weight of the reciprocating parts.

I would be interested in how you fix yours.

Adrian

Derek

If you have access to a mill that can handle the length simply mill the worn faces flat taking care to jig up or tilt the mill ing head at the correct angle. Might need to trim the flats on the blade carrier and top hexagon a touch too so there is sufficient gap for adjustment.

Its not exactly a precision machine to start with so lathe and mill bed accuracy isn't needed. Just nicely close.

I do wonder if stock hex bar would be accurate enough. Pretty sure that was all Kennedy used. Certainly the one I had dealings with showed no evidence of machining. Just plated and, methinks, left to wear in.

Obvious replacement is to go rooting around the round rail and slider bearing unit catalogues. For refurb a bit of fabrication to mount four round rails in place of the hex with four plain bearing, dry lubricated, sliders running on the bottom rails to carry the bow. X format bearing arrangement might be marginally more rigid but alignment good enough to exploit it will be a bear.

Were I to do the job I'd consider re-doing the whole thing with a new carrier and a triangular rail arrangement using larger rails. Two below for the bearings to run on and one on top for rigidity. Dashpot will be the least straightforward issue if re-engineering that way as the bow and frame will be heavier.

I'm a little surprised that no one has introduced an updated version exploiting modern components. Seems to me that the price could come in somewhere between the cheap baby bandsaws and the expensive Ferm et al ones with similar performance to the high end ones.

Clive

Derek,

Like yours my 90 had to have the top slider quite loose to work, but that also allows the mains bars to get beaten up even more by the con rod action.

All I did was file off the front and back of the top slider at an angle where it clouted the wear ridges, which enabled both a decent clearance and a smooth bow travel (on mine at least) and a squarer cut than before

However as mentioned in the other Kennedy thread this week an ordinary hacksaw bimetal blade still does not cut straight.

My Kennedy 60 cuts nice and square with a standard hacksaw blade, so I have never bothered with a deep blade. However mine has very little wear on the hex guide.

I've only heard the owners of 90's complain about blade wander. The bow is a lot bigger

Sorry, Adrian R, I hadn't noticed your pm. Set up with the face you're trying to machine parallel to the mill table (packed up with 1-2-3 blocks in my case), there is just enough clearance to end-mill the worn faces flat.

One side is quite easy to set up, the other harder because of the shape of the pivot block – I had to hang this over the end of the table:

It would be easier with slimmer clamps than these – I must get around to making some sometime.

The two clamp bolts should have lock nuts, if not Loctitie them.

It's like gib strips 'nearly tight' is required, maybe an 1/8 of a turn more will do it.