AJAX reciprocating saw.

[mr migwire]

as some of you may know I have recently purchased the above for not a lot of money so today I set about stripping it and cleaning, painting and fettling. granted its not the greatest restoration butits not for show its for work........

 

[MattF]

Looking good. What's the quality of the AJAX stuff like? Occasionally see the odd bit of theirs which takes my fancy, but never seen anything in the flesh from which to gauge quality as yet.

 

[mr migwire]

Looking good. What's the quality of the AJAX stuff like? Occasionally see the odd bit of theirs which takes my fancy, but never seen anything in the flesh from which to gauge quality as yet.

its surprisingly good, the castings are well finished and all the fittings are well put together so all in all they seem to be pretty decent. I will be rebuilding it tomorrow and fettling all the little odds and sods. im going to leave the guard off as it wasn't fitted as standard and im not daft enough to go sticking any appendages through the pulleys.......

 

[MattF]

Thought it looked of quite good quality, judging from your photo's. That should look a treat when you get it back together. It's coming along nicely.

 

[mr migwire]

well its all back together with only one drama, I managed to over tighten the clamp for the raising / lowering handle and broke the lug off (bl00dy cast) any way I broke out the r-tech and glued the clamp back on with a ferromax cold cast rod gave it a quick dress with a flap wheel and all is well again.

I haven't done the motor yet but will get round to it.

 

[mr migwire]

now I need some help from all you engineer types on here, the one thing missing from my saw is the tightening block for the vice which is supposed to slide along behind the vice and locate into the recesses that are cast into the bed, it then has a threaded screw that locates into a dimple on the back of the moveable vice jaw, I have hunted for one but to no avail so I figured onr of you bright beggers could come up with a solution.

this is where the tensioning block should locate


and this is the dimple in the back of the moving vice jaw


so I bow to your superior knowledge gents, answers on a postcard..........

 

[Maker]

Very nice saw and restoration.

Are the edges of the slots for the vice square or undercut? I've seen milling vices before that work like that, there's a piece of metal, with the screw threaded through it at about 45 degree angle. I'll make a quick drawing to explain myself better.

 

[mr migwire]

I think I understand what you mean maker, I was looking at fabbing a temp block with an old sash clamp thread and nut to get by.

 

[mr migwire]

something like this...

 

[Maker]

Yeah, that kind of idea. I'll try to find the picture of the vice because I can't see what's stopping it from just tipping backwards.

 

[mr migwire]

one of these....
https://www.apexauctions.co.uk/auction/itemDetails.htm?lotId=75274#

 

[Maker]

I think it just needs to be a close fit in the slots, and probably not angled like I first thought.

Here's the vice I was on about.

 

[mr migwire]

yeah that's what I thought you meant, the slots are square set edges and not undercut unfortunately however after finding the pics of what's meant to be on it im confident I can fab something up using some stock I have so I will get busy tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

 

[Spark plug]

The tightening block could easily be made hear are some picks of mine I would have to strip the whole vibe off to get some better pics.

 

[mr migwire]

I like it spark plug, I may create something similar tomorrow but then again I may create a monster......

 

[mr migwire]

so I opted for the monster, not pretty but it works. it is now painted and hanging up drying.

firstly I cut some flat stock that fitted the grooves lovely when doubled up,


so I V'd out the 2 bits ready for welding

they got welded together and then welded to a bit of 30mm x 30mm which I drilled to take a pin, I then welded the pin in place and topped the whole lot of with parts scavenged from an old G clamp that had a twist in it.




it aint pretty but it does the job so i'm happy. I may make a copy of the original at some point but this will do for now.

 

[mr migwire]

and painted, the paint dries a lot quicker than I thought so while I was waiting I knocked together a little water trough for my grinder which I have been meaning to do for ages,



the rocol is for scale because I don't do tea or coffee, me and caffeine don't get on.

and installed on me old faithful.

and painted.