Pembrokeshire, The M4, M5, Dartmoor, A30, Falmouth and back

[sion.dovey]

I have been waiting about 8 months to make this journey; to collect this Sagar Rope Feed saw bench that turned up on ebay last year. Finally the time arrived this weekend, and with a little preperation on Friday, we set off on Saturday morning on a 650 mile journey spread over two days. The saw apparrently came to the seller from some works in the Falmouth Docks about 4 years ago, the seller rescued it from there along with a handful of other machines and would have been on its way to the scrap yard had he not luckily done so.

I think this is a bit of a survivor; a rope feed saw bench is not going to be the most efficient method of re-sawing timber, roller feed saw benches have existed for well over a hundred years. It is a wonder it had not been sent to the scrap yard long ago, also because i imagine the regulations would probably have made it quite difficult to keep this machine active a long time before those that exist now.

The saw swings a 48" blade, the table is 8' long, estimated weight in the region of 2 tons. The base is in 5 parts; the 4 sides and the top all being seperate castings, and all have been machined on a planer.

You can just see the rope winch at the bottom of the front corner in this photo:

Everything about the saw is massive:

The two strops we had were not quite a matching pair! It doesn't really matter, it was quite secure. I was very impressed with this hiab crane.

Ready to roll, on our way home:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I saw that one - tried to get a friend to buy it. At least he wouldn't have had to take it far. Good luck with it!.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Brilliant! I want to know what your local saw doctor will say about that one!

Do keep us posted as you work on it, and thanks for oposting this too.

E.

 

[AndyT]

Those of us who occasionally have to explain why having 'quite a few' small, light, easily stored hand planes is a normal, healthy activity will be grateful to be able to point out threads like this!

 

[wallace]

Thanks for posting. I love anything like this. I recall awhile ago a wadkin saw with similar capacity on ebay that came from a dockyard as well. Its nice to see people put the effort in to save lumps like this. It probably cost you more in fuel and crane hire than the machine was worth in scrap value. Keep up the posting of your finds.
Mark

 

[Charlie Woody]

Just wondering what size of furniture you will make with that little beaut when you have her up and running?

 

[Dangermouse]

BLOODY 'ELL !

 

[sion.dovey]

Well, i got it going yesterday, its not setup properly, but i just couldn't wait any longer to belt it up and see what happened. I have uploaded 2 videos to Youtube:

Walk around:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3PqrSdIQF8

First time cutting a log (a small one):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9HMLx6Iiv8

For a bit more on my Sagar collection, try my website:
http://www.sagar-woodworking-machinery.co.uk

 

[MrYorke]

Wow. That's a beast!

Think you may need a pretty big push stick.

 

[bugbear]

Sagar collection

Much Kudos!

BugBear

 

[Eric The Viking]

Brill.

Coupla quick questions:

Is that a winch (windlass) on the other end from the belt drive? It looks like it might have been used for hauling logs up to the bench, or a moving carriage of some sort or "power feed".

In the same vein, on the same (tractor) end of the saw, is the larger wheel a band brake or clutch for the winch (assuming it is one)?

My son's just seen it and thinks it's brilliant. The really good thing is that, although kickback would be "interesting," at least you'd have time to put the kettle on while it was happening.

E.

[later] Just read your notes on the other video - all makes sense now!