Reciprocating (sabre) saw

[Edwin]

I've just bought an Hitachi reciprocating saw, mainly for use on green wood. When the blade is in the socket and firmly locked for the sawing movement, there's still up-and-down play of the blade in the socket. That is, it swivels on the pin that holds it into the socket. The one blade (for stainless steel!) that was supplied with the machine and others I bought (Bosch, Irwin) all have the same movement. As I have no experience of these saws and as there's no reference to this in the instructions, I wonder if this is normal.

 

[CHJ]

Normal I would say, equivalent to 15mm travel at the end of a Bosch HCS 240mm 5 TPI blade on mine.

Blade is in line with direction of travel when under load and in use.

 

[Mcluma]

You are sure its fully pushed in and the locking ring has turned to lock it??

If so there should be no play

you are sure you have the correct blades?

 

[CHJ]

Hitachi CR 13V2 type saws do not have any locking rings. The blades are held in place by a simple retractable spring loaded pin.

 

[Edwin]

As the Hitachi blade supplied has the same movement as the others, I'm fairly sure that all the blades are suitable for the saw and they all lock onto the pin with no fore-and-aft movement at all. The vertical movement is about 15mm - 20mm at the tip of a 240mm blade, as one reply indicates. The machine has no built-in oscillating facility as some of the more expensive models have, so that doesn't come into the question.

I can't help thinking that, if this movement is normal, there must be a reason for it. As the blades cut on the pull stroke, it may help the blade to travel more easily on the push stroke, but that doesn't seem too convincing. In use, everything seems to work OK, though there's a lot of vibration, which I understand is normal for these saws.

 

[Lons]

Hi Edwin

I bought a cheap performance plus one from B&Q. It'd exactly the same and I've used a number of bledes in it including DeWalt brand. had extensive and pretty rough use mainly cutting through old window and door frames for removal, old fence posts and even thick branches.

I also was perturbed at first but seems normal and part of the cutting action.

Bob

 

[angelboy]

I have one so I'll check and get back to you

 

[cambournepete]

My Hitachi does exactly the same, but cuts really well.

 

[samthedog]

This is normal. I have dewalt and it does the same thing.

Paul.

 

[Edwin]

Thanks for all the reassurance. I'm a bit surprised that the manual makes no mention of this movement, if only to calm the nerves of neurotics like me. However, the machine's certainly sturdy and efficient and is a great success on the work I'm doing blitzing an old hedge.

Edwin

 

[CHJ]

Mine was bought in the first instance to cut up an old 600gall. steel oil tank that had to be removed in sections small enough to be moved by hand. Kept the neighbours awake for a few hours but it coped with no problems.
Makes short work of the green wood branches and logs it's since been introduced to.