Pedal-powered hacksaw

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.

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April 21st, 2009 4

…It was at this point that Chester realized maybe not ALL pedal-powered tools were “appropriate” technology.

Happy Earth Day!

PPPM: Pedal Powered Hacksaw

4 thoughts on “Pedal-powered hacksaw”

Zero says:

April 22nd, 2009 at 6:28 am

It seems as if it would be very useful to construct a pedal-powered bandsaw, however.
Luciano says:

April 22nd, 2009 at 10:00 am

The issue with this technique is not that the pedal power isn’t effective, it’s that his ratio is not good.

He needs to gear it up so that one revolution of his wheel is multiple strokes… he could also store the energy in a flywheel for greater cutting ability. Put the saw on a rod and institute a method to drop the blade onto the work once the flywheel is going and doing 60 strokes a minute and watch the blade cut the metal like a scrollsaw.

Pedal powered lathes, scrollsaws, bandsaws, etc were quite common before the advent of steam or electric power.