Hi Chris, I've got one similar, but made by someone who left it to me when he passed on. It worked okay when I got it, mostly, but it wouldn't touch stainless, so with some fooling around, I found that changing the motor rotation and moving the link from the crank to the saw body, so the cut was on the pull stroke, and the crank was pushing the saw out as it rotated clockwise, gave a lifting effect, lightening the blade in the groove, and at the same time making for the crank to be pulling down on the cutting stroke, which made a significant difference in speed of cutting, and in blade longevity. Mine is rather simple and has nothing but the weight of a half inch by two inch bar and no dashpot at all, but it is more effective than the band saw on hard to cut material, and does enough work I gave him a name, and think of him as a slow learning apprentice. I suspect if you reverse the rotation, and have the cut on the pull stroke it will tend to lift the blade on the return stroke, lessening the wear and making the cutting stroke more effective. They almost always cut straighter on a pull stroke than as a pusher, but there's a lot of issues in the angle and placement of the crank relative to the actual line of force of the cut which are determined by where shafts and such are located, and their position with respect to each other. I wouldn't part with mine for the world, unless someone offered a really good deal. mad jack
