Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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This restoration is on a Wellsaw 400 meat or carcass saw made by the Wells Mfg. Corp. of Three Rivers, Michigan, USA sometime in the 1960s.

The saw my be the most recently made tool I've restored on this channel so far, so much so, that it had blasphemous phillips screws throughout.

I restored this item for a customer whose grandfather used to use it all the time after hunting. They wanted me to do a complete functional and aesthetic restoration, except for the blade, which they said held more sentimental value, so that area only got a quick clean and treatment to prevent any further deterioration.

The design is incredibly simply and it essentially just an electric motor attached to a hand saw.

In actual use, I could see this saw cutting through smaller cuts of meat, but I don't think it has the power to cut though a whole side of beef. I decided to use a chicken as a test for the saw and it definitely had enough power to deal with that. The only issue was the deposit of some sort of oily, black, and metallic substance on the chicken from the rubbing of the reciprocating blade on the steel backbone it rides on, so after I cut the chicken I had to wash it all off in order to eat it.

I'd like to thank @CRCAutoUS for sponsoring this video. I've switched to a food-grade penetrating oil from them as a more safe alternative, and it as worked just as well as the usual penetrating oils I've used.

You can check out the products from them used in this video in the link below:
crcindustries.com/handtoolrescue

Wrenches, screwdrivers, and socket drivers are now for sale at handtoolrescue.com

Watch narrated videos and help secure more tools for future videos (if you want):
patreon.com/handtoolrescue