Sunday 5/22 continued again

With the slots cut, it’s time to make some splines. Through trial and error, I set the fence to the exact distance from the blade to get a good spline thickness. My zero clearance blade insert is critical here so the spline doesn’t fall down into the saw as it is cut. I used some of the last scraps of that maple bed frame to cut a few long skinny splines, and then cut them into triangles with the miter gauge.
Attachment 56657

And then I started gluing them into place. This was kind of messy. I got glue all over my fingers.
Attachment 56658

And while the glue on the frame splines dried, I turned my attention to the wheel shafts. I had bought a 2 foot fucking metal bar online, and needed to cut it to length. So I started with the lower shaft. It needed to be 20 centimeters. My son had been using the hacksaw a lot to make various zombie weapons and it had basically no teeth left anymore, so I put a nice new blade on. He saw me do this and was thrilled. The hacksaw will cut again!
Attachment 56659

I tried to rotate the cut of the hacksaw so it would be held by a thread of steel in the middle of the bar and wouldn’t have a nasty burr on the corner, but even so, the cut was a little rough and I had to file it smooth.
Attachment 56660

Sunday 5/22 continued yet again

I needed to keep the wheel from falling off the shaft when it was spinning on the saw, so I started by drilling a hole. (With my cordless, drill, incidentally.)
Attachment 56661
It was slow going, because I had to stop every 5 seconds or so to add more oil. The cuttings were flinging the oil off the end of the shaft. So I wiped off the shaft and made a duct tape dam to hold an oil reservoir.
Attachment 56662

Drilling was much faster now. And it was time to tap the hole with threads.
Attachment 56663

I’ve mentioned this before, but I always feel so badass when I’m cutting threads into something.
Attachment 56664

Sunday 5/22 the final chapter
And here I am screwing a big old washer to the end of the shaft.
Attachment 56665
It fits perfectly around the stationary center of the bearing but not the spinning outer ring of the bearing.
Attachment 56666

This is how the finished wheel will look mounted on the saw.
Attachment 56667

:lol:

Tapping threads is bad ass. It's like you're. ...well... I'll not go into that analogy. But I get you. This is coming along nicely. It must be difficult to constantly remember to stop and take pics along the way. It will be worth it though, in 20 years when your son wants to build one and you can just show him this thread.

I have one criticism, if you don't mind. Those screws you balanced it with need to be covered up. They're ugly and random looking. If you have to glue a veneer over them and counter balance that, I think you should. Hopefully you already planned to do that. I want this to be pretty too.

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

Yep. 100% badass

I don't mind. I agree that the screws look like crap, but I'll be making a protective housing to cover the wheels, so these screws will only be visible when I am changing the blade. I can live with that. And this top wheel can be reversed so the screws for that one are on the back side and completely hidden.

This is great. You're kicking ass on this one ...
I'm still stuck on how much scrap wood you must have had

I figured you'd be on top of that.

Heh. I still have a ton of scrap wood. I can't turn down halfway decent pieces of wood in the trash.

You went to town with those splines. Three per corner would have been overkill. Now you know where to go in case of an earthquake, under your bandsaw. hahaahhahahaha

Friday 5/27/16 - 45 minutes (after work, and before my wife and daughter get home from a college tour.)

Not pictured: Cutting the fucking metal bar to get a 17.5 cm top wheel shaft, drilling a hole in the end of it, and tapping threads into the hole. You can use your imagination, or look at the pictures of the same thing I did on the lower shaft last week.

Saturday 5/28/16 – 20 minutes in the afternoon. The glue had dried on the splines I put in the corners of the upper wheel mount frame, so I cut them off with a utility knife and used a scraper to scrape them flush with the surface of the frame. I will need nice flat surfaces to press against the fence later on the table saw. A belt sanding station would have been awesome, but I used a scraper because it’s what I have. Incidentally, I we just gave my son a bench top belt sanding station for his birthday today, so if I ever need to do this in the future, I can do it in a couple seconds on his belt sander.
Attachment 56788

Sunday 5/29/16 - This was a long day. Six or seven hours of work.

I cut notches in the edges of the upper wheel mount frame.
Attachment 56789

I took the old hacksaw blade from last week, and broke a segment off of it to screw to the rear of the upper wheel mount frame to act as a bearing surface for the tilt adjustment screw. The screw would dig into the wood otherwise instead of pushing against the frame and tilting the bearing block to adjust the blade tracking.
Attachment 56791

I test fit the upper wheel mount frame to the band saw body with the L brackets to hold it in place.
Attachment 56792

It was a little tight, so I planed down the band saw frame in a spot where it was rubbing.
Attachment 56793

5/29/16 part II

I tested the fit after planing. It slid nicely with minimal slop.
Attachment 56794

I waxed the runners anyway to help it slide more easily.
Attachment 56795

I screwed the L brackets down to lock the frame in place. The plans call for a lot of screws because there will be a lot of force pulling against this frame. I used good structural grade screws. Then I took the bearing block and placed it in the frame and clamped it there to check the alignment.
Attachment 56796

I used a framing square to be sure the top and bottom shafts were square with the frame before I held the block in place with a couple little drywall screws. The drywall screws just keep the bearing block in the proper location. The frame holds it securely in place when blade tension is applied.
Attachment 56797

5/29/16 part III

I put the shaft in the top bearing block. I drilled a hole in the side to anchor the shaft in place with a drywall screw.
Attachment 56798

I put the wheels on just to see how it goes together and to admire it. The wheels make it want to tip over, so I set the motor in the area where it will go and weigh it down.
Attachment 56799

I cut 3 strips of maple to act as leaf springs to support the top wheel. These wooden strips will break before anything else, so they are a safety device, like a fuse.
Attachment 56800

These are the leaf springs installed, and a good picture for an overview of the whole top wheel mounting system. You adjust the blade tension by turning that nut at the top and raising the frame that holds the bearing block and top wheel. That’s why the frame needed to slide in those L brackets.
Attachment 56801