Building a bandsaw on the cheap from mostly scrap wood

[glatt]

4/7/16

Last night I reconfigured the way I had the steel shaft clamped down. I removed the sloppiness that was there before, so the bar isn't swaying 1/8th of an inch back and forth with each turn of the wheel. It's rock solid now. I turned the wheels a little bit more, but was very tentative because I didn't know how much material to take off. I knew the wheels were a little oversized, but during glue up, the plywood panels had shifted around slightly, and it was possible some spots on the edge didn't have much material left for me to remove.

So I looked up what the finished diameter was supposed to be, and I measured the circumference with my wife's cloth tape measure, and see I have about 2 inches of circumference or so to remove, and around a quarter inch of radius to remove. So I can be less tentative about this and really make some sawdust. The size of the wheel doesn't have to be exact, but the two wheels do need to match one another pretty much exactly or the band saw blade will not be plumb.

Working for 20 minutes or so during random evenings after work, you don't make much progress. Hopefully I'll get some real work done this weekend.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Nothing like the weekend for making a big mess to clean up.
The upside of the 20 minutes on random evenings is you get lots of time to think about it in between. Going over the things to do and the right order, you may spot a flaw in your plans, or think of a better way. Either way, you'll get it done and we'll be here to watch.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by glatt

Working for 20 minutes or so during random evenings after work, you don't make much progress. Hopefully I'll get some real work done this weekend.

Slow and steady wins the race.

As long as there are no binder clips involved.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by glatt

4/7/16

Last night I reconfigured the way I had the steel shaft clamped down. I removed the sloppiness that was there before, so the bar isn't swaying 1/8th of an inch back and forth with each turn of the wheel. It's rock solid now. I turned the wheels a little bit more, but was very tentative because I didn't know how much material to take off. I knew the wheels were a little oversized, but during glue up, the plywood panels had shifted around slightly, and it was possible some spots on the edge didn't have much material left for me to remove.

So I looked up what the finished diameter was supposed to be, and I measured the circumference with my wife's cloth tape measure, and see I have about 2 inches of circumference or so to remove, and around a quarter inch of radius to remove. So I can be less tentative about this and really make some sawdust. The size of the wheel doesn't have to be exact, but the two wheels do need to match one another pretty much exactly or the band saw blade will not be plumb.

Working for 20 minutes or so during random evenings after work, you don't make much progress. Hopefully I'll get some real work done this weekend.

You are adding rubber tires, yes? and crowning the wheel?

[glatt]

Yes and yes.

In fact, the beauty of this is that even if the wheel has a little wobble in it from warped plywood or whatever, when I crown the wheel, the crown will be centered so the wheel wobble doesn't matter. It may add a little vibration to the machine, but won't affect the blade tracking. The blade will ride the crown.

But you are getting ahead of yourself. I've barely begun to shape the wheel. Stop peeking into my brain!

[Griff]

I too am pleased with this thread. As you were.