Building a bandsaw on the cheap from mostly scrap wood

[glatt]

The band saw isn't technically done, but I keep using it as if it is.

I've been using a socket wrench to tilt the upper wheel and tension the blade. I got sick of doing that so I focused last night on making a crank for tensioning the blade.

I cut a wooden piece to mimic a socket wrench.



Rounded the inside sharp edges over with a rasp.
Then I drilled an undersized hole in it and pressed one of those long skinny coupler nuts into that hole. Used the vise to press it in.

Then I made a spinny knob to loosely bolt to the end of it. I had a galvanized bolt to attach that spinny knob, which is great because the galvanization is rough enough to lock the nut in place without the nut being tightened down. It works great. Plenty of leverage to tension the blade.