Building a bandsaw on the cheap from mostly scrap wood

[xoxoxoBruce]

Can't have too many clamps.

[glatt]

4/26/16 Tuesday evening. I got 1.5 hours in tonight because the kids were doing homework and my wife was at a meeting, so nobody would really notice if I scampered down to the workshop for a while.

I'm continuing to work on the top axle mount. I started off making cuts with the table saw, but the block was so big, I had to have the blade high, and I couldn't use a blade guard, and figuring out how to clamp the thing down was tricky. It just wasn't fun. And setting the angles and blade height was tricky, getting the calipers out.

So I switched to hand saws, and it was much more pleasant. Japanese pull saws are a joy to use.

So this is what I made tonight.

[xoxoxoBruce]

No problem, just throw that block in the CNC mill and watch it work, while shooting footage for utube.

[footfootfoot]

That looks like maple.

[xoxoxoBruce]

But there ain't no bucket.

[glatt]

5/14/16 Saturday - My wife and daughter drove down to Richmond to look at a college, and I stayed home to fix a leak I discovered when fixing the dishwasher last week, except the part hadn't arrived yet. So I had a whole day (five hours or so) to work on the band saw.

I found some more scraps of that maple bed frame I was using before. It's the PERFECT thickness for this next batch of parts. 3.2 cm thick.

First up is the frame that holds the shaft mount for the top wheel.


Each side of the frame is a different width and length, and the top and bottom need lips cut into them or holes drilled in them


My table saw's scale seems less exact at narrow widths, and it shifts slightly when I lock the fence down, so I use a caliper to measure things. Here, I'm setting up to cut notches in the ends of the side pieces. I think. Stop block on the miter gauge. One of these days I'll make a sled.


And this is the frame being glued up. After this dries, I'll cut 4 slots for splines in each corner. This needs to be a strong joint and it's way too weak glued up like this.

[glatt]

While that frame is drying, I turn back to the top shaft mounting block. It needs a 1 inch hole for the shaft.



And it needs a hole for the tracking adjustment bolt. A T-nut too.



This is with a sample bolt installed. Turning the bolt will tilt the mount and the shaft in the mount and will adjust the tracking of the blade on the wheels.



The mount goes in the frame I just glued up. And the frame is held to the big saw body frame with a couple of L brackets. So I made those L brackets.

[glatt]

And now I turn to balancing those wheels I made before. I decided that I didn't want to drill holes in the wheel. So instead of drilling holes in the heavy side, I added weight to the lighter side.

I drove screws into the pulley on the lower wheel. As I got closer to the balanced weight, I switched to smaller and lighter screws. Once when I put a screw in that was too heavy, I backed it out and put a smaller screw in. Not quite as ugly as a bunch of holes, and the pulley is held on better now.


And I forgot that I had picked up some inner tubes to use as tires. A 14 inch inner tube on a 16 inch wheel stays put pretty well. So I put these "tires" on the wheel, and checked the balance again.
The top wheel was in better shape. It only took a few screws to balance.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by glatt

2 foot fucking metal bar

[lumberjim]

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

[Griff]

Yep. 100% badass

[glatt]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

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.

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.

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by glatt

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.

I figured you'd be on top of that.

[classicman]

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

[glatt]

Originally Posted by classicman

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

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