Building a bandsaw on the cheap from mostly scrap wood

[glatt]

I've been crazy busy lately, but took Friday 6/24 off to meet a stamp dealer to sell some stamps, and then was leading a weekend Scout camping trip starting that afternoon so had to pack. But taking the entire day off, I had the morning free. Perfect to putter around a little and make some band saw progress.

I wanted to tackle this one part again.

Last time I worked on this, I had machined this part out of solid maple. It wound up being too small because I had built my frame thicker than the plans called for. So I need to adjust the plans. This time, I don't have enough large pieces of maple this size, so I'm going to use plywood for the backing and make a couple smaller parts to glue to the plywood. I annotate the originals plans with measurements to account for the actual thickness, and draw out the little pieces I'm going to make.


Turns out I'm directional challenged or something, because I cut the 35 degree bevel on the post on the wrong side even after eyeballing everything a half dozen times. I can flip it around and still use it, but that messes up the dimensions a little. So I had to modify the plans for the clamping block again to compensate for that mistake. I think it won't really matter, but I may wind up trying to make these particular parts a third time. Ugh.


Here they are clamped up to dry.

[glatt]

And the corners on the frame are supposed to be eased. Not sure it serves a function other than to look aesthetically pleasing, but I do it. I clamped the frame to the bench and cut the corners with a hand saw.


Corners cut.


I wanted to secure the motor in the bracket I made. I was kicking ideas around in my head, and decided to try drilling and cutting a huge hose clamp. It worked, but I only had time to do one side of the motor.


And after meeting with the stamp guy for a couple hours, I rushed back home, took a shower, packed, and then met the troop of 14 boys and 4 dads to lead them out into the woods to this nice hike in campsite along the Potomac River and C&O Canal.

[glatt]

With those hose clamps, the current total is about $240 and if you include a saw blade, that's about $260. It's fair to include a saw blade because if you buy a saw new, it will have a blade.

[lumberjim]

This thread : priceless

[Griff]

word

[xoxoxoBruce]

The more times you make a part the better you'll be prepared to start mass production.

[glatt]

I had the evening free last night, but this weather just sucks all the motivation right out of me. I walked down into the shop and looked at stuff, and thought about it a little bit, and then went to watch tv and do computer file maintenance. It wasn't even hot in the shop, I was just wiped out from the walk home from the metro.

It's the first time I haven't had any motivation to work on this when there has been time. *shrug*

[lumberjim]

I feel you

[xoxoxoBruce]

Shit, glatt, this is supposed to be a fun project, it's crazy to make it work when you're not into it.

[Griff]

Yeah, this is your break from the real world. Take a breath or two.

[glatt]

7/10/16 I spent an hour or so Sunday afternoon wiring up the motor to a power cord, and clamping it to the frame. Tried to align everything the best I could and put a blade on.



This saw still lacks blade guides and an enclosure, but I figured I would stand on the other side of the shop and plug the thing in to see what it does.

It works! And it's not too loud either. Doesn't vibrate much at all just sitting on top of a milk crate.

I came closer and shot a video. The microphone in the phone camera makes it seem louder than it actually was.



I wondered how it might cut, but it would be really stupid of me to try cutting anything when there is no table to support the work piece, and there are no blade guides to keep the blade from falling off the wheels, and no enclosure to capture a blade that falls off a spinning wheel.

So I tried it anyway, but put on a face mask first.




It works!

I learned a few things.

Saw dust builds up on the lower wheel tire fairly quickly. The enclosure may help with that.

The belt is currently rubbing slightly on the frame near the motor. I need to try to lower the motor or cut a notch out of the frame. Or move the wheels further out away from the frame.

The blade speed is a little slow. Based on the number of turns of the motor's pulley for each turn of the wheel, and the wheel's diameter, I find that the blade speed is about 954 FPM. It should be about 3,000 FPM for cutting wood. So I need to get a bigger pulley for the motor shaft. Maybe I will make one. I think the slow speed is partially responsible for the sawdust buildup on the tire.

[footfootfoot]

The dust builds up quickly on all bandsaws because half of the dust is falling on the wheel side of the blade. Dust collection is the best idea. Drill a 2-1/4" (I think that's a shop vac size) hole in your housing and stick a vac hose in there.

If the wheels are co-planar, free of twist, and properly tensioned the blade will track w/o bearing or guides. Not to say you don't need them but the blade isn't riding on them.

Your belt is vibrating, that will add noise and may make the saw vibrate, making cutting less pleasurable and possibly less accurate. Try tightening it.

What sort of table will you make?

You inspired me to get my bandsaw tuned up. It's run like shit ever since I got it ten years ago. I got out Duginske's book and went over the whole thing. Turned out my wheels were not in the same vertical plane, were twisted, the tires were crap, and the stand was flexing.

I got the wheels squared away, put new urethane tires on it, replaced the so-called thrust bearings and replaced the metal block with cool blocks, bolted the metal stand to a plywood base with wheels and replaced the belt with a power twist belt I had laying around. It runs great now, so thanks for the inspiration!

I'm looking forward to the table being installed.

[lumberjim]

getting close now....

[glatt]

It's been almost a month since I did anything with this project. The big problem is that my shop was a mess. Literally not a single empty flat surface to work on in the entire shop. My son loves to work in the shop, but he just doesn't clean up after himself. The big problem is that he doesn't have any designated space that is his, so his stuff doesn't have a home and just sits around.

So I spent about 45 minutes on Sunday July 24th, just cleaning up the shop and putting stuff away. I eventually got both the table saw and work bench cleared off.

Then I spent another 45 minutes actually working on the saw. I'm focusing on the blade guides now. I cut the notch on the blade guide arm. The upper blade guide will mount in that notch.

And then I started cutting up the parts for the blade guides. I'll still need to drill holes in them and mount bearings, but this is the basic configuration they will have.

That dark colored wood in the front is bocote, an exotic tropical hardwood. The plans call for it by name, and I actually had some because my brother gave me a box of exotic wood samples years ago. It sat unused until now because the samples are so small, they are fairly useless.
Anyway, bocote is called for because it has a high oil content or something and is very slippery. Great for coming into contact with the running blade to keep it on track.

[Griff]

Cool brother glatt.





My work bench is completely covered with crap right now.