Building a bandsaw on the cheap from mostly scrap wood

[glatt]

I cleaned these up on my son's disc sander to get the curves nice and smooth.


For the center parts, a slat from that bed frame is the perfect thickness. So I grab one and sand the finish off on the belt sander.


Then I glued the templates down on that slat.


And cut them out on the band saw! I love saying that.

[glatt]

I arranged them in order and started to glue them up.


Clamped them to dry.


That evening, I cleaned up the dried glue squeeze out and tested the fit on the saw. They moved smoothly and clamped down tight. Nice.

[glatt]

Late Sunday morning, with the trunnions finished, I turned my attention to the table itself. The table is supported by a sub-table that is attached to the trunnions. So I dug around for a scrap of plywood I could use for a sub table. Towards the bottom of my pile of scraps, I found a beautiful piece of furniture grade 3/4 inch plywood. I don't remember where this came from, but I've got two of them, and they are gorgeous. So I cut it to size and laid out the dimensions on the work piece.


Again, I find this is most easily cut out on the band saw. I have to be careful not to get cocky about having a band saw now. The uncovered spinning wheel of death is right next to my face as I use it.


With the sub table cut out, I screw through the trunnions and into the edge of the sub table to support it. This is testing the fit on the frame.


The finished table top is attached with screws through the sub table and also screws driven diagonally through the trunnions. So I draw an angled line on the trunnions that will miss the existing screws and, while keeping an eyeball on the bubble in the level of my drill, I drill an angled hole through the trunnion. I do this 4 times.

[glatt]

Two weeks ago, while I was driving through the neighborhood, I saw a large, dishwasher-sized, chest of plastic drawers by the side of the road. It was on caster wheels, and the wheels looked really nice. So after driving by it a few times, I stopped to wrestle it into the back seat of my car. It was smelly. It had been in a flooded basement or something. But the wheels were nice, and I noticed that the top was in really nice shape. It was about an inch and a half thick particle board covered with melamine on both the top and bottom, and all the edges were finished with a nice plastic or rubber molding. And most importantly, it looked like it was the exact same size as a band saw table. So I took it all apart. Saved the wheels. And saved the top, and pitched the rest of the smelly mess away. The top cleaned up very nicely and had no odor. When I got the top into my shop with the plans in front of me, I could see it was 2 cm wider than the plans called for. Close enough. I'll keep the 2 cm, and save that finished edge. The length though is about 6 inches too long. So that's the only thing I have to cut to make it the finished size.


While I had it on the table saw to cut that edge, I cut a notch for feeding a band saw blade into the hole in the center as I change blades in the band saw. And I use a router in the center to form the lip that a blade insert will rest on.


Then I moved it to the band saw to cut the hole for the blade in the center.


I squared the corners with a chisel.

[glatt]

I placed the sub table assembly upside down on the bottom of the finished table top and got it all lined up with the measurements in the plans, while accounting for those 2 extra centimeters in width. As I was doing this, I almost forgot to put the clamp down bolts in place in the trunnions. But I remembered. Then I screwed everything down.


I moved the table to the band saw, and fed the blade through the saw kerf in the table top to get it onto the frame. I tested setting it at an angle and clamped it down. It worked great. Nice and solid.


But most of my work will be done with the table set in the level position, so I set the table square to the blade and drew a line across the joint between the trunnion and trunnion support to mark the 90 degree line up.



There is still a fair amount left to do. I have to make the enclosures. And I need to bolt the motor to the frame, instead of using temporary clamps, and I need to do the electrical stuff. Right now I plug it in to start it and unplug it to stop it

[Happy Monkey]

very cool

[footfootfoot]

Awesome!

[Griff]

This is making me a little hot...

[footfootfoot]

Don't bother.

[glatt]

I did about an hour of electrical work last night. And for a change, my daughter came down into the shop to see what I was doing, and she helped me a bit. It was nice. (Although I got a little distracted when she was helping me, and forgot to take pictures as we were going along.)

I started off by spreading out all the stuff I thought I would need. I had dug a power strip out of the trash at work. We have been undergoing renovations in phases at work, and each floor is tasked with cleaning out their stuff before they move to another floor temporarily as their original floor gets worked on. Anyway, people are freaking lazy, and throw away lots of perfectly good stuff instead of packing it up. So I dug a power strip with a long cord out of a trash bin outside somebody's office one day. That's the gray power strip. The black power strip belonged to my FIL, and it's too ugly to make it into use in our house, so I'm going to cannibalize its cord. All these cords are 14 gauge. They should be enough to run the saw with its 9 amp motor.


The power strip from work has 3 philips head screws and 3 tamper proof screws. I find that the tamper proof screws can be removed if I tighten them a hair to break the grip of the threads, and then press down really hard as I slowly back them out.


I had to break apart the little circuit board inside to cut the wires neatly. This shot is for tw, not that he comes to this thread. It looks like the only electronic components in this power strip is a 5A fuse and maybe that's a capacitor.


Back to the band saw, I need to use my bit and brace to drill a clean hole deep enough to get through the frame. A spade bit in a power drill also would have worked, but they aren't as clean.

[glatt]

I'm going to put a switched outlet on the rear of the frame and switch it with a switch mounted on the front of the frame. Here I am about to put a cable clamp on the side of the outlet's metal box. The power cord will exit out of this side hole and get plugged into the house.


I stripped a segment of cable from my FIL's power strip to pass through the frame and into each box on either side of the frame.


The box is centered over the hole in the wood. So this wooden hole will act as a bushing to keep the cable from getting cut rubbing against the sharp edge of the box. If this was a box mounted in the wall of a home, I am supposed to have a clamp here to keep the cable from being tugged on, but on this saw, it will be completely encased in the frame and can't be tugged on. I ground the box with the green wire because it's there.

[glatt]

And then my daughter joined me, and I stopped taking detailed pictures.
This shot shows the outlet on the rear of the saw and the switch on the front of the saw. The motor is plugged into the outlet, and so is a goose necked lamp.


I attached the goose neck lap by screwing through the plastic of the spring clamp on the thing.


Video of the switch in action.

[fargon]

Excellent.

[footfootfoot]

Lamp envy.

[lumberjim]

I love lamp