True.

And the truth is also that I would never feel justified to buy one for several hundred dollars, but spending $50 here and there is totally justified.

Just spent $24 on hardware. These knobs are pricey. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...c47cee10ed.jpg

Yes, that's why I tried to salvage bits and pieces like that whenever/wherever I could. I don't think you have many opportunities in a white collar office, but even heavy trash put out on the curb for collection have good shit like cords and hardware. having a stash provides a window of spontaneous solutions and creations, even after the stores are closed. The down side is the questions. What that for? Don't you have enough junk? What if someone sees you? :haha:

4/23/16 Saturday
Just spent an hour finishing the top wheel. Both wheels are the exact same size (49 and 13/16ths inches circumference, or 15.86 inch diameter wheels) and are crowned. Sanded them both and then put one coat of water based polyurethane one them. They are probably dry enough already for a second coat. I'll put a few coats on and then sand the finish smooth on the edge of the wheel. Tire will stick better to a smooth surface.
Attachment 56171
I also measured the frame and marked the exact center line that the axles need to line up on.

Do you have this book?
http://cllr.me/cn3

I think you should pencil notes, dimensions, and an occasional appropriate curse on it, then clear coat. Give future generations a touchstone to their roots when you've become a shade tree. :thumb:

No. Do you recommend it? I should get a book. I have a fairly good understanding of them but there's definitely room for more knowledge.

I've only used a band saw once or twice and managed to break a blade in that time.
I like the clear coating over notes idea. I'll do that on the frame.

I've got two more coats down. It's finally starting to get a little smooth and the disposable sponge brush isn't snagging as much.

Do the plans give you a blade length?

Just wanna note the cool factor here. Well done!

Yes. And there are a couple inches of adjustment when tensioning, so it doesn't have to be exact.

I had a bunch of blades I made at work. We bought the blade on a 50 or 100 ft roll, and there was a welder and grinding wheel built into each DoAll bandsaw, so we could make any length. When I added a 6" riser to my saw so they were a foot too short. I don't remember the length or even if I have any left, but if you give me a size I'll root around the cellar and see.

Absolutely. I think he may have an updated version of it, but this one is thorough and a must for troubleshooting. I re-read it the other night and discovered things I had missed the first seven times I read it. Also, new weird things are always cropping up of the "why is this happening all of a sudden?" variety and a passage that seemed irrelevant before suddenly becomes pertinent.

As Bruce mentioned welding blades, there is a whole section on welding blades, brazing, and silver soldering them.

Thanks Bruce! This saw takes a 105 - 106 inch blade, which is the size a 14inch saw with a 6 inch riser block would take, so it's a fairly common size. If you have any extra ones kicking around that you don't need, I'd be happy to take them off your hands. :biggrin:

I'll check the dungeon.

I don't know if Franny really said this, but I like it.

4/24/16 Sunday afternoon I had an hour or two.

I mostly just straightened up the shop. The wheels are basically done. I'm going to put the tires on them before I balance them, and the tires (14 inch inner tubes) are coming this week some time. But I put away my wheel turning station and swept the floor, put tools away, etc. I was all out of empty horizontal surfaces and needed room to work.

But I did make some progress. I had an old bed frame I dug out of the neighbor's trash.
Attachment 56202
It's made of nice thick maple, used as a secondary wood, with some sort of tropical hardwood in the showy places. I tore off that tropical hardwood years ago, and it splintered badly so I threw it away. But I had these nice maple bed frames. I need a big hunk of wood to be the top bearing block, and it's a very intricate shape. So I cut up part of my bed frame and glued it up into a nice block. I wish I had a thickness planer. It would be easier to do this stuff.
Attachment 56203
Attachment 56204

It was getting to be dinner time so I stopped there. I'll make all the intricate cuts next time.

Is that 11 clamps there?

Yes. Yes it is. 11 clamps. Seems like a lot in hindsight, but at the time, it felt right.

Can't have too many clamps.

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.
Attachment 56225

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

That looks like maple.

But there ain't no bucket. ;)

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.
Attachment 56524

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
Attachment 56525

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.
Attachment 56526

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.
Attachment 56527

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

Attachment 56528

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

Attachment 56529

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.

Attachment 56530

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.

Attachment 56531

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.
Attachment 56532

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.
Attachment 56533

Thanks for documenting this project, Glatt.

Blessed...

Saturday 5/21/16 - 1 hour

I did some measuring of the frame and temporarily fit the lower shaft mounting block to the frame in its exact location.
Attachment 56649
I marked the location for drilling the holes for the lag bolts and then drilled them.
Attachment 56650

Sunday 5/22/16 – 5 hours. I got a big chunk of time this day to make some progress.

I had left the frame only partially constructed so a drill could fit into the space where the holes would be drilled for those lag bolts. Now it was time to finish gluing up the rest of the frame.
I had to trim some of the pieces I had pre cut because they were a millimeter or two too long for the frame as I had glued it up.
Attachment 56651

And this is the completed frame all glued up.
Attachment 56652
You are looking at the underside of the foot of the frame. That wide glued up slab is where the motor will be mounted. It looks a little uneven, and not exactly flat. In hindsight, I should have tried to glue it up on a solid surface. Oh well, if it is wobbly, I can shim it as needed to make it sturdy. I guess that’s the nice thing about making this myself out of wood. I can always add wood or take wood away as needed to make things flat and square.

Sunday 5/22 continued

I had made the frame for the top mounting block last time I was working on the band saw, and I need to reinforce the corners. It will be holding the tension of the blade, so the corner joints of this box need to hold a couple hundred pounds of force each. So I need to take those weak butt joints and reinforce them with splines. Kind of like making my own plywood.

I started by figuring out how to hold the frame at a 45 degree angle to the table top. I had picked up this knife storage block off the curb in front of my neighbors’ house on trash day years ago. They were moving out and put a ton of stuff on the curb. I never knew what I would use it for, but it seemed like it would come in handy some day. Today is that day. It’s my jig for holding the frame at 45 degrees. Here, I’m holding it next to the saw blade to set the blade height.
Attachment 56653

Next I put the fence in the right spot and visualized how the cut would go. I wasn’t happy with it. The fence was too short and the work piece wanted to rotate over the fence when I pressed it to the fence. It would ruin the cut and might cause a dangerous situation.
Attachment 56654

So I dug out an auxiliary tall fence I had made for a router table that I never use. This tall fence was made from a counter top I dug out of the trash at work. The counter was perfectly good, but they were redoing the space and tossed it. Nice melamine over very thick particleboard. I also put some blue tape on the knife block jig to tell me how high the blade was. This felt much more secure and sturdy. I’m happy with it.
Attachment 56655

So I made a bunch of cuts. 20 to be exact.
Attachment 56656

Sunday 5/22 continued again

With the slots cut, it’s time to make some splines. Through trial and error, I set the fence to the exact distance from the blade to get a good spline thickness. My zero clearance blade insert is critical here so the spline doesn’t fall down into the saw as it is cut. I used some of the last scraps of that maple bed frame to cut a few long skinny splines, and then cut them into triangles with the miter gauge.
Attachment 56657

And then I started gluing them into place. This was kind of messy. I got glue all over my fingers.
Attachment 56658

And while the glue on the frame splines dried, I turned my attention to the wheel shafts. I had bought a 2 foot fucking metal bar online, and needed to cut it to length. So I started with the lower shaft. It needed to be 20 centimeters. My son had been using the hacksaw a lot to make various zombie weapons and it had basically no teeth left anymore, so I put a nice new blade on. He saw me do this and was thrilled. The hacksaw will cut again!
Attachment 56659

I tried to rotate the cut of the hacksaw so it would be held by a thread of steel in the middle of the bar and wouldn’t have a nasty burr on the corner, but even so, the cut was a little rough and I had to file it smooth.
Attachment 56660

Sunday 5/22 continued yet again

I needed to keep the wheel from falling off the shaft when it was spinning on the saw, so I started by drilling a hole. (With my cordless, drill, incidentally.)
Attachment 56661
It was slow going, because I had to stop every 5 seconds or so to add more oil. The cuttings were flinging the oil off the end of the shaft. So I wiped off the shaft and made a duct tape dam to hold an oil reservoir.
Attachment 56662

Drilling was much faster now. And it was time to tap the hole with threads.
Attachment 56663

I’ve mentioned this before, but I always feel so badass when I’m cutting threads into something.
Attachment 56664

Sunday 5/22 the final chapter
And here I am screwing a big old washer to the end of the shaft.
Attachment 56665
It fits perfectly around the stationary center of the bearing but not the spinning outer ring of the bearing.
Attachment 56666

This is how the finished wheel will look mounted on the saw.
Attachment 56667

:lol:

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

Yep. 100% badass

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.

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

I figured you'd be on top of that.

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

You went to town with those splines. Three per corner would have been overkill. Now you know where to go in case of an earthquake, under your bandsaw. hahaahhahahaha

Friday 5/27/16 - 45 minutes (after work, and before my wife and daughter get home from a college tour.)

Not pictured: Cutting the fucking metal bar to get a 17.5 cm top wheel shaft, drilling a hole in the end of it, and tapping threads into the hole. You can use your imagination, or look at the pictures of the same thing I did on the lower shaft last week.

Saturday 5/28/16 – 20 minutes in the afternoon. The glue had dried on the splines I put in the corners of the upper wheel mount frame, so I cut them off with a utility knife and used a scraper to scrape them flush with the surface of the frame. I will need nice flat surfaces to press against the fence later on the table saw. A belt sanding station would have been awesome, but I used a scraper because it’s what I have. Incidentally, I we just gave my son a bench top belt sanding station for his birthday today, so if I ever need to do this in the future, I can do it in a couple seconds on his belt sander.
Attachment 56788

Sunday 5/29/16 - This was a long day. Six or seven hours of work.

I cut notches in the edges of the upper wheel mount frame.
Attachment 56789

I took the old hacksaw blade from last week, and broke a segment off of it to screw to the rear of the upper wheel mount frame to act as a bearing surface for the tilt adjustment screw. The screw would dig into the wood otherwise instead of pushing against the frame and tilting the bearing block to adjust the blade tracking.
Attachment 56791

I test fit the upper wheel mount frame to the band saw body with the L brackets to hold it in place.
Attachment 56792

It was a little tight, so I planed down the band saw frame in a spot where it was rubbing.
Attachment 56793

5/29/16 part II

I tested the fit after planing. It slid nicely with minimal slop.
Attachment 56794

I waxed the runners anyway to help it slide more easily.
Attachment 56795

I screwed the L brackets down to lock the frame in place. The plans call for a lot of screws because there will be a lot of force pulling against this frame. I used good structural grade screws. Then I took the bearing block and placed it in the frame and clamped it there to check the alignment.
Attachment 56796

I used a framing square to be sure the top and bottom shafts were square with the frame before I held the block in place with a couple little drywall screws. The drywall screws just keep the bearing block in the proper location. The frame holds it securely in place when blade tension is applied.
Attachment 56797

5/29/16 part III

I put the shaft in the top bearing block. I drilled a hole in the side to anchor the shaft in place with a drywall screw.
Attachment 56798

I put the wheels on just to see how it goes together and to admire it. The wheels make it want to tip over, so I set the motor in the area where it will go and weigh it down.
Attachment 56799

I cut 3 strips of maple to act as leaf springs to support the top wheel. These wooden strips will break before anything else, so they are a safety device, like a fuse.
Attachment 56800

These are the leaf springs installed, and a good picture for an overview of the whole top wheel mounting system. You adjust the blade tension by turning that nut at the top and raising the frame that holds the bearing block and top wheel. That’s why the frame needed to slide in those L brackets.
Attachment 56801

5/29/16 part IV

I tried to put the blade on, and was unable to do that. The frame wouldn’t lower far enough to give me the blade slack I needed. My bolt was too short. I needed a longer one. So to just make do for this test, I removed on of the leaf springs. That meant I could make do with a shorter bolt for now.
Attachment 56802

The blade seemed happy with this inner tube tire. I adjusted the tracking by turning the bolt in the bearing block which bears against my old hacksaw blade on the frame. It worked well. The blade is right on the crown of the wheel.
Attachment 56803

The two leaf springs, however, were not happy. They needed their third buddy. I needed to get a longer bolt. But it’s neat to see how far they can flex without breaking.
Attachment 56804

I spun the wheel by hand, and the blade stayed nice and centered on both the top and bottom wheel. It seemed to track well. So I grabbed a popsicle stick piece of wood, and I CUT MY FIRST WOOD ON THE BAND SAW!!! Just held it against the blade after spinning the wheel by hand and getting it going.
Attachment 56805

5/29/16 part V

So the evaporator motor I bought on Ebay for like $20 is nice and round. No mounting bracket. But it has a rubber bushing mount. I figured that if I took advantage of this when I mount it to the saw, it will reduce vibrations just a little.
Attachment 56806

So I measured the diameter of the rubber mount, and divided it in half to get the radius. Set a compass to that distance and drew some semicircles on the edge of a board. I cut them out with a coping saw. I sure would be nice to have a band saw for this. It would have been a lot easier to cut and better quality.
Attachment 56807

I cleaned up my sloppy cuts with my home made sander in the drill press.
Attachment 56808

And I screwed together a motor mounting bracket. I tested the fit in the motor location on the frame. It looks good here. I’ll need to clamp the motor down in the bracket. I’ll probably use steel baling wire attached to a couple screws on each end of the bracket, and twisted to snug it down tightly against the rubber bushings.
Attachment 56809

Not shown: I made a couple of large wooden washers to go on the shaft behind the lower wheel to keep it from rubbing against the frame.

Well done, you're making good progress.
I don't understand the three maple "leaf springs"? If they are to compensate for minor out of round differences in the two wheels, I suppose they would give a little. But if the blade seizes in the work, either the blade will slip on the wheel, or more likely the motor belt will slip. Barring that, the motor stalls. But absolutely nothing should pull hard enough to break those "springs".
Experience has taught me painfully, when the shit hits the fan, even if the motor switch is handy, it's often dangerous to let go with either hand. They make foot switches that plug in before the motor for $15.

Now, sally forth brave hobbit, bandsaw the Ents into furniture, but for god's sake, safety first. :eyebrow:

Most excellent.

I think they are meant as a safeguard against over tensioning the blade. They are supposed to break before the blade does if I go nuts tightening the blade.

And I have no idea who's bare toes those are. Certainly not mine. I have a rule against bare feet in the shop, and I would never just scamper down into the shop for "just a few minutes this time" without putting shoes on. :o

OK, I can see the anti-over-tensioning. You will find the necessary tension for making the saw work well is a lot less than you think it is. The friction between the blade and drive tire is surprisingly big with a tight blade so unlikely to slip. Most of the tension (plus the guides) is to keep the blade from twisting when you're cutting shapes that make you glad you have a bandsaw. Charge!!

Busted.

Very cool glatt

Awesome sauce!

Sunday 6/12/16. I spent 15 minutes this afternoon cutting a proper sized hole in a nylon faceplate to fit the special switch I bought to go to this thing. Add $15 to the total for the switch, metal box, cable clamp for the box, and nylon faceplate.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...4a0816a69e.jpg

Nice. :thumb:

Coincidentally, I've been watching a lot of his Youtube content, and ran across his bandsaw, which looked very familiar.

OK, this has been bugging me so I have to put my oar in the water.

I'm all for re-designing the wheel but if you are going to do that you should improve it. The leaf spring concept is silly at best. First of all, if they are made of wood the tension on them will eventually cause them to set and ultimately lose their spring. As they are made of wood, their springiness will be forever changing with age, humidity, and sideways glances.

You can tension a bandsaw blade by ear if you need to, or use the deflection rule of thumb. The leaf springs will not break before the blade in any type of realistic scenario. If you try to over tighten a blade to the point where it snaps you'll see it isn't something that happens by accident unless you've got a 24" cheater on the end of your wrench.

If I may propose a simpler solution; replace those leaf springs with a solid bridge of steel or rock maple or anything that will not flex. Then put a proper spring in between two washers on top of the bridge. Run your threaded rod through the bridge, washer, spring, washer and up into your tightening nut. You could also replace that nut with a handle so you don't need to have a wrench to adjust it. (looking at the photos it seem that wold require re-doing the fixed nut on the bottom so maybe not worth the time.)

If you wanted to go bonkers you could even affix an indicator for proper tension for each blade width.

You can get tensioning springs like this anywhere or google bandsaw tensioning spring and order one.

That leaf spring is my only 'nails on the blackboard' moment in your truly awesome and inspiring project. And I'm an asshole.

Not my design, so my feelings aren't hurt. So what does a spring in a band saw even do? The nut on the bolt tensions the blade. Why even have a spring? Off to Google this shit...

SOME WEB PAGE:I think the wood slats will work as springs. I've seen beds with wood slats that serve that very purpose.

I'm going to try it with the wooden slats and if it performs poorly, I'll check out replacement springs.

Yeah, I had the same hemorrhoid.

I was working on the little bracket thing on the right last night. Spent about an hour, but then it didn't fit. At first I couldn't understand it, but then I realized I had built my frame a little thicker than the plans called for since that was the thickness of the wood I had.

So now I need to be mindful that when I'm making parts that fit along the thickness of the thing, I've got to measure against my own machine "as built," and just use the plans for guidance.
Attachment 57022