Building a bandsaw on the cheap from mostly scrap wood

[xoxoxoBruce]

That's not trash, it's potential.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That's not trash, it's potential.

QFT.

I can name the potential project for most of the items in my shop.

[glatt]

Let's see. Where are we? Last weekend was a 3 day weekend, and I got a few hours in.

I had been working on the table mount system. The block that supports it all needs to have bolt holes drilled into it to bolt it to the frame. Pretty straight forward stuff.

I mark the hole locations. I'm anal about this, but don't know why. It doesn't matter much exactly where the bolts go, and they will be out of sight.


First I use large forstner bit to make room for the bolt heads and washers.


Then I drill the center bolt holes in the little divot left in the center by the forstner bits.


It will look like this with bolts in place.

[glatt]

Instead of grouping related things together, I'll post the pictures in the order I worked on them.

I turned my attention next to the blade guard that gets attached to the blade guide arm that goes up and down. It needs to be made of metal so it has a low enough profile. Wood would be too fat. The enclosure I make later will cover pretty much everything else, but this needs to move up and down with the guides and requires a little more thought. I look around for suitable stock to use and get it in my mind that this old olive oil can I saved would look pretty cool.


I cut the can open and bent the corners so it would lie flat on the bench. I didn't want to mark the can up with a sharpie. I liked the design, so I used masking tape to mark my cuts instead. The wide strip of blue tape in the middle is how wide the guard has to be. The blue tape on each side is where I need to cut.


I have these old snips that used to belong to my grandfather. They are meant for exactly this kind of work.


This is the part cut out. I want to bend each side back on itself to stiffen the part and also to give me a nice soft edge instead of a razor sharp edge that would cut me. So I left about twice the length on each side to account for that.

[glatt]

There is a tool called a brake. It's for bending sheet metal nice and straight. I don't own one (wouldn't have room for one anyway.) Instead, I can use a couple of hardwood strips clamped together tightly and bend the metal along the edge of those hardwood strips.


Once I get those edges folded back on themselves, I hammer them as flat as I can on the floor.


Now the whole affair is compact enough that I can clamp it in my vise to complete the folding.

[glatt]

I drill some holes in the guard to mount to the guide arm.


Now that it's mounted, you can see the clearance around the saw blade.



And this shows the clearance around the wheel.


Here it is on the saw.

[glatt]

I turn my attention back to the table support stuff. I need to glue the trunnion supports to the end of the long block. They will be held in place with these dowels and glue.


It's a difficult fit. It needs a little persuasion with a mallet.


Still can't get the pieces tight against one another, and it turns out I made my dowels too long. I can't pull them together with a clamp because the dowels are in the way. So while the glue is drying, I frantically drill out some oversized holes in a clamping block that will fit over those dowels that are sticking out. Then I can clamp them together. Glue-ups can be stressful some times.


But it all comes out nicely, and I bolt the whole thing down on the table.