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Forum Index : Other Stuff : Built a band saw
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Thought I would share some photos of the band saw I built over the last few weeks. Where possible, I used materials and parts from the junk pile. The wheels are 350mm diameter, band length is 2500mm. Drive is a half HP induction motor, and I have two band speed options, 2500fpm for cutting timber and 900fpm for metals. Motor is a old Crompton 1/2HP. I needed to reverse the start winding to get it spinning the other way. The frame is steel, mostly 25mm box and 75mm X 50mm RHS for the main support. When finished it was painted in hammer finish paint ( very good at hiding poor welding ) Wheels are 24mm thick, two sheets of 12mm MDF glued together and then shaped on my CNC router. I then spun the wheels with the motor and machined the camber with a wood chisel, and varnished. The wheels use bearings and a taper lock I found in the junk pile. The tire is a cut up inner tube from a childs bike. The main pulley is made from 3 sheets of the MDF. I made a tool for my rough and ready drill/mill to cut the belt grove, happy with the results. The bed is 35mm thick particle board, and again I used the CNC router to cut the band hole, hinge recesses and slide. The bed can be tilted to 45 degrees. Top and bottom band guides use bearings at the back and adjustable hardwood slides on the sides of the band. The top guide is adjustable up and down, and includes a band safely cover. It was a fun project, lots of mock assembly and head scratching to get it all working.                     The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| greybeard Senior Member  Joined: 04/01/2010 Location: AustraliaPosts: 161 |
Nice. I like the tip about the gray paint to hide the welding, I've been using rust but it takes awhile to get a good camouflage. |
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plover Guru  Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 302 |
Nice job, congratulations looks good. The few times I have been near a bandsaw I have been unlucky as despite guides seemed unable to cut straight line say 19mm particle board and blade wanting to go sideways. On a smaller scale, a scroll saw never got it to cut FR4 straight. Will yours cut straight say shelft 400mm wide? I am just curious and my main interest is electronics with a bit of handy man woodwork now and then. |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
I find the trick to cutting straight is speed. Band saws can cut very fast, but if you slow down and gently feed the material, you can get a very accurate line. Blade width is also a factor, my blade is only 1/4 inch, but you can get 3/8 and 1/2. 1/4 is good for cutting around corners, but 1/2 is better for cutting straight. I'm yet to buy a metal cutting blade, next month, be interesting to see how it goes. At 900fpm its on the fast side for thick metal cutting, but should be fine for aluminium and steel plate up to 3mm thick. I buy the blades from a local fella, Toowoomba Saw Service, near the airport. He makes them to any length I need. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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Tinker Guru Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904 |
Nice work Glenn, interesting to see your approach. A few points; Why oh why did you copy that dreadful idea of commercial bandsaws with regard to using an 'axial' bearing for the top blade guide pressure support. This is a quick way to wreck a good ball bearing. You used that bearing in the sensible way at your bottom blade guide, why not ditto for the top? Those wooden? blade guides will wear fast, I use 10mm threaded brass rod on each side for that. To adjust, the rod is screwed in a little and locked with a nut. Very simple and lasts very well, the ones I have are over 20 years old and still plenty adjustment left. Nice MDF wheels, I suppose you needed to turn a 'rim' onto them since I see no wheel tilt mechanism on your machine. My saw has a tilt on one wheel and this allows the blade to run on 3 off 19mm hardwood wheels which have no 'rims'. What is the 'hinge' on the bottom blade guide for? Just curious. You might want to slow down the saw even more if you plan to cut steel. I used an idler pulley set up, there is lots of room on your machine for one if required. Klaus |
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Revlac Guru Joined: 31/12/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1024 |
I agree that turned out well.  Tinker I'm guilty of doing the same thing, Mounting the bearings that way, on the band mill we built for milling logs. We used Tool steal for blade guides.....Slippery and hard wearing. I might even start a topic on it when I get to work on it again. Cheers Aaron Off The Grid |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
I have a small Ryobi bandsaw, not much good, small wheels, kept breaking bands. It had the top bearing mounted side facing forward, and the bottom bearing mounted as you would expect, and I never understood why. When I started building this one I did a lot of googling on other home made saws. Timber side guides seam to last longer than you think, years in fact, provided they are adjusted right and not rubbing to hard. Timber is surprising good as a bearing surface, I remember the sugar mills in Mackay would substitute timber for big roller bearings on the cane crushing rollers when a bearing failed and a replacement was not in stock. The top bearing is mounted side on to reduce noise. It works, tried it. The bottom bearing is only used under load, so less of a noise issue, where the top bearing is always spinning. The camber on the wheels centers the band nicely. My wheels are lined up with a straight edge, but not perfect, so the camber keeps the band in the middle. Even without the guides the band would run perfectly and I could cut with it. Hinge near bottom guide is for the tiling table. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9306 |
Thats the Aussie/Kiwi attitude.  'I need a band-saw.' 'What one are you gonna buy?' 'BUY?! I'm buildin' me own one out of spare bits in the shed!' Very nice work.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Boppa Guru Joined: 08/11/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 814 |
I have this on my 'to do' list when I get the shed built. I bookmarked this a while back, the link is to the wheel construction home made bandsaw wheels Woodgears has a lot of interesting stuff on it (altho I would prefer to make mine with a steel frame like yours, I prefer steel) and I still am thinking out the design of a solar powered welder for the shed (I could only use it on sunny days of course, but for an offgrid house, would be fun to try out) |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
I got a lot of ideas from the Woodgears site, and he's put up a few youtube videos too, very helpful. Youtube has a lot of videos on home made workshop tools, its worthwhile watching a few to avoid the same mistakes. The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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