A year or so ago I purchased a Ryobi bandsaw, which came with a flimsy stand, with no casters. Wasn't a problem at first, but each time moved it to a different area of the garage I'd slightly bend at least one leg, and while it's not that heavy, it's heavy enough. So I decided to make my bandsaw mobile. This simple project is applicable to any power tool on a stand.

First, I started off with sections of a steel framed treadmill, mitering the corners:
http://frederic.midimonkey.com/yard/...e/IM002157.JPG

After welding it together, I welded on casters. I debated drilling and tapping holes for the casters but that's more work than it's worth, plus the bandsaw (and stand) is about 150lbs tops, and the casters were taking off something I could barely push, so I'm not worried about having to replace them any time soon. Casters were also from curbside plucking!

http://frederic.midimonkey.com/yard/...e/IM002158.JPG

And there you have it... movable bandsaw!
http://frederic.midimonkey.com/yard/...e/IM002160.JPG

Notice the concrete garage floor. What's so special about it? I can see it!

 

NICE! Now get back to work on the CNC table.

At least you can roll the bandsaw out to get some room to work.

Don't try to put the lathe on casters... Bolted to the floor and carefully shimmed level is best.

I got the gear reducer for mine today, looks like it will work well. Just have to bore out one of my bandsaw blade pulleys from 7/16" to 5/8" and broach a new keyway or use a dog point setscrew into the reducer keyway.

Maybe I will make a stand for it while I am at it. -Now where did I see that abandoned shopping cart with good casters...

 

WRONG!!!! johns car comes first, and there are only 28 days to finish it.

 

John's car.... yeah.... I think I'm going to skip the fiberglass and just make a simple wooden body. At least I could have it done in a weekend or two AND I can do it in the cold.

The lathe isn't bolted to the floor... it doesn't need to be... it's VERY heavy!

 

Off topic.


How does that little bandsaw work for you?
I have a similar sized Black and Decker model that makes a really good paper weight. No matter what number of teeth I put in it, it just doesn't seem to cut well. Even in wood. Metal is out of the question. I'm going to go for a larger model just a soon as I can find space in the shop for it.

I was just curious if the better brand small bandsaws were any better.

 

This bandsaw is great for cutting softer materials... wood, plastics, handyboard, even aluminum plate/sheet (1/4" or less).

I did install a bi-metal blade for cutting steel, but the roller guides don't really guide well enough to keep the metal cutting blade stable, so cutting steel resulted in very wobbly cuts, even when fed slowly.

The solution to this is to make a new "snout" just below the table with adjustable roller bearing, and just above the table, also with adjustable roller bearings, this way the blade has more support for tougher materials.

I find this lack of adjustability of the bearings a common design "flaw" across all the cheaper bandsaws I looked at when I purchased this one. I would probably have been just has happy with the $99 bandsaw as it's basically the same unit, just smaller, but I went with the larger $199 bandsaw because the motor was larger - and for cutting metal down the road, the larger motor was a welcomed feature.

Because I do want to cut steel, I was considering one of those horizontal/vertical folding bandsaws, however the footprint is too large even if I castered it like this one. I really only need a vertical bandsaw, and I wanted something that cuts around chest height, so it's comfortable to work with. The horizontal/vertical folding bandsaws are too darn low to be comfortable for any length of time. hacking off a quick piece is fine, but to spend a few hours cutting... I'd be miserable.

I started making the parts necessary to rework the snouts, but I haven't had time to finish it as I have a lot of other things that are more important ahead of it on "the list". I'll post pictures once I'm done of course, but it's at least a month or two away.

But for non-metal cutting purposes, it's a great bandsaw, no complaints. Just needs a few "monkey grade" improvements for cutting steel.

 

I think I'm leaning towards one of those horizontal/vertical saws. The local blacksmith here has one, and she seems to think it will work for all of my needs.
I don't cut a whole lot of steel, and I rarely cut wood that won't go through my table or mitre saw, so I don't really want to go too big.

Thanks for the info. It makes me feel a little bit better about my saw. I thought I just got one that was flawed.

 

Mine is a Delta with 8" wheels and it does real well cutting wood. The 3600FPM band speed is WAY to high for cutting metal hence the addition of the 24:1 gear reducer. Modifications should be fairly easy. It will give me 75/150/300FPM band speeds which should be good for about anything I want to cut even tho the high speed is a little slow for wood. The guide on the machine works well if adjusted correctly. The addition of some support rollers underneath the table is a good idea. Fred always comes up with the good ideas.

 

Good ideas? Moi? Just hairbrained ideas that sometimes work.

Now if I could figure out how to "accurately" graft a D1-4 device to an L00 spindle I'd be a happy camper.

 

Frederick- Don't sell yourself short! That same can-do attitude is what made you successful in sales.

I have a similar problem, my lathe spindle nose is an L0. I have an ebay search set up for chucks and face plates, I will add an L00 term and let you know if I find anything.

I do have a few small sealed wheel bearings left over from my RC racing days. They are better than the run-of-the-mill shielded bearings most hobby shops sell. They would work good for guides because they could be positioned close to the table.

 

I had a 30yr old craftsman band saw that I just sold and what I did was mount it on a nice old wood cabinet with a small piece of 3/4 plywood on the top and bottom with some caster wheels it sat at the right height and gave me storage for the extra blades.Now you know that its gone I will need it for something.

 

Thanks. My wife reminds me every day what an unemployed failure I am. Then, when I had an opportunity to buy into a service station (buying in with labor rather than cash), "that's a dumb idea" was the response. So now we're back to the unemployed failure thing. I'm just bummed overall, don't mind me. We talked about this.

Thanks, got the thing you sent me already and bid. Now I'm off to unload all the steel I've collected in my truck doing a curb run. 14 miles of local driving, got myself four mowers, a self propelled snowblower, a dishwasher, and quite a bit of rusty exercise equipment. I tried to start each thing this morning - nada, so it's all back in ready to go to the recycling for cash scrapyard. Easily 2000 lbs in the bed. My crewcab rides nice actually

I have a bunch of skateboard bearings that I didn't use for my CNC machine, and i'll probably be using those for my steady rest and the taper attachment. They are abec-7 which means nothing to me but supposively means they are strong, tough bearings. They say "precision" all over them but that doesn't mean anything these days. After all, a "Big Mac" is a precision hamburger

 

A "Big Mac" is only precision in the picture on the menu. What you get in the box is definitely not a precision part. Look here for ABEC class stds:
http://www.pacamor.com/abectolerances.php

I think you need earplugs to wear around the house. Or just stay in the Garage and lock the door!

Can you pay for your gas, and flat tires with recycling $$?

 

Yeah. Filling my truck is essentially free, because I siphon it out of junk cars left for one particular junkyard. Since they pay to have large containers of gasoline removed from premises every week, they allow me to siphon away.

Occasionally I pay for gas just to ensure some clean gas goes through the plumbing.

Recycling $$$ gets sucked into the house mostly... you should see my mortgage, property taxes, and so forth.

I made a low-ball bid on a local transmission shop today. Not that I want to be in the transmission repair business, but it's a business that's doing well enough and the employees seem to have above average aptitude. So we'll see if they laugh or not.

 

Free fuel is GREAT!!!

I guess this comes under the heading of "garage/shop" tech.

I have an old Carter fuel pump fastened to a piece of plywood I use for fuel "transfers" out on the drive. It has long lengths of 3/8" fuel line on it and a cord that I can plug into the cigarette lighter. It has no filter but that would not be a bad idea...

Siphoning out of some of the newer vehicles with anti-siphon devices in the fuel filler line must be "interesting". When I sent my old Isuzu to the graveyard I cut the fuel line under the vehicle and used my pump.

Good luck on the tranny shop. With transmission work cleanliness is an absolute must and many shops don't have the best of conditions. Also with most automatics the pan filter is just a screen and an external filter can be installed.

Wix Transmission/PS Filter
===================
Wix transmission/PS filter #58964
Ford equivalent filter kit #XC3Z-7B155-AA
Ford filter alone #XC3P-7B155-BA
200 psi working, pressure relieved, magnetic
change yearly or 12000 miles

You could also give out a yearly coupon for a filter replacement and performance check.