Building a bandsaw on the cheap from mostly scrap wood

[glatt]

4/15/16 Friday afternoon

I had a solid hour after taking my elderly cousin to a doctor’s appointment and before dinner.

I started off by measuring. These plans are for a “16 inch band saw.” This size refers to the wheel diameter, but the plans are in metric because the guy lives in Canada and comes from Germany, so his plans actually call for wheels that are 40 cm in diameter. That works out to 15.75 inches. So they are a little smaller than a true 16 inch band saw. If you are measuring the circumference of a 40 cm wheel, after the metric to English conversion and doing the πr calculation to get the needed circumference, you find these plans call for a pair 49.478 inch circumference wheels. That was the number I was aiming for. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized the size just didn’t matter as long as it was close. The only thing that really mattered was that the wheels matched one another, otherwise the band saw blade would not be plumb and cuts would not be square. In fact, if I really wanted a true 16 in band saw, I should be shooting for a circumference of 50.265 inches. It was time to stop removing material.


Time to start shaping the pulley. The tool rest I made works pretty well. It’s not metal and the wood is denting a little as I rest the gouge against it, but I didn’t care. The tool rest only needed to last for a half hour or so. I smoothed the rough uneven surface of the pulley and made it round.


I got it nice and smooth. I didn’t worry about the diameter of the pulley. I could change the speed of the saw by adjusting the size of the pulley, but probably not by much, so I didn’t bother worrying about it. I didn’t even know what the speed should be and there were other variables that factored in to the speed that I could always change later.


And then I started cutting a notch for the v-belt. I just guessed at first but then compared it to the actual belt I had to fine tune it.

[glatt]

4/15/16 continued

The plywood wheel had a couple small voids in the core of one of the layers. Not a big deal.


I put some glue in the void.


I scooped up some sawdust from the turning, and dribbled some glue in it.


Mixed it together until I had a sticky blob.

[glatt]

4/15/16 continued

And I smeared the blob into the glue filled void. Pressing it in as deeply as I could with my thumb.

[glatt]

4/17/16 Sunday
After mowing the lawn, I had about an hour in the afternoon to play in the shop.

I cut the v-belt notch in the pulley a little deeper and wider.


I test the fit. It’s petty good.


I smoothed out my sawdust patches and got the wheel to its final outer diameter. Somewhere between 16 inches and 40 cm.


The plans called for a 5 degree bevel on each side, so I set the bevel gauge to 10 degrees total so I could eyeball things.

[glatt]

4/17/16 continued

I beveled each side a little and wound up with a slight crown. Pretty close to 10 degrees total, but I didn’t get a picture.
[4

Then I grabbed some coarse sandpaper and a wooden block and sanded the edge of the wheel while it was spinning. This is my drive wheel basically finished. I need to varnish it and put a tire on.


Time to move on to the top wheel. I used a set of calipers to try to center the temporary pulley before I screwed it on.


Top wheel is almost done! This one went much faster. It’s birch plywood, I think, and cuts a lot easier than the luan plywood did. Remarkable the difference between the two.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by glatt

4/9/16 Saturday (and my birthday)

I started off by turning the wheel down a little bit more. I’d make what seemed like a lot of sawdust and flatten and square the edge, unplug the motor and then pull out my wife’s cloth tape measure and measure the circumference. Still a long way to go. It was taking a while, and I just wasn’t into it at the moment.

Turning is messy, you could have roughed it in closer if you only had a bandsaw.
Seriously though, it's looking good, good work and good progress.

[lumberjim]

Fun

[classicman]

Very interesting & cool.

[Griff]

You're knocking this off faster than expected.

[Clodfobble]

This kind of project isn't my thing and I'm not following closely, but it's obvious you know what you're doing and are documenting it very nicely. And happy late birthday!

[footfootfoot]

It's really wonderful to watch your progress and read your thoughts on this. Would having metric wheels cause a problem when buying blades or is there enough adjustment to the wheel to take up slack caused by a smaller wheel?

Could you mount one of the wheel axles on an adjustable base for fine tuning blade perpendicularity and as I am typing this I realized it is irrelevant because the table is adjustable. So even if your wheels are not perfectly sized and perpendicular that can be fixed. I guess the most important thing is that they lie on the same plane.

I can't wait to see it finished.

I vote that you take it to a body shop and have flames painted on it. And racing stripes. Candy apple red with metal flakes.

[lumberjim]

I want videos of you cutting up random shit with it when it's done. Like watermelons and old cell phones and James Bond action figures

[lumberjim]

Oh, and what's our total monetary investment at this point? I'm holding you to that On the Cheap part.

[glatt]

My recollection is that I'm at about $200 right now, but that may be a selective memory.

I paid for lumber when my original plan was to only use scrap wood. I have a lot of scrap wood, but using it for the frame would have been considerably more work because I would have to edge glue narrow pieces to get the wider pieces I needed, and then I'd want to thickness plane everything, but I don't have a thickness planer. Anyway, that was probably around $80 for the wood. I don't have the receipt anymore but I bet that's close. It was a medium grade pine that I used. Maybe cheaper. Maybe $50. Let's say $80 though. Look at that pile of wood at the beginning of the thread and you tell me what you think it cost.

The Everbilt 2-Speed 3/4 HP 115-Volt Evaporative Cooler Motor was $27.98 on ebay including shipping.

The 24" shaft and 4 bearings were from Amazon for $61.07.

The glue was about $20 from Home Depot.

Current total is about $190.

I forgot the belt, The belt was about $5.

$195.


I need to buy some hardware. Bolts, knobs, etc. And a blade.

[lumberjim]

Even if you end up spending as much as you could have bought a new one for, the fun of doing it and learning makes this a win.