Building a bandsaw on the cheap from mostly scrap wood

[glatt]

My wife was out of town for the weekend, and the kids were away for most of Saturday at a band competition. I had time to get some work done. And I am getting close, so I'm motivated.

I wanted to get the table done this weekend, and the first step Saturday is to make these little flying saucer bolt heads to clamp the trunnions down. They need to be the same thickness as the trunnion supports, so I grab some of the leftover boards I had glued up to make those. They are an awkward shape. I could really use a band saw to cut these out. Funny thing about that, I think I now have a band saw I can use.


I cut out and glued down the paper templates to the stock. Then I clamped a scrap piece of quarter inch thick plywood to the band saw frame.



I cut them out on the band saw and they look great! I have a band saw!


I cleaned them up and smoothed them out on my son's disc sander.

[glatt]

The trunnion plans call for multiple layers glued up in a sandwich to leave an open slot that the locking bolts can move around in.


I used the table saw to cut up some more of that maple bed frame I dug out of the trash last month. I cut it to the proper thickness and took some off each side so I can remove the finish as I get down to the proper dimension.


I marked out the upper and lower curves of the trunnions using a compass set to a different radius for each curve.


And then I cut each one out on the band saw! This saw is working great!

[glatt]

I cleaned these up on my son's disc sander to get the curves nice and smooth.


For the center parts, a slat from that bed frame is the perfect thickness. So I grab one and sand the finish off on the belt sander.


Then I glued the templates down on that slat.


And cut them out on the band saw! I love saying that.

[glatt]

I arranged them in order and started to glue them up.


Clamped them to dry.


That evening, I cleaned up the dried glue squeeze out and tested the fit on the saw. They moved smoothly and clamped down tight. Nice.

[Happy Monkey]

very cool

[footfootfoot]

Awesome!

[Griff]

This is making me a little hot...

[footfootfoot]

Don't bother.

[glatt]

I did about an hour of electrical work last night. And for a change, my daughter came down into the shop to see what I was doing, and she helped me a bit. It was nice. (Although I got a little distracted when she was helping me, and forgot to take pictures as we were going along.)

I started off by spreading out all the stuff I thought I would need. I had dug a power strip out of the trash at work. We have been undergoing renovations in phases at work, and each floor is tasked with cleaning out their stuff before they move to another floor temporarily as their original floor gets worked on. Anyway, people are freaking lazy, and throw away lots of perfectly good stuff instead of packing it up. So I dug a power strip with a long cord out of a trash bin outside somebody's office one day. That's the gray power strip. The black power strip belonged to my FIL, and it's too ugly to make it into use in our house, so I'm going to cannibalize its cord. All these cords are 14 gauge. They should be enough to run the saw with its 9 amp motor.


The power strip from work has 3 philips head screws and 3 tamper proof screws. I find that the tamper proof screws can be removed if I tighten them a hair to break the grip of the threads, and then press down really hard as I slowly back them out.


I had to break apart the little circuit board inside to cut the wires neatly. This shot is for tw, not that he comes to this thread. It looks like the only electronic components in this power strip is a 5A fuse and maybe that's a capacitor.


Back to the band saw, I need to use my bit and brace to drill a clean hole deep enough to get through the frame. A spade bit in a power drill also would have worked, but they aren't as clean.

[glatt]

I'm going to put a switched outlet on the rear of the frame and switch it with a switch mounted on the front of the frame. Here I am about to put a cable clamp on the side of the outlet's metal box. The power cord will exit out of this side hole and get plugged into the house.


I stripped a segment of cable from my FIL's power strip to pass through the frame and into each box on either side of the frame.


The box is centered over the hole in the wood. So this wooden hole will act as a bushing to keep the cable from getting cut rubbing against the sharp edge of the box. If this was a box mounted in the wall of a home, I am supposed to have a clamp here to keep the cable from being tugged on, but on this saw, it will be completely encased in the frame and can't be tugged on. I ground the box with the green wire because it's there.

[glatt]

And then my daughter joined me, and I stopped taking detailed pictures.
This shot shows the outlet on the rear of the saw and the switch on the front of the saw. The motor is plugged into the outlet, and so is a goose necked lamp.


I attached the goose neck lap by screwing through the plastic of the spring clamp on the thing.


Video of the switch in action.

[fargon]

Excellent.

[footfootfoot]

Lamp envy.

[lumberjim]

I love lamp

[lumberjim]

Excellent work, bro. And very clean and tidy too. The hand drill choice is indicative of your thoughtful approach to this project.

I am a huge fan of glatt.
And not just this thread. You are truly admirable. I'm sure reading that embarrasses you, but that's just too bad.

I'm hoping you have chronic halitosis or something. Fucking boy scout.