Building a bandsaw on the cheap from mostly scrap wood

[glatt]

8/16 Tuesday evening
Over the previous weekend, I spied a nasty looking table in the trash. It was a small card table sized table, and had been used as a craft table. The top was a scratched up formica top, covered in spilled paint and wood underneath was swollen and nasty looking from variuos spills. But the apron and legs looked to be in sound condition, and solid wood. So I took it home, threw out the table top, and saved the rest. The hidden parts of the aprons had a dark stain but no finish. I lightly scraped them to make them flat and glued them up. These are going to be for the trunnion supports for the table top.


I stuck them in the vise and clamped them up to dry.

[glatt]

8/17 Wednesday - another hour or so this evening.

I ripped my glued up table aprons to width and cut them to length



The top and bottom arc of the trunnion supports are described by different radiuses (radii?) from a point that would be floating in space. So I clamped a cutoff from the same stock next to my work piece and measured to find that point.


My layout lines are hard to see. I was being lazy before by not sanding the finish off, and now I regret it. But with the work I went through to draw those lines, I'm not about to go back now and clean this up. Also, I'm realizing that having a functioning band saw would be extremely helpful right now to cut this out.

[glatt]

8/20 Saturday - I can work for a couple hours because it's the weekend.

First I cut the corner of each work piece off on the table saw. That's easy enough.


Then I use a saber saw to cut about an eight of an inch away from the line. Saber saws suck. They struggle through thick maple, and the blade kept pulling out so I would have to put it in again. If I tighten it too much to keep it from falling out, then I will break the brittle metal. So I cut for 30 seconds at a time and then replace the blade that fell out. The cut is crap.


I say fuck it when it comes to cutting the arc on the bottom of these parts. It's just there for aesthetic reasons, and I cut a notch instead to do the same thing.

[glatt]

A year or so ago, I posted about making a drum sander to go in the drill press. It comes in handy here cleaning up the ugly saber saw cut. I had left an eigth of an inch or so, and now I sand down to the line. It was hard to see the line and slow going, but I persevered.


And I'm pleased with how they came out.

[glatt]

8/21 Sunday. Another couple hours

I let an hour or so get away from me without taking any pictures.
To get to this point in making the lower blade guide assembly support block, I started by cutting a block to size. Drilled the two slots on the drill press. Cut the corner miter off on the table saw by tilting the blade and doing a rip cut. (edit: actually, now that I think about it, I used a hand plane, an old bedrock #605, to plane that bevel on that corner.) Drilled the large hole that accepts the ball bearing using a forstner bit in the drill press. Then I cut away the two notches at the end of the piece on the table saw so that that tongue would be sticking out. In this picture I have it clamped in a vise to get two pilot holes drilled at those points on the right.


One of the slots is ugly because the drill bit wandered a little in the grain. But I tested it out and a bolt still slides back and forth in that slot without too much trouble.


I tested the fit of the screws by attaching the support block for the side blade guides.

[glatt]

I'm focused on the ball bearing mount now. It's held by a bolt screwed into a t-nut, but the t-nut needs to slide back and forth in a slot so you can adjust the bearing location. Being able to slide, it will also spin as you try to tighten it. You don't want it to spin, so I found a little bolt from some electronics or something I had taken apart and drove it into one of the t-nut mounting holes.


This is the bearing bolted into place. I had filed down a couple washers a bit to go on either side of the bearing. This bearing can be adjusted forward or back to accommodate different blades.


Here's the whole lower blade guide assembly attached to the table support beam. (I haven't attached the trunion supports I made a few days ago, but they will go on the ends of this beam.) The wrench is there to weigh it down in place until I bolt the thing to the frame.


That's all for now. I'm caught up.