Anyone made their own bandsaw?

[deadedith]

Both would be excellent upgrades.

[Ken Hundley]

K, you challenged me....I am seriously considering building this over the winter. It is truly amazing how much cheaper this hbby is if you can resaw your own wood. I have a 9" craftsman bandsaw that does ok, but the blades break easily sawing anything over a 2x4...thats the 2" side too.

I did build the thickness sander a couple years ago:



It works well enough....I may build a roller out of delrin and use the hook and loop paper. I have the plywood disc roll, which is ok, but it is heavy, and vibrates. Delrin would be even lighter, especially if it is hollow, and may prove more even to spin. Also, the adhesive-backed stuff melts onto the roller if you build up any hot spots. Truly a freakin nightmare to get off and clean up....paper changeout takes 40 minutes or more.

It does the job, however, and at my prodution level, is all I need. Sometimes I may need to run something through twice if I let a ripple happen....usually from inconsistent feeds, so a belt feed would be good, but would require a separate motor, which adds cost, or a ton of pulleys or gear ratios I am not smart enogh to figure out. I do know that if you wanted to run the belt off the same motor as the drum, I woudl go 2 horse or better. I have 1 horse, and wish I had 1.5....it boggs easier than I like. Anyway, a 1/4 turn of the table adjustment handle is about .010" for me. Best to check thickness with calipers and not to rely too much on a guage. As the sandpaper wears, you could loose .005" accuracy anyway, which could make or break your bend.

If have seena mod that uses 4 sprockets and a bike chain, with threaded rod on each corner. This moves the table up and down level, rather than having a hinge on one side. Liked the idea, but was more expensive to do it that way. I wouldn't hesitate to try this ....just need to budget for it. Have the switch, need the motor, think I have most of the wood. Gotta make room for it. If I do it, I will definitely document it. THanks for bringing it to my attention. Will be great for resawing back and side sets, as well as for building my boat.

[deadedith]

Outstanding! I might try the sander.

[Ken Hundley]

You should! I had the 2x4s, had some of the hardwood where the table attaches, and a few other spots. HAd the plywood, had to buy the motor, bearings, pulleys, and belt, plus some assorted hardware...think it cost me $160

[kencierp]

Home built "large" band-saw would be a stretch -- for he cost of a big enough motor seem better off to buy a new one plus that plan looks pretty complicated I like to see a pic of one that has been completed.

A shop built drum sander on the other hand is very doable I had one for years -- you can even make a very powerful conveyor feed using a windshield wiper motor, tons of torque! Again I question that plan since it shows provision for securing the drum to the shaft?

[Jim_H]

Ken,

Here is the finished product.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbOlG7THecM

He says he did this so he could have a second bandsaw and have less blade changing to do.

I'd suggest he probably did it because he wanted to prove (to himself,or others) that it could be done (or that he could do it). There is no way that this is an economically feasible way to acquire a second bandsaw (or a first for that matter).

It's an awful lot of work to go through, and an awful lot of time spent, for what I would suggest is a questionable end result in terms of flexibility, durability and accuracy. Unless your time is absolutely worthless, you'd be *much* better off scrounging around for a decent used saw that suited your needs, and invest a relatively small amount of time tuning it up and getting comfortable with it. This way you could spend your time using your new tool to build guitars, instead of building your tools. :D

[kencierp]

How about that? Still seems like a lot of time and expense to me as well. Good for him however -- always good to set out a plan and make it happen.

[tippie53]

There are a few issues with this , Wood is not metal and under stress will move. I think Ken and I would agree that this would be something we would never use and would warn people from using . For the time , expense and the cost of a good used one it would be a novelty but not a very long term practical tool .
I am sure he is proud of it and I an sure he has some skills to make a tool as complicated as this.