Base weights

[goose]

Having recently bought a second hand hegner, and not having a full time permenant workshop, I am faced with trying to create a base weight, for the machine, so it does not bounce around.

Does any one have an recomendations of the approximate weight, I should be aiming for? Ie, has someone been here before me and found say, 10kg to be too light,?

I am going to get some steel plate cut to size so i can bolt the machine to that, thus i can slide it out the way, when owrking on other projects (note, not lift..lol). It have a small working area and so the saw needs to be put out the way when not in use.

But as steel prices are high, I don't want to go overboard, rather just enough.


Do people with stands for their machines, bolt their stands down? If not, how much roughly do these stands weigh?

Cheers in advance.

John

 

[StevieB]

How long is a piece of string? :wink: Basically the heavier the better. It will depend on the floor the stand is on and the material your bench is made of to be honest so there is no one size fits all solution. I have heard of people using sacks of sand or 2" thick concrete paving slabs successfully. Personally I would think 10kg is much too light and would aim for a couple of sacks of sand equivalent - at 25kg each thats a total of 50kg. Since you have to move yours by sliding it out of the way then several thinner sheets of steel may be better if thats the route you want to go, although its an expensive option.

Dont forget also, turning the speed down goes a long way to reducing vibration. Anything over half speed and my Axminster vibrates like crazy. I dont have it bolted down since if I did the bench would vibrate too!

Steve.

 

[CraftNav]

Hi John

For my scroll saw I took an ordinary concrete block and built a snug fitting box made of 18mm ply wood, all glued and screwed. on the top I fitted two layers of ply giving 36mm for me to screw the saw too using coach screws.
It works a treat and as a bonus it raised the saw an extra 6" off the bench to make it easier on my back (I stand when I scroll )

Regards

John

 

[goose]

Sadly my new toy is only single speed. Thus no option to turn the speed down.

I had priced up two peices of 30mm steel plate 16"x12", which would cost approx £35.. :shock: and weigh about 35kgs. I am sure it was a lot cheaper last time I bought some..lol.

Hoping to nip into scrap yard tomorrow and see what they have, the above was for fresh steel plate. So pricey.

 

[goose]

Interesting. Any ideas on the weight of the concrete block?

 

[chrispuzzle]

Concrete varies in weight, obviously, depending on the mix, but for 2-inch thick paving slabs, you'd be looking at roughly 25lbs per square foot. Concrete is an excellent anti-vibration material, as well as being a lot less expensive.

 

[goose]

I Chris, indeed. Had a look at some concrete blocks today, only problem is the mounting. Boxing it in, would mean I would have to buy some extra wood for making it.
So I dropped by a friendly scrap merchant and came away with some 30mm thick steel plating, and car that is now sitting 12" lower to the ground at the boot..lol.
Took two of us to carry the two pieces.. so estimating all up weight of about 40+ kilos.

Going to take them down to a friendly metal worker I know and get them drilled and countersunk, so i can bolt through them and leave it flat standing on a bench.
Going to see if I can find some cam bolts, like mountain bike quick releases for wheels, to use to bolt the saw to the plates. If I can, then I should in theory be able to quickly diss-assemble the setup for movement and storage. Not ideal, but needs must and all.

Will let you know how I get on.
I really want to get on and have go and sawing something soon.

John

 

[goose]

Well my metal working friend has fashioned a steel plate with a section of box section below which now allows me to surely clamp my henger which is bolted to it, into my work mate.

Turns out, from initial tests, that this not too heavy plate and work mate combo seem to be working ok with very little movement in the saw.
I have not managed to test it fully yet on anything delicate. As having to clear space. But i do have a big steel wounter weight on standby to clamp to the work mate if my present one proves insufficient in weight.

So far so good. Just need to find some M8 countersunk bolts of sufficient length and I can get the plate to site absalutely flush onto the workmate. Right now it sits proud as the two bolt heads are standard. But should be able to sort that this week.

 

[bengomez]

I think steel plate is the base for base weights....

 

[goose]

Well my fabricated base, allows me to clamp the hegner into a standard work mate and today, I spent a good chunk of the day, cutting on the patio, in the sunshine and apart from mumb fingers..lol.. (it was a bit cold to start with).. no problems.. broke a couple of blades till i had the tensioning down and learnt not put too much side pressure on as i tried to cut tight curves. But for a single speed machine it was flying through the 6mm mdf of some soon to be miniature wargames scenery.

The steel plate has a square box section mid rib, that sits below it, which allows the hegner to be clamped flat into the workmate. I will try and post some photos.

There table vibrates a tiny bit, but I didn't notice anything too un-torward during my first proper cutting session. Three hours or more of cutting windows out of building walls pieces and job done.

The blade changing is a bit slow and I am going to get a set from hegner with the thumb screw to speed up the changes, but on the whole a great start.

Even working out doors i was still wearing a full face dust mask and was really surprised to see the amount of dust generated.

 

[PowerTool]

MDF certainly has its uses,but it also makes lots of dust (if you think the scrollsaw is bad,try using a router on it :shock: )
Any chance of some pictures of the scenery when you've finished making it ? I used to do 28mm scale (Warhammer 40,000 and others) and had as much fun making scenery as I did playing it :lol:

Andrew

 

[goose]

Yes, routing in MDF must not be too much fun.. drilling the access holes interesting..lol.

Will try and post some pictures, the items i am making are for 28mm scale, WW2 scenery. Mostly ruined factory and residential buildings.

I love building scenery and now I have the hegner I am looking forward to make a lot more. I have some hi density pink foam which i am told you can even cut on a scroll saw, so that is something i am interested to see how it cuts and what blades work best.

I used to play 40k as a teenager, and only recently got back into the wargaming but now, mostly historical these days. Some sci-fi stuff here and there.

I just need to work on some storage units for all the stuff now..lol..

 

[loftyhermes]

Well I must be lucky or it's the build quality because my two speed Delta just sits on the bench and doesn't move about at all when I'm using it.

 

[zeb]

for my scroll say i ve got a box it's bolted to then the box is filled with my trusty weghts dosnt move at all , but then the saw never did much when it was on the top of the bench :lol: