Make your own band saw

[OldWood]

http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/wheels.html


Rob

 

[wizer]

He's one crazy guy. I appreciate his ingenuity, but he's kind of re-inventing the wheel on this one. The only benefit I can really see if that he may have saved money if it was all made from scrap. I wonder how accurate\reliable it is? I guess being made mainly from wood, he can keep fettling it til it's right. I'd rather just buy one, personally :lol:

 

[superunknown]

Amazing, I have spent a lot of time on his site, he's a genius.

 

[BradNaylor]

What's the point?

 

[banjo]

I thought the same, whats the point?

But then why would you build a table, kitchen units, any piece of furniture etc when you can quite easily buy it. A sense of self satisfaction can't be beaten.

And there is no doubting, he is one talented guy!

 

[OldWood]

I climb mountains - what's the point ? The sense of satisfaction ! "I wonder if I can - let's try and see".

I think that that sense of adventure and exploration exists more in some of us than others.

I put the link up as the guy has a number of other projects on his site which I thought would be of interest, but also in admiration of his engineering skill in making the saw work. I suppose he is just as likely to get criticism as compliments, but I thought any negative comments would be on the wood working, not the philosophy - interesting!

Rob

 

[wobblycogs]

Nice project, can't wait till the final update. Not sure building a bandsaw is really worth the effort though.

I'm actually surprised how well it runs. I wouldn't have thought that wood would be stiff enough. I wonder how well it will last. I'd be inclinded to screw a steel strap up the back of the main beam to help prevent any sagging due to the blade tension.

 

[Sportique]

Amazing, I have spent a lot of time on his site, he's a genius.

ditto

Dave

 

[Windy*miller]

A genius

and

a crazy guy

Both true in my view! I looked at his marble crossbow project and was thinking it would be a cool thing to make with my kids during the Easter holidays. Then I saw that it can put a steel ball clean through 6mm plywood, and I'm not sure that their skulls are as strong as that!

What really gets me is that as well as all the woodwork he also has time to do the website.

 

[JoinerySolutions]

Brilliant! In the very least if something wears out or breaks he knows exactly where to source the part from regardless of age.

And I learnt something about why the tyre on a bandsaw is crowned, which is great seeing as I had to re-tyre a Wadkin resaw bandsaw after an operative made a mess of it, my advice on how to do it came directly from Wadkin but not the info as to why. Nice chaps in the factory though who helped me out with the tyres and glue along with the 'how to'. The lead time for Wadkin to do the job was four weeks at the time, something our workshop could not wear. N.B. The dust from the tyre when sanding to get an even crown is repulsive so the best quality mask available is required.

 

[Finial]

a long time ago when I started turning I built myself a bandsaw. You could buy plywood kits for 3-wheelers then but I made a 2-wheeler out of scrap. the wheels were plywood, the spine and wheel supports were steel, the frame was bed iron, the tyres were slices of lorry inner tube, the tension had to be put on with a lever, the pulley and motor I had spare, so it cost next to nothing and was fun to build.

It cut oak 12 inches thick and any size log that I could get on the table.

The two main problems it had were that it kept stalling under load, so I added a lever operated clutch, and I couldn't true the wheels well enough so it kept breaking blades (they went with a bang, though they just seemed to stop dead in the cut).

Eventually it all wore out and I was too busy to rebuild it, so got an Ebay startrite. now all the bits are back in the scrap!

 

[TheTiddles]

He's going to be a "genius" with some major injuries one day

Aidan

 

[Richard D]

I know next to nothing about these machines, but his contraption screams "danger" at me very, very loudly. Presumably from time to time blades break, and perhaps even jump out of the wheels/guides. When that happens, at a minimum I'd want some sort of mild steel between me and 6 feet of saw-toothed whirring death.

 

[chipchaser]

I would nominate Mathias as my superhero. I am constantly impressed by the stuff he makes and wish I had the energy to build my own bandsaw in a fortnight. I want a deep resaw, 12” plus depth of cut. I couldn’t afford to buy one but anyone on this forum could follow his example and build one. Mine might be finished next year.

I wouldn’t have been too happy about his first test where it was just propped on a block of wood clamped to the foot but can’t see much danger in the finished item, except using it mounted on unlocked castors!

Graham

 

[frugal]

Interesting project, and I can fully see why he is both a Genius and a bit crazy.

The bit that scared me the most was cutting the circular rim on the wheels using the table saw with no guards on it at all!..

 

[monkeybiter]

http://torontoist.com/2010/01/matthias_wandel.php

i thought this was quite interesting

 

[iajon69]

Just found the video showing the home made bandsaw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbOlG7THecM