Wadkin 20" BZB bandsaw

[Farmer Giles]

I finished cleaning up, painting and repairing the upper guides. I decided to buy new spindles for it from Advanced machinery. Not cheap but this is the business end of the bandsaw.

The odd selection of screws, nuts and bolts were replaced with ones that match and all threads chased with taps and dies.

I then tried out the new lower guide again, it then occurred to me that I needed to try out with the table tilted at 45 degrees.

So the lateral guide rollers need to be almost at the bottom to allow this to happen. This means a very elongated bracket to meet the 16mm mounting hole in the guide unless I move the rear thrust roller to the mounting hole. I tried every permeation of the thrust roller above or below and slept on it before coming up with the best solution. I noticed that there is a hole in the back of the lateral guide holder.

It turns out this was 8.5mm diameter which is the tapping size for an M10 1.5 thread. So I tapped it out, at that point I couldn't return the guide so therefore I had to be sure it would work. The guides come with an aluminium bracket with a 16mm hole and a slot. I used the slot to fix the guide to the bracket with an M10 bolt and the 16mm hole is just a tad larger than 5/8" so can be used to mount the guide in the base. The slot means I have adjustable crank so I can place the guide optimally.

I then mounted the guide, the aluminium bracket fouled the base a little on the bottom right so had to take a small notch out of it. I also sliced off 35mm off the part of the guide that holds the thrust roller. it all fits very nicely.

All the guides are easy to adjust, and although I sliced off the hole that is used for fore/aft adjustment, I have that in the base of the bandsaw so no big deal. And the guides aren't buried in the sawdust chute, they almost mimic the original design with the thrust roller above and to the left.

It looks like the table will tilt 45 degrees, if not the slotted bracket allows me to add a bit more crank and lower the guide a couple more mm if necessary.

So I think I'm just about done with the guides. I'm going to adjust the foot brake next then I should get power sockets fitted net week.

I will paint it at some time, it has had a respray at some time, they covered the angle and blade tensioning indicators but at least it looks like it was sprayed not put on with a butter knife like most machines seem to be. I'll wait until I have used it a bit first before painting. I was too eager with my viceroy lathe and painted it then realised the bearings needed replacing and chipped the paint a few times, best to get the major stuff fettled before painting.

Cheers
Andy

 

[TFrench]

Nice job Andy!

 

[Farmer Giles]

Nice job Andy!

Many thanks I've just been looking at your thread on the Harrison Lathe, very impressive workshop

The wife is kindly sending back the surplus sets of guides for me and I'm having a bit of a sort out before I embark on the next three or four jobs. I have to put the motor back into the Viceroy which means cutting a keyway in a pulley which means I have to make a stand for my fly press and to get enough room to do that I need to move my Dexta tractor out of the workshop and into the barn and also drop the surface grinder into the barn.

But back to the bandsaw, apart from the foot brake that just needs a bit of freeing so the spring return has a chance and probably adjustment, I need to sort out the fence.

The saw came with an after market Kreg fence with some damage. I knew about this when I bought it, it was cheap enough and it is the same fence as I have on the startrite so I can reuse stops and any other accessories.

Here's part of the fence shown on the table of my Startrite 351E with it's identical fence. Also there is a 4 foot length of Kreg heavy duty track, more of that in a minute. As you can see by the red circles, the fence adjustment knob has been snapped off in some heavy duty impact of some description and it dented the fence carriage extrusion in the process.

The plan is to drill out the old snapped of adjustment knob and replace it, and get the damaged bit built up with a bit of aluminium TIG welding and grind it back to how it should be.

At the same time I was going to upgrade the length of both fences with the 4 foot length I bought. However 4 foot is not enough. The Wadkin table is 24" wide and you need 3.5" for the join with the sliding carriage, so 27.5" minimum if you just want it to reach the end of the table for easy clamping.

On the startrite the table is 18" wide and the stock Kreg fence is 18" too but this includes the 3.5" needed to bolt it to the sliding carriage, so it is 3.5" short. So just to reach the edge of the tables I need 27.5" + 21.5" = 49" and I only have 48" to play with (no sniggering at the back )

But I probably want a few inches to hang over the edge so I can make a quick clamping rail. Unless I can find a set of original Wadkin fence and rails. I'll dwell on this for a while and scan the various for sale sites in case something comes up. I did nearly buy a very cheap 20" BZB for spares but the lower guides and the fence/rails was missing so not much value to me.

For completeness, in case somebody is considering these Axminster upgrade guides for their Startrite 351 then unless you want to do some machining, I wouldn't bother. Here's a not particularly good picture illustrating the top guide. The shaft on the 351 is smaller in diameter, and the distance from the shaft the blade is too small for these guides. You could make an adapter but I would look into other guides first. I believe the upper fits the 352, but I haven't got one to try it on.

The last thing I need to consider is infeed and outfeed. I have some big lumps of oak to cut, but having roller tables may be overkill considering the amount of use I will put them too and will get in the way. So some heavy duty cast roller stands may be the order of the day however I have just seen this expandable table which I can find many uses for, it will go low enough for my donkey saw and high enough for the bandsaw and mitre saw and when collapsed doesn't take up masses of room.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

I had a quick look at the fence at lunch time and just about got it sorted. Here's the offending bits in more detail. The snapped adjusting knob screw is on the left and the bent track on the right.

The bump in the travelling guide track was sorted out with an angle grinder and file. I will fill the indentation with JB Weld, I have been impressed with the strength of it and is worth trying before putting a lot of heat into it with TIG.

The broken screw was bent and snapped off. I cut off as much as I could with a slitting disc in the angle grinder then got out the left hand drill bits, et voila, out it popped. A quick run through with a 5/16" UNC tap and it was as good as new.

I hate stud extractors as they usually snap in the hole and make it worse, but these left hand drill are great for removing snapped bolts, I highly recommend them.

So the fence is more or less functioning and I have a plan for the extended fence that will become apparent when the bits arrive. This is roughly where I will site the fence so it will go as far as possible to the left for maximum throat depth, this means the far end of the fence will need some support when it falls off the table, watch this space

Regards
Andy

 

[TFrench]

We fillered a corroded brake master cylinder with JB weld and honed it back to shape, think we're about 6 years on and it still good. Got a lot of faith in the stuff! I really like that expandable roller table, what a neat solution.

 

[Bm101]

Great tip on the left hand Irwin bits Andy. Consider that one stolen.
Learning loads from this thread. It's all well above my paygrade shedwise but good to know. Knowledge is knowledge. Love seeing how you adapt solutions to fit the problem at hand, improvise then improve on it further. Enjoyable and interesting reading the updates, please keep posting.
Regards as always
Chris

 

[memzey]

I’m also interested in those left handed bits. Could you expand a bit more on how they’re used please Andy?

 

[TFrench]

Used similar to a stud extractor, just less likely to snap! I've seen them used by abom79 on YouTube. Because they soon with the direction of thread when they catch they bring the thread out.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Farmer Giles]

Used similar to a stud extractor, just less likely to snap! I've seen them used by abom79 on YouTube. Because they soon with the direction of thread when they catch they bring the thread out.

That's about it I did cheat a little. As it was a steel stud in an aluminium extrusion, as the hole was drilled heat is generated and as aluminium has typically twice the coefficient of thermal expansion than steel then it will have loosened with heat, plus ali is a bit soft. It does work with steel in steel too though.

The other trick often used first is if there is sufficient snapped stud showing, is to weld an old bolt onto it. The heat from welding often does the trick and frees off the thread then you just turn it out Sounds simple but it usually happens underneath a car so your on your back welding with sparks dropping into your ear lugs :shock:

 

[Farmer Giles]

I really like that expandable roller table, what a neat solution.

I got some good news today, the DVLA medical board has let me have my license back, so I will be driving within 2 weeks

To celebrate I have ordered the roller table, I need to be down Scott & Sargeants neck of the woods in about 4 weeks and there is a 4 week lead time so works well and saves me 40 quid for a pallet delivery 8)

I also ordered one of these from S&S too, about a week lead time. £15 +VAT

This will be bolted to the far end of the fence and run along a 10 x 30mm aluminium bar that I will bolt with spacers to the table and will extend the full width of the throat plus a little. This way the fence will be supported if I want to rip boards wider than the table by the aluminium bar, and if I think it needs it, I can use this clamp to stop any deflection of the fence as it will be about 29" long so quite a lot of leverage.

The spark is booked in next weekend to sort out the wiring in the house extension and put a 3 phase trailing lead on the band saw. The fence is all but sorted and I will soon have an out feed table for the saw, I already have some roller stands for the in feed. So just need to adjust the brake and we should be ready to start cutting up the oak for the kitchen and other projects

The only other thing I am looking into is saw mobility. It's currently on a pallet which is less than ideal. Although I have a pallet truck, it makes the saw uncomfortably high to use and the stands won't be high enough, plus it is a bit unstable.

I have some machines on castor bases, but at 300kg and quite tall it needs something meatier than the flimsy £30 jobs I have been using.

The Myfordman's homemade cam castors that TFrench uses in the 13" lathe thread are fantastic, but not sure if I will have the time to do it. What I may do until I can build something proper is to use the hoist I have from the trap door to the workshop above to take it on and off a pallet, so when in use it is on the concrete floor, when not for any length of time I put it back on a pallet and carefully move it out of the way. I'll have a think about this at the weekend and take some measurements.

 

[Farmer Giles]

Great tip on the left hand Irwin bits Andy. Consider that one stolen.
Learning loads from this thread. It's all well above my paygrade shedwise but good to know. Knowledge is knowledge. Love seeing how you adapt solutions to fit the problem at hand, improvise then improve on it further. Enjoyable and interesting reading the updates, please keep posting.
Regards as always
Chris

Cheers Chris, As long as you don't imitate my frequent mistakes I picked up a lot of what I know about metalwork from my dad who was a mechanic plus making lots of horrendous ****-ups. What has helped is being on a couple of good friendly forums, I've learned loads, and can ask questions before jumping in now so make fewer mistakes, I hope

 

[Farmer Giles]

The fence is fixed, you can hardly see the JB Weld now it has been sanded and coloured with a black indelible pen.

I found some nice hex socket cap head whitworth bolts in my dad's vast collection he bequeathed to me to attach the fence but I've had to order some countersunk bolts for the aluminium bar on the other side.

While I wait for them, I noticed that there is no slot for a mitre fence in the table. Usually they are quite shallow/narrow on a bandsaw so you can't use the same mitre fence as the router table etc. I have a cunning plan that will solve both these issues.

More when some bits arrive.

Cheers
Andy