Bandsaw Mod

[Darren]

Whilst the common generic Chinese bandsaw that many of us have is a very versatile tool to have in the workshop, it does have one small annoying habit.

Cutting short pieces can present some problems when trying to hold securely in the vice. I have seen many adaptations on the net to overcome this issue, inc screwing a small vice to a block of wood, but none are perhaps as simple a solution as this idea.


The problem





As you can see the moveable vice jaw is easily cantilevered holding short pieces. The work piece is not only insecure, it's hardly held at all.

Some people insert another piece of similar size stock in the jaw in an attempt to keep it parallel. I find that even if you have another piece of stock of the same size it does interfere with the clamping pressure of the piece to be cut. esp if it's really short and only just held by the jaws.
If you have nothing similar in size then you are sunk.

A simple solution.



Remove the jaw and drill and tap a thread. I chose 6mm, but it could be anything that fits.





By using a bolt, or even a bit of threaded bar there is now all the adjustment that could ever be needed. No need for spanners and lock nuts, just adjust with fingers and leave it loose for ease of future adjustments.

Its simple and effective. The movable jaw can even be slid right over towards the blade to give a firmer hold.



My excuses. I could have turned up something fancy, but have you seen the state of my bandsaw....

[John Stevenson]

Yup did that 20 years ago.



Also handy to use a couple of vee blocks to hold short rounds.

John S.

[Darren]

There you go then, I got something right 

[bogstandard]

Darren,

I keep saying this over and over again.

There is very little new on the mechanical side any more, just old ideas being rediscovered over and over again. Just given a new coat of paint. They have been at it for hundreds of years.

I am sure if you can think of a fix similar to this, someone, somewhere has already got the jump on you.

It is for that reason I read very old engineering books, a lot of the 'tricks' have been forgotten or fallen into disuse over time, and you can get a new slant on how to do modern day things using old techniques. People think you are some sort of magician when you solve a problem for them, but all you are doing is bringing old techniques back to life. Very little brainpower required, just the ability to read a little, and retain the info for future use.

John

[John Stevenson]

Bastard, don't tell him all the tricks there has to be some advantage in being an old codger....................

John S.

[bogstandard]

John,

But we have the advantage. We still have the old books that they threw out, because they all thought that they were too old fashioned and out of date to be of any use.

Old books for sale anyone? Fantastic and amazing engineering fixes, great prices, remortgage your house and buy one.


John

[Stilldrillin]

Well done Darren! 

David D

[Darren]

Bogs that may be so, but when you figure something out, or see something new to you personally then it is indeed new once again....

As long the post helps someone else discover a "new" idea then all is well in the world.....


And one day someone might surprise us all....

[bogstandard]

Darren,

I wasn't saying that your post was not correct in any way. In fact it resurrected a fix that new people had most probably not seen before.

I was just making a point, that even if anyone else comes up with a fixit idea, it would almost be guaranteed that someone had done it before.

You will find that I repeat techniques every so often, purely for newbies. They tend not to use the search feature, so they would be lost otherwise.

John

[Darren]

Indeed,

Most of what I have learnt in this last year is what you personally have shown us all, and what I have been up to if not an exact copy is mostly an adaption of.

I'm absorbing as much as I can..... I'm sure it won't be long and I'll be off, once I've collected enough "how too's"

[bogstandard]

Darren,

I think you have a rather longer way to go. You are making great progress, BUT.

I have been doing it a long time, and have most probably only seen about 0.1% of what is out there.

Once you start, you will have a lifetime of enjoyment and wonderment in front of you, but don't think for one minute you will get any further than scraping the surface.

All you can hope for, is scrape enough off, to get you to become a competant all round machinist.

John

[Darren]

John,

It wasn't that long ago that all I seemed to do was break tools, now I hardly break much and seem to manage to make what I set out to do...

What holds me up mostly is time, take today, another 3 tons of concrete mixed and laid. At my age I'm starting to feel it....that's a lot of shovelling....
But it will come to an end....

And then I'll be off....be no stopping me....in the mean time I'll absorb info and play a little.....

[Baldrocker]

Darren
Don't be dispirited if others thought of it before you.
The important thing is "it was an original idea to you".
Others less accomplished in the model engineering black arts
thank you for sharing an  idea
BR

[John Stevenson]

Happens all the while.

I developed this steady using a large bearing, held virtually anything, square, octagonal, rectangular, even welded shafts.

Posted it up as the newest thing out, only to find I was 100 years too late in inventing the cathead steady 

Another time, looking thru a catalogue I saw one of the inverted VEE bar centre finders, never seen one before, showed my 76 year old apprentice and he had never seen one either and had been in engineering all his life. So that made a combined total of about 100 years engineering experiance and never seen this gismo.

I do agree though that every so often these post have to be regurgitated so that newbies get to see what's happening.

John S.

[Darren]

Another little bandsaw mod tonight....

My saw came without an auto off device. Not too drastic but it certainly would be more convenient if it switched itself off when it's finished cutting.

This is my second one of these types of saws and I seem to remember that the standard part was pretty useless. Mainly because it was too flimsy and would not stay in place, causing it to become ineffective most of the time.


So I decided to have a go at making something that would work properly......

Starting with a bit of stock cut to size



Squared up on the milling machine and fabricated a small step.



Drilled and tapped a 5mm thread, this will hold the adjusting bolt. Indecently, you can see here that I'm using a spiral tap. I got fed up of breaking normal straight fluted taps in the machines so I decided to give this type a go. Not cheap but you sure can whack them through the material. With this I don't even bother to change the lathe or miller to a slower speed. Just bang it through. I think I tapped this bit of steel at about 1,200 rpm and it's a sweet thread. Couldn't do that with the other type....



Drilled a 6.25mm mounting hole for the 1/4" fixing bolt and cleaned it up a little.



And here it is on the machine, picture should say it all.



Sorry for the blurred pic, but hopefully you can see why I machined a step. It locates on the bottom of the casting and should prevent the fixture from rotating under the pressure.



So there we have it, one slightly over engineered auto stop. Shinyest bit on the whole machine 

[bogstandard]

Nice one Darren.

Can it be swung over so that it turns the machine ON automatically?


John