Improving a chinese bandsaw

[Trion]

I bought a band saw the other day. It has no brand, but there is no doubt in my mind that it is another rebranded chinese one. It shows signs to be of some age as it seems to have taken quite a bit of abuse, but I aim to make it a nice little reliable cutting machine for my shop.

I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of it when it was bought, so this is the one showing it closest to stock condition. My shop is beginning to get a bit crowded, I know.


Things I figured needed attention:
- Bolts at all ends of the machine were bent
- When sawing, both the motor mount and the saw cover would rattle like crazy.
- The motor pulley was very badly aligned with the gearbox pulley
- The motor mount was very hard to adjust, therefore making speed changes very time consuming
- The blade is worn, having a clearly visible dent
- The hydraulic lowering was more or less the on-off type
- The hydraulic cylinder is leaking
- The vise handle has about 10mm of axial play
- There is no filtration of the coolant
- The gearbox oil has probably never been changed

Fist off, I pulled of the hydraulic cylinder to try to clean it


I found lots of gunk in the oil, and a quite coarse adjusting mechanism. I might redo this adjustment sometime.


When mounting the hydraulic cylinder, I discovered its simplicity. Apparently, only the lower side of the cylinder is made to take pressure, as a plastic ring (which seems to be the seal, and is also leaking) in the top of the cylinder popped out when I mounted the cylinder to the saw again and tried to swing the saw up. I let some of the hydraulic fluid off, to have some air in the upper region instead, and now it is working semi-fine.

Here you can see the alignment problems on the motor pulley


But I still managed to cut a test piece in some steel. (T-slots for my mill, in the making)


I decided something had to be done about the motor bracket, so I removed the old one.
Here I have also added a set of wheels to the rear of the saw, will need wheels at the front too.


And after a bit of fiddeling and some paint, a new one was made
Both lathe, saw and mill were used in the production. For the curious ones out there; no I did not have any thinner steel plates


The motor needed some ways of adjustment, so the mounting holes were elongated. I was quite pleased to be able to use the vertical spindle straight away, instead of having to flip the head over


Here the motor is trial fitted on the new bracket. The strange brown thing on the table my new coolant filter.


The pictures became quite dark, anyways, the motor is mounted on a hinged plate. All I need to do to change speeds is loosening the screw with the flat iron on and move the belt. Now the belt is also running straight, within a millimeter or so.

[Brass_Machine]

Nice mods so far. Mine is similar, but without the hydraulic arm and coolant.

Eric

[AndreasL]

It is really "moro"* to watch youre progress in youre shop and with youre tools and machines.

Looking forward to see what parts and projects you will make "when done" with the SAJO etc.
I guess the "yellow thing" in the background is the main reasone for the purshase of all this nice equipment?
At least I know that was the case for me when getting my mill...witch I have way to little time to play with right now.

Good luck and keep the posts comming!

* Hope I got that one right, but think soo... 

[Trion]

Brass_Machine: Thanks But how do you control the lowering without the hydraulic arm?

AndreasL: Hehe, i believe it is written morro, but I'm glad you like it! Being a Swede, you must have a special place in your heart for the Sajo? :p You are right, I initially bought the machines to be able to make special parts for the yellow thingy, but I have become so caught up in improving the machines and making new tools, that I have forgotten what I initially wanted to make
What kind of mill do you have?

A new post is coming later today, I forgot the camera in the shop..

[Trion]

Here's the update

After having made the coolant filter and fitted rear wheels, I figured I'd start on making mounting brackets for front wheels. So I started cutting some flat iron with coolant. As you can see, a plastic container was quickly needed to collect the spills.


I cut the needed plates and drilled a suiting hole pattern in them on the mill


The finished plates looked like this


And after a bit of welding they began to look like proper mounts


Then they got a coat of paint


And were eventually mounted to the saw


Here's another picture showing how the engine mount is made, as the previous one were a bit dark



To solve the issue with coolant on the floor, I found a suiting piece of aluminium and bent it into shape using a bench vise and a plastic hammer for persuation


I wanted it to sit something like this


So I found some more aluminium


And got about welding. I still have a lot to learn about welding aluminum!


This part catches the edge of the coolant tray, to make the plate stay in place


I also replaced the set screw in the depth setter by a "wing head" screw for easy adjustment


And there it is, my removable spill support


And some testing action



Next up was cleaning the table and improving the vise, so I removed the moving jaw


Chucked in the mill


Drilled a 8,5mm hole


And tapped it to M10


I also replaced these worn crappy 4.8 bolts by regular 8.8 ones with thicker "washers" that don't bend


The fixed jaw was also removed, cleaned and put back with new stronger bolts. Then I squared it up against the blade


And here you have the vise cleaned and with a screw to allow cutting short pieces without shimming the back of the vise



When cutting a bit more, I noticed that the saw was still leaking on the floor. I located the spill coming from the coolant pump power wire which is routed through the bottom of the coolant tray


I disconnected the wires for the coolant pump at the switch and pulled them out


Then I was able to remove the coolant pump from the saw. Then the hole in the tray was covered by a rubber seal typically used on the bulkhead of cars. The round thing in the coolant tank is my filter, i will not go into details about how it was made.


While I was at it, i wanted to add some end plates for the upper part of the coolant tank as I don't want any swarf to enter the tank through other places than the filter. So I found some steel sheet and my beloved Ingersoll Rand air plate nibbler


Tacked in place. I didn't fully weld them to avoid warping, and I don't need a completely tight seal


Then I put everything back on the saw. The electrical wire for the coolant pump was re routed through the back of the saw, again using car rubber "bushings" to protect the cable going through the sheet wall. I did the same to the coolant flow line, as this was just hanging over the edge of the coolant tray before


And the final mod:
As I haven't yet fitted a belt cover, and have had a few instances where the blade has come loose, an emergency button seemed the right thing to add


That's all folks!

[AndreasL]

Really nice improvments!

Regarding the SAJO and beeing a Swede... Raised and born in the town of Värnamo, the home of SAJO:s and VMA machines.
Real bummer is that I didnt realised the pros about that earlier in my life. But better late then never. It turned out pretty allright anyway I have to say. 

I bought an old MAHO MH 500C a year ago. Mainly to support my car racing. But even if the machine have got way to little time and attension I think I invest more time and money at the time in the same since I have found it really fun and interesting, the whole machining bussines. 

Sorry for the misspell, Norweigen is obviously not my native language for one bit. Neither is English... 

[Trion]

Thanks 

I googled you mill, seems like a nice machine. I would love to have a CNC machine someday, but I need to get a grip on manual machining first. Looking forward to seeing posts on parts you have made! Btw. What car do you race?

Being from Värnamo and all, you wouldn´t happen to know where to get spare parts for Sajo machines?

[Brass_Machine]

Nice job so far.

Mine uses gravity for lowering.

Got a closer look at yours, it looks like it is the big brother to mine. mine is definitely smaller. I am going to be using some of your ideas when I fix mine up.

Eric

[AndreasL]

@Trion

Dont tell anyone but my knowlage about machining was IS real slim. But I find it interesting and fun plus that I have some great mentors with a lot of experience so...I dicided if going in the wather, why not hit the deep end right the way. 

Probably should add that my father in law has got "the basic manual machines one need to start with" + some. (One SAJO and one VMA mill for example plus a Storebro GS195 lathe.)

So CNC it was and the machine was found "by accident" when doing a job at the shop of some car entusiasts.

Havent got half the time I would have wanted to get the installment etc in to the work shop as i like but have made a few first cuts confirming it runs ok. Looks promising but no way near the standards one can see at this sight. Still have a long way to go but looking forward to it. Its a bit more to the CNC-part then "hit a button and out come a great pice of art" as you all probably know. But hard for most not in to machining to understand.

Hope to have something I dare to show in the future though.

As for SAJO-parts I belive the official retailer is called Din Maskin. (Still in Värnamo.)
On top of that there most be so many parts around in sheeds and shops but since these machines just seems to keep going and going (if taken care of) you need a bit of luck to get a hit and find something of interest.

Good luck with all and dont hesitate to ask if you think I can be of any help to you.

[AndreasL]

Ooohh, forgotte about the msot important part...the racing cars. 

A BMW-fan from day one I started allmost 10 years ago in a self built 318is, Grp-N.

During university I was lucky to get involved in a semiworks (SAAB) endurance team as a mechanic/engineer/driver.
Not entirely without succes I have to say and real fun...but sooooo timeconsuming. 

Allso involved in the Swedish Touring Car Championship with an Alfa Romeo.
So not much time left for my own driving.

Acctually I havent run one single race my self this year and the cars/parts/team are up for sale if anyone likes some SAAB 9-3 SS endurance diesel cars. 

[Trion]

AndreasL: I find the items bought "by accident" often tend to be the most treasured ones, praising oneself for buying it every time it gets used. So you should be on a good route with your mill! Your father in law doesn't make it worse either!

You say SAJO's are popular. I have till yet only heard of two other mills in Norway, and never seen any posts on SAJO mills on the internet. Except for the numerous machines for sale of course. I might be looking at the wrong places!? But thanks for the tip on Din Maskin, will contact them one day to hear what they are able to supply for the old girl.

BMW and Saab you say. It's more like VW and Nissan for me. But it sounds like you have experienced some interresting stuff. Nice to have the mechanical background but also being able to drive. I can beileve the time consuming part though, fine tuning of components takes ages, that's why I have never done too much about it 
Endurance diesel, that's quite high-tech I believe!? Anyways, it doesn't sound cheap!

[Trion]

Got a new saw blade the other day 93" by 3/4"


Mounted it, tightened the follower bearings and set the vise square to the blade. Then made a trial cut on some mild steel


The blade has a much finer pitch of teeth than the old one, the saw is now running much smoother and the cut surface is looking really nice!

[Trion]

The last time I was in the shop a friend of mine dropped by and gave me 4 aluminum lifting hooks with some pipes welded to them, as they had been on a lifting frame. Yeah, I know the alu must have lost quite a bit of it's hardening from the welding, but hey it was free and the hooks are about 30mm thick.

I didn't care too much about the pipes, so I needed a way to cut them of. I tried many ways to mount the parts in the saw vise, but I never got it rigid enough. And considering I had to cut of 8 pipes, I wasn't too eager about making such a fuss for each one. Then I thought of the silly little drill press vise I currently use on the shaper.


Setup was quick and easy, it took about one minute to set up a new cut, and each cut was made at the same distance to the main piece.


This might not be revolutionary, but may be a good idea for someone who has to cut parallel to a long narrow part.

By the way, I'm back on my old band saw blade. The fancy new Starrett blade got dull halfway through cutting a lump of mystery metal. The stuff was so hard even the angle grinder struggled to get through it!

[Jonny]

Anyone know where you can get the replacement guides?
Havent used mine for 11 years chews the blade up within seconds.

If its just a case of replace the off the shelf bearings and adjustment i would do it that way in a few weeks. Any tips for alignment.

[maybecnc]

See if this can be any good for your saw. It makes blade alignment very easy:
http://www.toolsandmods.com/blade-guides.html
Be sure that bearings are not contacting with blade teeth.
To align the blades I use to cut two 7cm wide plywood parts at a time, placed vertically on vise and separated by 10cm (with some stock between to separate). The cut on each plywood shows any missalignment on the blade guide closest to it.

Jose