I need to make a metal guard to fit around a blade
and this piece of sheet metal from an old printer
may just be perfect for the job.
A sheet metal brake would be ideal for this but I found
just going back and forth with a vise like this,
does a half decent job.
What I hadn't anticipated is that you need
at least a blade width between the blade guides
and the guard to be able to get the blade out at all.
Fortunately on this saw it's pretty easy to take
the blade guides off. But, with this crazy blade,
it's also best to take the guard off entirely.
Next I'm gonna make the top cover, and I've already
laid that out on this piece of Baltic birch plywood
and the logical thing would be to cut it straight and then
cut the angle but I don't want to waste that much wood.
I got the top cover laid out here
but before gluing it together. I need to rip these apart
so I can hinge it open.
But, I keep running into this problem where the joint
is closed on the bottom, but on the top it's open.
But I just realized if I put a clamp between the clamps,
I can close that up.
I need about this much room above here for adjusting
vertically more, which means I need to cut away
part of this here to fit onto the frame.
Next I need to add some reinforcing splines to the cover
Now, I end up getting the blade guide springer all the way up.
But, even when they're not all the way up,
I hit part of this post here so I need to cut
a bit of a notch here.
With part of the top cover clamped on,
I had to check how that affected blade changes.
And, now trying it with a crazy saw mill blade.
Well, that's still workable.
I couldn't really think of a good way of attaching
this part to the frame, so instead I'm using pocket holes.
I didn't film making the parts of the lower enclosure,
cause mostly I just wanted to get her done.
The lower end is just a piece of plywood
with wood glued along the edge and a funny notch cut out
to clear the trunnions.
This piece helps to enclose the wheel on the top.
This cover only fits on when the table is level,
so I figure I may as well add this brace here,
which helps support the table for heavy loads.
And, speaking of heavy loads, let's cut something heavy.
I'm cutting up a piece of log from a tree
from John Heistus front yard. He actually made a video when
that tree was cut down, I'll put a link in the description.
I am getting a lot of vibrations because I'm running the saw
at a very slow speed. 1,100 feet
or about 330 meters per minute.
Here's the piece of log all cut up
and here's the pile of sawdust and you're probably thinking
that saw is way under-powered, which it totally is
because I'm still using this temporary 1/3rd horsepower motor
that I started my experiments with.
I will have plans for sale for this bandsaw,
but with all the stuff I plan to set up plans,
it will probably take me until January until they're done.
And, yes I am planning on painting this bandsaw green,
just like my 16 inch version. And, the 16 inch version,
by the way you can buy plans for right now.