Bandsaw/Chopsaw tech...accessories!

We got a bandsaw recently and Lullabelle mentioned his father had a removable fence to make different angles. Sounded like a good idea to us so we made some for the saw. I'm sure the same could be done for a chopsaw.

The idea behind these fences is you can change the angle quickly. I used to check and double check after changing the fence each time. Now we just slide the fence on and you have the right angle every time.

I made a 45 degree fence and a 22.5 dgree fence. These are the angles you use most in building frames. My 45 degree fence needs to be longer. Sometimes the metal pushes away from the fence close to the blade.
Clark

 

Great idea....the threads on my saw are about worn out from changing from 90 to 45 back to 90.

 

That's a great idea, I may just have to fab up those for my saw... Thanks Clark.

 

thanks, great idea

 

That's the best idea EVER!

 

Sometimes for weird tricky cuts on small pieces, I'll use a drill press vise clamped in the saws vise

 

Thats a good idea. I can never seem to get the same angle on my 22.5 cuts on my chop saw.

 

One of the better bandsaw ideas I've seen . . . well done.

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Here's a few of mine.
The first photo shows the locking knob sitting in a newly tapped hole in the left guides arm.

Look inside the slot and you'll see the original factory tapped hole and the guide arm is where it sits when using the factory tapped hole.

Note as well the long span of unguided blade.
This can lead to wandering and off-sqare cuts, especially when the blade gets a little wear on it.
The blade still cuts ok, but has a tendency to wander off-suare.

2nd photo shows the left guide arm set closer to the right guide arm.
This keeps the blade cutting square.
When near the bottom of the cut the rollers will bottom out on the saw table so you'll have to shut off, lift the blade, reset the guide arm and finish the cut.
Not as bad as it seems and worth the trouble for a square cut.

 

Note the two shallow angle aluminum wedges.
Slide them to fit.

These are used to help clamp small pieces that want to twist the vises movable side.

I have several sizes of short cut-offs in the sizes I commonly use, but the double-wedge deal allows for differing sizes and can be used in conjunction with one of the short cut-off spacers.

The aluminum has a high coefficient of friction so it stays put space-wise whem clamped.

 

Shown in the first pic is the original fence/table.

2nd shot shows a larger aluminum table I made.
It has a nice rollover on the front -that was there since the piece was cut from an auminum electrical box.

The larger surface helps and I've cut boxing plates by myself with this table.

I suggest using steel for the large table.
The grit from cutting steel digs into the aluminum table and creates fricton.
No problems when cutting aluminum freehand.

Nice part is, the tables are easily swapped by removal of two FH Phillips screws.

 

I can't believe it,I've been waitin' for you to start this thread and I've been missing it for 2 days.
Neat Idea.
I shall certainly have to copy it.

 

This pic shows a couple of things.

Main one being the home-made stand - 1" x 2" x .120 wall.
An easy project and once the saw is set up for the compound angle cuts no big deal.

The lower shelf is 16 gage steel.
Makes for a nice place to store short cut-offs and accessories.
It would have been better to make this piece out of expanded metal.
It tends to load up with metal dust, but only needs to be cleaned out once a year or so.

A 2nd shelf would be an improvement as well, that would give you a place for the accessories and they wouldn't get lost in the cut-offs.

In any event, with four wheels - two castered - life is a lot easier when moving the saw around.
Not to mention it's a lot sturdier than the original two wheeled sheet metal stand the saw came with.

The wider stand adds to a more stable platform for the saw and the weight of the short cut-offs also aids stability.

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Not seen are the two dedicated 1/2" x 2" x approx 8" aluminum plates I use to extend the vise jaws out to the blade.
Useful for cutting very short pieces.
You'll need a spacer of some kind to square up the vise since the short piece does not allow for full length vise jaw clamping.

To use, set the aluminum plates against each vise face, put the workpiece in the middle, slide the aluminum plates right next to the saw blade, set up the rear spacer, clamp and cut.

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Note that the outside of the saw table proper extends out a ways.
You can use a C-clamp to clamp the workpiece to the front table extension for oddball cuts.
I've been thinking for a while that a table extended out to the front of the saw would be very handy at times.

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Also not shown is the 45 degree line scribed into the table with a tungsten carbide scriber.

This aids in aligning the movable vise jaw for a 45 degree cut, but the adapters Clark shows in the first post beat that all to heck and gone....

 

I'm going to build these this weekend.

 

Up for the new guys !