Band Saw Mods

This saw is great, until you have to move it...    The wheel shafts allowed the wheels to move all over hitting the body, plus to steer it you had to pick up the front, this thing is way to heavy to be doing that all the time.  It should have had spacers in there to stop this but oh well, it will be better than factory when I'm done with it.  It may be the cause some of my visits to the chiropractor having to bend over and constantly pick it up to steer it.  

Here is a before pic and what was found after checking things out.

 

The wheel plates needed to be 4" x 1/4" x 20".  The iron worker only shears a little over 14" wide.  Instead of doing all of this by hand with a cutting wheel, taking a lot of time, making a big mess, and it not being as good, they were made in 2 pieces.  Sounds like extra work but not as much as cutting several 2" long cuts in 1/4" with a cutting wheel on the grinder.  All you need is a small mark on the left side to line up, the right guide squares it and takes care of the rest.  A shearing or punching cycle is around 5 seconds and there is no waste along with a perfect line.  

I need to put a link up to my favorite center punches in the world, they are fast, easy, and make a perfect mark every time.  Just find the size you need, put it in the hole and punch away.  On the slotted holes like this I just eyeball it on the sides. 

 

Making the rest of the holes using the first one as a pattern only took a few minutes.  You can see in the pic with the punch going through all 4 plates why I like these punches so much.  I can't think of any other way to make 16 perfectly aligned holes. 

After that the 2 10" pieces were welded together with a bridge on the bottom, and just a weld on the top for extra measure. 

 

Next up was fitting one to the base and figuring out where the holes needed to be to mount the plates to the base.  With the 1/4" punched and ready it will make it easy to drill the 3/32" thick 5/16" holes on the base.  Holes were figured, double checked on the base, and punched, lines are cleared off and it was painting time.  The wheel plates just got painted, so everything will be ready to finish up this part of it Monday morning. 

I need to see if I can come up with any other things to do to it to make life a little easier. 

 

Nice work as usual

Thanks GT.   

Plates are on, wheels are on and it moves so easy that it will take off by itself if it's sitting on a high spot in the floor.  The wheels are 650lbs each and have dual bearings in each wheel.  I used some extra 3" wheels here in a drawer to make it easier to mark but it ended up with 4" on it to raise it up a little more.  It raised it up 2.5" from what it was which is good. 

I can't think of anything else to do to it, yet...     I would like to move the round clamp handle out from under the saw closer to, or outside the edge a little (last pic) but it's keyed and would take more time than I want to spend on it right now, maybe later.

 

Before + after.

 

Did this early this morning before it warmed up outside.  I've caught myself on the shelf several times when the machine is not in use so it was time to make mine removable like I did on Kevin's.  Wasn't so bad, the shelf is on cast iron mounts and it slides right to left a little so it was easy.  Just marked it when back, cut out the slot, and dropped a bolt in the back to keep it in place where it can't flip out when in use.  Just take out the bolt, slide in back, and it comes right off.  It will make a little more space, keep it from hitting things when moved, and I can just keep it on the saw vise when not in use.