Building a Metal Cutting Bandsaw

by Vince Gingery

Disgusted with a cheap $200 import bandsaw, Vince built his own. The actual saw table is 36" long and 9" wide. Most of the saw is bolted together from standard angle iron and strap, but there are a few welds. A 1/2 hp 1750 rpm motor powers the saw through a series of belts to achieve a blade speed of 159 feet minute which is right on target for cutting mild steel. Rate of descent is controlled through a mechanism build around a garage door spring.

This saw is of professional quality and performance with ball bearing blade guides and all the rest. You may want to design and build a coolant pump and catch pan. You need at least a nine inch lathe. The drive and idler wheels were fabricated from 8" diameter 3/8" thick steel pipe. They had a devil of time chucking sections in the lathe in order to turn them, but they pulled it off. The wheels drive a 14 tooth per inch raker of 94" length.

You'll also need a hacksaw, an electric drill, a drill press, and a torch is handy to cut section from the 8" pipe if your lathe can't do the job with a cutoff tool. Most of the machining is quite simple, but you need at least a 9" lathe, a 6" 3-jaw chuck, and a 6" four jaw. Only a few welds are needed, and they can be done with 75 amps.

You get the usual Gingery total how-to quality. Build it, modify it, or just dream about it. If nothing else, get a copy of this to make your Gingery library complete. Top rate! After all, it's a Gingery book. 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 softcover 167 pages

No. 1381 ... $16.95