Bandsaw Insert

[Allen]

I've had several bandsaws over the years, and every single one of them has a poxy table insert. They never seem to last more than a year before they break.

And the one in my jet was no exception. It had been replaced once by the previous owner. But this morning it just gave up on me once again. So with a bit of spare time on my hands with glue drying on various instruments, and some new kit in the shed for the lathe and milling machine, I decided it was time to make a new insert that would last.

I have a good selection of aluminium plate, so I found some appropriate size (Robust) stock and rough cut it out, then chucked it up in the lathe. A bit of flipping it back and forth to get the various diameters machined and bored. Then onto the milling machine with the slitting saw to cut the blade slot, mill the flat for the location, mill a groove for the pin. And then back to the lathe for a bit of finish on the edges etc.

Should last more than 12 months now.

[J.F. Custom]

Sweet Allen

If you've got the means to do so, certainly worth while. Quite an upgrade... perhaps you should offer a small production run

Yep, those thin flimsy plastic ones really bug me. They can literally explode to bits if your blade should deign to twist into one for any reason and having a spare on hand is not always, let's face it, going to happen. At least with yours, in conjunction with the TCT blade, will only get chewed out a little if the blade should twist that much. Nice small blade clearance there too.

Jeremy.

[soulman]

Nice job Allen.
I have to make one for my bandsaw when I complete the restoration.

[ckngumbo]

That looks great!

[bigrusty]

Oh man, I love it! I don't have any metal working tools but I wonder if I could use HDPE instead of aluminum. On my wooden bandsaw I just made, I took Matthias Wandel's recommendation and made the insert in a rectangular shape so it is far easier to replace.
Russ

[Allen]

I've seen them made fro HDPE, MDF, wood and aluminium. A rectangular shaped one would be an easy one to make up without access to a lathe.

[charangohabsburg]

A very nice insert!
If the blade does not jump too often off the wheels the insert will easily outlast the bandsaw.

I've seen them made fro HDPE, MDF, wood and aluminium. A rectangular shaped one would be an easy one to make up without access to a lathe.

My saw takes rectangular inserts which is an advantage I really appreciated when making some plywood inserts. But I don't think that I would have needed a lathe for making round plywood inserts. Of course, aluminium is a different thing.

[DarwinStrings]

Smooth Allen, just like a shop bought one only better.

Jim

[DarwinStrings]

I recently did a mod on my old saw, The original top guide block only allowed a 150mm cut depth. I had a old guide off a smaller saw in my maybe useful junk pile and just had to make a mount and add a new thrust bearing (the original was a bush). With the new one I now get 200mm cut depth which is enough for the guitars I am making at the moment. Once I set it up I sliced off a 1.5mm veneer from a 190mm bit of silky oak and although the feed rate is slow with the 6mm blade the cut accuracy is spot on and smooth as.

sawn5.JPG (73.43 KiB) Viewed 11043 times

Jim

[Dave]

Allen nice mod

For the blade insert on my bandsaw I turned a blank on my lathe and cut the blank into slices.

Once the slice gets worn I replace it with another, it seems to work well

Dave