my little hf bandsaw build

[twoslo4five0]

I will let the pics do most of the talking, but I put this together this weekend after wanting to do it for over a year. I got most of the parts for free or bought with gift cards. Out of my pocket right now I have about 100 bucks in the whole thing. I know its not done I just got all the fab and paint done this weekend. Everything look right? I'm so glad to get away from that chop saw.

 

[herkdriver007]

Man that's cool! More details please!!

I've heard this is one of those HF tools that out of the box, sux...but with some tweaking and extra help is amazing for the $$ invested.

 

[cuervo]

I've got a larger model grizzly 3/4 inch.

When I first got it I used the pump and ran it wet. It was messy so I stop using it and I really don't get any short life on blades. Well, with stainless blades don't last anyway.

Running it wet just turned into a big mess. I ask a few of the guys that work at the big steel place I get my stock from why they didn't run their big 1 inch saws wet. He told me the same thing, it's a mess and really doesn't make blades last any longer.

The one thing he did tell was about breaking in a blade. Slow cut rate, soft materiel, heat up the blade for about 5 minutes and let it cool for 20. This seemed to make them last a lot longer.

The table setup looks sweet.

 

[twoslo4five0]

I worked at a machine shop for a few years and operated at huge saw (auto feed,hydralic control) that would run almost all day and it used coolant, went I went to school the saw I used pumped coolant. Do I need it? No. Do I want it. Yes. I literally have 30 bucks tied up in my coolant setup. plus with the ball valve I can slow the coolant way down to prevent a mess.

thanks for the props on table, seemed like it took forever.

 

[readymix]

How accurate and repeatable are the cuts?
I like the table. Came out real nice.

 

[twoslo4five0]

I havnt got a chance to use it yet (still have mods to do to the saw) but a guy posted this on pirate. This was done with the same saw and mods.

 

[readymix]

Got a link to these mods?
I may pick one up and do the same. Looks hard to beat for a home shop.

 

[twoslo4five0]

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/4x6bandsaw/conversations/topics/5292

https://www.google.com/#q=yahoo+group+harbor+freight+4x6