Metal Bandsaw Upgrades - 4x6 Bandsaw Improvement To Clamp And Table

hey this is my bandsaw there are many like it but this one is mine my bandsaw is my best friend it is my life i must master it as the most mess of my life without me my bandsaw is useless with my bandsaw i am useless i must use my bands are true i must cut straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me i must cut him before he cuts me i will before god i swear this creep my band sign myself are the defenders in my country we are [Music] my name is most of us have a 4x6 metal band saw they're great for cutting down stock and whatnot but you know they do have their shortcomings today we're going to make few upgrades to mine and make it more usable so join me now i know my bandsaw is not the cleanest in the world but don't judge because i know yours looks just like this all messy greasy dirty the first thing we're gonna work on is a clamping mechanism or the fence it works fine for longer stock but you notice the blade is about an inch away from the edge of the fence so if you're trying to clamp and hold on to something short and make a cut it does not work it doesn't grab it [Applause] normally i would just leave this and use the factory finish since it's just going to be a clamp but this just happens to have some dings and dance so things don't sit flat so we'll take we'll take a real light skin cut to smooth it out we have both pieces all machined ready to go but before we go any further we're gonna have to clean up all this mess so let's get started i went and clamped the fences where i think i want them it's about 16 of an inch away from the blade i went and used my randy richard carbide scribe and scribed all the way around outlining the existing old fence i also marked where the webbings are so i know where to drill [Music] [Applause] i'm going to drill and tap some holes 5 16 inch by 18 thread so if i ever need to attach a fixture to this fence i can easily do that the tap i have is not conducive to power tapping i could order one but it won't be here in time so we're just gonna have to do it the good old-fashioned way one of the common questions that i get asked is where i got this ratcheting top holder believe it or not it's from harbor freight it's made in taiwan and it's around 17 it works pretty good my only complaint is this ring gets easily bumped and uh the direction gets reversed but that's all right i won't make you watch all these holes being tapped i'll bring you back when i'm done we got it temporarily clamped to the stock fence we're going to drill and tap the holes initially but as you can see there just isn't enough material because of the webbing so we'll drill a through hole for these bolts and we'll tighten it with the nut at the back end [Music] i guess i need to de-magnetize the bit [Music] [Music] this is the movable jaw we'll drill and countersink some holes to mount onto the existing [Music] piece [Music] this is the moving jaw we're gonna drill and tap as you can see i drilled and tapped fixed your holes now let's mount this let's mount the movable jaw i'll tell you later what this extra hole is let's take a closer look at the new jaws as you'll see these are drilled and tapped for 5 8 by uh 18 threads so you can put stops or one of the things that i'm going to make is a 45 degree angle gauge that can clamp on here to make 45 cuts a lot easier the new jaw stick about stick out about an inch further than the stock and it comes really close to the blade what that does is you can hold short pieces way out here now now you have enough grip but you'll notice the left side of the jaws will collapse you typically put a spare piece of material there to clamp but if you recall we drill and tap the hole so here is a bolt i quickly cleaned off the head on the lathe get rid of the letters and whatnot and smooth out the other end as well if it's a it's a half inch thread now you can grab the material tightly without having to uh find right neck thickness uh scrap material if you need to grab a wider piece you can put the bolt backwards and that works just as well here i have two different length bolts so i can easily swap out if i need to now let's take a look at the table the bandsaw originally came with a really chintzy sheet metal table that you screw on and remove whenever you need to use it well i don't know where it went because it didn't do me any good and i just been using this tiny footprint that came with the saw and it's time to do something about that thanks to us pulsar service i was able to make a cardboard mock-up of the table i need and we just need one in steel by the way i want to say thanks to randy richard at randy richard in the shop he sent me this beautiful hand knocker custom made for me has his shop logo and my shop logo both engraved on there it is loaded with lead shots and the heads are interchangeable he also sent me a brass head thank you randy and if you don't already have one of his carbide scribes you should get one they're amazing this one he even engraved my shop name on there for me thank you randy [Music] i want a table that's small enough where i can just leave it on and it won't interfere with the horizontal use of the saw so this is the size i came up with you'll want to make sure the bracket is nice and flat [Music] mine had some paint drips and things that would have prevented the table from sitting flush these are quarter tony screws the bracket was already drilled and tapped for that overall the table is seven inches wide and five inches deep at the deeper stand the shallow end is about uh three and a quarter inches and it is 3 16 inch thick this will allow me to get more support at the front as i'm feeding into it let me show you how it falls down look at that you can just leave it on there the new jaws and the table are certainly great upgrades to the bandsaw but you know what the best upgrade i've ever made to this is the stand let me show you the original stand that comes with these saws are just treacherous in fact it should be outlawed they're cheap flimsy sheet metal you look at it wrong and they just fold on you so anyway they got smashed and couple years ago this is the one i built it's all made out of two inch angle iron this portion 27 inches the bottom had to be a little longer it is 36 inches because i have to extend it out the back otherwise otherwise the whole thing will tip over when you put the saw in the vertical position 20 gauge sheet metal for the shelf here and for the pan is also 20 gauge sheet metal i hammered and bent the edges 45 degrees and mig welded the corners and it works great the front just have casters on each corner the back i put a wider piece in the back is 23 inches wide and put casters at the end of those that really gives the stability it needs when it's in vertical position the overall height to the chip pan is 31 inches the chip pan is 14 and a half inches wide and 28 inches long i also drilled and welded on a pipe flange for future use that'll be the drain when i add a coolant system to it i'm happy with how these two upgrades turned out but my brain's already going thousand miles an hour thinking of a few other things that i want to do so i will share those ideas with you in a future video but for now thanks for watching

Channel: Woods Creek Workshop

Views: 10,564

Rating: 4.9195981 out of 5

Keywords: Harbor Freight, bandsaw, tool modifications, machine shop, saw, 4 X 6 bandsaw, metal bandsaw, lathe, mill, hobby machine shop, 4 x 6, band saw, machining, hobby machinist, home shop machining, diy, build, bandsaw upgrade, bandsaw improvement, bandsaw mods, bandsaw modification, milling machine, metal lathe, 4x6, hf bandsaw, harbor freight tools, harbor freight tools review, harbor freight coupons, Metal cutting

Id: GH5PWLNRpAo

Length: 15min 36sec (936 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 20 2021