Transforming a Budget Machine into the Ultimate High-End Tool

in today's video I'll upgrade this cheap low-end Band Saw I'll make quite a few modifications to it to make it a much more usable machine I've had it about 3 years or so and even though it has its faults it does actually make accurate Square cuts which is definitely the main thing and gives us something worthwhile to work with I'll start from the ground up and improve the stand which is pretty poor and if I'm being honest it's actually a piece of trash to be fair it doesn't help that the bolts came loose next I'll remove these awful wheels and I will replace those with something better I'll give it a quick clean then I'll make a base to strengthen it now that I've tightened the bolt it is better and I suppose  it's okay but it really isn't that good still to make it more rigid I'll use some angle iron to make a base for the stand to sit in and get bolted to that should be a big Improvement and I'll also have something decent to fit casters to the base will be a simple rectangle frame and I'll use the band saw to cut the pieces to show one of the items that needs addressing to adjust the fence to an angle you need a wrench on the top and the underneath which is doable but it is awkward I'll improve on this later on and also the accuracy using the scale on the side isn't the best which will also get sorted out we'll also do something about lubricating the blade they're all little things that you could manage without like I have been but it's going to be an awesome little saw when I finish with it I always intended to make a new stand from scratch but after thinking about it improving this one seemed to make more sense as it will be easier and save the cost on materials everything is already there it just needs some more stability I could have used my metal box cutting jig to cut this panel I do use it later in the video and by the way I've made plans for it that you can download for free from my website I'll put a link in the description on the original Stand there's already holes on the internal corner brackets which I'll use to bolt the base to I did think about adding a couple of cross rails that extend out slightly to widen the Castor positions it would make it more stable but they may have gotten in the way so I'll see how it goes and I can easily add that later on I never enjoyed moving it around the work shop I found it a real bother but that moves so much easier the first real modification I'll do is put a table on this side of the blade and that's to catch small pieces it'll also have a fence with a stop I need to put this fence back 90° to the blade and while I do that I'll do that quick modification that I mentioned earlier basically we just need a T-nut so the easiest way to do this would just be to grab an M12 T-nut from a hold down clamping kit and that would work perfectly all you'd need to do is just round over the corners and you'd also need to drill out the hole in the fence a bit wider for an M12 bolt that's what I should do as it'd only cost a few dollars to replace that one in the set but I'm going to make one from this block of steel because that's what I like to do I'm using the milling machine a few times throughout this video and I understand that it's not something everyone has but if you put your mind to it any of these tasks can be achieved with basic tools just like I used to do before I got this machine I could add a lever handle just like this one off my belt grinder and that's to eliminate any use of tool but for how often I did just this I'm happy to stick with a regular bolt that's a small modification but it's a big Improvement I decided to quickly make this block off camera which will allow me to set the position of the fence back to 90° every time next I'll start making a table that will go to the right of the blade I'll use this piece of Channel that's been kicking around for a couple years or so I'll cut a piece off and then I'll check it for square to make sure that I set that fence stop up correctly I'm looking forward to having this table as I won't have to catch any small parts again before I can fit that bracket I need to remove this rod and that was for a depth stop which is this plastic piece here it's all broken up now and that just slid over there you tighten that up and it sort of works but we could definitely do better than that the channel is just a bracket to hold the table for the top itself I'll cut off a piece of 3mm thick steel another thing I love about the saw is the ability to use it as a vertical Band Saw I'll make a table for it later on as this isn't the best practice and not recommended I do have a table but it's a pain to put on so I find myself doing this without one the side of the saw is angled so I need to adjust the bracket I did think about bending it and I think that would work but instead I'm going to take some off on the milling machine as you can see it's roughly about 7° difference it's not perfect but I never expected it to be I knew that I'd need to add some shims when I bolt it in position I'll take this corner off so I can get the table closer to the saw and close up the gap I'm not sure who this video is for maybe you have a saw like this and you get inspired to do something similar or maybe you see the value in buying a saw like this in the first place with the intention of modifying it or maybe you're just enjoying the video, hopefully you are anyway you may be thinking why wouldn't you just buy a better saw in the first place there's a few reasons this really is a great saw which is more than capable of doing everything I needed to do I really do love it it's small so it doesn't take up a lot of space it's easy to move around and a better one would be a fairly big purchase and as I said before it cuts both horizontally and vertically now that's fixed I'll drill some mounting holes in the bracket next then to transfer those holes onto the side of the saw so I can bolt through there and that's going to be a bit tricky and I'm thinking that I might remove this piece here, it's not needed I was originally thinking of welding a piece across there to strengthen it but honestly there's enough strength in that corner anyway and if I remove that I should be able to drill this bottom hole at least and that gets me a good starting point I didn't fully think through the positioning of the mounting holes one of them is very close to the original depth hole but I carried on anyway you can see some of the casting behind which will obstruct a bolt I could re-drill the hole position but instead I've decided to grind away the casting now I need to shim the bracket as I mentioned and I'm very lucky to have a full case of KS metal so I can easily find the perfect size shim there's so much cool stuff here and I can't wait to use it more in future projects so a big thanks to K&S for supporting me and my projects next I'll make the fence and I'll do that from this piece of angle iron I'll use the original threaded hole for one fixing and then another through the new table next I'll make a stop for the fence and I'll use these chunks of Steel, I need to cut this one off here and one of the things I can do now I've got this fence is cut small pieces I can clamp that to there I couldn't do that beforehand because this jaw here swivels to make angle cuts and if you try and do it it just doesn't so you have to put something of a similar thickness to the other side I am going to fix that later on but for now we'll just clamp this one on as I said earlier you don't need expensive equipment to make a stock like this it's pretty basic it's just a couple of blocks and a screw it doesn't even need to be that accurate and it could be made out of wood or plastic if that's any easier I love my milling machine though and I do get a kick out of trying to make more accurate parts you could always use an off-the-shelf screw but I'll make mine on the lathe I did turn the screw around and faced up the other end I'm super pleased with that now I'll add a scale to the fence I'll epoxy that on but first I'll mill a recess for it I'll leave that to set and move on to the next task which is the moving jaw the original one can swivel to allow for angle cuts but as more than 99% of my cuts are at 90° I really don't need it to swivel I could add a piece to the underside of the jaw to ride in the slot in the saw and that would keep the jaw square but instead I'll make a new jaw and I'll keep this one for angled cuts and it's only one bolt to swap it over when I need to for the next cut I need the saw vertical so I'll show you how I install the table it may look easy enough but consider the footage is sped up and it may not be terrible but it's definitely enough of a pain to go and get another tool like an angle grinder instead the new table will be awesome though in fact there'll be two, there'll be a small one that lives on there permanently and a bigger one that will easily get installed just in a few seconds I milled across the top off camera next next I'll mill this piece of bar to fit into the vice slot that's working nicely now I need to join the two pieces together nearly there just one more section to remove these machines are some so much fun if you've ever thought about getting one I reckon go for it and I'm sure you'll love it too it needs a couple of supports to strengthen it which will get welded on and that'll be the biggest challenge to keep the whole thing from warping too much with the welding heat even before welding it together it's not square I could do this on the milling machine I could even do it by hand on the belt grinder and checking it as I went but this is a chance to use the machine that I got last year that's hardly been used yet it's a surface grinder and it will leave a perfectly flat surface it's not a fast machine though and I probably should have done it with a milling machine but anyway it did an awesome job now I need to try and keep the bottom flat while I weld it and the reason I flattened it first is I wouldn't have been able to get to after welding it clamping it down should work and I can still machine the front face of the jaw after it's been welded to get that flat and square with the bottom even though my welds are generally okay for what I I do I know I'm not the best at it I do especially struggle with welding vertically and it was also awkward around the clamps but I managed and I'll try and clean them up with a carbide burr it'll look fine after it's painted and now I'll surface grind the other face just to give you an idea this took about an hour and a half but it did do an amazing job it's ready to test and that's looking great I just need to drill the mounting hole and then test it properly it holds a small part now without any racking the fixed jaw doesn't extend as far as the new jaw though I could permanently attach a piece to the fixed jaw to extend the same as the other jaw but instead if I want to clamp something very small I'll just put this piece in loose which will work well and then if I do need to clamp something on the very edge which would be rare then all I have to do is add a clamp to the other end that's another fantastic Improvement probably the best yet now I'll get back to the fence and trim off the ruler while I was welding the jaw I also welded up for fixing the fence on the underneath of the table so now I don't need an extra spanner now to finally address one of the shortcomings of my favorite feature of the saw which is to use it as a vertical Band Saw I'll quickly make a small table which will live on there permanently out of all the fixes this is the easiest one and probably the most useful if you have one of these saws and you only do one modification then definitely make this the one it's not much work and it's super handy that really is awesome but sometimes I'll still want a bigger table I could keep using the old one but I reckon we could do better and by the way here's the original table that came with the saw that's the top done now I need to make a support which will extend from the table and get clamped into the vice when it's done it'll take no more than a few seconds to install and it can be done without the use of any tools now I have a piece welded to the underside of the table and a T piece that goes in the vice I just need to cut and weld a piece to join them together I did slightly grind the one end off camera to get a perfect fit before tack welding them together I did a test fit which was perfect so now I can fully weld it if it wasn't quite right it would be easier enough to grind off a tack weld or two and try again and there it is I keep saying it but what another awesome improvement the next one is simple I need to deal with the chips so I'll make a basic tray you could just buy a large oven tray which would be just about the perfect size I'll make mine with my metal box making jig that some of you would have seen before and many of you have asked for plans so as I said earlier they are now available for free on my website if you'd like to check them out along with my other free plans and while you're there you may want to check out my premium plans too or even treat yourself to one of my marking knives also known as The Dart anyway back to the tray I was going to bend and flatten this front lip on the shelf but it actually helps, it puts the tray on a very slight angle which will keep it from moving around some of the chips come directly down but a lot of them get thrown forward so I'll add a piece at the end and that's to stop bits falling onto the bottom shelf I drilled a couple of holes and I'll use the shelf bolts to fix that in place but I'll do that later when I've painted it along with all the other parts the vice handle is pretty useless so I'll improve on that next it's too small to get any leverage and there's no room to turn it either I'll make one from the steel bar it'll extend past the saw but as I don't want the handle sticking out for me to keep walking into, I'll make it removable I could put the old handle onto the bar but as I said I want more leverage so I'll make one that will get welded on but first I'll make the actual handle part   it'll be two pieces basically a bolt with a sleeve that rotates around it there's a bit of deflection with how far the part's sticking out but it doesn't need to be crazy accurate so it'll be fine that's the inner bolt part done now I'll make the actual handle the endmill seemed like it was cutting well so I took my eye off it while watching the depth gauge and I was very surprised when I looked back anyway it works, so no worries and now it has some pretty colors I made a mistake, I took the measurement for the handle length from the underside of the bolt head rather than the top anyway I didn't remake anything I just made a washer from Delrin off camera and it probably makes things better anyway I still need to weld it but first I need to make the handle engage and drive the vice screw there it is all cleaned up and again another fantastic improvement for setting accurate angle quickly and easily I'll make a quick guide block from this aluminium these two angles are what I'd use the most I'll mill out a slot for a key to fit into which I'll make first if I find I regularly need other angles I'll make blocks for them then but as I don't make angle cuts very often I think this will cover things especially the 45° one it's perfect and it will be accurate every time to house it I'll modify this box that I made some time ago and make a shelf from it I welded the corners off camera and before I fix it I'll make a bracket for the vice handle to live in I could have just drilled a hole with a hole saw into the bottom of the shelf which would have worked fine but I like the bracket better that's it now I can take off all the parts clean them down and paint them I'll blacken the stop and handle with super blue to help prevent them from rusting I mentioned earlier about making an Oiler I am still going to do that but it's going to be quite a bit of work and the video's getting too long as it is but I'll make a video for my Patreons it was a lot of work to do all those mods in one go hopefully it was useful to someone the you saw is now fantastic it's a huge difference from the start of the video hopefully you enjoyed the video thanks for watching and I'll see you on the next one

Channel: Pask Makes

Views: 565,738

Keywords: paskmakes, pask, pask makes

Id: 4ynwfQQyswk

Length: 30min 11sec (1811 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 25 2024