Author Topic: Band saw vise jaw extenders  (Read 4076 times)

Offline arnoldb

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Band saw vise jaw extenders
« on: August 28, 2012, 07:45:49 PM »
A couple or so years ago when I bought my 4x6 band saw, this was done unseen as it had to be ordered.  While ordering, I quizzed the salesman, and was assured it was a horizontal/vertical model - I wanted vertical operation, as it is handy for a lot of jobs.  Money was exchanged, and three weeks later, the saw arrived.

Once I unpacked it and set it up, I discovered that it was NOT capable of vertical operation.  I could have tossed my toys and returned it to the dealer, but decided to gently inform the dealer about the fact that it was not vertical capable, and kept it.  In my neck of the savannah it sometimes pays to be gentle with dealers; there's not many around so it does not pay to make enemies.  And it was worthwhile not kicking up a fuss, as I received quite significant discounts off the floor price later when I bought my milling machine, small lathe and compressor from the same dealer ;)

As always with these "cheap & cheerful" saws, the vise is quite a distance away from the blade making it difficult to saw of short bits of stock.  Looking things through, I saw I could make up slip-on jaw extenders for the vise and incorporate an adjustable distance-piece as well to make it easy to work with short pieces of stock.  I also needed an extension to the vise bed to lay short bits of stock down flat.

The "extended jaws" are just made up from 60mmx10mm flat bar. The hooks that clip on to the existing vice jaws are short bits of 25mm angle iron shortened on one end to fit the existing vice jaws - I welded these on to the flat bar while mounted and clamped on the saw with pieces of thin plate in between to give a bit of spacing for a "loose" fit.

The vice bed extension is built from a piece of 6mm plate, with 2 pieces of flat bar welded to the bottom to give the exact same height as the vice bed above the saw table. A piece of round bar welded to this assembly goes into the hole in the saw that is ordinarily used for the distance piece - this is to keep it fixed in place.

 The bolt for setting spacing is an ordinary M14 bolt I had laying around, with a clearance hole and the nut welded to the back jaw extension.
 
 To cut the blade run-out groove in the vise bed extension piece, I just set the switch cut-off stop for the saw switch lower, as well as adjusted the head stop lower. Then I let the machine saw it's own groove in the bottom plate, which I then slightly widened it with an angle grinder. If you don't do this, the saw might break blades when it finishes cuts. After done, the cut-off switch and head stop was put back to "normal".

Please excuse all the spelling and grammar errors in the annotations on the photos  :embarassed:
 
 

 
After carefully examining the saw's operation on lifting the head, I saw it could be modified a bit to get near-vertical operation as well in it's normal square position; good enough for me.
Wielding my small angle grinder around, some bits were ground off, and the saw head can now go vertical much more; I'd guess it's about 10o off vertical:


   :-[ "Bits grinded away to allow near-verical operation"...   :facepalm: :facepalm: - I think I need to update that photo!  Let's re-phrase it for now - it should be closer to "Bits ground away to allow near-vertical operation".
 


 In use - a bit of off-cut 6mm thick, and a 1mm thick section partly sawn off:
 

The two nylon wheels lying on the saw must still be mounted to the frame so I can get a bit of mobility from it.  It's nearly 3 years on since I've taken these photos, and the wheels are still not mounted  :facepalm:

One thing I can say though - by my own standards nowadays this is most likely some of the crudest work I've shown, but it works a treat.  There's been many a day that I've thought "Make new neat bits", but then again, it's become part of my machining heritage - and it works.  So it will most likely stay that way  ;)

Regards, Arnold
Building an engine takes Patience, Planning, Preparation and Machining.
Procrastination is nearly the same, but it precludes machining.
Thus, an engine will only be built once the procrastination stops and the machining begins!

 

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