Someone recently contacted the space about a table saw they were unable to unload on Craigslist, looks like he’s willing to pass it on to whoever is willing to take it. Here’s the info he sent to me
" it stands around 5 feet tall. It’s a big one. The fence rail is stored at an odd angle there, it’s normally clipped on the edge of the table in use.
It’s the last of the old school, cast-frame bandsaws. Lightly used, fully functional. It’s got the safety switch, if you nee to control access in a shared space.
The cabinet has two shelves, where I stored the band saw accessories and blades. It’s big enough that I had a scroll saw on the other shelf!
I’ve also got the Delta metal stand, if you’d prefer that to the rolling cabinet.
Let me know if it interests you, and if not I’ll post it to the members’ forum."
While this is a very kind offer, in our current space I personally don’t feel the benefits of this particular bandsaw outweigh the additional space required.
I want to stress that this offer is appreciated, but I still don’t think VHS should obtain this bandsaw.
My Reasons:
3-wheeled bandsaws have smaller radii wheels, which means for wheel-size related issues, this should be compared to a 2-wheeled bandsaw with similar wheels. I don’t know which model that is, but appears that the wheels are roughy 8-9" at best, probably smaller for the 3rd wheel. For all the reasons that size matters (except cut depth) this machine is as good or worse than our current machine.
3-wheeled bandsaws are more likely to cause blade breaks compared to a similarly functional 2-wheeled bandsaw.
3-wheeled bandsaws are more difficult to tune into alignment.
The footprint of this machine is quite a bit larger than our current machine. Our current machine tucks nicely away in a corner.
To be fully transparent, these are the benefits I see in this saw over ours:
This is already a rolling unit. If we have this is does not need to remain still (though if we don’t care about that we should get the metal frame
Depth of cut. The purpose of 3-wheeled bandsaw is to increase the depth of cut, this has what appears to be a much greater depth of cut than our current one. I would call this the primary benefit over our current one.
Fence. While the resaw capacity might not be larger on this bandsaw, a fence would certainly help anyone trying to do one. I can’t tell if the fence is a fully featured fence or just a piece of angle iron that was being used as a fence. (If we keep our current bandsaw without this one, we should consider an angle-iron fence…).
Overall I suggest we do not take this bandsaw for VHS. However, if we do:
We should keep the original stand. If you are under the opinion that it is nice for older tools to remain in-tact as they get old, then I think it is responsible to keep the original stand
I’d happily take our old bandsaw off our hands for my condo’s workshop .
May be we can use the saw for cutting harder materials (replace the above saw blade with diamond blade)?
Someone will someday want to cut inconel or other ultra hard materials.
In general, let us have a set of tools to be exclusively used on non-aluminium/steel/wood materials.
Also keep the original stand and tools.
(1) Yes, the diamond band saws fit three wheel ones.
If we have a coolant fluid (is distilled water ok?) reservoir below (I would love to hack it to include that), we can cut inconel, etc.
(2) Since members may not appreciate “hacking” the existing saws, this one can be the one for that purpose!
(3) Volunteers are welcome to help in moving this cast iron saw.
@Gibbtall, can you request the owner for that saw (provided we have volunteers). Also by when does the owner want the saw out of his place?
Suggestions for hacking this saw or any other application appreciated!
I am not a frequent user of the band saw so i may no be aware, but is there anyone that currently need to work with something like inconel?
personally, all my needs with metal cutting have been met by the two horizontal saw.
I am just wary of adding more redundant tools to the space given we will have to move soon, and currently don’t have a lot of space to house them
@Rebel_without_Clause
Where are we going to put it?
What size material are you expecting to cut? Ignoring that the purchase cost is free, is this the type of bandsaw you’d be looking for? How much is the retrofit? How much is a blade of that length?
The only price I could find for a diamond blade on a quick search is 37" for $70 and some equally quick searching found that the blades for this saw are probably 82" (I guessed on the model based on images). Assuming blade cost is roughly linear, we are looking at USD$140 just for a blade of that size. A blade that size might need to be custom fabricated, so it could potentially cost us more.
I wanted to “hack” a bandsaw saw by adding a synchronized linear twin screw-nut (one on each side of the blade) to feed the workpiece really “straight” (better than manual feed) for a smoother cut. It may be for longer pieces/sheets.
It’s better to have the “hackable” saw different from the workhorse saw.
This might be too late, but given the offer extended to members, I would recommend you take them up on that offer as a personal project. I’m pretty sure the space is passing on this, but i could be speaking out of turn.
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