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Bandsaw Stand/Trolley


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Back last year, around the end of the first lockdown I think it was, I bought a second hand vertical bandsaw that I couldn't say no to. It's a slightly older, but solid machine - only trouble being its about half way between a benchtop and a freestanding saw. Basically I needed to kneel down to use it! It's also the sort of thing I don't need access to all the time so wanted it mobile. 

Hour or so one evening and came up with this. It's roughly 500mm tall + 70mm or so for the castor height. Then its about 550x700 from memory. 20mm box frame and as the saw is heavy, the panels are all 3mm to add a bit of weight.

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Perfect little fab project to test drive the new fixture table and keep me busy at the workshop while waiting for stuff on the 90 and crucially... whilst still being hacked off with the rear tub and not wanting to touch it, doing something interesting and productive but still at the workshop. So please FFS leave out the comments on this not being work on the 90 and either enjoy a fab project for what it is or scroll on by.

Ordered a pile of steel cut to length from the stockholder next door to work, and ordered some extra lengths of 20mm box and angle for stock. Helpful having a mate with a big van and a unit on the same farm :lol: - Thanks Colin. Also fired off the panels to my friendly laser chap. 

First job when the laser stuff came in was to weld up the castor mounts. Done in two layers as I had a load of stuff being cut in 3mm to start with already and they fitted in the waste rather than having to put a different sheet in the laser cutter. Done with the old Thermal Arc TIG before the new one arrived.

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One pile of cut tubes:

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Pile of prepped tubes. I'm sure I keep saying it, but for prep like this a little 90Deg die grinder is perfect. Doesn't obliterate the metal like a 4.5" grinder and light enough for easy one-handed use.

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Missed a picture with the rapid squares and all the clamps on but it makes it so much nicer to have firstly a flat surface to clamp stuff to, and secondly to have a jig to recreate multiples. In this case I made two of these. The short side being the vertical corners of the cart. and the long side being the long side of the cart. So two of these.

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Dropped in and jigged the two previous frames vertically and popped in two of the other pieces.

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I then looked at adding the other two, started this way, but then decided I was better off turning it up the other way and repeating the previous setup. 

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...which worked a treat! Until I then came across a silly issue I firstly put down to a slight discrepancy in tube lengths I had a couple of bits which didn't quite sit right for some reason. Having come from working with clamps and a tape measure with jobs like this just hanging out of the vice I never gave a first thought, let alone a second, to the tacks. They were enough to offset some of the joints by about 2mm where one side of the joint was sat on a tack and the other clamped to the table. So I think 3 corners I had to cut out and rewelded. 

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All of the weld beads taken back flat I put the top panel flat on the bench and the frame on top. I initially marked out another stitch weld in each of the gaps but decided it wasn't needed.

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Working towards the bottom panel being the last one, meant for the 3 sides I could stand it the right way up each time and tack it before laying it down to stitch weld.

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Another side:

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Got in the groove and didn't take any pictures of the tacking or the last side. So it was then a case of putting the bottom one on and welding it the same. One complete paneled frame.

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I was going to just buzz round the outside corners with the MIG and then round it off with a flap disc but habit got the better of me and out came the TIG :lol:. Loving the oversized ceramic on the TIG torch as it means you can hang the tungsten right out.

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When it gets a bit hot and you have to ditch the rod:

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Public Service announcement... don't let rip in an air fed helmet :lol:

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Once all the outside corners were done, I then TIGed round the front face too. ~100A and a 2.4mm rod to get the metal in there quickly.

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Final part of the puzzle, sticking the castor mounts on the bottom. I did wonder afterwards about whether they should have been a bit further out to the outside edge but I was trying to minimise how much the castors stick out when they swing round whilst still being able to get to the brake.

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Castors bolted on.

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And on its wheels on the floor!

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Not got the saw on it yet. Need to drag the old man up there at some point for a hand lifting it. Going to leave it bare for the moment and use it and when its had some use and hasn't needed any changes I'll throw it in with a powder coating order. Useful bit of extra storage too. Will probably put my metal offcuts under there I think. It also might want a crossmember by the saw bolt holes to stop it flexing so will see how that goes before it is coated.

 

 

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Neat!

My Clarke bandsaw has the most crappy machine-mart sharp-edged wobbly base with no handles and is always in the bl**dy way of something, plus it's an awkward unbalanced lump, this looks far nicerer!

35 minutes ago, landroversforever said:

Next project for the bench is a double bed frame if people want to see that :) 

Depends if it has special attachments for power tools and ratchet straps :ph34r:

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Very nice Ross - somewhat overkill? But very nicely made :) 

Did I miss the announcement of your fixture table? It looks very similar to what a number of popular YouTubers have been buying.
Is yours bought or your own design?

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Thanks both! 

It is a little overkill... but the saw is a heavy lump (I'll weigh it when we move it onto the trolley). That and making the underside open needs a bit more material. That said the panels could have been way thinner, but decided adding some weight to it would be a good idea for stability, it's around 50kg as it sits.

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1 hour ago, mickeyw said:

Did I miss the announcement of your fixture table? It looks very similar to what a number of popular YouTubers have been buying.
Is yours bought or your own design?

It's a big chunk of cash so hadn't really 'announced' it as such. Just been lucky with overtime coupled with spending less in the last year to be able to have the cash to buy it. I did sit down and draw one of my own design (that said, they're all so similar) during first lockdown. But the chap who makes these buys the steel in such quantities it was close enough to just buy rather than build. It's also a pile of steel that wouldn't fit in the mini to get it home :PI also went for the assembled option as it was surprisingly little on top (around £150) of the £1600 mark for the table, 2x 500mm long wings, the bench dogs, 4 clamps and the 4 rapid squares - palletised delivery included. I figured that as I haven't even got a flat floor I'd worry too much about the assembly if I was doing it and with work being busy weeked wise at the moment I wasn't really missing out as such paying for it rather than my own design/build/assembly.

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11 minutes ago, landroversforever said:

It's a big chunk of cash so hadn't really 'announced' it as such. Just been lucky with overtime coupled with spending less in the last year to be able to have the cash to buy it. I did sit down and draw one of my own design (that said, they're all so similar) during first lockdown. But the chap who makes these buys the steel in such quantities it was close enough to just buy rather than build. It's also a pile of steel that wouldn't fit in the mini to get it home :PI also went for the assembled option as it was surprisingly little on top (around £150) of the £1600 mark for the table, 2x 500mm long wings, the bench dogs, 4 clamps and the 4 rapid squares - palletised delivery included. I figured that as I haven't even got a flat floor I'd worry too much about the assembly if I was doing it and with work being busy weeked wise at the moment I wasn't really missing out as such paying for it rather than my own design/build/assembly.

where did you get it from? Stakesys?

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29 minutes ago, mickeyw said:

Judging by the logo it looks like a Mac Industries table.

Yup, Mac Industries :). Service was great! Turned up missing the packet of shoulder bolts to align the wings and they had replacements with me by the following day no quibble :).

They were the most forthcoming when I put some feelers out about getting one. I wanted the custom wings to make it into a 2000x1000 table and they were the only ones willing. Table on its own is about same floor real estate as the stack of 37" treps and I can then add the wings when ever I need them (with assistance as they're not light.

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There's a lot to be said fr not falling down the Astro Al rabbit-hole of never getting the build finished because first you have to build the tools to build the car... buy the damn tool and get on with the important work!

As you said, by the time you'd faffed about trying to DIY that welding table you'd have spent as much time & money & materials as just ordering one and having it arrive on a pallet all perfect and ready to rock.

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Come on - where's the picture with the bandsaw on it!? :D You've got the ingenuity / presumably an engine crane :P

Was lucky enough my bandsaw was big enough it came ready made with castors and a stand - mind you half the stand is the coolant bucket. But for £100 even if it was in Essex I couldn't turn it down, single phase to boot.

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Got the heavy lifting gear in... sorry... the old man in and got it up on the trolley. Not used it yet, but the height seems spot on :D

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Bolted down with 4 random length M12 bolts I happened upon. Will sort some better ones that actually reach through the nyloc when it gets pulled off for coating at a later date :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I put mine on wheels too (not as flash as yours) but it can be tucked away against the wall most of the time and pulled out when something longer has to go through.

That cabinet below will get filled with offcuts pretty quick, if like me you don't throw any useful bits away ;)

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