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  1. #1
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    Nov 2011
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    Default Matthias Wandel's Bandsaw

    A lot of you would know about Mattias Wandel's Woodworking for engineers site and his creations. I've toyed with the idea of doing the 14" bandsaw since late last year. There's a couple or so builds on the WWF with good reports and I finally decided to have a crack and build it.

    I'm pretty much a beginner, or returning to woodwork after nearly 10yrs. Though back then my tools were average with no machinery but as I was about to go buy quality gear, I got into cars and metalwork and tooled up for that instead. But now, back to woodworking, the Michael Storer Eureka Canoe I built late last year stirred my interest in boatbuilding and woodwork and I've been slowly tooling up over the year. With plans bought for more boats the bandsaw's a must to move forward and although I've been tempted to just buy a 14" model, the homemade bandsaw looked like a great project.

    The bandsaw plans are awsome. Very detailed, a little confronting at first, but after a week going over the plans at work, I've spent the last three days off working solidly and have finished the frame.


    $270 worth of Tassie Oak ripped with my old circ saw then cut with my new Bosch GCM10S sliding compound. Another bit of machinery I always wanted, I only bought this because my old mitre saw couldn't cut a 90deg angle. It was a clearance item at the big B house at $470 and although it lacks a few features like double bevel, belt drive and so forth of the newer $1k+ sliding compounds, it's been awsome.


    All parts trimmed and notched and laid out for dry assembly.


    I glued parts vertically, assembling each frame piece then laid them on the floor for straightening and clamping. The glue I used was Selleys Aquadere Exterior





    The individual frame pieces ended up pretty flat. All 6 main frames were glued together and at least another 6 more clamps were applied then shown above.


    With a bit of sliding between the laminates occuring during glue squeeze out, the whole thing ended up a little off in places. With a lot of planing all surfaces ended pretty fair.



    A before and after planing shot. Not the best example but a lot of other photos were too blurry.


    I left off the legs and top wheel mount bracket, instead deciding to just do the 6 main laminates. Here I'm dry fitting the legs and top wheel mount. All notches were tight as expected but they fitted fine with some hammering whilst gluing.




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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
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    Default


    Typically, the side that faces out has an ugly gap at the top that I'm not sure how it happened. All triangular pieces were accurately cut, but oh well. I cut a bit/slice (not sure what it's called) to hide in there, plus added a long bit/slice to the long edge of the triangle to bring it up to the leve of the other triangles.




    That raised laminate there was a deep depression so I glued on a slice and planed flat after. It came out really well, below.



    I was getting a bit annoyed how all my "exact" pieces weren't lining up like I thought they would. But, I was kinda glad to have a closer look at Matthias' page and even his laminates weren't "exact" as I thought and even he had to use the spokeshave and planes to get things flat. So I soldiered on.






    All planed, faired and squareish. So much more to do I'm not too sure how quick the rest will come along. Wheels and wheel mounts next....

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Melbourne
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    2,636

    Default

    I admire you for taking on this type of project. Keep up the great work and the updates. Well done
    -Scott

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Deception Bay Qld
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    Hi Canoath
    I too will be building a 20 inch bandsaw and a wood lathe one day or year maybe , have been collecting bits for years now, the bandsaw will be steel frame with 32mm mdf table, for the bottom wheel i'm using the lower half of a old air compressor pump,for the wheels i have 12inch pulleys which i will bolt mdf discs to take it out to 20inch, i should only have too buy a motor, switch,blade and blade guide.
    I have a well equipped shed so nothing will be a problem all i need is the time but seeing you have limited tools Wandel's B/S is a good choice although if your going to use all of that $270 of Oak you it will end up costing more than a store bought saw.
    Keep plugging along and keep us updated.

  6. #5
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    Sep 2010
    Location
    Melbourne
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    Ahh, that brings back memories! It's been one year exactly since I started my build of this bandsaw. I look forward to seeing the rest of your build.

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
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    Thanks sjt

    Whitey, when I saw the price of timber whilst paying I got thinking about final cost. Although I've got two motors they're only 1/3hp and that was the only part I thought I wouldn't have to buy. I didn't put much thought into what timber to use or what cheaper or lighter wood would suit. I just went straight for the tassie oak thinking strength and straight grain. Weight wise the frame is 20.2kg, Matthias' frame was 13.5kg out of pine, a marked difference. I expect to come in relatively cheap like everyone else seems to but I have to buy everything. So I will keep a tally of costs to see how it tallys up and if it blows out I'll justify the expense by flying the flag for DIY achievement. I wont have to convince you lot but the wife might need some "it's priceless" speech. You mention a DIY steel framed bsaw, is that off plans or something you'll come up with. I never thought of a steel one.

    Michael, it was yours I saw just before I bought the plans and I thought about adding to your thread but decided I'd start another in this new section. It's interesting to look back at it, https://www.woodworkforums.com/f27/wi...andsaw-142786/ particularly as I move through the plans and look for what's next. More and more makes sense and it's interesting to see how you and others interpret the plans or make little changes. Any problems with the MDF wheels? I'd always thought I'd use ply thinking MDF might delaminate under stress.

  8. #7
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    Sep 2010
    Location
    Melbourne
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    No, no problems at all with the MDF - it's rock solid so far, and no sign of delamination. (I have a theory -which is mine- that the added mass of the MDF gives a slight flywheel effect - but I've got no evidence for this)

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Riverina NSW
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    I've posted the build on the GlenL boat forum as well and a fella there said the same thing...momentum of the wheels is greater than that of the aluminium ones on retail bsaws, so even with one of my 1/3hp motors it should be able to spin up and cut till I buy a better motor. I think the flywheel analogy is a good one.

  10. #9
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    Dec 2011
    Location
    Deception Bay Qld
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    I am hearing you about flying the DIY flag and i'm all for that, my favourite You/Tube sites are shopbuilt/homemade machines but sometimes you got to think which way to go diy or store bought or second hand. At the moment i am putting a milling machine together it started with buying a machine for $200 but now I am at the stage where i'm thinking maybe i should have bought a new machine because the 200 has turn into 900. See my Posts to see what i've been up to.
    For the price of your timber you could have purchased a Thicknesser and scounged some pallets and had all your timber for a bit of labour plus gaining a new tool, by the time your saw[underpowered at1/3 hp but extremely proud of] is finished you may think i'm only $100 off a new one with 1 hp, maybe we are just slow learners.
    My b/s plans are in the head at the moment I won't start it till next year as i have the mill and a lathe to be sorted.
    Regards

  11. #10
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    Sep 2010
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    Melbourne
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    Quote Originally Posted by whitey56 View Post
    For the price of your timber you could have purchased a Thicknesser and scounged some pallets and had all your timber for a bit of labour plus gaining a new tool, by the time your saw[underpowered at1/3 hp but extremely proud of] is finished you may think i'm only $100 off a new one with 1 hp, maybe we are just slow learners.
    For me, the cheapness of the build (I managed it using pine for $380, including 1hp motor and blades) meant I had a bandsaw whose cutting capacity (throat and depth of cut) was only matched by bandsaws starting at around $1000-$1500 (such as the carbatec 17" or the H&F basato4). And if anything goes wrong, I know exactly how to fix it, and how/where to get the parts from. I would be surprised if it costs Canoath more than $500 all-up, particularly as he has a motor (albeit somewhat underpowered) already.

    However, I do understand your point about getting other tools to make tools - it is a concept that I keep trying to convince SWMBO of

  12. #11
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    This will be am interesting one to follow. Not going to compare with the other one as I watched that one as well.

  13. #12
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    I apologize i did not realize the Wandel saw was in the 17inch range i was thinking 14 inch at around $600 new.
    Michael at $380 you would have to be happy with that final cost.
    For my saw i've been hording stuff for years there is 75mm RHS from shade sale posts from a a/g pool i had,20mm & 25mm RHS from cut-up truck gates then there is a Variable Rheostat from a bottling machine out of a skip bin and a 1.5 hp motor that was sitting at the tip and i threw in the car when nobody was looking,it works well and its better to recycle it than send it to China as scrap.
    Canoath good luck with the build i will watch with interest

  14. #13
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    Nov 2011
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    Riverina NSW
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    It's all good whitey. It'll still cost more than the average build but everytime I check out H&F, carbatec and the others, I go window shopping starting at some 10-14" basic model, then think of the power, capacity, beefiness of the machine, comments on the forum and so on and the next thing I know, like what Michael said, I'm in the $1500 range. No doubt well worth the money for their accuracy and quality but not affordable for me when there's so much on the shopping list.

    A couple moths back we were passing through Canberra and stopped at Fishers in Fyshwick and got approval by the Mrs to walk out of there with a 10 or 12" German made bsaw for I dunno, 6-$700 or so. I forget the specifics but it was a real nice bsaw and very tempting, but smallish for what I wanted. I really didn't want to resent it for what it couldn't do, so I left it. When my bsaw's all shimmed and trimmed, sliding fence with scales and tilting table I'll only be really peeved if it isn't accurate. After that, DIY table saw hmm maybe not, they scare me.

    EDIT: whitey, I apologise to you for providing wrong info. I just looked over my first post and inadvertently referred to this Wandel bsaw as 14". Sorry about that, I'll edit it for future. I was tempted with 14" retail but the Wandel bsaw is 16".
    Last edited by Canoath; 8th September 2012 at 03:54 PM. Reason: as above

  15. #14
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    Aug 2012
    Location
    Geelong
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    Hi Canoath,

    Good on you for giving this build a go. Mathias Wandel is quite an inspiration with all his jigs and machines. I'm a big fan of his site too. Recently he has added a bunch of his followers machines on there as well and some people get really creative with their creations. As for your comment about maybe trying the table saw next (Maybe not...), i note that Mathias' prefers to use a factory built one too.

    I can totally sympathise about your reasoning for this build though, i have the same issue when "window shopping" on carbatec, H&F... and a similarly sized shopping list too. I Keep finding projects to justify buying news tools, problem is i have nowhere to put them now since the garage is full, maybe if i park the mrs' car on the street...hmmmm

    Keep up the good work, nice to see there are other mortals out there that make the occasional mistake too.
    Cheers
    Mat

  16. #15
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    Nov 2011
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    Riverina NSW
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    Thanks Lplates. I can't believe it's been nearly 4 weeks and no progress. I planned to have it at least working by now but just been too busy with work and to be honest I doubt there'll be any update soon. The only thing I've really done is organised to use a mate's drill press (something else I gotta buy one day ), to drill axle holes accurately.

    But regarding a table saw, I agree, it makes sense to buy something quality and accurate, but I'm lured towards machinery I can't afford and too big. As much as I'd like a table saw, the bsaw when finished will do all my resawing and rip cuts but I'll be left with wondering how to rip panels. I was pointed in the direction of plunge saws recently with track guides and sure enough, there's a few much cheaper DIY alternatives. Track/plunge saws look great and compact to achieve the long panel rip, but enter the DIY alternative and I will easily fill that need. Here's a good example MAKING STRAIGHT CUTS WITH A HOMEMADE JIG - YouTube

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