6 Attachment(s)
BS-5S Bandsaw modifications
A little while ago I had a job to do that required cutting a lot of 50mm*50mm*2mm RHS tubing, most cuts were on angles and needed to fit accurately together so I purchased one of Hare & Forbes BS-5S band saws as this model has a much easier and sturdy angle adjustable head. The saw preformed fairly well after I had spent quite a bit of time to get it to cut square in both plains. I did the usual modifications of stiffening up the legs and fitted a set of swivel casters all round to it.
I have now just done some further modifications to the blade guide fittings to make setting it up a whole lot easier and more accurate. The first change were to the two bearing carrier locking bolts, the heads of the bolts are too close to the bearings and you cannot use a ring spanner on them. I replaced them with 6mm longer bolts and made up two 6mm thick heavy washers, this makes for easy ring spanner use. I then removed the entire bearing carrier assemblies machined the raw castings where needed and made up two "L" shaped fittings that could be bolted on to the bearing carriers and had an adjustable and locking screw incorporated in them. After drilling and tapping and fitting the "L" brackets I reassembled the saw and adjusted it until it cuts square in both directions. I scribed an index mark on both heads for future reference. Cutting nice and square should increase the blade life as well. A few photos to help understand it.
If I were to do it again I would use 3mm Cap screws instead of the 4mm ones I used to hold the bracket in place as you do not have a lot of metal thickness in the bearing carriers.
Bob
BS-5S Bandsaw modifications
Hi Ewan, Stuart
Thanks for your reply's.Ewan you are correct the bolt does control the blade twist. As you can see the design of the saw has at each end individually controlled bearing holders.This results in the blade nearly always cutting through the job on a twist,not good for blade life or an accurate cut. On the 50mm * 50mm RHS I was cutting and needing a nice square even cut it was very difficult to adjust it. If you can visualize the tube in the vise the angle of the blade when it first starts the cut means that only front edge (closest to the vices fixed jaw) makes contact, the angle of that bearing carrier determines the angle of that cut. When the cut has progressed across the top of the job the rear bearing carrier is keeping the blade at a different angle, you end up with two entirely different angles on your cut. With the modification in place you can do a cut, check your angles and make vernier like adjustments at either or both ends, very nice. Stuart this little modification is a frustration fixer, you will enjoy it.
Bob
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Simple Jig fixture for the X4 Mill
Not as elaborate or complex as some project in this thread, but this jig plate took 3 weeks to make.
So many holes and then i decided to surface grind both sides - atleast it is flat and has a really nice shine to it
Attachment 238352 Attachment 238353
Basic idea is that the front of the Jig lines up with the bed front.
I have a number of 10mm bolt holes which can be used to clamp the work down and the 6mm reamed holes have dowels inserted and provide a square reference point relative to the front face of the bed. So i can then change material in and out of the mill knowing it is square everytime to the X and Y axis. The Jig plate is held down with clamps on the ends, but i may change this by drilling out two of the 10mm bolt threads so i can insert a bolt through it into a t-slot underneath. Lets see if i hit the clamps!!!!:doh: