Bandsaw table top...replacement?

[kingforaday]

I have an old dewalt 738 bandsaw... purchased for £10 not working, repaired it, replaced the blade tensioning bolt, put a new tuffsaws blade on and it’s actually a really useful tool.

So, I wanted to add a fence as it didn’t have one with it (I’ve been clamping a piece of wood on when needed). I bought the Axminster fence upgrade.

I just looked at fitting it and it’s not really a straightforward process... the bottom of the metal table has various ridges and cutouts etc that mean it needs packing out. I could make it work I’m sure but it’s gonna take me a while to figure out... so it got me thinking;

can I just take the metal table off and bolt on a thick piece of plywood in its place?!

That would make it a lot easier to attach this fence anyway! I’ve seen people replace the plastic insert with wood inserts for ‘zero clearance’ and I’ve just google searched and I can see people adding a wood top over the metal table... but what about removing it altogether and replacing it?

is this a really dumb question/thing to do?

 

[Inspector]

Go ahead and try it. What do you have to loose? If it doesn't work out to your satisfaction you can always revert back to the old one. Making a plywood one lets you make it bigger, within reason, to suit the work you want to do on it too. Keep the old one in case you want to sell it someday. Then we won't have someone asking where they can get a metal top for the saw they bought with a wood top.

Pete

 

[Tanglefoot20]

Hi there... I have an old ELU bandsaw... circa 1993...aluminium table much the same as yours by sound of it...I was thinking along the lines of just adding a sheet of quality ply...and drill and bolt to table...if you used two pieces you could cut slot or form slot for mitre fence...
I could be on board with your ideas....see what pops up on here...

 

[kingforaday]

Go ahead and try it. What do you have to loose? If it doesn't work out to your satisfaction you can always revert back to the old one. Making a plywood one lets you make it bigger, within reason, to suit the work you want to do on it too. Keep the old one in case you want to sell it someday. Then we won't have someone asking where they can get a metal top for the saw they bought with a wood top.

Pete

ha ha, that’s a very good point!

cheers for the replies, I’ll hold fire a bit to see if I get a “don’t do that, you will die” kinda reply... if not, I’ll do it

only negative I can think of in terms of wood vs metal is durability, but not so much of an issue for this really... and if it does get worn out I can just replace it

 

[Inspector]

Put formica on both sides (balance the laminates) and it will take years of abuse before it will ever wear through and be slick too.

Pete

 

[Jameshow]

I made a table Saw simalar and used a coupe of ball bearing drawer slides one for the fence and the other for a mitre sled worked ok apart from the safety aspect!!

Cheers James

 

[John Brown]

ha ha, that’s a very good point!

cheers for the replies, I’ll hold fire a bit to see if I get a “don’t do that, you will die” kinda reply... if not, I’ll do it

only negative I can think of in terms of wood vs metal is durability, but not so much of an issue for this really... and if it does get worn out I can just replace it

You will almost certainly die, whether or not you decide to go ahead.

 

[williams1185]

why not make your own table take a look a matthias wandel on you tube hes made a few bandsaws from scratch cheers Ian

 

[kingforaday]

You will almost certainly die, whether or not you decide to go ahead.

Nothing to loose then!

Cheers all, makes me feel a little less daft for asking! When I googled it and couldn't find much, I thought there must be some really obvious reason that I hadn't thought of not to do it

 

[disco_monkey79]

What about putting ply on top of the existing table? You'll lose some height, but it would be rigid, and easy to attach

 

[kingforaday]

What about putting ply on top of the existing table? You'll lose some height, but it would be rigid, and easy to attach

Yeah I could if I extend it enough so the fence is attached to that and not the metal table... I like the idea of not drilling the metal table now though, to keep it original - I want to make sure I can get the tenner I paid for it back if I sell it after all!

 

[Terry - Somerset]

If you cut the new ply table oversize, you could, by adding a few blocks, clamp it to the existing metal table.

This would avoid drilling the old table, and avoid working out fixing points on the underside of a new wooden table. It would also be lowest effort - no need to dismantle bandsaw, and cheap - a small pice of ply + a few offcut blocks to make a clamp.

Replacing the metal table as a whole would mean you need to incorporate fixings to attach to the rest of the saw. This may need to accomodate the abitity for he table to be moved to change the angle to the blade.

 

[Orraloon]

Just a sheet on top of the existing fence does fine. It is also zero clearance so no insert required either. A few years ago I made a version of this.
Universal Bandsaw Fence - YouTube
It is better than the factory fence that came with the saw. Attaches to table web frame with small clamps.
Regards
John

 

[Sachakins]

I have an old dewalt 738 bandsaw... purchased for £10 not working, repaired it, replaced the blade tensioning bolt, put a new tuffsaws blade on and it’s actually a really useful tool.

So, I wanted to add a fence as it didn’t have one with it (I’ve been clamping a piece of wood on when needed). I bought the Axminster fence upgrade.

I just looked at fitting it and it’s not really a straightforward process... the bottom of the metal table has various ridges and cutouts etc that mean it needs packing out. I could make it work I’m sure but it’s gonna take me a while to figure out... so it got me thinking;

can I just take the metal table off and bolt on a thick piece of plywood in its place?!

That would make it a lot easier to attach this fence anyway! I’ve seen people replace the plastic insert with wood inserts for ‘zero clearance’ and I’ve just google searched and I can see people adding a wood top over the metal table... but what about removing it altogether and replacing it?

is this a really dumb question/thing to do?

This is matthias wandell latest band saw build, this is just the table build video