Building the Matthias Wandell 20" Big Bandsaw

[will1983]

Inspired by the success of building my Thien Separator and Mobile Mitre Saw Unit I decided to build another machine.

I bought these plans, https://woodgears.ca/big_bandsaw/index.html from Matthias Wandell's website for his big 20" bandsaw. I don't normally buy plans, I prefer to work stuff out for myself but not having ever owned a bandsaw before I didn't really want to have to solve that many problems and the build drag on indefinitely.

I'm glad I did buy these though, my first impression of the plan package was that they were fantastic and having used them for a few weeks now, this hasn't changed. The big zip file includes the following;

• a sketch up model
  drawings of individual components and assemblies
  instructions for each section of the build
  links to the YouTube build videos
  365 photographs
  cut lists
  hardware list
  templates
  printing instructions
  probably some other stuff I've forgotten!

Printed out the first few pages. Not bad for about £18..

So anyway, on to the build. The first thing I did was raid the workshop and my outside timber store to gather enough softwood for the frame components. There's over 70 pieces to the frame alone so I soon realised I'd need some more, enter the skip diver extraordinaire! Two old drawer boxes and a few lengths of 4x3 later and I had enough to get started.

I used the plans to make a cut list and gave each component a letter so I could identify it later. Some of the pieces are quite wide so I had to edge and glue up narrower boards into bits wide enough.

Once all the parts were rough cut to about 20mm thick and 10mm oversized I could crack on with the thickenssing. The plans call for a finished layer thickness of 18mm but Matthias says you can get away with 17mm comfortably. Mine actually ended up about 16.5mm but I am not concerned as all the timber, despite being softwood is pretty good quality. This is just a few of the bits after thicknessing and being cut to finished size.

Next it was on to assembly of the frame. This is done in stages, I started at the centre layer and worked my way outwards, this allows the glue to cure fully on each face whilst I flushed up the joints with the No4. I gave my new Hitachi 16g nailer a bit of a work out nailing the parts together until I could get clamps on any bits that were being a bit awkward.

Finish frame, front, back and some gratuitous supersized finger joints!

Next post, starting on the wheels and upper wheel carriage..

 

[will1983]

So the next bit I decided to crack on with was the wheels, I’ve decided to build these out of MDF. Mr Wandell used cheap plywood for his but the plans say you might be better with MDF or even MFC, presumable because these have a more consistent density which would make balancing them easier.

So I needed some 18mm MDF, enter the skip diver again.. A trip around a local industrial estate and I was in business, a full sheet of MDF leaning against some bins. Chopped it up with my cordless Hitachi circular saw and away!

Once home it was out with the Katsu and the homemade circle cutting jig. An hour later I had 4 wheel blanks and a pair of smaller blanks for the pulley. I lined these up and stuck them together to get two wheels and a pulley, each 36mm thick. I used every clamp and emptied the paint cupboard for my patented “gravity clamps” to make sure these were properly stuck together. I don’t want these coming apart in the future!

Another day and another part. I dug out a 1” board of mahogany the father in law gave me years ago, rough cut and thicknessed the parts to make the carriage that takes the upper wheel mounting block. Matthias made his with butt joints and diagonal splines across the corners but my stock wasn’t thick enough to do this. Instead I decided to do mine as two sub-assemblies joined with half laps then glued together and then finally reinforced with dowels. I made a quick dowel plate and ran up some 5mm dowels from some scrap beech. Each corner got dowels through the face and edge, offset so they didn’t clash with each other.

Next up, drilling and tapping the stainless steel shafts..

 

[will1983]

The plans call for 25mm wheel shafts with holes in either end that are tapped to take M6 machine screws. These take large washers which stop the wheels falling off the end of the shafts.

I ordered a couple of pieces of A4 (316) stainless steel round bar from Rice metals on eBay, each 250mm long. I’ve never machined stainless steel before so did a bit of googling. It appears the knack to not work hardening the steel and therefore making it unworkable is to go slow with a decent sharp drill bit and use plenty of pressure.

The only way I could maintain the pressure and still keep the necessary alignment was to use my drill press which unfortunately doesn’t have enough height between the chuck and the bed. So out with the spanners and make some modifications. I was able to turn the column through 120o so the chuck could overhang the edge of the bench and give me the clearance required.

I tilted the table 90o and made a pair of V blocks that I attached to the drill press table to hold the shafts tight. I fitted a fresh 5.5mm HSS drill bit in the chuck and went for it on the lowest speed and using plenty of cutting fluid. I was pleasantly surprised that the material drilled so easily, I kept the pressure up and stopped every ¼” or so to clear the swarf and spray more cutting fluid on the bit and in the hole. I soon had 4 tidy 20mm deep holes in the two shafts and no obvious damage to the drill bit.

Next I dug out the tap and die set I’ve had for years but never used and had a crack at tapping the holes. Again I used lots of cutting fluid and backing out every ¾ turn to clear the swarf.

This is one of the finished ends with the M6 nut and large washer in place.

 

[Stanleymonkey]

That frame looks impressive.

Have you found a motor to drive it all yet?

 

[AES]

Excellent post will1983, clearly written and well-photographed. "We" (well me anyway!) want to see more!

A while ago there was a thread on here wondering how many of Matthias' plans (and similar) have been bought and not finished. I must confess that I fall into that category, not with the band saw but a plan for a disc/belt sander. I already have a small Dremel but WILL build the wandel plan ("one of these fine wet days") as I need a bigger machine for what I do now.

Meantime I do agree with you about the quality of Wandel's whole plan package - well drawn, very clear instructions and well photographed & video'd. BTW, I also have Wandel's "Big Print" program which makes printing out true 100% full size (or scaled to a specific dimension) templates really easy. Again, good value for money IMO. Usual disclaimers.

But back to your band saw. Your work looks excellent so far and I'm looking forward to seeing more. Thanks for posting.

Oh, and like a previous poster I too am wondering about what you'll be using for a motor (one rather annoying feature of Wandel's site is that he keeps talking glibly about SH furnace motors and such like, and he seems to have a whole bunch of them, but decent SH motors of any type are about as rare as rocking horse manure here).

Looking forward to more

 

[MikeG.]

I'm watching too. This already looks far stronger than my bandsaw.

 

[deema]

H Will.
I’m just up the road from you, if it would help you can have a 3ph motor that came off a Startrite saw, foot mounted as a free donation to the project. It still has the pulley attached which may be helpful. I think it’s about 1.2Kw but I can check tomorrow, anyway it will be plenty for a Bandsaw. Message me if you would like it.

 

[powertools]

I would never consider building my own bandsaw but I am interested to follow this thread.
Work so far looks to be to a high standard.

 

[will1983]

Wow, just checked this thread after the weekend and I'm overwhelmed.

Deema, your offer of a motor is very generous, unfortunately I haven't got a 3ph supply to the workshop so I don't think I'll be able to use it. Your welcome to pop round and have a cuppa sometime though!

AES, thanks for your reply. I remember the thread also, it came to mind whilst I was writing the earlier posts. I have made some more progress this weekend, stay tuned.

Stanleymonkey and others this is my plan for a motor, 1ph, 2hp, 4 pole induction motor from EMG. They are based not far from where I work so will call in and collect once pay day has come around.

 

[will1983]

Last week the 6305-2RS bearings arrived. Matthias used 6205 bearings but I decided to go for more heavy duty ones, just because I could!

My bearings have an OD of 62mm so I had a look through the assortment of holes saws in the drilling drawer, hmmm no banana, 64mm was the closest I had which no amount of fettling would get down to 62mm. Time to hit the Toolstation website, they had a Whirling-Death–I-Eat-Fingers-For-Breakfast-Circle-Cutting-Thingy for £8, that might work. Picked up the Fingereater on the way home and realised it was going to have to get some serious angle grinder surgery before I could use it. The arms of the beam were too long to fit in the drill press so I chopped them off.

I was pleasantly surprised, it only took me two test holes and 20 minutes of fiddling about until I had it making holes in 18mm BB ply that were a very tight fit on the bearings. I set the table saw up to cut some ply circles and then got to drilling. Once finished and after a quick finger count I used the vice to press the bearings into place. To make pressing the bearings in a little easier I ran the router with a chamfering bit around the edge of the holes.

Next I opened up the hole in the middle of each wheel to give the shaft a few mm clearance and set up the patented “Matthias Wandell bearing flange gluing on arrangement” which consists of wing nuts, bolts and those little clamping feet. I did a dry run so I could drop the shaft into the bearing and check that it stood square to the face of the wheel. A couple of nails through the flange ensures that it goes back on right after I have removed it to add glue.

You only glue one bearing flange at a time, the other bearing flange is glued on afterwards to allow the wheel to be spun on the shaft to check there isn’t any run out. Minor adjustments to make the wheel run true are possible by loosening the clamping feet and giving the wheel a tap. I’ve done this for one wheel but that is for the next instalment.

 

[will1983]

More progress!

Matthias trues his wheels using a motor to spin them mounted to the bench and uses a chisel to “turn” them true and form the crown. My turning skills are not great and the stopgap bench (now 3years old!! Must get round the building a proper one!) is not really heavy enough to safely spin something 500mm across that is out of balance.

Therefore I decided to make a jig to hold the little Katsu trim router that will true and crown the wheels in one operation. This requires that the router must move through an arc to match the radius of the crown. The crown needs to be 5o off the perpendicular from the wheels centreline. I used AutoCAD to draw this arc and find its radius of 103mm, this is the radius the tip of the router must move through to create the correct profile.

Now I know where the centre of the arc is I need a way to guide the router. This centre point being inside the wheel makes it impossible to just mount the router on a plate and pivot it about a bolt. Inspiration for a solution came from Matthias’s design for tilting the band saw table, trunnions! So I found a scrap of 18mm MDF and drew it all out. Measuring from the theoretical centre of the arc I projected two more arcs of increasing radius, 173mm & 213mm these are going to be the inside and outside edges of the guide trunnion.

I dug out the circle cutting jig and routed a channel 6mm deep and a through slot that allows a bolt to pass through the baseplate. I then cut out a slot for the wheel to fit in allowing a few mm of clearance all around.

Next I cut a curved piece out of 6mm MDF to match the groove in the same manner as before. Using the centrelines marked on each piece this was positioned and glued to another piece of 6mm MDF with CA. The carriage is set back from the design edge of the wheel by 10mm. An 8mm hole drilled through both pieces takes an M8 bolt, the head let into the top piece to stop it turning.

I completed the router carriage with a couple of supports to keep it square and a washer and wing nut on the bolt to give some control over how easily the carriage moves.

Next step is to mount the wheel on its shaft clamped to the bench and the jig positioned to incrementally cut the crown whilst the wheel is slowly turned by hand, but that won’t be until the weekend. Time will tell if my efforts have been successful.

 

[nathanb]

Looking really good so far Will, I am very keento see how your wheel truing router trunnion guide contraption works! I too have purchased Matthias' bandsaw plans and am interested to know why you've decided to build the 20" version? I can't decide whether to build the 16" or 20"...

 

[will1983]

Cheers Nathan. My ultimate intention is to move into building guitars, for this I would like to resaw my own tops so it seemed prudent to go for the design that offers the deepest resaw capacity. It also has the benefit that it has the greatest throat clearance which will make cutting out guitar bodies easier. Oh and also I've got the room so why not??

Regarding "The Contraption" I'll be using it this weekend so I'll update the thread on Monday. If you have an Instagram account look me up on the link below to see a video of it in action.

 

[AES]

That's a very interesting turning jig will, good practical application of school maths/geometry. Don't want to be a "skeptik", but will be interested to see how well it works in practice! Looks good though, and should work well.

One thing that worries me about wheels, especially as they get bigger n heavier, is that while it's dead easy to statically balance a wheel in the home workshop, for dynamic balancing you need professional gear - e.g. like the thingy the garage uses when they fit new tyres on your car (there's a GOOD reason why the subject wheel is in a safety cage while they're doing that job)!

Good luck, VERY interesting WIP, thanks.

 

[sunnybob]

You can use the motorcycle wheel system of getting pretty good dynamic balance.
mount the wheel on the fixed bearing shaft so the wheel is free and clear, spin the wheel by hand. wait till it stops, and mark the lowest point. Spin it again, if the wheel stops at the same place again, add weight to the top. keep spinning the wheel moving or adding to the weight untill the mark stops at completely random places each time.
If at any stage the wheel stops, and then rolls back, add more weight to the top.

 

[AES]

Bob, AFAIK, that's static balance, not dynamic balance. I realise that band saw wheels don't rotate as fast as car tyres (or aeroplane tyres or propellers, or turbine assys) which are what I've been used to in the past, but for a proper dynamic balancing, the subject has to be rotating, and while doing so "the machine" figures out vectors and tells you where to place weights/carve (little!) lumps off when rotation is stopped.

What you're describing is static balancing, which is "only half the story", though POSSIBLY at the rpm s band saw wheels do, that's enough. I was just saying above that when the wheel gets big (like that 20 inch band saw) PERHAPS dynamic balancing plays a role too, I'm not sure.

 

[will1983]

As promised I trued and crowned the wheels with the jig this weekend. I arranged the shop vac to try to collect the dust but got it the wrong way round for the first pass. Promptly swapped it round to the other side so the router bit fired the muck into the hose this worked much better. With regards to the jig I’m more than happy, it worked as planned. I slowly turned the wheel by hand whilst gradually moving the router across the jig.

I had to get the wheels down to a finished circumference of 1567mm so needed a dressmakers tape measure, time to raid The Bosses dressmaking box! Hmmm no luck, I’ll have to make my own then. So I folded a length of duct tape lengthways and checked it for stretch, yes that will do. Marked the finished length on it and wrapped it round the circumference of the wheel. Tiny passes with the router brought it down to a fraction oversize and then I finished it off with a bit of 120 Abranet.

Proof it worked! There's a couple of videos on my Instagram account if you want to see it in action.

I naively tried to get a coat of Danish oil on these but the MDF edge grain just soaked it up instantly, hence the dark staining in the middle of the wheel. I’ve since applied a coat of thicker oil based varnish which seemed a lot better, I’ll give them a quick sand tonight and maybe apply a second coat.

On the subject of balancing, I am also more than a little concerned about getting it right. I’d rather the whole bandsaw didn’t vibrate itself to pieces when I use it! I don’t have facility to be able to dynamically balance so I will content myself with purely static balancing, though I have a plan..

Prior to truing, the first wheel was obviously unbalanced. This is no longer perceptible with the truing operation complete making the static balancing more difficult. I think this may be due to me using larger heavier bearings that may have more inherent friction. So this morning I have ordered a pair of smaller bearings specifically for balancing, these will fit inside the large permanent bearings and should turn easier making the whole operation more accurate, I guess we’ll see.

Also I trued the large pulley and cut a V groove into it. This isn’t finished though, I can’t finish that until I have the belt to be able to make it match perfectly.

In other news I have been quietly working away on some of the other parts. I have got quite a few offcuts of sapele knocking about the workshop so decided to use that for the hardwood parts, I think it contrasts nicely with the Baltic birch plywood. All these parts are finished with a couple of coats of Danish oil to keep them clean for now. Once the saw is finished and any adjustments made I’ll disassemble it and do a few coats of varnish thinned with Danish oil.

Guide Post and upper blade guides, still need to find some bits of lignum vitae for the blade blocks.

Lower guides assembly.

Other bits including the trunnion beam (laminated from three layers of mahogany), lower wheel mounts, tensioning springs, tensioning crank and guide post clamp.

The Boss picked up a pair of blades from Axminster last weekend so I am very nearly ready for the first assembly and to set up a temporary table to cut out the trunnions and trunnion cradles.

 

[sunnybob]

A way to overcome the friction of the bearings on static balancing is to fit the axle through the bearing, and then lay the axle on two straight knife edges. Used to do this on my motorcycle, round about the time Rome fell to the barbarian horde.

 

[will1983]

A way to overcome the friction of the bearings on static balancing is to fit the axle through the bearing, and then lay the axle on two straight knife edges. Used to do this on my motorcycle, round about the time Rome fell to the barbarian horde.

That's a good idea, I reckon I can rig something up to do that! Thanks for the tip.

 

[AES]

Yeah, +1 for sunnybob's static balancing tip. That's exactly the way model aero props are balanced. Works well (don't know anything about Roman hordes though Bob, before my time mate)!

This is really nice looking work phil 1983. Are you supposed to fit rubber tyres (old inner tube, or something) to the wheels? If so, why worry about the oil on the rims - as you say, MDF must suck it up like a bath sponge.