Wooden bandsaw base.

[Benchwayze]

Hi folks :

I want castors for my Startrite 351 bandsaw, but it seems anything I could buy would have only two castors that can swivel. I prefer four swivelling wheels.

This morning, while tidying some off-cuts of 3 x 2 and 18mm MDF sheets, I had a :idea: moment. I remembered that the bottom of my saw is just a sheet steel box, with one open side, and an open top. It is just a void, where the dust falls to the deck, and I have to vacuum it all away every week. (When I am using the saw!)

There is nothing inside that is necessary to the saw. It's just bolted to the bottom of the saw itself. So, Instead of tidying up these off-cuts, every so often, could I use them to make a new bandsaw base altogether? I certainly have enough material. I also have four, 3 inch diameter swivelling, lockable castors lying idle in a cupboard.

I would use MDF for the panels and 3 x 2 for the frame. This might be heavier than the existing metal box the saw presently stands on; or maybe not. I know someone will probably point out, that I could just make a square castored frame and mount the whole thing on that. Unfortunately that would lift the machine up some 5 inches; meaning it would foul the rafters in the garage. Also I would need to make a duck-board to stand on, and I don't like duck boards!

Has anyone made a new base for their own saw, and if so, did you find the need to put any extra weight down below for ballast?

Thanks in anticipation


John

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Out of curiosity - why the preference for four swivelling wheels? I'd have thought it would be more easily manoeuvred with only two?

 

[Rorschach]

I put castors on my bandsaw and I found it made it very unstable since bandsaws are inherently top heavy and narrow. Something you might want to bear in mind.
When I have space I would like to build a mobile cabinet for it sit on but make it larger than the current footprint of the saw and then store some materials or tools in the bottom to act as ballast.

 

[dynax]

i built one for mine, it's stable enough and is on 50mm castors, although only a hobby saw and not an industrial size

 

[NazNomad]

Mine was on a stand with two 'enclosed?' legs. I mounted it on a piece of ¾'' ply and made two panels from MDF which can be removed to hoover out the sawdust that collects in the bottom.

I used 2 swivel & 2 fixed castors.

I keep all the spare blades in the base and they are usually buried in sawdust. I figured it would help prevent them going rusty?

With the splay on the legs, I don't find it's any more likely to tip over than if I were trying to drag it about without the wheels.

... and yes, that's Clarkson. :-D

 

[MikeG.]

Yes, I've done it. For a long time my bandsaw sat on top of one of my dust extraction drop boxes. It was more solid a base than the pressed metal legs that came with the machine.

 

[pollys13]

How about an angle iron frame spot welded together?

 

[JWD]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZVj3AY9rJw&t=4s

solves the 5" rise

 

[graduate_owner]

Buy yourself some angle iron, or preferably two lengths of box section steel and join them with angle iron ( far less likely to twist). You don't even need to be able to weld - you could drill and bolt. Most of my shop made bases are 30mm steel and 30mm angle iron. I usually weld, but where I have used bolts they are 10mm. If you have a local steel stockholder you will find prices lower than online. Our local supplier is willing for people to cut their own lengths, they even have an abrasive disk cut off saw for people to use. Very helpful. The pricey bit is the castors, although I don't think you would need heavy duty castors for a bandsaw.

K

 

[user22161]

Knocked this together from offcuts.

 

[sunnybob]

another one who doesnt like 4 swivel wheels on a tall object.

 

[Graham Orm]

Knocked this together from offcuts.

Almost exactly the same as mine Graham. I got fed up of the wheeled stand that came with the bandsaw and how much space was wasted underneath it. (Same bandsaw).

 

[Benchwayze]

Hi folks.

Thanks for the helpful responses. I will try to answer them in one go, but first, a little background on my problematic shop. It's a single-car garage seventeen feet by nine, and I could just about get my old Austin Cambridge in there. (But I couldn't get out of the car, as there isn't room to open the doors. So useless as a garage.

Just at the moment my shop is a disgusting mess.

Five or six years ago I decided to strip out and completely redesign the wall, where I have my bench. My bench is six feet long by two feet six inches wide. Fine when I had only one machine (A Coronet lathe-based combination machine, I bought in 1971.) But now in my late, late seventies, with all I have acquired, the bench is too big, for the amount of handwork I do.

Remodelling meant halting my woodwork, as such and putting tools wherever I could find space, while I worked. I was doing fine and the remodeling was going well; until my Lady wife fell ill with Parkinson's disease. This meant dropping everything in order to care for her. So that's the reason for the mess you see.

Timber I had bought for the remodeling and my new four-foot by two bench all over the place; tools stowed on open shelves, my lathe dismantled and piled on a bench at the far end of the shop. Total chaos. Somehow I even misplaced a brand new, Lie Nielsen tongue and groove plane, I bought to make my own 'match-board' for the wall. The plane has never been used and is hiding God knows where! And of course the shop became a catch-all for non-woodwork related items.

Then a couple of years ago the cold water tank valve broke and the tank overflowed, all over my Sedgwick planer.
Stupid builders had routed the overflow into the garage, unbeknownst to me! So there you are. I am still in a horrible mess, but slowly getting through it, between visits to see Jean, who is now in full-time care.,

So, to the replies:

Why don't I like fixed castors? I find them a pain, and can't master them without dragging the fixed wheels round to direct them. So I prefer four swivel castors, with locks.

I like the idea of storage space underneath, and with some of the stuff I have looking for a home, that would provide plenty of ballast. I wouldn't mind the saw being a few inches lower in fact, so that might be a help. So thanks for that, an idea that has stared me in the face for 25 years!

I considered the stability issue, hence my query about ballast, and that won't be an issue now.

A metal trolley? I can't weld, and I don't have a proper drill-press, to fabricate from angle-iron. Just a hand drill on a Record stand, or the drilling function on my Administer morticer. Another pain to keep switching. So I would have to find a fabricator to do that for me.

So I think I will eventually make a wooden cupboard to stand the saw on, and make some arrangement for dust collection. At least I will be able to move it aside, in order to use the planer/thicknesser. (When I've put new blades in the planer and fully cleaned up the mess from the overflow. )

Sorry to have gone on a bit, and I hope I haven't bored you. Thanks again for the advice; much appreciated.

Regards

John in Great Barr.

PS Heard on YouTube. A young guy was showing his wife how to use a few tools. He explained what the Thicknesser did, and she said, 'If it makes wood thinner, why is it called a thicknesser?'
You can't deny logic!

 

[user22161]

Why don't I like fixed castors? I find them a pain, and can't master them without dragging the fixed wheels round to direct them. So I prefer four swivel castors, with locks.

I'm with you 100% there. Have found the flimsy jacking Record wheels to be a pain in the arse if the tool has to be moved regularly in a small workshop. Chopped the legs down on my PT this week and put it on a 4 castor base, also acts as table for the fence etc. when in thicknesser mode.

 

[Honest John]

I have swapped the two fixed castors on one of my machine bases for swivelling ones. Much like your shop, mine is very tight for space and you develop a knack of moving things out to use, and put them away again. I found that the fixed wheels always caused me problems when manouverong kit into very tight parking spaces, but now I cam move machines in any direction and fit them into the necessary tight spaces. Working like this although not ideal certainly makes you focus on the work flow process. Sorry to hear about your fam8ly problems, but delighted to hear that you are getting on with your Woodworking. Long may you make sawdust !

 

[Benchwayze]

Thank you John.

The only machines I really need to move (except for cleaning behind) are my planer/thicknesser and my bandsaw.

I have tried all sorts of layouts in this garage, but sooner or later, one piece of equipment gets in the way of another. The only clear space I have is a centre aisle at the most 4 feet wide. The rest is taken up by benches or machines!

The only answer now is to make a smaller handwork bench, and put the bandsaw at the in-feed end of the planer, where it won't need to be moved so often. Of course, to truly make space, I should have a Sedgwick sale, and buy prepared timber, and a Festool sale, to make room for handwork entirely. Which I could do.

Or I could have a general sale and put my feet up. Not really!

Oh I don't know though... I could have a nice holiday on the proceeds!
Thanks again John.

John in Brum.

 

[philipjdall]

I'm not sure it helps but I recently built myself a wooden base for my bandsaw with four swivel castors.

The height of the machine wasn't an issue as I widened the centre of gravity by extending the wheels outwards on the same plane as the blade. The machine was then bolted to the base to make it even more sturdy. I have to say it is both incredibly manoeuvrable and very steady when wheels are locked.

 

[NazNomad]

Just a 'what if'... Using a base like the one above, just be careful you haven't created a trip hazard with the bits sticking out.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

That would be a liability in my 'shop - I wouldn't get past it without snagging on the wheels. Good if you've loads of space, though. I've not long scrapped a base like that for this reason.

 

[Benchwayze]

Ahhh! Is this it?

Having a base like that, with that orientation wouldn't be an issue for me. As long as I got it far enough back out of the centre aisle. Which I'd have to. The first picture is the same aspect as mine, ATM, with the wall behind the blade. It's at the end of my bench, and a bit in the way of planing.

On the other side of the aisle it'd be in the path of the over and under planer, but I don't do quite so much thicknessing these days. So occasionally I'd just need to swing the saw out of the path of the planer/thicknesser for thicknessing sessions. I could have room to perform the odd levelling task if needs be.

So that that just might be the answer; thanks Philip
I'd send pics, but I am ashamed of the state of my shop just now.

John