- Joined
- Sep 5, 2014
- Messages
- 428
Well at least this story has an happy ending. I 'm a retired millwright so I've used chop saws and horizontal bandsaws at the various places I've worked at. There are always hand hacksaws and Zip-cut blades in grinders and Skilsaws. Both take skill or luck to get a square cut , it's not a given.
Chop saw, When I made a internal frame for my hunting wall tent of EMT and steel tube connectors I purchased a Makita . These Japanese made tools were once the industrial standard. It worked good for the tubing but is limited in steel thickness. Now you can buy aluminum frame kits for good deal less than I paid for material and saw.
4x6 bandsaw, When I saw one close by me for $50 on CL, I picked it up. Once apon a time it had ben a good little unit, but it was badly worn. Every time I used it, I fixed something. I finally decided to really fix it. The vise was as solid as a fish flopping around in the bottom of the boat. But when I opened the gearbox I cut my gloves on the gear teeth. Packing with grease does not work ! So this time I really splurged I picked up a early Rong Fu for $100, in very good shape. I think it was one of BusyBee earliest imports. The other brother likely imported the same unit for Grizzly in the early '80s . With the lessons learned on the TWS 4x6, I redid the vise and filled the gearbox with gear oil. I also tuned it up, almost all bandsaw , except maybe the old Johnsons ??, need it. The test cut was 40 thou out over 6". Rong Fu had screwed up the pivot point. Outside of that it worked well enough. The design, like almost all I've seen wasn't as good as even the $50 TWS.
Power Hacksaw , My friend had offered me his for $100. After the frustrations with the 4x6 got to me, I took him up on his offer. He had bought it from a closing down machine shop and had sat outside his shed. Boy was it rusty, the guard looked more like lace than steel. It did work, but the second time I plugged it in, it sparked. This I took as a sign from the tool gods that they wished me to replace the wiring. I power wire brushed it and painted it, plus a couple of small fixes.. This morning I finished rewiring it and couldn't wait for the postman so I tried the blade it came with, a dull Sandvik.. Crooked . So after my package from KBC came , in it was a couple of 10 tooth and one 14 tooth blades. I put on a new 10t and on 1/4 wall 2x2 square tube I got a nice and square cut. Finally A Square Cut.
To use a cowboy expression, cutting was a rodeo ,here is a vid of a better behaved one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7NHiBh1yBU mine is a later one without the lift at the end of the cut
Chop saw, When I made a internal frame for my hunting wall tent of EMT and steel tube connectors I purchased a Makita . These Japanese made tools were once the industrial standard. It worked good for the tubing but is limited in steel thickness. Now you can buy aluminum frame kits for good deal less than I paid for material and saw.
4x6 bandsaw, When I saw one close by me for $50 on CL, I picked it up. Once apon a time it had ben a good little unit, but it was badly worn. Every time I used it, I fixed something. I finally decided to really fix it. The vise was as solid as a fish flopping around in the bottom of the boat. But when I opened the gearbox I cut my gloves on the gear teeth. Packing with grease does not work ! So this time I really splurged I picked up a early Rong Fu for $100, in very good shape. I think it was one of BusyBee earliest imports. The other brother likely imported the same unit for Grizzly in the early '80s . With the lessons learned on the TWS 4x6, I redid the vise and filled the gearbox with gear oil. I also tuned it up, almost all bandsaw , except maybe the old Johnsons ??, need it. The test cut was 40 thou out over 6". Rong Fu had screwed up the pivot point. Outside of that it worked well enough. The design, like almost all I've seen wasn't as good as even the $50 TWS.
Power Hacksaw , My friend had offered me his for $100. After the frustrations with the 4x6 got to me, I took him up on his offer. He had bought it from a closing down machine shop and had sat outside his shed. Boy was it rusty, the guard looked more like lace than steel. It did work, but the second time I plugged it in, it sparked. This I took as a sign from the tool gods that they wished me to replace the wiring. I power wire brushed it and painted it, plus a couple of small fixes.. This morning I finished rewiring it and couldn't wait for the postman so I tried the blade it came with, a dull Sandvik.. Crooked . So after my package from KBC came , in it was a couple of 10 tooth and one 14 tooth blades. I put on a new 10t and on 1/4 wall 2x2 square tube I got a nice and square cut. Finally A Square Cut.
To use a cowboy expression, cutting was a rodeo ,here is a vid of a better behaved one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7NHiBh1yBU mine is a later one without the lift at the end of the cut
