- Joined
- Mar 2, 2018
- Messages
- 232
I just looked at the date on the motor data plate, and I've had my trusty Grizzly entry level crosscut bandsaw for 19 years now. I bought it to cut pipe for tuned wind chimes, the first time I had a home business that didn't take off. I've shuffled it around a dozen times, but I never sold it, and now it has found a permanent home in my metal shop. I love this stupid saw, and I have pushed it to the limits. I cut a piece of mainline "high rail" railroad track with this thing. It took many hours to get through it, and I had to finish the last 1/4" with a hacksaw, but I did it!
So, I got off early today, and I decided to tackle the replacement bearing fingers for the steady and follow rests on my g0602. I tried using the stock bronze fingers, and I immediately said naw. The noise, the marring of work, just naw. I asked google if there were any better ideas, and found a thread on this very forum.
When I went looking through my stock pile, I didn't have anything that was close to the right size, but I did have some wide stock that was close to the right thickness. Cutting it to length was no problem, but what about "ripping" it to width? This seemed like a good candidate for my chop saw, but I would have wasted a lot of material in the kerf and made a lot of noise at 2:00 am. My bandsaw would make a nice narrow kerf, but how could I cut these wide bars into thirds with the ubiquitous 6" x 4" cheap entry level bandsaw? The vise jaws don't reach anywhere close to the cut line. Especially not the narrow jaw.
Hmmmmm....
So I came up with this. I threw in a couple lengths of square bar that are going to become tongs eventually, and I balanced the load by putting pieces of the same length on either side of the acme screw. It was a pretty crude job that is going to need a lot of cleanup on the mill, but by crikey, I got blanks that will work for this job without having to go order any new stock. I am amused with my own cleverness, so I took a picture, and decided to share this story.
So, I got off early today, and I decided to tackle the replacement bearing fingers for the steady and follow rests on my g0602. I tried using the stock bronze fingers, and I immediately said naw. The noise, the marring of work, just naw. I asked google if there were any better ideas, and found a thread on this very forum.
When I went looking through my stock pile, I didn't have anything that was close to the right size, but I did have some wide stock that was close to the right thickness. Cutting it to length was no problem, but what about "ripping" it to width? This seemed like a good candidate for my chop saw, but I would have wasted a lot of material in the kerf and made a lot of noise at 2:00 am. My bandsaw would make a nice narrow kerf, but how could I cut these wide bars into thirds with the ubiquitous 6" x 4" cheap entry level bandsaw? The vise jaws don't reach anywhere close to the cut line. Especially not the narrow jaw.
Hmmmmm....
So I came up with this. I threw in a couple lengths of square bar that are going to become tongs eventually, and I balanced the load by putting pieces of the same length on either side of the acme screw. It was a pretty crude job that is going to need a lot of cleanup on the mill, but by crikey, I got blanks that will work for this job without having to go order any new stock. I am amused with my own cleverness, so I took a picture, and decided to share this story.