Frivolous At Heart

[ratings]
I picked up an AMT 14″ bandsaw and the trunnion was broken. It was cast aluminum (very thin when cast) and so it broke. This is very common of Taiwanese bandsaws. Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, Grizzly- all sale Taiwanese and or Chinese made bandsaws and the parts are interchangeable 99% of the time. They are just marketed under different names and have very little change to differentiate btwn brands etc. Get cast iron trunnions if you can afford it! Lesson learned!

I got it for a sweet deal too! Forty-Five dollars for it and a 32″ wood lathe. I’m fixing to sell the wood lathe though plus the old bandsaw table as well. The bandsaw table is cast iron and it’s quite good castings might I add! If only the trunnions would hold up, I would of had a solid table. Knowing me, I’ll probably upgrade the table anyways just “because”. Well I needed a larger working area and that it must be plumb with the blade. So I made this:

The piece of aluminum you see there, is a bracket to hold the iron frame together. Without it, there wouldn’t be no possible way of putting or taking off the blade. Plus the thick aluminum bracket helps square everything out. I tell ya what, I’m not using bed frame irons anymore unless I’m cutting it with an abrasive disc. The high carbon cold rolled steel is extremely hard! It ruins drill bits and saw blade of any kind in minutes!

My welds look like crap because I forgot to turn on the gas while MIG welding. You can see it with the photo below:

I made the top out of ply nailed to particle board. Reason is because the particle board is smooth and uniform and the ply is for strength. Both combined, will withstand twisting and the surface will always be true. Provided the surface it lies on, is true. I chose melamine to be on top because it allows things to “glide” over it without much friction.

I’ll soon upgrade this with slide railes and I will convert this bandsaw to a metal cutting bandsaw!

Update 09/29/07:

Gear Reducer: Browning Gear
Ratio: 15.1
RPM: 1750
Input HP: 2.61 Output: 1252 Lb. Inch
Shaft: 7/8in/1 1/8in

Reduction Pulleys:
1 sku # 6245K51 : 6″ pulley
2 sku # 6204K515 : 2.70″ pulley
3 sku # 6204K246 : 4.45″ pulley

2.70″ + 6.000″ = 52rpm (metal cutting)
4.45″ + 5.875″ = 88rpm (aluminum cutting)

This is the photo of the gear reducer. It has both 2.70″ & 4.45″ pulleys on there. My bandsaw is out of commission because it is waiting to be hooked up to the reducer. Too bad the 6″ pulley can’t fit on there. I’ll have to take my losses and not get the projected rpm I’ve set. I’ll get 53rpm & 88rpm. I’ll be happy with that. I will cut steel and aluminum just fine. I’ll need to get bi-metal blades for it soon. I have supercut carbon steel on there right now (purchased at northertool.com).

More PHOTOS coming!

[ratings]
I’ve always been pretty head-strong about recycling -anything- and I just started recycling aluminum cans (again). I find that storing them in the 5-gallon buckets will not suffice since I have so many of them! I need a aluminum can crusher or something. So I got one- from ebay that is=) I can’t wait for it to arrive because I know I’ll get a kick out of it every time I crush a can.

I have lots of nieces and nephews and I’m sure they’ll love to use the “can crusher” (lol). Maybe I’ll still store them in the bucket and then wait for them to come over and let them have at it in the shop. They’ll probably fight over how many cans one should each crush- it’ll be so much fun! Maybe a good stress reducer and joy inducer too!

The other day I heard that glass bottles are more environmental friendly? I think they pose more of a danger when stepped on vs stepping on an aluminum can don’t you think? Likewise, we will run into issues of environmental issues such as pollution and to see if it’s worth recycling them at all. Takes more energy to recycle something than it does making them. The fact it, recycling something takes it out of the landfills and put back into better use. I like that idea more even though it’s using more energy i.e causing more pollution but hell, we can’t prevent everything. It’s a domino affect in every thing.

Talking about landfills…, how in the hell are all those things being crushed and buried? I don’t know I’m off tangent here but isn’t burying trash bad? I always thought that the trash will be a “filter” if you may, that will filter our water and so on and so forth. It’s bad practice. Why don’t we just separate (I know, more work but the end result yields efficiency), burn, and recycle? I know for sure that the landfill a city away is no longer burying their “shit” and is now burning them. It’s good for the waste company because they get free energy that the originally had charged the consumer to come and throw away their trash (fuel).

I want to finish school. Get a job and save up $500,000. Isn’t that everyone else’s dream? So typical are these dreams that they seldom come true. I hope mine does… I have larger dreams but this one will be my primer. Wish me well!

[ratings]
I know exactly how to make a bandsaw now.

My Designs where to build out the arms: I drew this on deltacad

Basically you see that the “boom” of the saw is shaped like the booms you see on regular chop saws. I based this shape off of a Ryobi Chopsaw I had lying around. The whole boom would be made of aluminum plate 1/2 thick. Two would be needed for strength plus to shield the coldsaw blade inside for safety. The mounting plate I designed was for any Browning Gear reducer to be able to mount to it. 35:1 ratio is perfect for a coldsaw (40:1 would do just fine). Once the mounting plate was mounted on the reducer, it would then be secured onto the boom. A two step process to assure that everything will line up squarely. This will attach to the Ryobi chopsaw.

I made sure when I picked out the reducer that it had a 56C face mount. There I would then mate it with a 1-2hp VDC motor. Running the motor is a little tricky because it would require you to have a variac (variac is coined and related to GE electric) device, aka variable transformer, to control the output VAC, then take that VAC and convert it into VDC. I have a diagram I quickly threw together to farther help myself in the planning of this coldsaw:

Lets start with a little introduction into AC-DC conversions here. When VDC is converted to VAC and the device that allows this transition, is called an inverter. To do the opposite, we would require a bridge rectifier (BR). The capacitor is there to “smooth” the VDC current to the motor. So I’ll explain whats going on in the diagram:
1) My motor requires 90VDC. I set my variac to dial into 90VAC. The variac’s input is 110/120VAC and the output can vary depending on what you buy.

2) I take the dialed output and run in through the BR. The BR will ouput 90VDC. The 90VDC isn’t clean so the capacitor is needed to “enhance” the current to a more direct current (DC current) to supply the motor.

This is a nice project but in the midst of everything and the chaos, I have temporarily lost interest. I might finish this project; I might not. To ponder a 14″ bandsaw blade mated to the completed device makes me melt inside=)

FYI:

Gearing Ratio calculation:
(Driven Pulley)/(Drive Pulley)= #:1 gearing ratio
RPM calculation:
(motor rpm X Drive pulley)/(Driven Pulley)
F/M calculation:
(RPM)x(circumference of wheelblade in ft)
circumference: pi*D

FPM to RPM calculation: FPM/(PI X wheelblade dia in ft)

Misc. Notes
wheelblade diameter: 12.625″->1.052′
wheelblade circumference: 39.66″->3.305′
120F/M = 36RPM
165F/M = 50RPM
182F/M = 55RPM
198F/M = 60RPM

Material Cut Speed
Mild Steel: 52RPM
Stainless: 26RPM
Aluminum: 90RPM-303RPM Castings require higher speeds because of the silicon content.

Example Calculation of RPM
Motor RPM: 1750 w/1″ pulley
Driver Pulley: 4″ w/1″ pulley
Driven Pulley: 4″ pulley

1) This gives a 4:1 ratio. So 4/1= 4. 1750/4 = 437.5RPM
2) Driver pulley is connected to the Driven pulley @ 437.5RPM via 1″ pulley. This again, gives us 4:1 ratio. 437.5/4 = 109RPM.

Together, we have 16:1 ratio or 1750/16 = 109RPM

homemade coldsaw : build a coldsaw

Why do I get the feeling these two models are the same? Other than the color differences? Both are made from the same company but NT chooses to sell it under their label. [HF item# 47840-1VGA] & [NT item# 56245 ]. Took both of their photos and did a comparison. You decide!

I ordered a 20cf argon bottle and got instead, an 80cf. Awesome! Loving it! I love when the screw up only if it’s to my benefit=)

So I was trying to be handy and it got the best of me! I was trying to install a lock for the sliding window and “crack”, the window shattered into millions of pieces.

So I quickly ordered another piece but instead of being glass, it is polycarbon plastic. Cheaper and practically unbreakable. The install was a breeze. Had some help holding it while I put piece it together. A little bit of soapy water goes a long ways. No more handy man for awhile. This one set me back a bit.

[ratings]
I wanted an ab machine. They are not pricey and I thought to myself that it would be awesome if I made my own. Thinking it would cost me twice as much…. Nope. Cost me 11dollars in materials. Beat that! I originally wanted this:

I purchased 12ft of 12×1 steel square tubing. I knew what I wanted in my head. I had it cut down to 6ft lengths then welded them together once I got to the shop. That way it would save me time at the end. I sanded all the rust off with the DA sander. Hence why the steel was so inexpensive.

Cut them down to size as desired by my plans.

The ends were folded together and welded to create a closed tube plus to minimize injury during use.

I made a jig to setup the pieces and for easier assembly because of the differing angles. Made sure things were square and plumb

Once I got the legs welded, I laid them on the jig to make sure they fit nicely and then proceeded in welding it all together. I cut 2.5″ pieces and welded them on the side to give placement for backboard attachment.

Lastly, I added the feet hold/grasp thingy so that you can hold on it with your feet and use it to pull yourself up when working on your abs.

I painted the frame with black Rust-Oleum gun metal textured paint. I looks really good In my opinion. I added the back support and soon will add the cushions for it so I can start on my six-pack.

Ab Machine : Building Ab Machine

I wanted to make a welder cart for my welder. I know, I could buy one but what’s the fun in that right? So I drew out some preliminary plans based on some of the popular carts I saw around the web. They include:

So I chose the top right corner cart. Made something similar to it. It was fun because all the raw material I had was used bed frames. I knew I would need it one day and so I saved them. I still have a lot more left for other projects. I saved them because they are “L” shaped and holds a true line.

The cart measures 30x12x12. I had it arched up in the front so really it’s 12×15 @ a 15degree angle. You’ll see what I mean when you look at the photos. I took great care in making sure that the bottom was square. I used lots of clamps and was accompanied by a swear-jar.

The platform I used to lay the cart on was not leveled because of the floor having a slight downward grade. So I used two levels to make sure the top and bottom of the cart matched.

Misc shot of me welding it together and finishing up

I reused the wheels off of another cart my friend purchased for me (he got the wrong one).

This is how my welder will fit on there when completed.

Again, I reused the handle that came off the old one. I Cut it in half, the ends are cut at 45degree angles, then welded to the cart.

I’ll paint it black and be done with it!
:::UPDATE::::

I’m finally done with my welding cart. Took me three weeks to do it because I can only work on it on the weekends. Turned out great! For some reason, I like making my own tools lately. Sometimes I save a lot of money and sometimes It costs more to make something than buying it new. That’s besides the point because making it is far better then buying one at any rate.

I originally designed my cart for a 20CF argon/co2 tank but I ended up having a 80CF tank instead so the dimensions needed some reworking. I love my welder now; welds are so pretty and clean. Fits nicely on the cart. I never new how heavy everything was. Toting it around the shop on the cart is so much easier on my back then when I had to carry everything. I’m not doing that again! Mobile welder on a cart is something you don’t want to do without.

I welded the front caster wheels on Sunday morning. They were galvanized coated and so I had to grind it off prior to welding it on. The angle is just right. I put a box in front of it to put my misc odds in there. It’s not pictured of course but you get the idea. I chose plywood as a platform because it’s much easier to cut than if it were out of mild or aluminum stock.

I was going to paint it but I ended up leaving it the way it is. Works just fine and serves one main service: to tote my welder + argon tank around the shop. It’s made out of used bed frames. I like how the mismatched colors came together; brings out the true luster=)

Build Welder Cart : Homemade Cart : Homemade Welder Cart : Making A Welder Cart

I purchased the new handle a month ago from Home Depot I believe and just now installed it. It was pretty easy. I ground the aluminum pin that was holding the blade to the handle and knocked it out with a nail:

Also as you can see the new vise I have and are using; it’s my new vice. I purchased a 3lb hammer you’ll see in the third photo.

As you can see, I have more leverage. Love the new handle.