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Actually, I made this stand for my jointer. Fortunately I can use it for my bandsaw and it should work just as well. The jointer became too much trouble so I gave it away to a nice bloke from Maryland that frequents rec.ww and bought a new Powermatic 54A, but I kept the stand. What the heck. I made it. Here is the bill of materials:
- two 2x4x8' (nice straight ones) - $2.35
- one 4x4x8' (mine was pine) - $5.65
- one U-bolt - $.59
- one 1/4" bolt with a loop at one end and 4 or 5 inches of thread at the other - $.95
- one bag of fender washers - $.86
- one leftover part from a project I was building before I moved several moves ago and never used - $0
- one 10" scrap off of the end of a 1x8 - $0
- handful of 1/4" carriage bolts, nuts and washers from my stash - $0
- some 3/8" dowel from my stash - $0
- sturdy bandsaw stand - PRICELESS
All right, enough of the silly jokes. The total comes to $16.50. Actually I only bought one 2x4x8' so I only paid $14.15 (hence the $15 dollar stand). I had a scrap laying around from whence I cut the remaining piece or two that I needed. One 2x4 is just a bit short for all the pieces. Of course, I could have bought a ten footer but that would have required prior planning and forethought - certainly too much to ask. Your dimensions may vary but I was able to cut all four legs from one 4x4. As for the other bits and bobs, well it pays to buy in bulk.
I won't attempt to assess your requirements in terms of size, but if you have a bandsaw already and have a cheesy stand, use the existing stand for help deciding. You may want to raise or lower it a bit depending upon your preferences. As the lumber I used for the legs is 8' long, divide that by 4 and you will get an idea of how tall mine is.
Remember, in this project you are using dimension lumber designed for use in making houses and stuff. The stock will need to be cleaned up with a jointer and thicknesser, or hand planes and winding sticks to make it four square before you start. This will make your joinery more accurate. However, since you are using dimension lumber rather than specially dried hardwood, you may experience a greater than normal amount of warp after the stand is together. I did. It is still a much better stand than the old one and, afer all, that is what belt sanders were made for, right! All the more reason to true up your stock then get your joinery done and the stand assembled as soon as possible.
The 4x4 stock is used for the legs while the 2x4 stock is used for the stretchers or rungs or whatever you would call them on this thing. The legs have mortises cut into them into which fit the tenons on the end of the 2x4 stretchers. Each tenon is 3/4" wide, 2" tall and extends to a depth of 1 1/2" into the leg. Thus all your stretchers must be cut 3" longer than finished length. The mortises were marked out with a mortising gauge then the majority of the waste was drilled out on the drill press with a forstner bit. I used a mallet and bench chisels to make the holes square. I cut the tenons on the bandsaw and fitted them with a shoulder plane and files. Make sure you cut your mortises first. It is much easier to fit a tenon to a mortise than vice versa.
Once cut and fitted, the stand is glued together in 2 parts - a left frame and a right frame (or front and back if you prefer) - and pinned with pins cut from scrap 3/8" dowel stock. Actually I did not cut the pins. I drilled the hole, placed glue in it, drove the dowel home then flush cut it with a dovetail saw. Once each frame is glued and pinned you can take off the clamps and assemble the two frames together into a complete stand using the same methods.
After the stand was glued and dry, I actually gave it a couple of coats of Thompson's water seal. I don't know why - I guess it was handy. You can see in the jointer picture that it gave the stand a neat look. However, it has since been completely rubbed off, or evaporated, or whatever it does. I don't recommend you do it. It doesn't appear to be a very good product and I have since heard from others that it isn't any good on decks either. I should have sanded it nicely and thrown some polyurethane or shellac on it. Oops.
The completed stand frame needed a motor mount so I used a scrap piece of 1x8 pine that I had lying about and cut it to the width of the stand. In the center of the board I drilled holes for mounting the motor. I hinged one end to the lower stretcher on one side with a door hinge and milled a slot on the other. That slot is for a hook bolt that hooks to a u-bolt mounted on the other stretcher with a piece of hardwood. The bolt part extends up through the slot in the 1x8 and a fender washer and nut completes it. To mount the motor I placed carriage bolts in the mounting holes from undeneath before assembling all the other stuff and secured them with duct tape so they wouldn't fall out when I installed the hinge, etc. That little trick allowed me to lower the motor onto the bolts after I had everything else done, then tighten the nuts onto them without having to try and get a wrench or my hand under the motor mount. The belt installed on the pulley of the motor provides upward force on the motor mount. Tightening the nut on the hook bolt provides the downward force that places tension on the belt. Here is a drawing that shows the motor mount in detail. Here is a picture of the stand before the bandsaw was mounted.
Note: There is an inherent problem with the way I have done this. The door hinge allows the motor platform too much lateral movement and slop, and when tension is placed on the belt, the belt side of the motor actually lifts higher than the fan side. This throws the pulley slightly out of alignment with it's counterpart on the bandsaw. Most of this can be allowed for by adjusting the motor back and forth as it has elongated slots for mounting holes. However, if I were to do it again, I would place the hook bolt slot closer to the edge of the 1x8 that is under the pulley, and use a hinge or other pivot that isn't as sloppy.
Before I made my transcontinental move, I should write an article about how NOT to move tools, I was building a sewing cabinet for my wife. Some of the parts have been misplaced and one warped rather badly as the humidity in New Jersey is much different from that in Northern Alberta. Thus I had this solid cherry panel lying around so I decided to mount my bandsaw on it. I cut it to size as best I could (it wasn't really made for this) and a paper template of the bottom of the bandsaw was made. Using a plumb bob, a straight edge, and a square, I drew the location for the hole necessary for the belt to clear the board, then transferred it to the board. I used the drill press to make the mounting holes and place holes in the corners of the cutout. The cutout was actually made with a coping saw (I felt like it, sue me) then tuned with files.
Once I had the hole cut, I used my template to mark out where the mounting holes should be. Then I drilled them out. I took the panel over to the stand and clamped it in place. Then I marked out where the holes should be for mounting the panel to the stand. I removed the panel from the stand and drilled out those holes with a 1/4 inch bit. After remounting the panel I used the holes I just finished as guides for a smaller bit and drilled into the legs, the four by fours, so that hanger bolts could be inserted. I then sanded and finished the panel with a couple coats of water based polyurethane.
I placed 1/4 inch carriage bolts up from the bottom of the panel and taped them in place so they would not fall out. Then I slipped the panel over the hanger bolts in the legs and tightened it down with matching nuts. The bandsaw was slipped over the carriage bolts and bolted down. I had left the motor mount bolts loose so that the motor could be adjusted, so the belt was added, tensioned and the motor tightened to its platform. Then I replaced the belt cover on the back of the saw.
During this process I spray painted the pulley covers with an antique white. Unfortunately, the week I did it I could not get around the bloody wind, and a 4 year old tossing dirt about doesn't add to a perfect finish either. They did not turn out as smooth as the jointer did but they are all right. I had thought of pulling everything apart and rebuilding it from the ground up, but I did that with the jointer then ended up getting rid of it. Thus, only the pulley covers are painted.
Finally I rewired it using the wiring diagram that I published previously, and started her up. Here is the before picture. It is amazing how much smoother she runs with a sturdy stand. Uneveness in the concrete floor was shimmed with scraps of sandpaper so she is solid as a rock. She looks fairly interesting too! Here is a shot of the finished product. Although it looks kind of warped, trust me it is the digital camera. I haven't yet made my mind up on a new one. Well, she is a dozen years old and still works!
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