Bandsaw

[Lynn Erickson]

some one needs to pick up the old bandsaw so I can come and admire it. i think this was made about the same time they invented the saw blade and before dirt. and it is a full 1/3 HP no less.

 

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/BAND-SAW_W0QQitemZ250207302674QQihZ015QQcategoryZ20784QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Edge 513]

Thats an old "Stanley Sprockets" bandsaw. Check out episode 3 from season 4 of the Jetsons....

George was buildin' his own plexi domed flyin' contraption in his garage. You can plainly see him cutting out some kind of templates with it. Jane was harping on him about spending to much time working on it. A classic. It made great electronic sounds when George was using it.

I bet this would go for a lot of dough at one of those 'Auctions of the Stars' programs. I mean, who would have though Bea Aurthers false teeth or Robert Guoletts hairpeice would have brought BIG money?

Somebody SHOULD buy this as its going to be a steal on Ebay!

Really.

[Cozy Girrrl]

"Condition: USED"

Well no kidding! If it were brand new it would be priceless; its actually a nice piece of art deco design but not big enough to be useful unless you were building balsa airplanes.

...Chrissi

[jpolenek]

On the topic of bandsaws...

Besides the airfoil templates and jigs, what other parts of this project require this tool? I've already finished my templates quite easily without a bandsaw and I'm wondering if it's possible to get through the entire project without having to buy one.

 

Joe Polenek

[jpolenek]

...what other parts of this project require this tool?

Clarification: By "this tool", I mean a regular bandsaw, not the Jetsons version.

 

Joe Polenek

[Lynn Erickson]

"Condition: USED"

Well no kidding! If it were brand new it would be priceless; its actually a nice piece of art deco design but not big enough to be useful unless you were building balsa airplanes.

...Chrissi

Ya, I would buy it just for the art deco thing. it is missing the OSHA approved belt guard so i can't use it my shop. pretty ridiculous when I can't drive a band saw without a belt gaurd but I can fly an airplane with a whirling prop. the only difference is the belt could hurt you?

[Cozy1200]

I personally use my 14" bandsaw A LOT! so far probbably more than the fein. so far I haven't used it on fiberglass. Let me see so far:

 

Cut templates for bulkheads

Cut out the Alum Hardpoints for the firewall.

Cut wood firewall

Cut angled pieces of doubles on longerons

Cut Ch5 Jigs (the curved one)

I'm forever using it to cut down small pieces of foam

 

It's there, it's quick, it's easy, & does a good job. But is it required? Not at all (so far), but I find it usefull. If my died today, I would replace it as soon as finances allowed.

[Big Steve]

I consider a 14" bandsaw to be one of my essential airplane building tools. I cut templates and foam and aluminum parts with it. Of course I built my first plane without a Fein tool and a dritz scissor and now consider them to be essential. I suppose you could build one of these with a file and a hacksaw but I dont have to so I use power tools. Like Tim Taylor the tool man says More Power!!!!!!

[rickh]

On the topic of bandsaws...

Besides the airfoil templates and jigs, what other parts of this project require this tool?

You could probably get by without it. I have a rather large bandsaw, and it's quite handy for cutting anything with a curve. I haven't used it since I cut the temp firewall. I find my table saw much more useful though.

 

Rick

[Cozy Girrrl]

My mom and dad taught me the work hard or work smart lesson, both of them were quite handy. Randi and I seem to be to tools what Amelda Marcos was to shoes.

I am still convinced you can build a canard aircraft with a hacksaw blade and a hammer if you worked at it but time and quality wise we could probably pick that plane out of a lineup as well.

Wicks asked us for a list of tools we use every day (when we are working on our plane) and that became the Cozy Girrrls Composit Tool Kit, if asked what we could leave out of it the answer would still be "none"... the tools you use are part of your skills vocabulary.

Look at the evolution of the cutting methods for cloth we use; first the big Wiss shears, then someone discovered the pizza cutter disc fabric cutters, those were great, then someone found the Dritz, it was hard to convince someone who had been a pizza cutter convert to try the Dritz since they had taken the leap of faith to the pizza cutter; after all they had evolved from mundane to nifty. Dritz became expensive and hard to find, coincidentally B&D (no, thats "Black & Decker" to you BDSM fans) came out with some nice cheap electric scissors readily available at Home Depot. Unfortunately B&D went the cheap route and went with steel cutting jaws. The Dritz have carbide inserts in theirs. This I cannot understand, why build a tool in the first place that has no durability? It is not the expense, the Dritz blades are only $14.

Back to the bandsaw. While its usefulness may not be evident before you buy it, you will probably use it all the time.

Building our strakes we edge glued two sheets of foam, lovac'd both sides at once, did a layout of all the bulkhead parts for the strakes, rough cut the parts out on the bandsaw then put on magnifying goggles and cut each part to final shape on the bandsaw, cleaned up with a permagrit sanding block and we were all done. I think the part that took the longest was doing the layout with the Sharpie fine pen.

If you are building a Cozy, set the table at the angle for all the foam gussets for the floor pan and cut a whole bunch of it.

We sometimes do layup & lovac first, cut to final shape later, other times we cut and shape foam to fit, lovac and trim.

You really would prefer to use the bandsaw for the wing jigs and any of the others like the canard jigs. Lots of plywood and MDF.

Worst case, buy the bandsaw, build your project then sell the bandsaw to another builder. (this is like giving crack to kids, you will never sell the saw)

...Chrissi

[Edge 513]

Right on Chrissi.

The hacksaw bit..what a riot=]. Why try to be Macgyver if you don't have to be?

When I read a few years ago about your suggestion to buy the bandsaw you were using, I decided to go for it, and I gotta say its made building more convenient.

So I agree, that Harbor Freight Chineez bandsaw is quite the value, I think I paid 230 bucks for it. If I would have had to pay 400 bucks for one, I might have been more reluctant...but that rig is great, and a real sleeper of a deal. They could charge 50 bucks more and still be under everybody else for such a nice deep bandsaw.

I also like to lay up on foam and then cut out the shapes after cure. A great technique.

[jpolenek]

Ok. What is a good bandsaw size for this project? What is considered the minimum?

 

Joe Polenek

[Cozy Girrrl]

Joe

There is a 14" model that goes on sale at HF now and then at under $300, our local store sees Randi so often she just asks them when something is going to go on sale.

Anyhow, they have one particularly good model that is 4 speeds, you need this one because it goes slow enough you can cut aluminum IF YOU HAVE NOT CUT ANY GLASS WITH THAT BLADE. You can cut glass all week long with the same blade but it is the kiss of death for that blades metal cutting ability.

They used to sell a set of 4 ball bearing blade guides by mail for only $12/set but someone recently told me they could not find them.

This is a substantial cast iron machine. In constant use in 5 years our power switch went bad, otherwise like new. I guess thats why people would rather spend 2x~3x for a Rockwell or Delta. They are both great products but overpriced.

Regards, Chrissi

[jpolenek]

There is a 14" model that goes on sale at HF now and then at under $300

It looks like it's on sale now. ($299.99)

 

Joe Polenek

[Edge 513]

Thats the one. I think they drop to about 249.00/259.00 on the Valentines day buy-for-your-spouse Sale.

Get on the HF online mailer...they bug me all the time with sales stuff.

[rickh]

In constant use in 5 years our power switch went bad, otherwise like new. I guess thats why people would rather spend 2x~3x for a Rockwell or Delta. They are both great products but overpriced.

It could be argued Cozy elevator bellcranks are overpriced too. I'd hate to see the day when they arrive in ocean containers. I don't mind spending 2x~3x more

 

Rick

[Big Steve]

I bought one of those harbor freight bandsaws back in 1985 to build my Longeze. It worked good but I was continually fixing it. I had to replace the table rotators twice, the switch went bad in 6 months, the guides went belly up after 10 years and the rubber tires that drive the belt started cracking after 20 years and the blade would no longer track properly. I gave it away and bought an old heavy duty built in america machine for $100 It has two speeds and works great. Parts for the harbor freight machine are easy to get if you live close to a store. Since I moved to s. Central Idaho the closest store is in Boise 120 miles away I gave up trying to fix it. Build on STeve

[Cozy Girrrl]

Thats the one. I think they drop to about 249.00/259.00 on the Valentines day buy-for-your-spouse Sale.

Get on the HF online mailer...they bug me all the time with sales stuff.

"Valentines Buy For Your Spouse Sale" Great idea; that sounds just like something my father would have done to my mom, "Here's that bandsaw you always wanted sweetie.."

Like the year he bought her a huge air compressor for xmas, talk about a sore subject , right up there with the brass ship's clock and barometer

...Chrissi

[Edge 513]

Glad somebody got that one=] Thats exactly what I was talkin about.

No lie, once when I was about 17 my married Bro-in-law was telling me about his goofy friend[who I knew]..married for about two years..and he couldn't believe his goofy friend showing him a brand new S&W44mag 10'' barrel Dirty Harry revolver he was "giving his wife for her birthday"...heck, my bro-in-law said she probably would lose all her teeth from the recoil if she could even pick the dang thing up to shoot it first...He predicted it would lead to no good...but I heard she tried it out. Thats a WOMAN.

I'm sure we all have a story.

Yea, buy your wife one of these bandsaws...she can cut up the whole chickens for the BBQ, just like at the butcher...trick is cut 'em frozen. Also ya gotta change the blade from glass/foam blade to chiken blade..but hey, no biggie.

So yea, sell her on that...It'll probly be easier that explaining that 44mag.=]

[Cozy Girrrl]

You're a gem, Edge, sure know how to treat a lady =)

For butchering you need a special easy to clean, mostly stainless bandsaw, HF sells those too. I remember my father had a special one for meat when we were in Africa... probably for that chance water buffalo or wildebeast road kill?

...Chrissi

[mplafleur]

I could of swore that I paid less than $200 for that HF bandsaw. That was a good deal.

 

But it doesn't beat the $179 Sears 17" drill press that I got a couple of months ago when they made a $350 mistake on their website one morning.

[argoldman]

Check out ENCO. (enco.com)

[Neverquit]

But it doesn't beat the $179 Sears 17" drill press that I got a couple of months ago when they made a $350 mistake on their website one morning.

 

Blah, blah, blah.....

 

Just keep you garage door unlocked okay?

[ZUCZZ]

I never had a bandsaw & my Cozy is complete ... why did no one tell me that i REALLY needed one ... I feel deprived! My life would have been complete!

[Edge 513]

I never had a bandsaw & my Cozy is complete ... why did no one tell me that i REALLY needed one ... I feel deprived! My life would have been complete!

You obviously are a distant relative of Nat or have some latent MacGuyver blood in you that allowed such a feat. For us mere mortals, a swissarmyknife or better yet Chrissi's hacksaw blade is just noy enuf.