legenddc Posted February 22, 2022 Report Share Posted February 22, 2022 Has anyone ever made a new base cabinet for a bandsaw? I have one of the older one with the motor behind the machine running it via a belt. The metal base creates a lot of wasted space and anything I put there gets covered in dust. I'm wondering if I couldn't create a plywood cabinet and keep the motor where it is or even put it under the saw and shrink the footprint some. I was looking at the one @gee-dub made but he just has a 10" bandsaw on top and doesn't have to deal with the motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post gee-dub Posted February 22, 2022 Popular Post Report Share Posted February 22, 2022 As luck would have it I made this one for dad's 1940's Delta. The pic below shows the slotted motor mount holes and a pair of wedges to set the belt tension. Sorry the only pics I have are with his "stuff" piled all over it. Sadly the state of nearly any flat surface in his shop. the drawer depth was driven by the slides he had. I would have made them full length but I'm a drawer freak. The empty are behind the drawer box is just a cubby. He kept things there like his BS fence (he later got rid of the Rockler table) and boxes with spare blades in them. With the mobile base you have you could make a drawer box to fit and still be mobile. With the long dimension I waffled on building out two vertical rows of smaller drawers pulling out toward the operator position. For his shop layout wider drawers to the right of the operator position and the cubby made sense. One of the joys of being a woodworker and needing a machine platform is that you can build whatever suits you and your environment best. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legenddc Posted February 22, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2022 How else was he going to keep things from floating away? Had to hold them down somehow... Thank you for sharing this. My main concern is the motor and figuring out a way to tension it but I believe you solved them. I'll have to think if I want the drawers facing the operator or the front. Honestly just cutting down on the places for dust to get trapped will be a win. If I can make some usable storage for bandsaw related accessories I'll be happy. Won't be for a while but just wanted to get some good ideas flowing. What's with the conduit on the front and back? The front looks like the on/off switch but the back has me stumped. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post gee-dub Posted February 22, 2022 Popular Post Report Share Posted February 22, 2022 On 2/22/2022 at 1:54 PM, legenddc said: What's with the conduit on the front and back? The front looks like the on/off switch but the back has me stumped. As dad edged into his 90s some of his ideas were not as well thought out as in his younger years. The original design had fixed wheels at the rear similar to a Minimax Bandsaw mobility kit. A sort of Johnson bar rig would catch a ring at the front and allow him to move it about. That worked fine. At some point he decided that a couple of slide in handles would allow him to lift the beast like a wheel barrow and move it about that way. The conduit was to act as the receiver for the hardwood handles. Everything was fine until the first time he tried to pick that mass of cast iron up. He went back to the Johnson bar and the conduit "sockets" for the hardwood handles just got left behind. As to dust nooks and crannies, a piece of 'stay put' hose focused right under the table near the lower guides will capture a lot of spoil right at the source. Some brilliant fellow came up with a modified drain pipe idea that I plan to try in the future. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted February 23, 2022 Report Share Posted February 23, 2022 Do it! I have nothing to add that Ge-Dub hasn't covered. Motor tension is more intimidating than it is difficult. Bolts with T nuts in the top would be how I'd handle it. The wedges are genius. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legenddc Posted February 23, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2022 The struggle of pulling the motor out with a big pry bar or 2x4 while also tightening a nut/bolt is very difficult. One of these days once a few other projects are done and it's nice weather I'm going to rent/borrow a truck and go buy a ton of plywood to make this, some tool storage cabinets for my storage room and maybe even cabinet for my workbench if it's larger than the hybrid workbench. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wimayo Posted March 6, 2022 Report Share Posted March 6, 2022 If I may add a word or two of caution. You mentioned the possibility of reducing the foot print. Be aware that band saws tend to be top heavy. I would not reduce the foot print more than it already is. Putting the motor under the saw will help with this, but it will eat up storage space if that is what you are looking for. If storage space protected from dust is your objective, an easy way to do that is to just cover the sides of what you have with 1/4" plywood or similar. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legenddc Posted March 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2022 Good point. If I do make this way in the future, I'll probably lower it some too. Making underneath usable space would make me care a lot less about the size. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted March 7, 2022 Report Share Posted March 7, 2022 Bandsaw tables are usually higher than other machine tables, I assume because of the need to do close-up 'scrolling' type work. If you use your saw more for long rips and such, changing the base to put the table where it matches other surfaces you can use for in/out feed might be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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