Band Saw Stand

[MarkBall2]

Good evening fellers,

I have a Clark brand 4x6 metal cutting bandsaw that came with that sheetmetal stand. I got tired of bending over to use it. That and the cost of using it - 4 sutures in my ankle from that stupid sheetmetal stand.

Anyway, I got to measuring, cut up some steel & then pulled the saw apart. Rear wheels & casters came from the local Harbor Freight store on sale. Steel for the legs was scrap Stainless Steel 1x1.5" rectangular tubing. Axle from Home Depot are 5/8" x 5" grade 5 bolts & nuts.

I got out the 4.5" grinder, put my flap wheel on it & started grinding. After all the joints were prepped, the HH175 was used using flux core wire. I ended up with something like this.............. (the last pic is the original stand).

[MarkBall2]

SWMBO came out to the garage to see what I was working on (and to yell at me to listen to the doctors orders of staying off my feet for a couple days - didn't work though). She saw that little saw standing up on it's legs, looked it over and had the following comments:

SWMBO asked "Looks good. You going to paint it?"

I replied "But it's stainless steel, honey!"

SWMBO says "But it's rusty & looks bad (edited out her name for me). Now go to Walmart & get some paint!!!!"

I replied (with a hanging, hound dog look) "ok, be back in a bit". (was planning on painting it, but hadn't told her yet. sometimes it's best to let them think they have the power........... I eat better that way!!!)

So, I pulled the saw back apart - removed 6 bolts, put the saw up on sawhorses - and painted the stand after removing the wheels. Used my flap disc to knock off all the rust that had accumulated on the stainless (who says it don't rust?) and cross bar, flipped er upside down, painted the bottom, let it dry then flipped it over & painted the topside.
Following morning, I put it back together to get this:

And to answer any questions about "vertical stability" I've included one with the saw vertical. It still requires a pretty good heft to lift the front of the saw up, so I don't anticipate any problems. If problems develop, I'll build a "wheelie bar" type attachment to prevent the tipping.

[556man]

You did a good job on that stand. I like it.

556man

[walker d.]

thats what i need to make ! that is real nice!!!! gonna be a little hard to move saw though had 5 piece's of bone fragments removed from elbow last monday. dam thats some good sleep till they wake you up lol

[MarkBall2]

I used the original attachment base to build this. If I were to do it all over, I would just cut some 1.5x1.5 1/8" angle & weld the legs to that. I still need to make a little bracket for the shavings tray to slide into. Maybe I'll get to that this week sometime.

[trial&error]

maybe I'm showing my ignorance here, but you said it was stainless, and that you used flux core wire. Assuming that they make it what would a roll of flux core stainless wire cost???

[whateg0]

maybe I'm showing my ignorance here, but you said it was stainless, and that you used flux core wire. Assuming that they make it what would a roll of flux core stainless wire cost???

Stainless can be welded with regular flux core wire. The weld just won't have the stainless properties.

Dave

[MarkBall2]

I had asked for 1.5"x1" rectangular tubing, scrap to be specific. I got a chunk 8'3" long. I had approximately 1" of leftover cutoffs.

I didn't know it was stainless until I got it home & started prepping the metal. As I didn't have any gas for the HH175, I just used some fluxcore. It welded fine. SWMBO saw the rust on the metal & all the dust from the fluxcore wire & said "Paint It!!!", so I painted it.

As said above, fluxcore can be used to weld stainless, the welds will not have the stainless properties though. If it's painted & in a dry environment, it shouldn't rust (I live in Yuma AZ - no humidity).

[Eugenius76]

You learn somethin' new on this site every day. I didn't know that about stainless. Now I can tell my dad to quit cussn fluxcore wire so much...Thanks for sharing the pics it looks good...

[MarkBall2]

from my experience, fluxcore burns hotter so I have to turn my wirespeed down. Either that or I have to run it so fast, the welds look cold.

I've used fluxcore on tap 3, running about 7 on the wirespeed dial........and burn holes through 3/16" square tubing. I've only run on tap 4 wide open once. I thought something was wrong as it was just a lot of light & a slight sizzle - no sparks hardly at all. I think I got it to spray, but don't know for sure as I stopped as it surprised me so much. I was using solid wire & gas at the time.

Fluxcore would be used almost exclusively on the farm if we had a wire feed on the farm. I find it just creates that brown dust around the welds. If paint is to be applied, it comes off pretty quick with a flap disc.

[Ironman50]

Good work with that band saw stand. I can imagine the hard time bending with the original stand. Smart solution.