Home made bench saw.

[alchemysa]

Isn't it good when you finally make use of some of the old junk you've had lying around for years.

When we tore our old shack down 12 months ago I wound up with a 6 foot high pile of old building timber that I didn't know how to deal with. Its old, dry and full of nails. I wanted to cut it into firewood but I figured the chain saw wouldnt last 5 minutes, and a hand held rip snorter (circular saw) was just too backbreaking and awkward. Everything I looked at buying to do the job was just too expensive or overkill. Finally I found a second hand bench saw on ebay. It was small and had no motor (and pricey at $90) but it had promise. (I liked the idea of building some kind of belt driven saw as I figured it would be able to take more punishment).

The table is an old weights bench that the local footy club was throwing out. (I welded some wider tube accross the base of the legs). The motor was off an old cracked water pump that been sitting in the shed for 20 years. The safety guards were the sides of an old fireplace screen that had also been in the shed for 15 years. The aluminium channel supporting the side guard was also from the shed. The motor provided 2800rpm (at no load) so I bought a 2" and 3" pulley from the local machinery shop. That gave me about 5000rpm at the blade. A surplus store was selling V-belts at 10 for $1 so I've got a lifetime supply of belts. I've never built anything with a belt before so I was a bit concerned about how to keep the belt tensioned, but this turned out to be no problem at all as it works best with the belt pretty loose.

I'm happy to say on my test timber it works like a dream. Slices through most timber like butter. The blade is only 7 1/4" so I'm limited to a 45mm thick cut but I think I can fit an 8 1/4" blade if they are available.

The safety guard on top turned out to be anything but safe. I sliced my finger twice on sharp mesh before adding the tape along the edges. I also discovered very quickly why these types of benches often don't have guards. If you try to cut a piece of timber thats too thick the wood ends up between the guard and the blade and gets very dicey to remove. I may remove the top guard when I tackle the big pile next week. I'll definately be wearing leather gloves regardless.

In the meantime I might try and add some wheels. Its heavier than it looks. It probably weighs about 90lbs.

Before building this I almost posed the question on TBN of how the heck you guys deal with piles of old building timber.

 

[Egon]

Are there gona be some supports for longer pieces?

 

[alchemysa]

Are there gona be some supports for longer pieces?

I've got a tall saw horse thats almost the perfect height to stand next to it. But I am concerned about the issue you raise. Much of the timber is about 8 ft long. And I'll be using this outside, on dirt. An adjustable height outrigger fitted to the left hand side may be the best way to support long pieces at the ideal height.

I learned quickly to never cut a long thick piece of timber in the middle without proper support. (it was thicker than the blade height). It sliced through OK but then it stopped the saw dead. I should have known better. I was playing around and just wasn't thinking. So now I'll be working from the left and cutting off about 20" at time. And most of it is thinner than the blade height.

 

[texbaylea]

Here in the new world 8 inch is a standard diameter blade for a small bench saw. You should not have too much trouble finding one. Usual arbor diameter is 5/8". Sorry I don't have my calculator handy to convert to mm.

Vernon

 

[RobertN]

That's cool! Now, you could run something like that from a belt pulley on something like my Farmall-A.

 

[alchemysa]

Here in the new world 8 inch is a standard diameter blade for a small bench saw.

Vernon

Yep, got one yesterday at the local blacksmith. (8 1/4" actually). I also picked up a roller support stand for about $18. I also see they had cheap saw benches and drop saws for $80 to $130. I kind of wondered if I'da been better off just buying one of those. But my bench is going to be doing some hard work and running for about 8 hours solid. I don't think those saws with the blade bolted directly to the motor would take anything like that. My bench also gives me two hands free, unlike a drop saw. So far I've run the bench non-stop for 30 minutes with no problems. The big test is at the shack next week.

I've also changed the safety guard. This works great. Swings up and down as the wood passes through or can be swung completely over and out of the way. The front gap of the guard is a just a little less than the maximum cutting height of the blade so it serves as a warning that any wood that doesn't fit underneath should be handled real carefully.

The story of the guard is funny I think. We were in the carpark at the local supermarket. I said to my wife, Deb, that I wanted to stop at the hardware store to see if they had a piece plastic channel that might be suitable to make a guard. (I'd already looked everywhere at home with no success).
'What sort of plastic?" she said.
'Well you see that busted piece of metal on the ground over by the fence? Something like that."
Deb stepped out of the car and had a closer look. 'Hey, this IS plastic she said".

So we solved a problem and picked up some litter at the same time. I don't think I could have bought or found anything more perfect.
A six-pack of Aussie beer to the first correct answer on what it was. (Winner must pick up prize from me).

(edit. The upright that the guard is attached to is actually lower than the saw platform. I just noticed that the pics make it look higher.)

 

[RobertN]

A six-pack of Aussie beer to the first correct answer on what it was. (Winner must pick up prize from me).

(edit. The upright that the guard is attached to is actually lower than the saw platform. I just noticed that the pics make it look higher.)

Looks like the arm you might mount a computer monitor off of, or part of a grocery cart.

How about some Castlemaine XXXX

 

[alchemysa]

Looks like the arm you might mount a computer monitor off of, or part of a grocery cart.

How about some Castlemaine XXXX

Sorry, thats a fail. (And I'm doing you a favor. XXXX is the worst beer in Australia!).

 

[Egon]

What is was was a discarded piece of plastic that was originally mistaken for a piece of metal. Now; reward yourself with a six pack of Pilsner from Pilsen brewed to the 1567 specifications!

 

[RobertN]

(And I'm doing you a favor. XXXX is the worst beer in Australia!).

Oh A buddy was there 20 years ago, brought down for some stock car racing. He liked it... He brought back a Castlemain poster. The poster is cool. I have very diferent beer tastes then him though...

 

[alchemysa]

So we solved a problem and picked up some litter at the same time. I don't think I could have bought or found anything more perfect.
A six-pack of Aussie beer to the first correct answer on what it was. (Winner must pick up prize from me).)

Your time is up. I got thirsty and drank it myself. The 'thing' had a white castor wheel attached. At first I thought it was broken off an office chair but more likely it was off something like this evaporative cooler. Anyway it made a perfect guard. My current favorite drop is Tooheys Extra Dry. But nothing ever seems to be as good as the beer we used to get in the big bottles. Beer in cans and small bottles just don't seem to have that smell and 'bite' anymore.

 

[Egon]

Beer does not come in cans!

 

[alchemysa]

Heres a little update for those who may be interested (and dont want to read about snot). This bench turned out to be just about the best thing i've ever built. I finally got through the heap of old building timber. I finished up with twelve 4'x4' pallets, each piled about 2 to 3 feet high with 18" pieces of firewood. It took about 3 days to get through it all, but the bench never missed a beat, sometimes running for an hour or two non stop.

I hit plenty of nails but the carbide blade is still very sharp. Some of the pieces of timber were hard jarrah stumps as thick as railway sleepers, but double cutting was quite easy once I got the hang of it. And cutting extra long peces was easy once I mastered 'plunge cutting', i.e. lowering the extra long pieces down onto the blade instead of trying to slide them in. The real beauty of this is the belt drive. Its so smooth and quiet, and really takes the shock out of the system. The motor would often be stopped dead by some pieces but it picked up quickly and smoothly again once the problem timber was backed out. The motor was only 550 watts which I think is about 3/4 hp but it performed beautifully. And the blade was only 7 1/4'' dia.

Admittedly its a bit of a stretch for me to claim this is home-made considering the blade table is professionally built, but I think now that something similar could be built quite easily using any shaft that can mount a a pulley at one end and a blade at the other. In fact i've got a stripped rotor from an old electric motor that might serve the purpose nicely. Its already got two roller bearings on it too. The luxury of a tilting and height adjustable bench is not necessary when cutting scrap timber for firewood. You probably just need a sturdy platform with a slot in it for the blade to protude through.

The cast iron blade table on mine is quite unusual. I've never seen anything like it before and i think i was quite lucky to find it. It must be a bit of an antique as it only has a 1/2'" arbor. When I change the blade i'll have to make a spacer of some sort so I can use 'new' blades with standard 16mm (5/8) holes.