Material rest for horizontal saw

[melsdad]

About a month ago I bought a 4x6 bandsaw. And have desperately needed a way to hold long material. Since I have also recently got a welder that has opened up a whole new way for me to machine and fabricate things in my shop. This was a fun project and good practice on the welding end. I used 3/32 7018 electrodes for everything running DC+ @ about 85 amps.

 

[melsdad]

The main body is 2.250" dia. 1018 and the legs are 3/4" black pipe. The height adjustment is a piece of 1.125" ACME threaded rod. I made two interchangeable rests that are easy to swap out and held in place with a set screw.

 

[melsdad]

Holding the legs to tack them in place took some messing around but I got it done. The welds aren't as pretty as I would like but they are strong.

 

[ebgb68]

Nice work !

 

[melsdad]

The hardest thing to weld was the spokes on the height adjustment nut. I'm glad I practiced on a few pieces before I welded the real thing. Those welds are pretty ugly.

 

[SG51Buss]

Nice project. Nice writeup. Getting long items to set perfectly flat on the sawbase can be tricky. How do you approach that?

 

[hman]

VERY nice stand! Interchangeable tops is a great idea.

Getting long items to set perfectly flat on the sawbase can be tricky. How do you approach that?

I place a cheap laser level (the kind that doesn't level itself) on the saw. Then I adjust the (roller type) material support so the laser dot just grazes the upper surface of the roller.

 

[sniggler]

Melsdad, That is a classy bit of fabrication very nicely done.

Bob

 

[Reeltor]

Melsdad that is a nice material holder you fabricated. I see that you have some of the harbor freight adjustable roller/folding stands in the background. As-is the HF stand sits too tall to use with the horizontal saw. I took the easy way out and instead of making a dedicated stock holder for the saw; I modified the HF unit. I just pulled the roller and connected square tube out of the foot assembly, then cut the square tube so that it will go into the stand and be level with the saw. It's definitely not as nice as your stand but it will do for quick and dirty. )

Mike

On edit it seems that John Herrmann has the HF stands in his photos.

 

[hman]

On edit it seems that John Herrmann has the HF stands in his photos.

I seem to recall that I got that stand at Shears & Sawbucks. It was a bunch of years ago, and it's at my Corvallis shop (and I'm in AZ), so I can't verify. Anyway, it has a very useful range of adjustments for my bandsaw.