There are various web sites showing modifications to the ubiquitous 4x6
HV bandsaw (Roy's is a good one). I made a few of the mods shown, but I
put a twist on a couple of them.

One site showed a drill press vise mounted on a plate, which was then
held by the saw's vise. The plate could be extended towards the blade
and this allowed cutting pieces that were too short to be held by the
saw's vise. The trouble with that, for me, was that the saw blade guide
wouldn't clear the DP vise. So I turned the vise on end and it worked
just fine:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawvise.jpg

Another mod suggested was to replace the very light weight vise wheel
with something heavy, to get some inertia to speed up lengthy movements.
One guy cut a wheel out of plate. I went to the junk pile and found this:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawwheel.jpg
It's cast iron and weighs a few pounds. Give it a flick and it spins
about 4 revs. It's a collar used to hold plates on a weight lifting bar!

Bob

Thanks for the plug there Bob....Much appreciated.
I do the drill press vise thing myself, and have on two occasions got
sidetracked and cut one vise in half and the other almost allthe way
through......At least they were el cheapo junk so not much of a loss.

One more mod I want to do to mine is to extend the hadwheel shaft for
the vise. Sometimes it can get awkward to operate with it so close to
the head.. Thig is my shop is so jam packed and full I owuld have to
add an addition on to make room for the extension.

Regards


On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 17:14:13 -0500, Bob Engelhardt
wrote:
There are various web sites showing modifications to the ubiquitous 4x6
HV bandsaw (Roy's is a good one). I made a few of the mods shown, but I
put a twist on a couple of them.

One site showed a drill press vise mounted on a plate, which was then
held by the saw's vise. The plate could be extended towards the blade
and this allowed cutting pieces that were too short to be held by the
saw's vise. The trouble with that, for me, was that the saw blade guide
wouldn't clear the DP vise. So I turned the vise on end and it worked
just fine:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawvise.jpg

Another mod suggested was to replace the very light weight vise wheel
with something heavy, to get some inertia to speed up lengthy movements.
One guy cut a wheel out of plate. I went to the junk pile and found this:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawwheel.jpg
It's cast iron and weighs a few pounds. Give it a flick and it spins
about 4 revs. It's a collar used to hold plates on a weight lifting bar!

Bob

--
\\\|///
( @ @ )
-----------oOOo(_)oOOo---------------


oooO
---------( )----Oooo----------------
\ ( ( )
\_) ) /
(_/
The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....

"Bob Engelhardt" wrote: (clip)
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawvise.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawwheel.jpg (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Bob, it took me just a bit to realize what makes your pictures look so
"clean." So many of us send pictures in which the background clutters up
the view, sometimes making it hard to figure out exactly what we are looking
at. I realize that your technique is so simple that it might be
overlooked--so I will point it out. You use flash at fairly close range.
Since the light falls by the inverse square law, the background comes out
dark, and the pictures look NEAT.

"Bob Engelhardt" wrote in message
...
There are various web sites showing modifications to the ubiquitous 4x6
HV bandsaw (Roy's is a good one). I made a few of the mods shown, but I
put a twist on a couple of them.

One site showed a drill press vise mounted on a plate, which was then
held by the saw's vise. The plate could be extended towards the blade
and this allowed cutting pieces that were too short to be held by the
saw's vise. The trouble with that, for me, was that the saw blade guide
wouldn't clear the DP vise. So I turned the vise on end and it worked
just fine:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawvise.jpg

Another mod suggested was to replace the very light weight vise wheel
with something heavy, to get some inertia to speed up lengthy movements.
One guy cut a wheel out of plate. I went to the junk pile and found
this:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawwheel.jpg
It's cast iron and weighs a few pounds. Give it a flick and it spins
about 4 revs. It's a collar used to hold plates on a weight lifting bar!

Bob

One thing I do fairly often to hold short pieces is to make a "vise
extension" with a couple pieces of square tube. I put the piece to be cut
between the tubes, put some scraps to build up the same thickness between
the opposite ends of the tube and clamp the whole thing with the saw vise.
If need be, I can saw through tubes and all. The forces involved in sawing
are fairly light, so it's nothing like clamping something to be milled...

Jerry

In article
,
"Leo Lichtman" wrote:

"Bob Engelhardt" wrote: (clip)
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawvise.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawwheel.jpg (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Bob, it took me just a bit to realize what makes your pictures look so
"clean." So many of us send pictures in which the background clutters up
the view, sometimes making it hard to figure out exactly what we are looking
at. I realize that your technique is so simple that it might be
overlooked--so I will point it out. You use flash at fairly close range.
Since the light falls by the inverse square law, the background comes out
dark, and the pictures look NEAT.

What also works is a piece of colored paper behind the item being
photographed. Or a painter's cloth dropcloth behind a big machine. (The
plastic dropcloths and tarps are too shiny and crinkley to work well.)
These are standard photographer's tricks. The reflected light from the
background will also help fill in some shadows.

Google for "seamless background photography" for more information.

Joe Gwinn

"Jerry Foster" wrote in message
. net...

"Bob Engelhardt" wrote in message
...
There are various web sites showing modifications to the ubiquitous 4x6
HV bandsaw (Roy's is a good one). I made a few of the mods shown, but I
put a twist on a couple of them.

One site showed a drill press vise mounted on a plate, which was then
held by the saw's vise. The plate could be extended towards the blade
and this allowed cutting pieces that were too short to be held by the
saw's vise. The trouble with that, for me, was that the saw blade guide
wouldn't clear the DP vise. So I turned the vise on end and it worked
just fine:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawvise.jpg

Another mod suggested was to replace the very light weight vise wheel
with something heavy, to get some inertia to speed up lengthy movements.
One guy cut a wheel out of plate. I went to the junk pile and found
this:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawwheel.jpg
It's cast iron and weighs a few pounds. Give it a flick and it spins
about 4 revs. It's a collar used to hold plates on a weight lifting bar!

Bob

One thing I do fairly often to hold short pieces is to make a "vise
extension" with a couple pieces of square tube. I put the piece to be cut
between the tubes, put some scraps to build up the same thickness between
the opposite ends of the tube and clamp the whole thing with the saw vise.
If need be, I can saw through tubes and all. The forces involved in
sawing
are fairly light, so it's nothing like clamping something to be milled...

Jerry

I drilled and tapped the jaws 1/4-20 and bolted extension plates (almost out
to the blade) to the insides of the existing vice jaws; countersunk the
screw heads below the surfaces. Then there was one problem remaining, that
of the entire moveable jaw assembly wanting to skew around its mount when
tightening up on a short workpiece. That was solved with a 3" long packing
screw threaded through the moveable jaw and its extension plate. The
packing screw is turned out to meet the fixed jaw at a point that holds the
jaws roughly parallel to each other when holding a workpiece.

Bob Swinney

"Joseph Gwinn" wrote: (clip) a piece of colored paper behind the item being
photographed. Or a painter's cloth dropcloth behind a big machine.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Oh, I know all the standard photographer's tricks. Another one is to use a
wide aperture, so the background is thrown out of focus. But, my point was
the utter simplicity and effectiveness of what Bob Englehardt did.

One simple quick way to stop the saw from coming all the way down on my HF
saw is to slip a piece of 3/4 plastic
pipe over the top of the downstop bolt that is just a bit longer that just
clears the tooling that I don't want cut.
Then when done I put the pipe with the tooling for next time I need it. I
made a tooling plate to slit collets on my saw and even index collet 90
degrees. If anyone wants pics let me know.
Jim


"Robert Swinney" wrote in message
...

"Jerry Foster" wrote in message
. net...

"Bob Engelhardt" wrote in message
...
There are various web sites showing modifications to the ubiquitous 4x6

Leo Lichtman wrote:
... the background comes out
dark, and the pictures look NEAT.

Thanks! A peeve of mine is poor pictures (e.g., on eBay), so I feel an
obligation to make them as good as I'd like others to be. It's
satisfying, too. Bob

Robert Swinney wrote:
I drilled and tapped the jaws 1/4-20 and bolted extension plates (almost out
to the blade) to the insides of the existing vice jaws; ...

I was looking at my saw and thinking about this approach and I realized
that if I extended the jaws, then I couldn't adjust them to an angle
without them getting closer to the blade and getting trimmed. Is your
geometry different, or do you just not cut at angles, or do you take the
extensions off, or what?

Bob

Another simple photo improvement that few do is crop. This gets most of
the background distractions out and dramatically reduces the file size.
Just trimming edges usually cuts the files size in half.

Bob Engelhardt wrote:
Leo Lichtman wrote:
... the background comes out
dark, and the pictures look NEAT.

Thanks! A peeve of mine is poor pictures (e.g., on eBay), so I feel an
obligation to make them as good as I'd like others to be. It's
satisfying, too. Bob

"lens" wrote: (clip) Just trimming edges usually cuts the files size in
half.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I just did a quick calculation, just for fun. If you trim 1.6" all the way
around an 8x10, you cut the area in half.

Bob Engelhardt wrote:
Leo Lichtman wrote:
... the background comes out
dark, and the pictures look NEAT.

Thanks! A peeve of mine is poor pictures (e.g., on eBay), so I feel an
obligation to make them as good as I'd like others to be. It's
satisfying, too. Bob

I have been inspired...http://webpages.charter.net/sjyoung1/

S Young wrote:

I have been inspired...http://webpages.charter.net/sjyoung1/

Good work! Good deal, too - $2.99 for 2 hand wheels. You *might* get
raw stock for that price. Stock is all around us if we think out of the
box. Bob