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Band Saw

A project log for MultiBot CNC v2

A low cost 3D printed CNC that can be built with minimal tools yet is capable of great things.

david-tuckerDavid Tucker 12/29/2020 at 03:000 Comments

My lovely wife got me a bandsaw for Christmas.  It has been high on my wish list for years but I was nervous about getting a small one that could fit in my limited shop space.  I got a WEN 3939T 2.8 amp 9" bandsaw from Amazon. It seemed like a reasonable compromise between size and performance.  It is just light enough that I can move it around without much of a struggle and yet just powerful enough (barely) to actually be useful.

So far I'm really liking it.  It cuts well and just has enough power to resaw a 2x4 the long way.  I'm not sure how well it will hold up to 4" thick hardwoods but still it is nice to have a saw that can make quick and reliable cuts that does not make me nervous when using it.  I have a skill saw, a chop saw, and a jig saw and all either scare me or cut rather rough.

One of my first projects was to cut out some circles from some scrap plywood I had laying about.  At first I started to research circle cutting jigs, but I finally hit on the trick of just nailing my target to a piece of scrap wood and clamping that to the table to create a pivot.  I found that you need to move the pivot point an inch or so in front of the blade to allow it to bite in and keep it from wandering too much.  Anyway works a treat and costs nothing!  A proper jig is probably a great idea if you do this all the time but for a one off I can't complain.

I noticed the table insert was a mm to shallow for the bed, causing small material to catch on the lip so I made a zero clearance insert.  However I noticed there was a lot more dust on top of the table after adding in this insert.  The dust collection works ok but it produces almost no vacuum at the base of the blade and I think it needs that large opening in the insert to allow the chips to fall into the collector.  I'm thinking of redesigning the whole thing at some point, but for now the built in dust collector work ok, and better when left stock (so far).

I also made a dust boot adapter for my smaller shop vac hose.

Anyway over all I'm really pleased with this little machine.  It is certainly not something you would want if you had a proper sized shop, in that case spend the money on a decent sized 14" bandsaw with a built in base, but it is great for my small space and needs.  In summary if you don't expect this to be a full size bandsaw you will be very happy with it.

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