4x6 Horizontal Bandsaw mods

[jdurand]

I did these mods some time ago but just realized I should share them here. The saw is a Harbor Freight "4x6" bandsaw.

One of the first things was new wheels to make it more stable. The bushings are made on a lathe.





The next was to move the outer guide bearings up a bit to reduce jamming from swarf and to help make the blade vertical. I get REALLY nice cuts out of this saw. I simply chucked the guides in the lathe and made the hex part thinner.



Then I got what was to be the first of a number of orders for custom lighting dimmers for a circus group in Canada. One part of the design needed sections of 3 inch x 6 inch aluminum tube (used to make hanging brackets). Well, I have a 4x6 saw, what could go wrong?



Some settling must have occurred during shipping a the guide bearings hit the tube. Insert bad words here.

The bearing guide was all the way back and the tube was all the way against the right hand stop.



So, grab some scrap... err ... not currently used steel angle with a nice rust... err ... aged finish and make a new right hand stop. While at it, bring it right up to the blade for cutting smaller items.





Presto, I can now cut things larger than 6 inches!




Here's the lighting dimmer with those aluminum bits on, they hang under the seating on the X supports (like scaffolding). The dimmer provides 40 Amps @ 24VDC for LED lighting.