Cutting short stock in the bandsaw

[mklotz]

Like nearly every amateur metalworker, I have one of those ubiquitous 4 x 6 Chinese horizontal bandsaws. Also, like nearly every amateur, I'm cheap and like to use every last bit of material I have - it's not scrap until it weighs less than 5 grams.

I quickly discovered that using the bandsaw to cut slices off very short pieces of stock was problematic. There's just no good way to hold a tiny remnant in the saw vise.

So I came up with a solution that's been well received by my fellow club members and I'd like to pass it along here.

Take a cheap Chinese drill press vise and drill and tap the fixed jaw end so that it can be screwed to a board with some countersunk machine screws as shown in the first photo.

Grasp this board in the bandsaw vise so that the DP vise holding the short remnant stands vertically.

The small wooden stop screwed to the back of the board locates the DP vise so that the bandsaw can drop down over it and the sawblade is about 1/8" from the right edge of the DP vise.

It should be obvious that the DP vise has to be narrow enough to fit into the bandsaw frame opening. (If it isn't, you won't feel bad about butchering a cheap vise so that it does fit.)

With this arrangement I've been able to cut slices as thin as 1/16" from remnants only 1/2" long.

A further advantage is that short pieces can be placed in the vise with an angle block and angled cuts made without the need to disturb the alignment of the bandsaw vise.

 

[bob ward]

Top idea, thank you.

 

[wareagle]

That is the ticket!!!!! I have several pieces of good material in the bins ready for use in a project, but in order to make something with it, there would be enough chips left over to fill a garbage can by the time the excess material was taken off. I am ordering a cheap drill press vise right now!!!!

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Philjoe5]

Thanks for a great idea ;D. Presently, to cut short pieces with the bandsaw I have to find a piece of stock (a counter piece) very close to the size I'm cutting. I use the counter piece in the bandsaw vise to lock down the workpiece. I've found that I have to be within 0.020 - 0.040" otherwise the workpiece can pop out, usually breaking the bandsaw blade in the process . After breaking a few blades I probably bought the cheap vise several times over.

 

[mklotz]

Phil,

Rather than scrounging around for a piece of matching diameter, do what I did.

Drill and tap the upper left of the moving jaw of the bandsaw vise for a piece of 3/8" or so allthread. Then you can simply adjust this to provide the required counter spacing.

 

[dparker]

Phil: What I did was to move the stationary jaw into the movable position and replace the stationary jaw with a piece of fairly heavy angle iron. The stationary jaw also has a couple of set screws to help it maintain it's position without slipping. I then drilled and tapped the new movable jaw like Marv mentions and had both jaws set up to just meet the blade. This allows the jaws to hold the material right next to the blade and the redi-rod adjusting screw will hold the jaws parallel to give a good grip. If the material being cut does not span across the blade clearance slot in the frame make sure to TIGHTEN the vice jaws.

Don

 

[shred]

I took a $3.99 HF small drill-press vice (the kind with flanges on the sides) one day and clamped it in there horizontally with the jaws as close to the blade as I could get, then fired up the saw and sawed off everything to the right of the jaws. It works pretty well, though Marv's setup has a little more class to it.

 

[Mcgyver]

nifty how the vice just clears the saw frame...i like this idea, quick and convenient. Here's an another trick on the same topic. Very short, large dia stuff, will result in the forces not lining up in the vice, ie the vice screw and work are offset. For these trickier ones, a strap clamp has a much higher clamping force it its always directed at the work. It's just a piece of CR with some holes tapped where ever for strap clamps. It can also be used vertically as shown in the second pic

 

[gilessim]

I don't have a bandsaw yet but my friend does, a while ago I was given a bunch of 8x8x1cm offcuts of ali and some 5cm lengths of 55mm brass rod , I bored a 55mm hole in one of the squares of ali, cut a slit through on side with the hacksaw and used that to hold the brass rod in the bandsaw vice,it worked a treat to cut 30 of the brass offcuts in half for a small job for another friend!..just an idea if anyone has some spare ali plate!...Giles

 

[Philjoe5]

Great ideas guys.

Marv, I tried tapping the movable jaw of the bandsaw vise 3/8-16, then using allthread and that works great. Thing is, I did that in the time it would have taken me to find a piece of scrap for a counter piece!

I like the clamp options presented and have saved all the pics for when I get something tricky.

 

[Hexbasher]

workin in a jobber shop, i now and then have to throw alot of parts on the bandsaw and don't like to go in the bandsaw

an angle plate....that and some clamps/blots/strap claps and any angle, or stub part can be cut

 

[Swede]

Those are some terrific ideas! Thanks fellas. ;D

 

[Don Huseman]

I have the great pleasure of having "Marv The GREAT" my machine shop club and this is his greatest invention. I made one up my self and I could not exist with out it. This is what happen to a MIT person that is let loose in the home machine shop world. With Marv's propensity for mathematics's, I wounder what the calculations were like or was it an algorithm that he did. When I was the president of the SCRAP club I had to ban that word 'algorithm, form our home machine shop vocabulary. I do think though that if Marv had to make any big parts that he could not hold in his hand, out stretched he would become a normal machinist instead of Genius Machinist.