My Homemade 18" Band saw

**mr95gst** · Jun 12, 2015, 03:02 PM

Hello All,
My name is Matthew and last year I made an 18" band saw from a treadmill, wood, steel, aluminum, and whatever else I could find laying around. I had been using an angle grinder to do my metal cutting. I finally got fed up with the shavings it through all over me and the shop and decided I needed a band saw. I couldn't afford the saw I wanted so I decided to try and make one.The motor is 2.5hp 90v dc and came from a treadmill. The wheels are made from MDF. The axles are 5/8 bolts. I used tubing from the treadmill to make the frame for the saw along with other tube I had. The blade guides were milled from aluminum and use skate board bearings. I used the wood melamine deck from the treadmill as the table top. I started out making the table pivot but end up just doing a fixed design. I am currently using the treadmill dashboard to control the blade speed, but I plan on switching it out eventually for something a little more user friendly.

It runs pretty good. I have used it to cut metal and wood. My father in-law used it to resaw 12" maple guitar tops. I still need to finish the controls and enclose the back side. I figured I would run it for a while to see if there was anything I wanted to change before buttoning it up.

I would like to credit John Heisz and Mathias from Woodgears. I studied their designs extensively to come up with mine.

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Photobucket screwed up all my pictures. I was able to get them back to attach to this thread but they are not organized. Since it will only allow me to add 20 pictures at a time, I will add more pictures at the end of the thread. ********

**Hotz** · Jun 12, 2015, 07:14 PM

Hello Matthew is welcome ..
Congratulations for the work, Matthias Wandel has lots of information and interesting projects.
Its manufacturing process is excellent.

**DIYer** · Jun 12, 2015, 08:58 PM

Great first post, Matthew! Thanks for sharing.

**Altair** · Jun 13, 2015, 05:12 PM

Hello and welcome Matthew! Great job on the bandsaw! Thanks for showing us how to turn scrap into a beautiful machine. Any stability issues on the base?

Al

**kbalch** · Jun 15, 2015, 04:27 PM

Thanks Matthew! I've added your 18" Bandsaw to our Bandsaws category, as well as to your builder page: mr95gst's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

18" Bandsaw by mr95gst

tags: bandsaw, motor

**Christophe Mineau** · Jun 15, 2015, 05:00 PM

Hi Matthew,
Congratulation for this great job !
I also immedialty thought about Mathias Wandel, looking at your pictures. Thought you did the frame out of steel whereas he did it out of wood.
But honnestly, if I had to build one, I think I would do like you, a frame from steel.
Thanks and keep posting such great tools !
Christophe

**Wmrra13** · Jun 15, 2015, 05:10 PM

Nice work! Thanks for sharing

-Tyler

**Lenny** · Jun 16, 2015, 09:06 AM

Wow Great Job!

I've been planning something very similar. I like Matthias' designs very much, but I felt that he loves wood a little too much. Like useing it in many places where steel would work much better. The bandsaw frame was precisely where I thought, it needed to be made of steel.

I like your work, it's really neat and looks pretty professional. Thanks for sharing and inspiring.
I had a question I wanted ask: I see the bottom wheel is fixed. But the top wheel adjusts, up and down between two parallel pieces of square tubing. How is it fixed to the those "rails"?

Well done again!

**zetuskid** · Jun 16, 2015, 01:15 PM

Great job!!! Where did you get the rubber for the wheels? How well does it track ?
Amazing ingenuity on the frame build and the finished product. Keep them coming!
zetuskid