Bandsaw Outfeed Table and Sled

[Vaughn McMillan]

I have replaced the original text and pictures from this thread for reasons I won't discuss in public. To give the remaining posts continuity, I offer this:

I needed a sled for rough cutting logs on my bandsaw, and in the process
if designing one, I realized I also needed an outfeed table to keep the
sled stable. I studied other folks' bandsaw sleds and outfeed tables
here on SMC, and came up with my own over-engineered Rube Goldberg
version of several ideas I saw.

48159

[Vaughn McMillan]

Never mind.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Never mind.

[Tony Ward]

Best looking sled I've seen, well done!

[Norman Hitt]

Nice Job there, Senor` McMillan. I've use a very similar method, (read, almost identical), to connect long infeed and outfeed tables to small jointers in the past with fold down legs to the floor and they worked quite well. I used steel angle but aluminum will work as well I think. For my leg adjusters, I just drilled a 6" deep hole into the bottom of the legs and tapped in "T" nuts, and then threaded long carriage bolts with a lock nut threaded onto them into the "T" nuts. I have since Embellished the adjuster design by adding rubber walking cane tips with a washer pressed into the bottom of it then inserting the carriage bolt's head and then pressing a washer down over the bolt, (sized to fit "snugly" into the rubber tip). The first washer keeps the bolt head from cutting the rubber tip as it is turned when adjusting, and the second, (top) washer keeps the tip from falling off the carriage bolt when the leg is lifted off the floor.

Looks like you're set to do some serious resawing now with that nice sled.

[David Rose]

Vaughn,

I wish I had seen this before I setup my bandsaw. As my primary saw, I quickly found that my Delta 14's table was much too small. I added a 26" square one. With a Fast Track fence, it was easy to replace the main bar with a 36" one. Soon there was a need for greater size which meant a sled as I saw folks doing on their table saws.

The simple idea was to create a set of 3 leg/support assemblies (infeed, outfeed, side support) that could be quickly removed. Right! And where to store this conglomeration when not in use in my garage? My limited wall space requires stacking them on hangers on the wall on top of each other. That means remembering how they come off and go back up. The time involved means that I don't use my sled unless I absolutely have to. :mad:

So I will borrow your borrowed ideas with your improvements and make a non-improvement or two of my own. :rolleyes: ...someday...

The log sled is a great idea too.

Thanks for posting! If you find other improvements as you go, please post them.

David

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Very well done my friend, but I did expect nothing less :D

Well thought our, lots of good ideas acquired from here and there, adapted to your own situation, yep, this one is a winner!:)

I can't wait to see some sled sawing pics, should be a good show.

A few questions or observations, with a suggestion or two, if I may be so bold....

The blue t-tracks, they are kind of exposed there, I'd worry about dropping some heavy log on one and squishing it. I think you made them proud so that they will act as guides keeping the faces of the two bookends parallel to each other, maybe you should have done this with a two solid pieces and made the t-track stuff flush? Time will tell on that one, but I know from my own experiences, once you get that log up there, sometimes gravity takes over and you kind of plop them down on the table (DAMHIKT)

More book end bolt holes is a good idea, but not any more bolts, it will look like a porcupine and you will be banging knuckle all the time, not good. I wonder if you could put some big knobs on them, but then again, I guess the socket wrench is not too bad to work with...?

Hard to tell in the pics, but how "pointy" are the bookend holding bolts? They should be really pointy, and in fact, if you could buy find or bodge the kind of thing that goes on the end of a "C" clamp the threaded end, put a slightly bigger face on it with 3 or four pointy things sticking out of it, it would hold even better, but, that may just me going into my "Way over built" state of mind :o

Not taking anything away from your sled, it is a heck of a lot better than mine............

http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/bandsaw/first_cuts/burly_cut1.jpg

Keep us posted! :)

[Frank Pellow]

Very well done Vaughn!

I need to do something similar for my bandsaw, and I will certainly keep this thread in mind when doing so.

[Tyler Howell]

Great one Vaughn.:cool:
Thanks for sharing

[glenn bradley]

Vaughn, very cool idea to leave the T-track proud so it acts as a guide for the end pieces. I'd like to borrow that idea.

[Peter Pedisich]

Vaughn,

Nice work, thanks for sharing. Some very cool ideas in that sled.

Pete

[Jim Becker]

Excellent work, Vaughn.

[Bruce Page]

Vaughn, great post and some ingenious engineering – I really like your sled setup. You don’t mind if I steal that from you do ya?
However, I must take exception to your reference of my hero Rube Goldberg! I have it on good authority (wife) that I have earned, many, many times over, the sole right to wear that crown!

[Scott Rongey]

Nice sled; I need to make one someday and yours looks like a good solution.

How long (or short) is the runner? I was expecting to see the miter slot continue into the outfeed table (assuming the runner would go the length of the sled). Since I don't see a slot I'm thinking you only have the runner on the first 1/3 or so of the sled.

Scott

[Vaughn McMillan]

Thanks for all the comments everyone, and feel free to steal ideas from this...heck, I stole most of them myself. ;)

Sorry I felt compelled to remove the original thread. PM me if you'd like to know why.

- Vaughn

[Al Navas]

Very nice, Vaughn! I will be making one of these sleds pretty soon.


Al

[Corey Hallagan]

Great job Vaughn, looks like it turned out and works great!

corey

[Larry Cooke]

They should be really pointy, and in fact, if you could buy find or bodge the kind of thing that goes on the end of a "C" clamp the threaded end, put a slightly bigger face on it with 3 or four pointy things sticking out of it, it would hold even better, but, that may just me going into my "Way over built" state of mindStu and Vaughn,

If you ever need these, they're called toggle pads and can be had here:

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?PMPAGE=606&PARTPG=INLMK3&PMITEM=891-5657

I bought some when I fabricated my mobile base for my TS. I needed a way to lock the base into position and they worked great for that.

Vaughn.

I like your sled, very well done indeed. Thanks for sharing it.

Larry

[Vaughn McMillan]

Larry, those toggle pads give me several ideas for useful gadgets. Thanks for the link.

- Vaughn

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Hey thanks Larry, those look like candy to a bodger like me :D

[Scott Rongey]

Scott, the runner (black UHMD plastic) runs the full 36" length of the sled. The pics don't show it well, but the outfeed table has a 3/4" wide x 3/8" deep slot routed as a continuation of the miter slot in the cast iron top. (You can see it in the second picture of the second post. Click the thumbnail pic to see the bigger version.)


Thanks Vaughn, I see it in that picture. I had zoomed in on the picture in the first post and didn't see a slot, but I didn't think about checking the other picture.

Scott