Shop Made Band Saw Slider with Pic

[Craig Behnke]

never mind the bandsaw, i'm jealous of the CAMaster Stinger I see lurking in the background of pic 3. Been wanting one of those for 2 years now. maybe next year.

[Keith Outten]

David,

I couldn't make it through the day in my shop without a band saw slider. It doesn't have to be as nice as this one, the slider I had on my old Jet band saw was just a plywood slider but it did the job. I decided when I got the Felder band saw I was finally going to build something a little bit nicer since it is probably my last band saw. Granted the type of work I do is not exactly main stream woodworking which is why I use the slider so much. Its a lot like a table saw slider I guess as it serves a similar purpose.

Craig,

Don't be too jealous of my Stinger, your lucky you have waited. Mine is the first generation Stinger II and it has problems these days. Initially it was a pretty good machine but it has been down as much as it has been working for the last six months. Motor shafts breaking and having to be replaced plus some problems keeping the Y axis gears from getting loose have been driving me crazy and I have lost confidence in the machine. All of the problems I am having have been corrected in the last generation Stinger II's and there is a brand new model that has really been improved that is available just this month. Its just to costly for me to upgrade my Stinger to the new specs and I haven't decided what I'm going to do with mine yet. It's still a working machine but I am not comfortable enough with its reliability to sign a commercial contract and rely on my Stinger to get the job done at this point
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[Richard Coers]

Isn't that Corian runner rather flexible and brittle at full extension? Curious what operation you do that needs a slider? Faster than a sliding compound miter box?

[Keith Outten]

Richard,

The Corian runner is attached to the PVC sheet with shoe goo adhesive so there is plenty of support. The PVC sheet is 3/4" thick so it has some decent strength in itself, not as much as plywood but more then necessary for a band saw slider. About 50% of the runner is in the table miter slot at all times. Since the Corian runner and the PVC sheet are both plastic materials there isn't any thermal growth issue and neither are affected by moisture.

The fence is two layers of PVC so its 1.5" thick and the aluminum track is glued and screwed into a grove I machined on my CNC Router so the fit is perfect. This adds a lot of longitudinal strength.

A sliding compound box would not provide the same features that the slider does. I can setup a variety of jigs with the slider and it makes it a really safe way to cut short pieces like pen blanks while my fingers are a long way from the blade. The slider is so smooth it feels like its on bearings. Corian and acrylic cut much better on a band saw than they do with a circular blade.
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[Matthew Hills]

Keith,
are you keeping pretty much just one (straight-cutting) blade in the saw?
And are you getting any drift in your cuts relative to the miter slot?
(I assume that you aligned the fence to your initial kerf cut?)

Matt

[Keith Outten]

Matthew,

I am using a one inch blade. It took me a long time to figure out that really good band saws with large blades will cut straight and mine didn't require any adjustment. There isn't any drift to adjust for when cutting and all of the cutting I do on this saw is straight. I have a small ten inch band saw that I use for curve cuts.
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[Gus Dundon]

That looks great on your band saw. Functional.

[Kelly Craig]

For my circle cutter, you just push a square big enough to make the circle but small enough to spin and not hit the frame until the circle sled stops. To stop it, I just added a front piece, which hangs below the table, so it cannot go any father. I curious why this wouldn't work for yours (photo of the front of my circle cutter attached)?

Nice table, by the way and a project worth contemplating.

David,

I decided to use PVC over Corian because of the weight. A Corian slider would have been more than twice as heavy. Awhile back I was able to pick up a truck load of PVC scraps from a local company, most of it is 3/4" thick but I did get some 1/4" thick material as well and I have been using it for lots of projects lately.

Fred,

When using a slider like mine you just have to be careful for the most part not to cut to deep into the fence. When I get some time I will probably install a short cable that will limit the sliders forward movement automatically.
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[Mike Null]

Kieth

Now I see what you've been telling me about. I have a feeling I'll be borrowing your idea.

Yours too, Kelly.

Monday is my big day--my new Laguna 14-12 will be delivered.

[Keith Outten]

Links to a few band saw sleds used to make custom inlays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kajIlhgLuIo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c85OQENRVOw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfLZOpzwxwE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns7XRpcBD-w