Biker Build-off & the $200 bandsaw

Except after smashing it, you'll be back to a hacksaw. I still remember cutting chunks out of blocks of material with a hand hacksaw or a saber saw that only requires 90% the energy of the hacksaw, and makes a lot more noise, too. It IS a horrible piece of junk, but until I have something better, it is going to have to stay.

Jon

I think I saw it, after he beat it to death they brought in another bandsaw. I think what they brought in was a wood cutting bandsaw because of its speed. When they showed him cutting the next piece of metal sparks were flying out underneath. I thought the guy was a clown and that the wrong person won. His bike wasn't even functional without aluminum foil to keep his butt from catching on fire! The paint job was common and not nearly the quality of the other bike. My 2cents. Rick

yea, I can relate to his frustration...although, I have managed to work up enough impulse control that I *usually* end up reworking the bad tool to make it better.

Well, it was a Rockwell/Delta 14" or clone unit...which will cut either wood or metal. I agree, though, it looks like it was set up for "friction" cutting, instead of "mill" cutting. That works, but, seems a bit harder on the blade and saw to me.

Hum...I have mixed feelings about that. I really think it would have been good to see both bikes in person. I thought that Billy's bike was a tad more radical in shape, and, I liked the idea of the rear fender becoming the fire-breathing dragon's nostrils. It was a bit less flowing in line than the other bike... I certainly agree about the heat problem though. I would have included a good heat shield from day one. On the other hand, I know what a tape measure is too and use them regularly.... Ah well...It was certainly interesting to watch. Regards Dave Mundt

I seriously considered the sledge hammer too, and then I tightened the blade as tight as I could turn the knob and it hasn't jumped off anymore. Amazing! I think I'll build a new stand for it next. Gary Brady Austin, TX

Amazing what you can do with a little patience and intelligence, isn't it? Or, you can go off like a GenX'er or a TwentySomething idiot and bust it up while in camera.

Billy Lane says, " Stand? What's a stand?"

Steve

Especially if it's in the script. And you make a shitload of money doing it.

Ron Thompson Was On the Beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast, Now On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

--Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

Mine was similar. I had to tighten it tighter and tighter. Now it won't stay on and I'll have to start playing with shims. Wouldn't be so bad, but I also have the trouble with the worn pivot hinge so it doesn't exactly cut straight.

Joel. phx

Well it seems kind of assinine that folks that can make such nice projects as on that show can';t make a bandsaw work right with a little tweaking. I would have to think it was all showmanship to portray a bad ass attitude normally associated with bikers.

Hell it ain't rocket science to make a bandsaw work right. Visit my website:

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Thers no need to a stand.....

I had one of those, (until I graduated to a 10") and all it takes to turn that sheet metal excuse into a great stand is to add a couple of angle irons lengthwise along the bottom.

They extended under the motor, and that's where I attatched the wheels. This is an amazing improvement in rigidity to the stand, and makes the wheels work great too.

It was just a couple of 1" angle irons, bolted to the sheet metal at each end. Throw the original wheel bracket away, and bolt the wheels to the ends of the angle irons under the motor end.

Pete

Eh, I don't have much respect for people who purposely throw, maim or otherwise destroy tools in anger, especially if those are the tools they make their living with. Sure, everyone likes watching a guy show how "tough" he is by taking a sledge to a tool but in the end, you end up spending more when you buy replacements. I would rather buy a tool I didn't have than buy a replacement for one I purposely destroyed.

Nate

--

There's nothing like that silent prayer as you really torque down on the tensioning knob - "please, oh please, don't strip". :-)

[ ... ]

Isn't there a setscrew which will tune the angle of the wheel which you tighten with the knob? Mine has one, and it helps to set that correctly. (You'll know when you reach "correctly" because the blade will start staying on. :-)

Good Luck, DoN.

Yes, and all the way in and all the way out produced the same effect. Twanggggg, crap.

Joel. phx

Yep its accessible through the piece of metal that is part of the adjustable wheels slide assembly. Its not very noticeable and looks like a blind hole, but there is a setscrew down there, for adjusting the ....would it be caster or camber of the wheel.

Visit my website:

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I live about three miles from Billy's shop, Choppers Inc. I've checked out that bike personally (but not ridden it) as close as you can get to it, and there's a lot more to that paintjob than shows up on your TV set. It is indeed a very classy bit of work. As for the hotseat, yeah, it's kind of funny at first, but a little insulation/heat deflection was all that was needed and that's not at all unusual.

Many cars will virtually roast your feet if you were to remove all the insulation from both sides of the firewall and floorpan. Yet nobody complains about their being poorly designed.

Billy's routing of the exhaust through the rear fender is a very clever idea which contributed immensely to the very clean and simple lines of that bike, and it's just an idea that needed a little tweaking in order to eliminate the rectal fire hazard potential.

CJ

Well ... obviously, neither all the way in nor all the way out are the *correct* position. It is a rather sensitive adjustment to get it just right -- but once you do, things, just keep working. (At least,

*mine* keeps working. :-)

FWIW, it is one of the MSC branded versions of the $200.00 bandsaw -- one with rather solid castings or forgings for the mounting of the guide rollers, not the ones bent up from mild steel.

Enjoy, DoN.

Two other points: mine had a _pair_ of setscrews, so that you'd use one to adjust, and the second to lock it in place. And I also found out that this still doesn't help much when the sliding cast iron block that carries the axle and its adjustment, and applies the tension, is cracked in two pieces. This after I stripped my tension knob and cobbled together a tension crank, which no doubt exceeded the limits of the cast iron. I ended up sistering mine with a chunk of 3/8" steel I had lying about, and replacing the fasteners with longer ones to compensate.

One of these days I keep meaning to order a new axle block for it, but since it's working, and I'm not using it a lot at the moment, it's not a high priority.

--Glenn Lyford

I'm sorry I wasn't clear. All the way one way should cause the blade to fall off *out* of the machine. All the way the other way should run the blade *into* the machine. In my case both possitions sends the blade out of the machine (aka it doesn't tip far enough one way or the screw has shortened somehow).

I will double check, but I think I only had the 1.

Gads, I hope it's not that broke. I'm getting motivated to pull it apart though,...

Joel. phx

I've also seen this bike, and several other Choppers Inc. bikes up close and personal, and the paintjob is pretty nice. Consider it elegant simplicity.......LoL. As far as why it beat Dave Perewitz's bike, you would have to attend some of the shows where they vote on these bikes to understand. Dave Perewitz builds very nice bikes and is very well respected in the customs community, but his bikes won't stick out at a show. His style has just been duplicated by so many others that it isn't as spectacular anymore. Billy Lane is doing things outside of the norm, so what he does attracts a lot of attention at these shows. Give it a few years though and what he is doing now will be copied and duplicated until it is nothing special, and someone else will be the big name in custom bikes. As far as taking the sledgehammer to the bandsaw, who knows how much trouble he had with it before the show. It probably could have been fixed, with a little time and effort, but that goes back to the "Time is Money" issue. And when you are building $100,000 motorcycles is messing with a $200 band saw worth wasting a day of your time? LoL