Emerson Horizontal bandsaw?

I asume you already have your keyway problem solved, but, I do have several keyway broaches. You are welcome to borrow it/them.

Jerry

Many thanks Jerry. I simply turned the head of a setscrew down to keyway diameter and snugged it in. Shrug..its not a particuarly highly loaded interface.

Btw..the saw runs nice, though it cuts at a serious angle. I pissed around with the roller adjustments and got it cutting in the other direction...sigh. The blade is quite dull, and is something like 18T per inch..so it needs to be replaced before I can do anything much. I ran out of 3/4" blade stock (someone borrowed the roll and never brought it back and now I cant find em).

Anyone need a full box of 1" 10T raker set Nicholson bandsaw blade (shop worn box)? Ill trade it straight across for a box of 3/4"

Oh..and the saw is marked Made in USA. Pretty well made once I got the spooge off of it, all sorts of nifty engineering that ya dont see in the import saws.

Gunner

"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosphy of sniveling brats." -- P.J. O'Rourke

We bought one new over 25 years ago, its still a nice little saw, the old ones, like ours were formed from 1/4 steel plate and had a gear-box with parallel in and out shafts, the newer ones have a frame from 3/16 plate and a 90 degree gear box, i think they are also good saws but I can't say from experience. About the only thing we have done is replace all the bearings a few times, and we added a air vice when it was new, oh yea we have had a issue with the drive wheel coming loose on the shaft, but other than that it's held up in an industrial environment with a lot of use very well.

This one has at least 1/4" steel plate for body, and bigger for vise etc, so its probably the same vintage as your first one.

Thanks for the response.

Gunner

"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosphy of sniveling brats." -- P.J. O'Rourke

Ayup. The ebay one is rigged like mine, with the splash guards and coolant troughs.

Gunner

"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosphy of sniveling brats." -- P.J. O'Rourke

I bought a 7 x 12 Emerson new in 1982, and still run it. The first 10 years or so, I ran water soluble oil, or water based synthetic. Had to replace all the guide bearing about once a year. Then I cleaned it all up, and switched over to sulfurized cutting oil, and have only replaced bearings one time since. --- Once, had to remove the driver band wheel, and slightly recut it in the lathe, because the band kept popping off. Great machine.

I honestly don't think you can screw up one of any of these old band saws unless you are downright abusive. I've had a 7x12 from Harbor Freight I've been using for years, and before that I had a Harbor freight 4 x 6 I modified to cut 4 x 8 that I used for years before it stripped a gear. I fixed the smaller one and I still use both of them every week. The 7x12 just about every day. Sometimes I find myself using them both at the same time. I use the little one mostly for stainless and the bigger one for mild steel and aluminum.

Only problem I have anymore is I don't clean the chips off often enough, and when the build up to a certain point the saw won't swing down all the way. LOL.

Nice zombie thread by the way.

...I've had a 7x12 from Harbor Freight I've been using for years, and before that I had a Harbor freight 4 x 6 I modified to cut 4 x 8 that I used for years before it stripped a gear. ...

------------------------------------------- The 4x8 mod I made to my 4x6 is angle iron attached behind the fence, which was milled parallel on the back edge so that pressing it against the added angle quickly re-squares it after making angled cuts. Also I drilled extra holes that let the fence sit closer to the blade when square, to clamp smaller work, and replaced the small wheels with larger ones on an axle through the base. Being further apart they somewhat increase its stability when I roll it outdoors over the door threshold and down the sloping driveway.

The next pieces I expect to cut on it are 20' long. That job will definitely happen outdoors , possibly back in the woods where the timbers are stored.

The disadvantage of the 8" mod is loss of clearance for chips to escape the blade before entering the guide rollers. That doesn't matter as much when cutting wood. The widest I can clamp on the mill is 6-7/8" in the drill press vise and a 1" parallel will add chip clearance to cut a steel blank up to that size on the saw

I moved the original fence to a solid location for 8", and then made a new fence for the regular position with a tooless screw/handle for angle cuts. Most of the time I do not use the original fence in its new locations. Maybe never since I got the 7x12 bandsaw for larger stock.

I moved the original fence to a solid location for 8", and then made a new fence for the regular position with a tooless screw/handle for angle cuts. Most of the time I do not use the original fence in its new locations. Maybe never since I got the 7x12 bandsaw for larger stock.

Bob La Londe

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That sounds like a better approach. I kept the original fence and changed only the fasteners, so it's still clumsy to adjust.

I'd buy a 7x12 if I had the space for it. I got the 4x6 for $125 and it's a Delta with upgraded small parts compared to others I'd tried. With mods and careful adjustment it has been accurate and large enough for my metal projects and cuts a 6x6 timber neatly enough to leave the end exposed. My hoisting gear helps it handle long and heavy stock.

It occurred to me that I do almost exclusively straight cuts with the

Pasks Makes on YouTube did a bunch of "fixes" to his 4x6 in a video with some great tips a while back. Another useful one for me might be to make a table that clamps into the vise for using the saw in a vertical position, and just get rid of my vertical bandsaw that doesn't have enough torque at steel cutting SFM anyway.

I use the horizontals as verticals regularly, but I only use the vertical for wood, plastic, and sometimes aluminum. Never for steel. Well, I have, but its pretty disappointing.

On 8/27/2024 3:02 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote: ... It would also be nice to have a small out feed table with a work stop. Something better than the rod and stop it came with and I long since misplaced. Maybe a swing a way out feed table so I don't bark my shins on it when not in use.

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I use my platform stacker as a work support for long stock. Balance the stock (or a non-sagging proxy) on the saw vise, raise the platform to contact the end of it, slide the stock out to balance on the platform at saw vise height.

I'm considering ways to support and cut oak beams up to 20' long and 400+ lbs on the 4x6. I have a hydraulic scissors table and a portable conveyor track meant to use with a radial arm saw on a construction site.

...

On my 4x6 bandsaw, I replaced both parts of the "vise" (the swivel fence with one fixed bolt and one bolt in a quarter-circle slot, and the short screw-driven fence that pivots on one bolt) with taller, longer pieces of 2x3x1/4" angle, making both pieces the same except for corner cutouts for clearance for the back blade guide. The extra inch or so of height helps with tall thin stock, as well as making it easier to add C-clamps for tighter clamping when needed.

A table that clamps into the vise does sound easy and useful!

When I first got my 4x6 (ca 2001?) I occasionally installed the "Vertical Cutting Table" but messing around with that changeover soon got old and I installed a smaller table that stays on all the time, horizontal or vertical. Important dimensions are table length in front of the blade, and table extension to the left of the blade. If either size is too big, the table hits the frame before the saw is all the way down when horizontal sawing. Anyhow, in 1/8" steel plate* I drilled and countersunk 3 holes for the mounting screws**, and cut a slot for blade changing and for blade clearance when sawing.***

A small table like this also could have one or two holes (threaded or plain) for supporting an edge of a vise-mounted table as used for more-accurate work or larger workpieces.

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My first attempt at a sawmill was a 10" Sears vertical bandsaw with a coarse tooth 3/4" wide blade. I removed it from its stand and added wooden feet that ran on narrow strips of conveyer track mounted on the sides of my utility trailer. The trailer tongue jack tilted the trailer and track for gravity feed.

Though it cut a wall's worth of knot-free 5/4" x 9" wide oak boards for bookshelves the feed rate with the 1/2 HP electric motor was very slow, up to half an hour per board. The blade cracked in the gullets from bending around the 10" wheels and cupping up or down became a problem as the blade dulled.

The idea might be more practical for narrower rip cuts in soft wood, it was a fairly simple modification without any welding. When a neighbor parted out a damaged motorcycle I took the wheels to build my current larger bandsaw mill, which nears its limit with a 20" wide cut in oak. The wheels' only real disadvantage is that their load rating is well below the recommended blade tension. I split the difference since they won't hit potholes. The advantages over trailer wheels are the included drive sprocket and double ended axles. The simple square tube 'ladder' frame runs straight between the axles, a sawmill that cuts in from the outside doesn't need the throat depth of a C frame. The throat depth is still over 12" which allows me to cut two maximum 12" x 20" beams from one log. I don't think the 6.5HP engine would allow a longer cut with my 3/4" tooth pitch blades.

I didn't expect the larger trees to ever come down, but a squall blew one against and dropped another and the neighbor's clearing exposed a third to the full force of wind so I had it taken down, as it could have fallen on the house. I slab them narrow enough to fit the saw with the chainsaw ripping guide that holds the bar at a right angle to a 2x6 plank.

Thanks, it's on my to-do list.