I found the Harbor Freight Portaband was on sale for $90, so I grabbed one a couple days ago! I was going to mount it in the vise, but it wasn't too stable. I was interested in making a metal table for it, but have limited work bench space for it. Did some thinking on how to do this cheap! SWAG are nice, but $$$.
$10 Poly cutting board
M5-.8mmx30mm screw 2 of them were like $2 or $3 total
2 x 3/8"x36" long steel bar was like $26, but I had enough left over from another project to use the remainder, around 16" IIRC?
Around $40 total in parts. ~10 minutes to drill and c sink the holes and cut the table.
Drilled and counter sunk the holes for the screws, cut the slot in the table. Took the bar of 3/8" steel, drilled 2 clearance holes for the screws and mounted it under the table and behind the blade. This stiffened up the table a lot and allows me to clamp it to a tool arm bar of my 2x72! I cut some 1.5" angle iron, 1/2" square tube, handle material and stuff with it so far, table is doing fine with the heat. I will eventually upgrade to a metal table, but it's nice to have a way to mount it to another piece of equipment and keep it out of the way when I don't need it!
Also made a new bevel grinding jig. I took a piece of 3/16"x3" wide steel a little over 2' long to make a wider tool rest for the grinder. With the table extended, I wanted to build a new jig. I used one before that had 2 screws thru angle iron and it was OK, but a pain to adjust and wasn't super stable. I tried one with a self closing hinge, but there was a lot of play in the hinge itself.
Went to HD, found some surface mount cabinet hinges for $12 for the pair. Some 3/16" bar, 8-32 socked head screws and a piece of scrap G10 for the base. I used some angle iron to hold a threaded female connector to put the push rod thru to angle the plate. Made a rest with screws. Picture doesn't show the lock wing nut so it doesn't vibrate loose or the shelf screws flattened, etc. Going to try it tomorrow hopefully! I will have a better version of this made up, working on the plans to take to a local machine shop to fabricate one of the pieces and do some welding for me.
Molded some new handle material with MarineGuard 8000 epoxy and a fabric Jelly roll!
$10 Poly cutting board
M5-.8mmx30mm screw 2 of them were like $2 or $3 total
2 x 3/8"x36" long steel bar was like $26, but I had enough left over from another project to use the remainder, around 16" IIRC?
Around $40 total in parts. ~10 minutes to drill and c sink the holes and cut the table.
Drilled and counter sunk the holes for the screws, cut the slot in the table. Took the bar of 3/8" steel, drilled 2 clearance holes for the screws and mounted it under the table and behind the blade. This stiffened up the table a lot and allows me to clamp it to a tool arm bar of my 2x72! I cut some 1.5" angle iron, 1/2" square tube, handle material and stuff with it so far, table is doing fine with the heat. I will eventually upgrade to a metal table, but it's nice to have a way to mount it to another piece of equipment and keep it out of the way when I don't need it!
Also made a new bevel grinding jig. I took a piece of 3/16"x3" wide steel a little over 2' long to make a wider tool rest for the grinder. With the table extended, I wanted to build a new jig. I used one before that had 2 screws thru angle iron and it was OK, but a pain to adjust and wasn't super stable. I tried one with a self closing hinge, but there was a lot of play in the hinge itself.
Went to HD, found some surface mount cabinet hinges for $12 for the pair. Some 3/16" bar, 8-32 socked head screws and a piece of scrap G10 for the base. I used some angle iron to hold a threaded female connector to put the push rod thru to angle the plate. Made a rest with screws. Picture doesn't show the lock wing nut so it doesn't vibrate loose or the shelf screws flattened, etc. Going to try it tomorrow hopefully! I will have a better version of this made up, working on the plans to take to a local machine shop to fabricate one of the pieces and do some welding for me.
Molded some new handle material with MarineGuard 8000 epoxy and a fabric Jelly roll!
