Welding Tips and Tricks

I finished this little stand a couple weeks ago. Prior to this stand I was simply clamping it down to a HF portable workmate knockoff. The stand worked ok until I figured out I might end up accidentally dropping the saw someday. I looked at all or most of the other designs available commercially and on youtube. It seemed to me that most stands were either underbuilt or overbuilt. I couldn't really make up my mind which design was the "best" I didn't want to buy any more metal for a stand and I decided to just use the small scraps I had available. The base is made up of 3 pieces of square tubing. I tried to make the center tube at the same angle as the saw base in order catch the lowest part of the saw. The saw hangs from the handle in a saddle made from 2" angle iron with a notch cut out. The saddle is welded to 1 1/2" channel. I simply made the channel angle enough to clear the motor housing. I did have to grind out a little bit of the channel for the housing to clear. Originally I thought I would let the saw rest on rubber plate at the right height for the saw but out of impatience I ended up simply drilling and tapping the cast aluminum base. I planned on making the table of the bandsaw larger but I didn't have anything wider. The table works fine as it is. The length of the table in front of the blade is the throat or depth of cut, so it's kind of a gauge to see if a part will make it through the saw completely. I had to shim the base of the table to make it square to the blade. When I welded the frame, things got out of flat and I had to run some mig weld beads to act as leveling feet. I really enjoy the saw's accuracy and convenience. To remove the saw, one bolt needs to be removed at the base. The motor or gear box is really loud so I normally wear ear plugs when it's on.

Nice Job.