Portable Bandsaw Upgrade

I described the portable bandsaw that’s mounted on a plate and clamped in my bench vise in my F-Class bipod in "F-Class Bipod Build" (April 2023). The saw is a Bauer model 1678E-Band it uses a 0.5" wide, 0.025" thick blade. The plate from SWAG Offroad (SwagOffroad.com) holds the saw securely and accommodates a variety of saws, which is why it looks kind of like Swiss cheese. I have used this setup quite a bit and it works very well.

It cuts through steel and aluminum easily and saves a lot of time roughing out material. The saw has a seven position speed control and I purchased the foot control switch to start and stop it. I typically scribe the cut line in Dykem and saw along the line and then mill the edge to the final dimension. The saw body limits the depth of cut on the left side of the blade. The only drawback to this setup is the limited depth of cut.

The design of the saw only allows about 4.5" travel into the blade before the work piece hits the saw body on the left side of the blade, however, the right side doesn’t have any restrictions. Any width piece can be cut, it’s the depth of cut that is limited. Other than that limitation, the saw has worked fine for me as the pieces I usually work with are only a few inches in length or width.

I cannot justify nor afford a full sized metal cutting bandsaw and this small bandsaw does what I need at a low cost; the saw and plate totaled about $250. The saw and plate have no provisions for aligning the work piece with the blade or setting the width of the part to be cut. After using a square and C-clamp to align the parts with the saw blade, I decided to make an adjustable fence to reduce the setup time. I looked at the fence on my table saw and figured that a scaled down version might work on the bandsaw.

The table saw fence has a locking lever that clamps the front and rear of the fence to the table. The locking lever works in the same manner as the quick release lever on scope mounts. After reviewing what materials I had in my shop, I made a few sketches and then started making parts. The main section is a 12" long piece of one-inch aluminum channel. The front and rear pieces that clamp to the table are 0.50" and 0.75" aluminum plate and the locking lever is 0.75" plate.

The front piece is fixed to the channel and is 3.5" wide where it contacts the table. After attaching it to the channel, I installed the channel in the

mill vise and milled the front piece edge that contacts the table exactly perpendicular to the channel. The rear piece pivots on an 8- 32 screw. A 8-32 threaded rod extends through the end pieces to the locking lever. I made the end pieces and the locking lever from hardwood for a mockup to see if it worked properly before making the parts in aluminum. The locking lever pivots on a small block that’s threaded onto the 8-32 rod and the lever fits inside the channel which keeps it aligned vertically.

It acts as a cam when rotated 90 degrees and pulls the end plates against the ends of the table. I offset the hole through the lever at one half the radius from the center line to get the camming effect and adjusted the shape of the mockup cam to get the correct amount of clamping force on the end plates via the threaded rod.

I transferred that final outline to the aluminum locking lever and drilled and tapped a hole in the locking lever for a 5/16" bolt to get additional leverage and added a wooden handle to the bolt. The clamping tension on the threaded rod is adjusted by the nut at the rear of the fence. There is a spring inside the channel that the lever compresses when it’s engaged. The spring pushes the rear clamp rearward to disengage it, making it easy to move the fence.

The mockup revealed that a few changes were needed, so I ended up with a few The aluminum channel is on the top and the locking lever with camming profile is on the bottom. The fixed front part of fence, the threaded actuating rod, spring retainer, spring, and pivoting rear piece are shown in the center. extra holes that were not used in the final version. The movable end piece pivots so the hole through it had to be elongated so the threaded rod would not get stuck.

I did not want any protrusions on the left side of the fence, so I installed the fasteners on the top and right side of the channel. I did not include any of my rough sketches as anyone with basic fabrication skills can build this fence and probably improve upon it. The fence aligns with the blade when locked into position, I checked it several times with a square. The fence can be adjusted to the proper position and locked into place quickly and easily.

It allows me to make straighter cuts and reduce the amount of cleanup. Just another tool to help get things accomplished and you can never have too many tools. AG