Delta 14" Bandsaw Modifications

Originally I replaced the metal blade guides with Cool Blocks.   I have since replaced the Cool Blocks with some wooden blade guides. Click here to go to my other site to see the wood guides. The first major modification I made to my BS was to cut a rectangular hole in top of the bottom door.  Then I attached an ordinary tooth brush as shown.  The pressure of the brush on the tire is made by inserting little pieces of wood beneath the brush.  If there is too much pressure the brush melts.  The brush, with proper adjustment, keeps the lower tire pretty clean.

(click on picture for larger view)

The second modification was to the tensioning knob.  Two pieces of plywood are hollowed out with the shape of the original tension knob.  The two halves were screwed together and a window handle from a VW Rabbit was attached.  The original tensioning system, knob and all, were left undamaged or altered.  This mod looks kinda klunky but it works.

Dust Collection

The white plastic thing is a 4" round to rectangular connector I got at the Habitat for Humanity outlet for 50 cents. The magnet was bought from Forcefield item #41. I bought a bunch of these and use them for all sorts of projects. It is half of a part from a hard drive. It is epoxied to a scrap that fits between the webs on the bottom of the BS table. The wood is attached to the PVC connector with a piece of scrap banding. The black plastic object is a standard 4" dust collecting flex pipe joint. I had to wrap one end of it with foam matting and duct tape for a tight fit into the white connector. I had bought the Delta, metal, 5" dust port( to replace the pitiful little plastic thing that came with the BS) but found that it(the 5" port) to be a major pain in the butt to attach and when I needed to make any changes to the blade or make adjustments under the table. There are some small screws (that can't be seen with this view) that are driven up from inside the rectangular plastic into the wood block for added support.

Dust port mounted under BS table. The dust port will tend to twist slightly when I move the BS(mounted on wheeled base). I suppose I could minimize this slight problem with a couple more magnets, wood blocks and a metal band, but I find it okay just the way it is.

Fence Bracket

Two scraps of wood were cut and magnets attached with epoxy. The magnets were from Forcefield. Certainly you could make up amore elegant bracket and screw it to the BS...but why??. The blocks were sprayed painted from a spray can I got at a garage sale for 50 cents.

Adding an Outlet to the Bandsaw

I bought a goose neck light(at a garage sale for $1)to use on my bandsaw and needed a convenient place to plug it in. I opened up one side of the saw base and removed the cover from the junction box atop the motor. I then passed a piece of 16/3 black cable through the strain relief clamp and stripped back the three wires. The new cable is just like the power cable. The twist-on caps were removed from the power cable black and white wires and the new wires were twisted on. Rather than remove the screw into the motor housing to mount the ground wire, I just cut and pushed back a small section on one of the green wires already in there. I twisted the new green wire around the exposed portion. I then soldered all three connections, replaced the twist-on caps and wrapped all three connections with electrical tape.

There were two plastic hole covers right above the plastic grommet through which the power cable went. I removed the right one and screwed the metal outlet box through the hole and into a piece of scrap plywood inside the saw base. I could have used two more screws but that would have meant that I would have to enlarge the hole in the saw base a little.

A strain relief clamp was attached to the bottom of the outlet box after I removed the knock-out. Following standard procedures, I attached the outlet cable green wire to green screw, white to white(silver) screw and black to brass screw. I was a little uncomfortable with the close proximity of the wires and screws to the side of the box so I wrapped the area with plastic, electricians tape. The face plate was attached. The relief clamp and the base door were then secured. Now, fiat lux(Genesis 1.3).

Two magnets from ForceField were epoxied to a piece of 3/4 inch plywood scrap and half of the plastic clip on the lamp was screwed to the scrap. One magnet would probablyhave been enough...with two the lamp is VERY secure to the bandsaw.

HOME