I bought a harbor freight bench top band saw

[Masonhd81]

WHY:
So I had a Meteor bolt lying around that was EVO length, but didn’t have any evo length bodies.
I didn’t want to sell the bolt so I Ended up getting this cheap bandsaw from harbor freight and cut down this 2k vert feed.

Product Review:
The stand is terrible and I will be making a table out of wood for it. It’s squeaky af when cutting, was using WD40 as cutting oil. Overall though the cuts weren’t terrible, just needs some sanding. Since I did that I figured I might as well mini it. I bought a tap for the banjo bolt on Amazon, arriving tomorrow. I’ve only cut three times with it, not sure it’s longevity. I got the warranty so they’ll swap it out for a new one when it does die.

Thought it was cool I guess so figured I’d post it. As I use it more I’ll update the post.

P.S. My front camera on my phone broke so I have to take selfies

[SignOfZeta]

Heh heh…those entry level tools and their bases made of paper thin metal held together with tiny little bolts…they not only suck they often take a surprisingly long time to assemble and if you don’t Loctite all 72 screws it will start to wobble in days if not hours…I love that stuff.

You can actually buy at HF *just* the crappy stand, no drill press or sander needed. I got one of these to hold up my crappy Craftsman band saw.

[Masonhd81]

Yea it took me a while to set it up. Screws were either too short or too big. I’ll probably just put some lag bolts through my table to secure it

[Jordan]

Sooooo.... coupla ideas here. Next time you mini a Cocker body, run the banjo tap through first, nice and deep, before you cut, so your threads end up perpendicular to the body and not potentially off center, and leave an extra 1/8" before flush of the lower tube. You cut it too short - they're not supposed to be even - so you'll likely need to customize the length of your cocking and timing rods.

[Masonhd81]

Yea I was gonna cut the ram arm a bit and maybe some of the cocking rod threads. Thanks for the heads up I’ll note this next time I start chopping up bodies. I’ll have see if the banjo tap will work or not, gotta be suuuuperrr careful

[Masonhd81]

Update the threads came out dead. Anyways I tried another body before cutting it. Threads are straight so should be good to go. Gonna measure that 1/8 inch. May cut right behind the VASA hole

[Jordan]

[Jordan]

There's a couple of the dimensions you need.