Shop Equipment

Please let us know your thoughts on:

Band Saw-
Tony Bingelis recommended a 14" band saw. Sears has a nice 12" for $332 vs. $499 for the 14". They appear to be constructed the same except for the throat size. Will a 12 do the job?

Bench Grinder-
6" vs. 8"

Bench Vise-
4", 5" or 6"?

Any input is appreciated!

I use a small Delta tabletop bandsaw from Lowes. You do not need the big unit for an RV. Spend the extra on a pneumatic squeezer.

6" grinder works great

4" vise works good for smaller jobs, 6" vise would be great for larger ones.
I have a 4" mounted on a mobile base, a 6" mounted on a table.

I bought a nice 8 inch grinder only to find my scottbright disk wouldn't fit the arbor. Now I have a nice 6 incher sitting beside the 8 inch.

My bought a 10 inch Ryobi band saw and it meets most of my needs. Ocassionally, I need to get creative in cutting some longer items and sometimes I need to use alternative cutting means. I think the 12 inch will be sufficient, not perfect though. As said before, spend the extra money on somethin else such as a table mounted disc/belt sander.

Jekyll

I have almost completed my RV6 with a 4" vise, an un-American "hand powered" hack saw and a single Scotchbrite disk mounted in a cheap Craftsman drill press. I wouldn't do without the drill press, and although there isn?t a ragged edge anywhere on my plane I have only dressed the Scotchbrite disk once! Avery's hand squeezer with various yokes was expensive but a God send. Pop rivet dimplers and a nut plate drill jig were too. I threw away my air drill ? noisy, difficult to control, pain in the bahooky hose dragging, and wasteful of compressed air - and have succeeded this far with a trusty 14V DeWalt. Avery's small right angle attachment has been a big help, as has the offset "pancake" attachment for reaching those awkward spots that a long aviation drill won't flex into. A small electric screw driver with a deburring bit has smoothed the edges of a bazillion holes and so far I have avoided carpal tunnel syndrome. I gave up on the swivel flush set - couldn't get flush rivet heads - but I now know that I should have trimmed the edge of the rubber! The edge roller was more trouble than it was worth too and all of my edges are tight without it. Cheap dial calipers, a decent 12" steel rule and a spring loaded center punch are indispensable. You can never have too many clamps, spring or ?C? type ? cheap ones will do. Get few decent files - and a file card to clean them. Use cobalt aircraft drills for aluminum ? they?ll last for ever. And don?t try and make big holes in thin sheet with a twist drill ? they?ll be lobed like a Wankel rotor, God knows why! Use a stepped hole-cutter - but beware, they wander. The drill press and clamps help here. Invest in Sharpie, Scotchbrite and Duct Tape ?futures?. I used a high-speed Rotozip with a right angled head and a metal cutting disk to trim the canopy. It worked great. I threw away the Avery canopy deburring tool and used sandpaper instead. Do use the proper drill bits though. I know you asked about band saws but the rest of the ramble could be useful too.
Jim Sharkey
RV6 Tip-Up
Final 10%

Band saws

I, too, got the Delta from Lowe's. I must not have it set up right 'cause I can't cut a straight line to save my rear. It sits under one of the work tables. I will probably end up getting one of those smaller 7" cut off saws. For now it's a hacksaw - they cut through this aluminum very quickly and I seem do be able to cut a straighter line than the band saw.

Hand tools...

OK... I'm about as far from a Luddite as they get, but I couldn't spring for a band saw (and I'm out of room and have no place to put it)! I'm having good results so far with a common hack saw. It works great on angle, and small pieces of sheet.

Granted, I have a bench top sanding disc/belt that I use to true things up. My typical sequence is: measure, measure again, cut with the hack saw - leaving 1/16th or so, tune up with the sander (80 grit) to take the last bit off, and then hit it with the scotchbrite wheel to polish/smooth.

Werks fer me.

Don't really need a band saw for the first 1000 hrs anyway (SB kit)

Hi Rob,
The tail, wings and early fuselage construction don't really have that much fabrication. A hack saw will easily make the few parts that need to be fabricated. For example, I am nearly ready to buy my finishing kit and will probably not ever get a band saw. You can certainly delay the purchase a long time even if you ultimately decide to buy one. You reference Bingelis recomendations. Tony was scratch building wood, steel and aluminum and I would agree with the need if we were doing the same. The Vans Slow Build Kits are Super Accelerated Quick Build "snap together" kits compared to what he was doing.

Definitely need the 6" grinder (for the scotch brite wheel).
Get a good vice (not necesarily big, just no cheap castings) and buy or make soft jaws and soft tubing jaws.

You might consider reallocating the $$ targeted for band saw towards a better drill press that will run at low RPM. The cheapo $100 bench presses are limited to a minimum of about 500 RPM and that is really too fast for the fly cutters most people use for some of the large hole cutting needed early in kit construction. I made the mistake of buying one and now I have a boat anchor that I use with a scowl each time I turn it on. Doh... I still use it, but I don't like it. What a POS.

I also agree with jekyl. Buy a sander before a band saw.

rzbill said:

Buy a sander before a band saw.

Click to expand...

I'll triple that sentiment. I RARELY use my band saw. I'm always using a hacksaw, a cutoff wheel (cheapies from harbor freight) the sander and the scotchbrite wheel. I have a Ryobi belt/disk sander than I really like (it's about the only thing I've found that Ryobi makes that doesn't wobble...everything appears well balanced and true).

I use a 10" cut-off wheel in a cheap Home Depot chop saw for the angle and bar stock. Be careful, though. This is can be intimidating. I found that a Stanley utility knife works well to scribe straight cuts on AL sheet parts and emp stiffeners. Use a straight edge, scribe several times, and snap apart. My most useful bench tool, beside the scotch brite wheel, was my 5" Delta disc sander with 1" belt sander. Worked great for trimming and shaping parts.

Roberta


Shot of my bench arsenal.




This is how I cut all the emp stiffeners. I got some AL vice jaw "guards?", clamped the AL stiffener angle in them at the correct cutting angle, then used the guard as a stright edge to scribe the part.

Thank you to all that have responded. The advice will be most helpful and holding off on the band saw will save me the $300 or so dollars I had planned!

Hate to say it but....

I used the HF table band saw, often on sale for $100...Get a decent blade and it works just fine as long as your not too agressive with the cuts.

The HF industrial grade 8" bench grinder/buffer (remove buffing wheel and mount the scotchbrite it is place) is a very well built machine rugged machine...I hate puny grinders that slow down under load...but this one is great and cost $60

The HF 6" cut off saw with aluminium oxide discs cuts angle like a knif thru butter...highly recommended at $34.

So there you go all yer bench power tools for less than $200...Can't beat that with a stick!

Frank 7a

Jekyll said:

I bought a nice 8 inch grinder only to find my scottbright disk wouldn't fit the arbor. Now I have a nice 6 incher sitting beside the 8 inch.


Jekyll

Click to expand...

Why didn't the Scotchbrite fit the 8" grinder?....I bored open the hole in the middle of the scotch wheel with a step drill...took 5 minutes t make it fit.

Frank 7a

shop equipment

Rob,
I finally got around to getting the band saw pics up. You can see the setup I have at:
http://pages.suddenlink.net/tismuoi9/alumfab.html
Hope this helps.
Dave A.
6A

Larger wheel...

frankh said:

Why didn't the Scotchbrite fit the 8" grinder?....I bored open the hole in the middle of the scotch wheel with a step drill...took 5 minutes t make it fit.

Frank 7a

Click to expand...

If your wheel is a larger diameter than the body of the motor, then you can smooth the edges of long straight pieces, which is an advantage...

Body sizes of grinders seem to vary a lot...

gil in Tucson