Roller Conveyor table for a Femi bandsaw

[ned]

hey all )

I made a roller conveyor table for my bandsaw. It was a difficult thing to make, due to the heat this weekend warping the 100x100 box section i was using to keep the rollers level. Ive never come across that before, sunshine warping metal.... I ended up running the hose along the beam for 5 mins to cool it down and then restarting. You can see the spring in one of the pics I used to keep tension on the roller axle's. So anyway, it was a weekends work and its done and I'm pleased, just need to finished grinding, and then paint it.

below are a million photos

theres one there of a weld.. my arc welding was truly terrible up until a few weeks ago, and then something changed. I'm glad that happened.




welded onto large beam to keep the frame straight

trying my level best...

spring tension

roller pressed against beam, to keep it all straight

And then it all went pear shaped.... badly pear shaped. The beam warped with the heat from the sun... suddenly none of the rollers were tight against the underside anymore... figured out what was happening and doused the beam with water from the hose and restarted

made up some adjustable feet for the bottom of the bandsaw

proud of this weld, took a long time to get to this stage, lot of banging my head off a wall

the nearly finished article

I have an issue though.... The blade in my bandsaw snapped, I got a new one, but now the saw isnt cutting straight. What I might do is try arc weld the old blade just to make sure it is the new blade thats at fault.

Its distressing to tell you the truth, I need to get moving building the plasma table, thats why I built this roller conveyor... the dominoes have stopped falling and I need them to start again pronto due to time and money concerns. Would love to hear from anyone with a femi saw that has experienced similar.

 

[Paul.]

Nice job but why have you tacked the rollers into the frame, they are designed to fit into drilled holes in the conveyor frame, all the weight of whatever you put on those rollers is now supported by a few tack welds, those conveyor shafts will likely be spring loaded or loose in the roller for fitting,
Example of how its done here http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/x-ray-infeed-track.59323/#post-729428

 

[ned]

Hey there, cheers for the link, will have a look, too late now though!

They arent just tacked, but they are properly melted on, with a very high heat setting using arc. Plus its like spreading ground pressure yeah, whereas the weight of a beam is going to be supported by more than one roller. If one gives, ill melt it on again. How strong is a weld i guess... pretty strong.

I considered drilling all the holes but i decided welding would be simpler. In fact i considered not building the thing at all, i put it off for months.
So i figure this way is better than it not existing at all.

 

[Robotstar5]

...It was a difficult thing to make, due to the heat this weekend warping the 100x100 box section i was using to keep the rollers level. Ive never come across that before, sunshine warping metal....

The same thing happens to railway tracks if they're not laid correctly...

Random google image

 

[Robotstar5]

That's not really warped by the sun though - that's where they've been heated by the sun, taken up all the expansion gaps and carried on growing, only place left to go is sideways...

Don't think they have expansion gaps these days, it's mostly CWR (continuously welded rail)

 

[RonA]

Don't think they have expansion gaps these days, it's mostly CWR (continuously welded rail)

Your right most rails are continuous welded but pretty sure they still have expansion gaps just over a greater distance. Not even the politicians can repeal the laws of nature
RonA

 

[Paul.]

They arent just tacked, but they are properly melted on, with a very high heat setting using arc.

I would suspect that this is the cause of the distortion in the box section rather than the effect of the sun,

 

[brightspark]

Don't think they have expansion gaps these days, it's mostly CWR (continuously welded rail)

its continuous rai up to near my house but there's a couple of expansion joints outside my house and a guy normally stands in real hot weather monitoring it

 

[brightspark]

scarf joint and silver solder the blade much better than ark weld even braze it

 

[Robotstar5]

its continuous rai up to near my house but there's a couple of expansion joints outside my house and a guy normally stands in real hot weather monitoring it

Do you offer him a cold drink?

 

[ned]

cannot braze things, mig and arc and thats all im afraid. I might try it with a thin rod and the amps turned right down this evening, i have no mig gas or alternatives.

@Paul., yes I think your right, that was a factor. I braced the upper rail to the lower one after that and welded one roller, moved a few feet and did another roller at the other end, so as to avoid heat buildup after that happened.

 

[waddycall]

I like your design. Good to be able to move the whole thing without upsetting the relationship between the saw and the roller table.

 

[ned]

@waddycall cheers bud, nice of you to say. Yah that was the idea, previously I was having to check each and every piece to see that it was level on the vice platform of the saw,
no more!


I'm going to weld in some cross braces on the floor of the table, so I can store lengths of steel under there. Also the whole thing is sized so that it will roll under the CNC plasma table I havn't built yet. So there was a few different aspects to it.

I had the unused rollers sitting at the back of my shed telling me i was a lazy so-and-so for the last 4 months, so glad to be clear of them.

got it painted last night, job done, lot of effort, glad its done.

Just need some 60x40 end caps to finish it

 

[ned]

Turns out the blade the company (whom I bought the saw from) sold me was a different thickness to the original (Femi blade was .90mm , replacement was .46mm or thereabouts) - so this is what caused the tracking to go askew.

I watch a few vids last night and now I have a clue about setting the blades ( the guide bearings for the blade are adjustable) , but I returned it to the company anyway and have had them look at it.
So getting it back this evening and can get on with my life ) Next up, plasma table. Looking forward to it. Only bit I'm unsure about regarding the table construction, is how to weld the outer corners of a 45 degree joint. Going to start a thread in the plasma section for the table.