Tony Ray

Helllo, I am building the bandsaw hydraulic cylinder described in Part 3 of Improvemnts to a Popular Bandsaw part 3 June 2015. I can see the function of the bandsaw arm bracket fig 18 on pg15 but can't work out what the larger of the two spring linkages in fig 22 pg 22 is for. it appears to be fixed in two places to the fig 18 bracket so is not a pivoting link like the smalller spring link in fig 18. Perhaps it's a stiffener? The whole assembly is shown in Photo 26 on pg 52. Has anyone built this project and can shed any light on this ?

I haven't made the same system but looking at it the longer bracket extends the swivel to pivot point a little more and allows the small bracket to sit in behind the long bracket which could be to give the spring some clearance so it doesn't interfere with the ram .

i made mine with an old air ram and made a valve block so i can adjust the feed rate very finely , it also has a valve for fast feed to get the blade down to the work fast and another that closes the hyraulic circuit and locks the feed .

I used an old mower fuel tank as a reservoir with a submerged pick up tube .

Thanks for that,

Assuming that it's only to help with clearance / alignment, I think I'll just make a spacer to pack out the L shaped bracket where it is attached to the bandsaw pivot arm. Mike drilled & tapped the bandsaw pivot arm in situ - I think I'll remove mine by driving though a rod of the same dia. to avoid wrestling with the free arm.

I have followed the design fairly cloesly but have made the cylinder from the blue painted ally tube used for compressed air lines. I screw cut the tube and made a threaded gland to fit. The bottom end is fixed with high strength retainer.

I like your fast feed idea - my cylinder is not too bad with the valve wide open and as I don't use the saw that much it will probably do me.