Band saw vise

black85vette · Nov 27, 2009

Been mostly just playing with the new mill and getting comfortable with it. Also been messing with some other tools and doing some minor projects that have been put off. Here is a cheap drill press vise that I modified to use on my band saw. The problem is that the clamp for the bandsaw does not work well with short pieces. So I took my old cheap vise and cut off the mounting flange from one side. I bolted it to a piece of angle iron that was close enough to 90 degrees for band saw work. I took a little bit off the end of the vise with the mill so it would sit flat and square on the table. Then I clamp it in the band saw. Small pieces can now be held tightly. In the pictures I show a 2" piece of extruded aluminum in the vise and a shot from above showing that the vise can fit in place and the saw still have full motion. I find this useful for cutting flywheels. I may have a 3" diameter piece that is just a few inches long. I can mount it and cut off a .5" piece using this.

Cost for the project was almost nothing. The vise was a cheap Harbor Freight piece and the angle iron is used to bold down large power supplies for shipping. I kept a few of them after the last installation so it was free.

BTW; on a side note you can see the .25" aluminum plate I put on the saw for use in the vertical position. I made it as large as I could so that the saw would still drop all the way down without removing it. I like having the thicker metal rather than the small stamped steel that came with it.

chillybilly · Nov 27, 2009

Brilliant idea ,gonna go and knock one up now out of my cheap drill vise ,santa can bring me a posh new one for chrimbo then :big:

ironman · Nov 27, 2009

Is that vise the 2-1/2 inch or the 4 inch? I see you had to mill one side of the mounting part off. I like that idea. Ray

shred · Nov 27, 2009

With the 2-1/2" HF vise, all you have to do is set it flat in the bandsaw and slice off the offending flange as close to the jaws as you can. I have one I did that to long ago, but while it works great for little things, it's not good at short lengths of bigger stuff (especially round) since the jaws are only about 1" tall.