3D Printing Restores Bandsaw

A great addition to a home shop is a bandsaw, but when [Design Prototype Test] got a well-used one, he found it wasn’t in very good shape. The previous owner put in an underpowered motor and made some modifications to accommodate the odd-sized blade. Luckily, 3D printing allowed him to restore the old saw to good working order.

There were several 3D printed additions. A pulley, a strain relief, and even an emergency stop switch. Honestly, none of this stuff was something you couldn’t buy, but as he points out, it was cheaper and faster than shipping things in from China. He did wind up replacing the initial pulley with a commercial variant and he explains why.

The red and green buttons use a Sharpie, although we’ve been partial to oil-based markers lately which do a great job of coloring 3D printed plastic.

He wasn’t able to 3D print the saw blade, of course. Maybe one day. We do like to see 3D printers in use for something other than keychains and figurines.

The saw is from the 1950s and while it is older than most of us, it is nice to see it still working with a little help from modern technology.

If you have a bandsaw, you know you need to keep the blade under appropriate tension.