Home made bench saw.

[alchemysa]

So we solved a problem and picked up some litter at the same time. I don't think I could have bought or found anything more perfect.
A six-pack of Aussie beer to the first correct answer on what it was. (Winner must pick up prize from me).)

Your time is up. I got thirsty and drank it myself. The 'thing' had a white castor wheel attached. At first I thought it was broken off an office chair but more likely it was off something like this evaporative cooler. Anyway it made a perfect guard. My current favorite drop is Tooheys Extra Dry. But nothing ever seems to be as good as the beer we used to get in the big bottles. Beer in cans and small bottles just don't seem to have that smell and 'bite' anymore.

 

[Egon]

Beer does not come in cans!

 

[alchemysa]

Heres a little update for those who may be interested (and dont want to read about snot). This bench turned out to be just about the best thing i've ever built. I finally got through the heap of old building timber. I finished up with twelve 4'x4' pallets, each piled about 2 to 3 feet high with 18" pieces of firewood. It took about 3 days to get through it all, but the bench never missed a beat, sometimes running for an hour or two non stop.

I hit plenty of nails but the carbide blade is still very sharp. Some of the pieces of timber were hard jarrah stumps as thick as railway sleepers, but double cutting was quite easy once I got the hang of it. And cutting extra long peces was easy once I mastered 'plunge cutting', i.e. lowering the extra long pieces down onto the blade instead of trying to slide them in. The real beauty of this is the belt drive. Its so smooth and quiet, and really takes the shock out of the system. The motor would often be stopped dead by some pieces but it picked up quickly and smoothly again once the problem timber was backed out. The motor was only 550 watts which I think is about 3/4 hp but it performed beautifully. And the blade was only 7 1/4'' dia.

Admittedly its a bit of a stretch for me to claim this is home-made considering the blade table is professionally built, but I think now that something similar could be built quite easily using any shaft that can mount a a pulley at one end and a blade at the other. In fact i've got a stripped rotor from an old electric motor that might serve the purpose nicely. Its already got two roller bearings on it too. The luxury of a tilting and height adjustable bench is not necessary when cutting scrap timber for firewood. You probably just need a sturdy platform with a slot in it for the blade to protude through.

The cast iron blade table on mine is quite unusual. I've never seen anything like it before and i think i was quite lucky to find it. It must be a bit of an antique as it only has a 1/2'" arbor. When I change the blade i'll have to make a spacer of some sort so I can use 'new' blades with standard 16mm (5/8) holes.