"riser" for welded steel frame bandsaw

[felix gess]

Hi
i have metabo bs317, which is 12" bandsaw.
looking at the riser blocks of the cast iron frame BSs,
i thought about cutting the frame in the middle and weld an approprite steel profile (to gain cutting hight).

to buy a new,larger saw, is much more expensive option, and wouod like to avoid it.

what do you think about?

Thanks
Felix

[Lee Schierer]

If the frame is steel, it might be possible to cut and weld on a piece. If it is cast iron, you likely won't get a strong enough weld. The problem will be keeping the head perfectly aligned with the base. In my experience, most riser block capable saws have alignment pins to keep the pieces aligned in addition to the bolts holding the parts together. The risers also have pins so that things line up.

[Peter Gavin]

I would consider what would happen if it didn't work. Now you have a useless pile of steel instead of a bandsaw. You think a New bandsaw is expensive?

[Jim Becker]

Because of the serious need for exact alignment of the saw's "guts", it would take some substantial expertise to get something inserted into a cut frame and still have everything hunky-dory afterward. And even a slight variation could potentially make the saw unusable. I wouldn't recommend what you propose at all for that reason.

[Bruce Page]

Keep the Metabo for small work and get a bigger bandsaw. You would need to be an accomplished fabricator to pull it off and there would still be a factor of luck to get it right.

[felix gess]

Thanks everybody for the answers
I'll avoid this advanture

Felix