Slowing Down The Band Saw

rdean

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Some of you may remember the band saw I made back in February.

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/bandsaw-project.31960/

The band saw worked very nicely for wood and I have used it often but the other day I needed to cut some aluminum plate and it was too large to get into the 4X6 saw. It was only 1/4" thick and if I took it real easy maybe I could cut it on the 16" band saw. Well at 3000 feet per minute the blade lasted about as long you can say don't do it. At $30 a blade I sure didn't want to do that again so I got to thinking. If I added another motor that ran half as fast (1725 rpm) as the original and then reduced that down by about 3 to 1 belt drive to the original motor the speed would be about right for aluminum. I bought a one way bearing and made a pulley to mount on the fast motor connected to the slow motor. I added a switch to set which motor would run and this is what I ended up with.
GEDC2068.JPG
GEDC2069.JPG

GEDC2070.JPG

When the fast motor is running the slow motor doesn't turn because of the sprag bearing. When the slow motor runs it drives through the fast motor.
The final speeds are around 400 fpm for the slow to around 2400 fpm for the fast.

In retrospect it would have been much easier to just install a treadmill motor but I didn't have a treadmill motor and I did have two A/C motors. Total cost for switch, bearing and belts was $38 and a lot of fun.

Cheers
Ray
 
Interesting, I never would have thought that


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Thank you all for the kind words.
Its the end result and the feeling of accomplishment that's important .

Now need to order a new blade.

Ray
 
Ray- nice job!
I'm going to try to do the same with a saw from my Dad. Where did you find the one-way pulley?
 
I bought the one way bearing on E-Bay and turned the pulley from aluminum. Price was around $20 for the bearing.
Thanks
Ray
 
When the slow motor spins the fast motor does that turn the fast motor into a generator ?

If yes is there any risk of damaging the fast motor ? Or getting an accidental shock from the pulled plug ?

Bill
 
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