Metal cutting bandsaw.

elewayne

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May 22, 2018
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Hi, this is my first post. I have a question. I own a 10" Delta band saw for wood working. I'd like to use it to cut metal. how could I slow down the blade speed. IT has about a 7" pully for the wheel and I can only clear about another inch before it would hit the table. Is there a way to install another shaft to help with speed reduction?
 
You would need to have an intermediate shaft with suitable pulleys to reduce the speed; the motor pulley would drive a large pulley on the intermediate shaft, and a small pulley also on the intermediate shaft would drive the pulley on the bandsaw shaft, or you could use a worm gearbox to reduce the speed, a separate motor could drive the worm gear and have step pulleys to vary the speed, or use a frequency drive. There would need to be some sort of clutch coupling to disengage the gearbox output from the bandsaw shaft to use the high speeds.
 
You need at least a 10:1 reduction and maybe as much as a 20:1 speed reduction.
Wood gets cut at 1500-3000 fpm while mild steel gets cut at 150 fpm.
 
Do you not understand the math or simply how to go about mechanically controlling the speed?
 
I had a 15:1 gearbox that I added to a 1940s Beaver bandsaw I picked up this winter, along with a couple of triple pulleys. I've got 9 speeds from 28 sfpm to 504 sfpm. I love this saw.
 
Some pics of the band saw showing the drive system will help us to help you out.
 
Here is my craftsman 3 wheel 10" that i use for wood and metal. I make my own blades from bulk do-all material . I'am running a treadmill motor on it works great no gear box etc. This is the second 1 i did ,the first was a 14" but took up to much room in my small basement shop.

101_0579.jpg
 
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