Wood saw conversion

A

aliva

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A friend of mine gave me his wood bandsaw, so why not convert it cut metal.
With appropriate sheaves I got the SFPM down to 237, which should be adequate. I also added a cleaning brush for the blade as I'm told when cutting metal the chips will destroy the wheel tire in seconds. Still have to build a guard around the sheaves and order a blade. I'm thinking variable TPI 10-14.
Speed reduction.jpg
Side.jpgBrush.jpgSpeed reduction.jpgSide.jpgBrush.jpg
 
What are you planning to cut? A cutting speed of 237 would be way too fast for ferrous metals. The brush is really not required, most vertical bandsaws do not use them, more used on horizontal saws with coolant.
 
I never looked, but it seems that vertical metal cutting band saws also use the same tires without trouble.
 
You are (in the ballpark) if you use bimetal blades, that is blades with carbon steel body and HSS teeth; I have never used these, instead have used carbon steel blades, which are much cheaper. The Starrett info is a very good resource.
 
gonzo said:
I never looked, but it seems that vertical metal cutting band saws also use the same tires without trouble.
Click to expand...
Yes, I have seen vertical bandsaws, particularly a WW-2 era DoAll that had no brushes and likely the same tires that it came with new, and I bought a new 20" Powermatic saw that did not have any about 35 years ago, that is still on the original tires.
 
I also think the 200 + sfpm is about 2 times too fast for most steels unless your saw has perfect tension and alignment. One thing to consider is that most metal cutting saws use a thicker blade under considerably more tension than a wood cutting saw can develop. Soft steel yes, alloys no == Jack
 
Man you have nice friends! Any spares? Nice job on the saw. This may sound funny and it has cropped up here before but personally I have never seen a metal bandsaw with tyres. Is this an American thing? Every wood bandsaw I have seen outside of the big sawmill ones has tyres but not the metal ones.
 
Curious, what RPM Motor do you have, what are the diameters of the sheaves? When I researched and built my bandsaw conversion I was unable to get anywhere near that low a speed without a gear reducer as well. I also have a VFD on it to get down to about 50 SFPM
www.hobby-machinist.com

Bandsaw speed reducer build.

Hi All, I recently picked up a nice mid 50's vintage, Boice Crane, 14" vertical bandsaw. It has a three phase motor so I figured I'd simply throw a VFD on it and be able to get down to metal cutting speeds, wrong!... The motor is rated at 1150 rpm and running it at 15hz only gets the blade down...
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