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Bandsaw
- Thread starter tim37a
- Start date
Bühlmann
North Lake Forge
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2022
- Messages
- 475
You have the speed control thought out, but have you considered the time and fiddliness of constantly swapping blades out? In my experience, changing out a bandsaw blade is a PITA to do very often. Different saws have different procedures, but one thing that is constant is setting all three sets of blade guides on full-sized saws. A Portaband and SWAG table for metal and a separate unit for wood (lots of choices, depending on what you want to do) eliminates the constant switching. I think it's bad enough switching between rip blades and scrolling blades on my wood saw, but YMMV.
A.McPherson
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2012
- Messages
- 2,873
Switching blades isn't that big of a deal, you should be sitting your blade to the depth of cut anyways.
One thing that makes a big difference is the way that the blade is supported on wood vs metal bandsaws.
Wood bandsaw
Metal bandsaw
See how much more support the metal bandsaw has?
You could use your metal saw as a wood saw though. You couldn't do all the cool scrolling stuff you can do with a wood saw, but with the right blade it would cut timber just fine...
One thing that makes a big difference is the way that the blade is supported on wood vs metal bandsaws.
Wood bandsaw
Metal bandsaw
See how much more support the metal bandsaw has?
You could use your metal saw as a wood saw though. You couldn't do all the cool scrolling stuff you can do with a wood saw, but with the right blade it would cut timber just fine...
Most of the new wood bandsaws I am looking at (around $900 to $1000) have 2 bearings on the side of the blade and 1 bearing behind the blade (if they are made in the US, not Europe). I have a Portaband and SWAG table but it is too slow, with all the relief cuts you have to make. I might keep the Portaband just for making straight cuts that are fairly narrow. My main concern is mounting the 3 phase motor - is the C face for a 2 hp 1 phase the same dimension with the same mounting holes as the C face for a 2 hp 3 phase?
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith
ilmarinen - MODERATOR
Moderator
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2004
- Messages
- 37,974
Find an old Craftsman or other heavy bandsaw and change the motor as you described. It works quite well.
The easiest ones are ones with the motor hanging on a hinged arm with a V-belt to the wheel.
The easiest ones are ones with the motor hanging on a hinged arm with a V-belt to the wheel.
I put the Accura roller bearing guides on my HF 14" bandsaw and they are a HUGE improvement over the cool blocks it had originally! I use my PortaBand for blade blanks and some composites like G10, especially thin stuff so I can use coarser teeth on my wood bandsaw for thicker scale/block materials.
A.McPherson
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2012
- Messages
- 2,873
If it is a NEMA framed motor, say 56c it shouldn't matter if it's 1 or 3 phase.
Here's a website.
www.engineeringtoolbox.com
Here's a website.
Electrical Motors - Frame Dimensions
Electrical motors NEMA frame dimensions.
www.engineeringtoolbox.com
Like was said, the motor housing specs don't care if it's 1 phase or 3 phase, so if the new motor frame is the same as the old one, you should be good to go! Foot mounts have more flexibility mounting wise. Most of the less expensive import bandsaws (IE harbor freight) use a foot mount and use belts and pulleys to vary the speed.
There are some Chinese made VFD's that work well and some even that will step up 110V to 220V that I would look into that are much less expensive than the KBAC. They aren't in a NEMA 4 enclosure, so I mount mine away from my grinder and use cables to run it with the smaller remote control unit. Others put the VFD in a box of some sort to keep the dust out of the internals so it doesn't short out. Mine has been run hard in a very dirty/dusty shop, but it's 10' from the grinder and on the other side of a plastic curtain, so it doesn't get very dusty. I think it is the metal dust that shorts them out, and the metal dust doesn't seem to float as far as handle material dust.
Since I upgraded the guides to the roller bearing style on my wood bandsaw and the cheap 110V VFD's are available, I may switch mine to a VFD setup and try metal with it. It was still too fast for blade steel barstock even at it's lowest pulley speed before. I didn't want to have to go through with a 220V VFD for the bandsaw (only 1 220V outlet in my shop), but I have plenty of 110V outlets/circuits I can use! I have a Portaband and it's nice for metals, but the 5" depth of cut is a PITA sometimes with longer pieces!
I want to try some coarser lower TPI for the Portaband to see how they do at lower speeds, too. I would rather have one bandsaw to do both well and one size of blades to get to simplify things a bit!
There are some Chinese made VFD's that work well and some even that will step up 110V to 220V that I would look into that are much less expensive than the KBAC. They aren't in a NEMA 4 enclosure, so I mount mine away from my grinder and use cables to run it with the smaller remote control unit. Others put the VFD in a box of some sort to keep the dust out of the internals so it doesn't short out. Mine has been run hard in a very dirty/dusty shop, but it's 10' from the grinder and on the other side of a plastic curtain, so it doesn't get very dusty. I think it is the metal dust that shorts them out, and the metal dust doesn't seem to float as far as handle material dust.
Since I upgraded the guides to the roller bearing style on my wood bandsaw and the cheap 110V VFD's are available, I may switch mine to a VFD setup and try metal with it. It was still too fast for blade steel barstock even at it's lowest pulley speed before. I didn't want to have to go through with a 220V VFD for the bandsaw (only 1 220V outlet in my shop), but I have plenty of 110V outlets/circuits I can use! I have a Portaband and it's nice for metals, but the 5" depth of cut is a PITA sometimes with longer pieces!
I want to try some coarser lower TPI for the Portaband to see how they do at lower speeds, too. I would rather have one bandsaw to do both well and one size of blades to get to simplify things a bit!