Larger pulley on Bandsaw.

[Edward Henderson]

I have a 1hp motor on my bandsaw. I have often wondered if there would be much difference in cut quality if I sped up blade speed by increasing the size of the pulley on the motor. I have very good blades and change them as required depending on the material and cut. I am still a bit of a novice on this machine but I find it nice to use.
Also has anyone tried the Carter blade tensioner? I have made my own mod on the tension adjuster to make it easier to use but find it's still a pain in the butt.

Ed

[harry strasil]

motor speed times diameter of drive pulley, divided by driven pulley diameter, will give rpms, times circumfrence of blade drive wheel, divided by 12 will give surface feet per revolution, don't exceed the factory limits. speeding up will also increase heat in blade.

[Bill Huber]

If you make the motor pulley larger the blade will go faster but it will not have as much power.

On the Carter, I have it on my Jet and love it, works great.

[Chip Lindley]

Around 3000 SFM (surface feet/minute) is the norm for woodcutting bandsaws. Any faster and you incur many hazards and risks. Replacing a 1/2hp motor with a 1hp motor gave my 14" Delta about all the *BUTT* it can handle. Factory pulleys give my saw 2899 SFM with 6" spindle pulley, 2.75" motor pulley, 1725rpm motor turning a 14" dia. wheel.

Although the saw has lots of power, blade TPI has everything to do with feed rate. I find it impossible to properly tension a 3/4"/3tpi blade on the 14" Delta. A 1/2"/4tpi blade seems the best trade-off for me. Larger, heavier saws with a more serious tensioning mechanisms can use wider, dedicated resaw blades! Everything is a trade-off, regardless of horsepower! IMO! RPM/SFM is only part of the equasion.

[Rick Fisher]

When I bought my big bandsaw. It was trashed from broken blades. There was black felt pen written on the door that said "if the blade breaks on the weld, keep it and we can get it replaced free".

There where cuts on the inside of the doors from blades, the guides where trashed, the table insert was a badly scarred piece of oak.


The problem was that someone had changed the sheave and the surface feet per minute was over 5100.

I repowered it and slowed it down to 4100 ish.. surface feet per minute.

This is a resaw, it will never have a blade less than 3/4" on it. So 4100 is fine. Its not short of power because its a 5hp baldor motor and the wheels weigh about 60lbs.

If it where 2hp, I would have gone about 3300 sfpm.

I think you should be carefull. My saw is rated for 4200 sfpm. The jump of just 1000 sfpm caused it to be a "blade breaker"....

[Lee Schierer]

I agree with the others that blade speed needs to be in the 3000 fpm range. Cut quality is not going to ever be as good on a BS as the cut you will get with a TS from what I have seen. I've seen veneer thin cuts being made, but the surface quality is such that you would need to plane or sand before glue would hold well. If you start with a jointed face and rip of a veneer thin piece you would need to joint the face of your stock before cutting another thin slice that would be useable. You would then have one good side for gluing and would still need to surface teh exposed side after the glue dries.

! Hp should be gining oyu enough power to resaw 6" if the belt is in good shpe and properly tightened. My 1 Hp Delta 14" will resaw 6" high maple or red oak without stalling with a 4 TPI x 1/2" blade. Cut quality is what you would expect from a bandsaw.

Maybe the folks using carbide tipped blades get better surface finishes on their cuts, but I tend to doubt it.