Delta 14" Bandsaw Upgrade

[Ben Franz]

Just wrapping up some easy upgrades to my 22 year old Delta. The saw has been mothballed for quite a few years but I've put it back into use and wanted to upgrade the basic saw. For what it's worth, I probably could have bought a larger used saw for about the same $$ but then there'd be no story.

Tha saw is the basic closed base model with riser, mounted on an HTC mobile base. The original motor was 3/4 HP. I replaced that with a 1.5 HP Leeson farm duty motor and upgraded to cast iron, machined pulleys and a new belt.

I replaced the 22 year old rubber tires (cracked and dried out) with urethane tires from Rockler. I added a lower wheel brush that mounts with magnets to the lower casting. I copied this from a posting on Family Woodworking (IIRC).

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[Calvin Crutchfield]

I'd be interested in hearing more about the parts you used for that dust collection get up? Does it work well?

Also, what pulleys did you use?

[Ben Franz]

A few more pix:

The wheel brush was made with a cheap bristle brush and 1" disc magnets epoxied to a 4" corner brace. Wish I could remember who to give credit for this simple design that's a snap to adjust.

I added a set of Iturra band roller guides, an upgraded tension spring (also from Iturra) and splurged on a 1/2" Trimaster blade. From the little I've cut with this blade I really like it. I decided to try the band rollers since they are lower cost than the Carter guides and can be replaced easily with Cool Blocks if I need to use a scroll cutting blade less than 1/4". Iturra has upgraded these with a ceramic bearing so they should last longer than the original steel bearings. The spring allows me to tension the blade to about 12,000 PSI which seems to be plenty.

Finally, I added a lower blade dust port and a port in the door, joined by a "Y" to a 4" line. The teardrop shaped collector box was copied from a post from Kevin Groenke on SMC (thanks, Kevin :)). The door mounted port was posted here and elsewhere by more than one contributor. The setup is fairly efficient and probably gets about 85% of the dust.

None of what I've done is at all remarkable but it may give someone else an idea or two.

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[Ben Franz]

Calvin-

See above for references on dust collection parts. I made the teardrop shaped adapter box from 1/2" plywood and sheet metal. The plastic adaptor on the lower door is from WW Supply but every supplier probably has the same thing. Other than that, the Borg or local HVAC supply house for the elbow, 4" starter collar and the 4" "Y".

The pulleys and belt were from a local industrial hardware supplier and were exact replacement sizes for the OEM pulleys. In his catalog, Iturra has an article where he recommends a larger motor pulley to increase the blade speed to around 4000 ft/min from 3200 standard. He believes that you get smoother resaw cuts from the higher speed. I didn't bother with this.