Scot Ferraro
07-04-2009, 4:53 PM
Hi everyone,
I guess this is the year of upgrades for my tools. I recently bought and installed the motor upgrade from Laguna to change the older Euro-style motor to a 4.5 HP Baldor motor. I have been doing a lot of resawing lately and my older motor ran extremely hot and I felt like I was pushing it too hard and that I needed more power.
The conversion took about an hour from start to finish and Laguna was helpful in answering some questions on rewiring the machine (Euro machines use a slightly different color code for the lead wires and neutral and I wanted to confirm that I had it right). There is a substantial aluminum plate (one inch thick) that mounts on the face of the motor to allow for the metric bolts on the bandsaw frame. This simply mounts to the top of the motor and is secured with four large bolts. There are two threaded rods that attach the motor assembly to the saw and Laguna supplies a new pulley that fits the Euro (metric) belt and the standard size arbor on the motor. I used a little thread-lock on the rods when I secured them to the motor -- just a little added insurance. The new motor weighs close to 70 pounds and I recommend an assistant to help thread the nuts onto the threaded rods (this is done from inside the saw). Once it is mounted it is simply a matter of getting the belt on the new pulley, tightening everything and setting the proper tension on the belt. The only thing that Laguna did not provide was any written instructions. While the install was pretty straight-forward, it would have been nice to see some instructions.
All I can say is that this is a noticeable upgrade to the saw -- it is like a totally different machine! :D The motor runs very smooth and quiet and it is warm to the touch, even after some heavy resawing. It has a lot more torque and I do not feel it bogging down or hesitating at all -- I can feed much faster than before. All in all I have extremely pleased with this upgrade and I would recommend it to anyone with an older saw looking to get more power and a better motor.
I have posted some pics so that you can see the difference in motor size between the Baldor and the Euro motor (Bonara brand, I believe) and hardware that came with the kit.
Thanks!
Scot
I guess this is the year of upgrades for my tools. I recently bought and installed the motor upgrade from Laguna to change the older Euro-style motor to a 4.5 HP Baldor motor. I have been doing a lot of resawing lately and my older motor ran extremely hot and I felt like I was pushing it too hard and that I needed more power.
The conversion took about an hour from start to finish and Laguna was helpful in answering some questions on rewiring the machine (Euro machines use a slightly different color code for the lead wires and neutral and I wanted to confirm that I had it right). There is a substantial aluminum plate (one inch thick) that mounts on the face of the motor to allow for the metric bolts on the bandsaw frame. This simply mounts to the top of the motor and is secured with four large bolts. There are two threaded rods that attach the motor assembly to the saw and Laguna supplies a new pulley that fits the Euro (metric) belt and the standard size arbor on the motor. I used a little thread-lock on the rods when I secured them to the motor -- just a little added insurance. The new motor weighs close to 70 pounds and I recommend an assistant to help thread the nuts onto the threaded rods (this is done from inside the saw). Once it is mounted it is simply a matter of getting the belt on the new pulley, tightening everything and setting the proper tension on the belt. The only thing that Laguna did not provide was any written instructions. While the install was pretty straight-forward, it would have been nice to see some instructions.
All I can say is that this is a noticeable upgrade to the saw -- it is like a totally different machine! :D The motor runs very smooth and quiet and it is warm to the touch, even after some heavy resawing. It has a lot more torque and I do not feel it bogging down or hesitating at all -- I can feed much faster than before. All in all I have extremely pleased with this upgrade and I would recommend it to anyone with an older saw looking to get more power and a better motor.
I have posted some pics so that you can see the difference in motor size between the Baldor and the Euro motor (Bonara brand, I believe) and hardware that came with the kit.
Thanks!
Scot