I have a junky Harbor Freight 14" bandsaw that's basically been sidelined since I got a bigger one. I don't need it for resawing or cutting turning blanks, just for curves and general small bandsaw work. Still, I'd like to fix it up a bit. I have a list of things to do to it, but one that's confounding me is the motor and pulleys.
junky saw.jpg
The saw was originally set up for four speeds. It's got a step pulley on the motor and an intermediate step pulley between the drive pulley on the lower wheel. You tension the drive belt by pushing that intermediate pulley down. It's junk and slips under load. When I tried to tension it by prying against the pulley, it broke. I'd like to trash the whole multiple speed thing and go with a belt directly between the motor and the wheel pulley. I know I want about 3000 fpm blade speed. I can figure out the math easily enough, but I don't really know how to pick pulleys -- what size drive pulley should I select? Double pulley worth it? It has a 1hp 120v motor at 1725 rpm.
Alternatively, I have a 1.5 hp, 220v 3450 rpm motor (and switch, wire, plug, etc.) just sitting around. I would like to use it, except it'd have to be a 2" motor pulley and an 8" on the wheel to get close to 3000 fpm. Could I get away with that if I used double v-belt pulleys, or would it slip too easily?
Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!