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I have completed the mods to my band saw and it works like a champ.
It will have plenty of longevity especially since I will not be profiling knife blades every day.
I will be lucky to make 6-12 knives per year.
I have the speed down to approx. 180 SFPM and can adjust by about 50 SFPM with the variable pitch pulley I installed on the gear reducer.
The 180 SFPM speed is perfect for the 1095 I am cutting. I also installed a very nice bi-metal metal cutting blade of 18 TPI. I also installed a modified vacuum attachment under the work table to hopefully help collect the metal chips.
I am using the original existing "open" design 3/4 HP motor, so I covered the motor openings with some special material that will breathe nicely but keep the metal chips out of the motor which would ruin it.
The mods to the saw regarding installation of the gear box went pretty well, but.....
1) I had to stiffen up the original heavy sheet metal motor mount to keep it from flexing too much.
2) I also had to add a torque reducing arm to reduce flexing.
3) I happened to use a piece of stiff melamine board I had around to mount the motor to instead of a nice piece of steel plate that I did NOT have on hand. It works fine and is plenty rigid, but could always be replaced if need be down the road.
4) I opted to use my existing motor so I purchased a shaft style (coupled) input gear reducer versus a c-face flange (quill) style gear reducer.
5) The gear reducer is a 20:1 ratio and enabled me to use my existing 6" pulley on the machine to get the 180 SFPM speed I wanted. The motor/gear reducer coupling must be aligned very well to avoid lateral strain on the motor and gear reducer bearings, to avoid over heating and vibration and also prolong the life of both units and the coupling rubber spider insert (minor concern). I used washers and shims to align everything.
All and all the project went well and was pretty straight forward and the saw works very, very well. In fact it works better than I expected.
If anyone would like sources for new gear reducers just let me know. Used ones can be found on ebay but are hard to find in the exact right size and ratio, so I bought a new one instead.
I personally think retrofitting a gear reducer was a much better and easier option than installing much larger pulleys and a jack shaft. Price wise I spent maybe $25 bucks more than the pulley/jack shaft method.
I am now making excellent use of my wood cutting band saw without spending too much time or money on the mods. I can still use this band saw to cut my knife scales if I wish.
I will attempt to attach some photos here. If you don't see any photos, I was obviously unable to do it and may try again with another posting.
Thanks for reading,
DAVID
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