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Here is the finished product. I bought the bandsaw from Montgomery Wards about
30 years ago without a motor. I made the crude stand and used a motor out of I think a washing machine to power
it. It has worked fine for wood, but is too fast for cutting aluminum. I had some pulleys and belts laying around
that I think I stripped off of a dryer or washing machine at the local landfill. I figured if I could go from the
current motor pulley to an intermediate pulley and then to the pulley on the back of the bandsaw this might do
the trick. ....................................
I took the pulley off of the bandsaw and centered a 12 inch pulley I had on
it and bolted the two together. Then I re-installed them on the bandsaw.....................................
Next I used another pulley combination I had that had a large (12 inch) and
small (2 inch) that were connected and on a short shaft. All of this I found just the way it is. I took one of
my scrap belts and used it to figure out where to mount the shaft with the pulleys.....................................
I spaced it with some wood so that the small pulley lined up with the large
pulley on the bandsaw in the first step. I took the shaft that was connected to a flat plate and screwed it onto
the bandsaw stand with screws. For right now I just mounted it where I could get the belt on with some tension
on the belt. I might make a little more elaborate mounting system later to make belt tensioning more sophisticated,
but this is working.....................................
Now I moved to connect the motor to the intermediate shaft and pulleys. Actually
the motor is where it originally was and is in alignment with the intermediate shaft large pulley and also still
in line with the original pulley on the bandsaw.....................................
The motor is attached to a board that is on a hinge. I push the motor down
to get the belt tension I want and put a couple of grabber screws through a side board into the board the motor
is on. Pretty crude, but it works.....................................
Here is a piece of aluminum a little over 1 inch think and a little over 5 inches wide that I cut with the band saw. It wasn't real fast cutting and took about 10 minutes, but way better and more accurate than what I had before. I figure my new speed on the blade is about 180 fpm.
My bandsaw used 93 1/2 inch blades and you can get tons of different metal blades in that length. I bought a 3 tooth per inch (Capewell Blade -- Enco #240-4672) blade that I will use for thicker pieces and is what I used above. I also got an Agressor blade (Enco #240-4956) that is a 10/14 tooth per inch blade that I'll use for thinner aluminum. Both of these are Bi-metal blades. I also found I could cut much faster by squirting a little oil on the blade as I cut. I don't know if you are suppose to do this or not.
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One last note. If you look at the picture above you will see a belt that is pulled around the bandsaw on the left to keep it out of the way. If I want to cut wood I can still pop both of the other belts off of the intermediate shafts and attach that other belt directly back to the motor.
This took about an hour to make and didn't cost a thing since I had the pulleys laying around. You can't beat the price and it seems to work fine. I wouldn't recommend this for a metal shop, but if you just need to cut a piece of aluminum occasionally it might work for you also.
c ya, Sum