Bandsaw Final Speed

As a curiosity, I thought I would check the wheel speed with Dad's handheld tachometer now that I have that new 3/4HP motor hooked up.  That motor had a slightly bigger pulley, so the driven wheel of the bandsaw speeds up.

The manual (dated May 1950) says the driven wheel should spin at 640rpm to produce a band speed of 2050 feet per minute.

Dad's tachometer shows I'm spinning at 700 rpm, so the math tells me I'm running the band at 2250 feet per minute.

I'm justifying this as OK.  Surely, bandsaw blades have improved slightly in the past 65 years, right?  So an increase in 10% shouldn't be bad at all.  It sure cuts nicely, and I'm finding a bandsaw has lots of uses for my oddball projects.

I'm dreaming up all kinds of new projects!

Band Saw - Nearly Finished!

Well, I'm close to finishing up the whole band saw sha-bang.

I've made slow but constant progress lately:

I have the saw and motor in its final configuration.  I was going back and forth a bit, and finally have things nailed down as to its final position.  The key was getting the very old motor (donated from my ol' buddy Steve-o) to spin in the reverse direction.  There were a ton old wires to sort through, and none of them were the color they were supposed to be according to the nameplate.  So, I blew the circuit breaker a few times, but finally stumbled upon the proper wiring.  

By having the motor run in its new direction, I was then able to place the motor underneath with the bulk of the motor towards the back.  This is good for keeping weight evenly distributed, and not too tippy on one side.  (That crazy old motor must weigh 35 pounds!)

And with the new style linkable V-Belt - the Fenner Drives "Power Twist Plus", I was able to snake it through two small openings in the table.  Try doing that with a normal V-Belt! 

 And lately, I've been prettying up the wood table tops.  Actually, rather than prettying up the old, I just made new.  These tops are stout 2 x 10s with a nice piece of salvaged sanded plywood on top.  You may notice a 3rd table top.  There's one for the top on which the saw sits.  One for the middle for the motor to sit on.  And a bonus one for the very bottom as an auxiliary shelf for other woodworking hand tools.

Tonight, I added a coat of polyurethane 

to make future dust cleanup easier.  

I like the color, too.  

The Beefed Up Band Saw Table

The table for the band saw always felt a bit rickety.  I also wanted to make it mobile so I could push it away when I'm not using it.  I started with some 1 x 2 x 3/16 rectangular tubing on the CNC mill:

I made some wider support "legs" that can 

accommodate small caster wheels and feet.

This is the finished product:

1.  12mm threaded holes for leveling feet

2.  A large milled spot for locating the legs 

3.  And on the backside, threaded holes for caster wheels

They fit nicely, and I welded them on after a little testing:

After stripping, priming, and painting the table with the addition,

I added the 4 casters and the 4 leveling feet:

A close up:

 It rolls pretty smooth for those small 2 inch casters.

And the feet make a nice a sturdy base.

Now all that is left is to add new table tops!