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Thread: Making bandsaw wheels

  1. #1
    Supporting Member tonyfoale's Avatar
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    Making bandsaw wheels

    There have been some recent posts here about bandsaws and bandsaw wheels. This is quite topical for me as I am making a bandsaw in spare moments. Accordingly I thought that it might be of interest to post how I made my wheels.

    I wanted a bandsaw with a throat of around 16" and I thought that wheels from a moped might be a good starting point and i found a couple at a local Saturday flea market. They were from different mopeds but one was a front wheel with bearings and brake. The other was a rear wheel without bearings for a single sided mounting.

    Making bandsaw wheels-wheels-01.jpg Making bandsaw wheels-wheels-02.jpg Click thumbnails for full size view.
    The yellow wheel was a front with bearings, the blue was a single sided rear without bearings.

    Firstly I was disappointed with the absence of bearings in the rear, thinking that I would have to make a bolt-in bearing housing. However as we'll see, it worked out really well.

    From the beginning I knew that the rim shape was not suitable as the surface for the saw blade to run on but I thought that it would be easy enough to fill the well with polyester car body filler. It is easy to apply, sets hard, easy to machine and adheres to metal very well. With a rubber belt glued on it would be protected from the saw blade teeth. Most ot the outer rim would need to be machined away. I am planning on running 1/2" wide blades and so a final rim width of a bit over double that seemed about right. I knew that holding the wheels near the centre would result in chatter on the rim when turning so to reduce the amount of turning I used my little 55 year old Burgess bandsaw to cut off as much of the surplus rim as possible. In the 1970s I had a business making cast wheels for motorcycles and so I was aware of the machining requirements. Back then I had mounting fixtures which held the wheels by the inside of the rim to prevent chatter but to repeat similar fixturing for these two wheels would have been way too much work.

    Making bandsaw wheels-wheels-03.jpg Making bandsaw wheels-wheels-04.jpg Making bandsaw wheels-wheels-05.jpg
    On the left; is the original rim shape, centre; shows sawing the outer rim off, right; the cut down rim section.

    After sawing, the major part of the machining was to narrow the rims. Chatter on the sides would only be a cosmetic issue and I decided to call it knurling. Only minimal machining was needed to true the outer diameter. I used paint stripper and finished with bead blasting to clean them up, with particular attention to the rim well to ensure a good surface for the filler.

    Making bandsaw wheels-wheels-06.jpg Making bandsaw wheels-wheels-07.jpg
    On the left is the lower wheel after filling, to the right is the top wheel after machining the crowned surface.

    Back in the 70s I had lathes big enough to swing wheels over the bed but those days are past and fortunately my current lathe has a gap bed, so for the first time since new I removed the gap to be able to swing the wheels. I jury rigged a tool holder extension to fit out around the rim, as shown in the following.

    Making bandsaw wheels-turning-01.jpg Making bandsaw wheels-turning-02.jpg


    I had a 25:1 gearbox which looked to be a good way to get the blade speeds suitable for metal cutting, the output of which was a flange with 3 studs. After offering up the rear wheel it became obvious that I only needed to make a spacer to fit the wheel onto the gearbox, no need to make a bearing carrier after all.

    Making bandsaw wheels-spacer-01.jpg Making bandsaw wheels-spacer-02.jpg
    Both sides of the unfinished spacer. The non-central hole and piece missing from one side is just something that was in the block out of the scrap box. Note the register in the centre of the wheel.

    Making bandsaw wheels-spacer-03.jpg Making bandsaw wheels-spacer-04.jpg
    Finished spacer.

    Making bandsaw wheels-spacer-05.jpg Making bandsaw wheels-spacer-06.jpg Making bandsaw wheels-spacer-07.jpg
    Spacer fitted to gearbox and wheel.

    When I get a moment I'll elaborate some more on the rest of the bandsaw.

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    baja (Oct 16, 2020), billdem3d (Feb 21, 2024), Captainleeward (Feb 4, 2018), celsoari (Oct 9, 2018), charles scozzari (May 17, 2023), Corm (Jan 17, 2019), Dollar Bill (May 17, 2023), Duke_of_URL (Oct 16, 2020), Ed (Oct 9, 2018), greyhoundollie (Jan 17, 2019), jackdel (Feb 21, 2024), Jon (Feb 4, 2018), Miloslav (Dec 19, 2018), mr mikey (Feb 21, 2024), nova_robotics (Feb 21, 2024), olderdan (Feb 4, 2018), Paul Jones (Feb 5, 2018), rlm98253 (Feb 4, 2018), Seedtick (Feb 4, 2018), Slim-123 (Oct 15, 2020), sossol (Feb 4, 2018), Tule (Jan 17, 2019)

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    Supporting Member Captainleeward's Avatar
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    WOW, that was a big undertaking and the workmanship is incredible thanks for sharing...:O)

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    Thanks tonyfoale! We've added your Bandsaw Wheel to our Metalworking category,
    as well as to your builder page: tonyfoale's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:




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    Thanks tonyfoale! We've added your Tool Holder Extension to our Lathe Accessories category,
    as well as to your builder page: tonyfoale's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:




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    Supporting Member tonyfoale's Avatar
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    In the original post I forgot to add pix of the wheel mounted on the gearbox, so here are the missing pix.

    Making bandsaw wheels-img_0248.jpg Making bandsaw wheels-img_0249.jpg Making bandsaw wheels-img_0250.jpg

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    Supporting Member olderdan's Avatar
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    Tony
    This is a very interesting build to follow, BTW what is the origin of the gearbox, it looks ideal.

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    Supporting Member tonyfoale's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by olderdan View Post
    Tony
    This is a very interesting build to follow, BTW what is the origin of the gearbox, it looks ideal.
    Alan, the gearbox is from a Segway. I had a pair of them which were in the scrap box because they each had damaged threads on the wheel mounting flange. They have a ratio of close to 25:1 which with a 1500 rpm motor and 16" wheels gives a blade speed about right for cutting metal. The other gearbox was used on my shock absorber dynamometer detailed in a previous post http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/s...amometer-56478
    I ended up converting that gearbox to a single stage giving close to 5:1 as shown here
    http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/s...ometer-56478-2

    For the bandsaw I have a pair of 5 step belt pulleys which I'll put between the motor and gearbox giving me a complete ratio range of 60:1 to 10.4:1 in five steps. In blade speed that is a range of 33 to 192 m/s.

    I am making this saw as and when I get a few minutes spare and I'll make more posts as things progress. I think that you'll like the simple way that I have arranged for tilting the table.

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    Supporting Member Frank S's Avatar
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    Iam following this thread I was wondering if this was going to be a vertical or horizontal saw until I read that you will be having a tilting table. Now having non flanged wheels are making sense. Great job
    Never try to tell me it can't be done
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    Supporting Member tonyfoale's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frank S View Post
    I am following this thread I was wondering if this was going to be a vertical or horizontal saw until I read that you will be having a tilting table. Now having non flanged wheels are making sense. Great job
    Frank, Sorry about not making that clear. Probably because almost all of my experience with bandsaws has been with vertical machines I tend to associate "bandsaw" with vertical. I have little use for a horizontal saw. In the past I have only rarely had need to tilt the table and I was tempted to take the easy way out and make it fixed. However, I came up with a tilting method that is pretty rigid and probably no more work to make than fixed, so that is what I have done. I have 0 to 45 deg tilt available. I have just got the bottom guides to sort out, which I might do tonight and then I'll make a post on table construction and mounting as well as the gearbox and lower wheel mounting.
    I have no predefined design for this other than an overall view of what a bandsaw is. The details are evolving as I get around to doing each part and depends heavily on what I have laying around at the time. I think that the only bought-in parts will be the wheels which I got cheap from a flea market and the blades themselves which will be top quality.

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  17. #10
    Supporting Member Frank S's Avatar
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    Tony I used to have a Do-all roll in saw the table was stationary and the saw could be tilted to 45° either way. it sure was a handy saw and at 5 HP with 20" wheels and a 1" blade with automatic feed and clamps it was a great production saw for specialty cuts but a horizontal 3 HP 12 x 12 was just as productive for straight cuts.
    SInce I have several horizontal saws I have entertained the idea of building a vertical roll in saw but currently I have enough projects on my docket.
    Never try to tell me it can't be done
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