Looking to add a treadmill motor to a JD Wallace vintage bandsaw.

[C-Bag]

I wouldn't use the motor bracket probably in it's original form either. It would just be for the nice curved mating surface and something to work off of.

You would know better about the gears and changing to belt, but tension would not be my concern. You have to make the motor adjustable anyway no matter what. I'm used to tensioning with an arm and roller with a spring if that's not enough.

When I redid my HFT 14" bandsaw I needed to change it to a metal cutting bandsaw. So I had to take the 3,000fpm to below 200fpm. Ultimately I decided on 110fm. The easiest way for me was to take an old dead tablesaw motor and mount(one of my bad buys off cl) that tensioned by hanging. Then made an arm with the jackshaft on it. So the jackshaft unit hangs from the driven pulley/belt on the saw then the motor hangs off the jackshaft belt/pulley. Never had any slippage and if I want to change a belt I just pick up on the jackshaft arm and take off the saw belt and let down the motor and bingo the belt is off.

I've used so many parts off that tablesaw it's made itself worth what got I ripped off for. Recycling my defeats.