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

[jere]

Lots of informative discussion, I sort of had an instinct about some of these ideas but its good to hear specifics. thanks for bringing it up C-Bag and you other two for filling in the blanks.

I got a few hours of grinding done, as I didn't have a bi metal hole saw set (the hole saw set is on the list now!). the fan holes are roughed out and there is a layer of grindings covering half the shop. I went with the computer fans rather than the metal caged fan. there is room for two computer fans instead and they fit in the motor housing better. and hopefully they should do a better job cooling the mill motor.




I still have to decide the best way to power the fans. for testing I used an ac adaptor for a cell phone charger. the amperage ratings for the fans were more than the power supply but I didn't notice any effect. both fans moved air at a speed independently from the mills motor rotation speed so I think they should be an improvement at least at low rpm. the two fans seemed to move as much air as the mills fan did when I did the bench test of the mill motor.

next I trial fit the mount with the motor and gear. there is no window to see how the gears are meshing so I ran whiteout along 4 points of the larger gear. the gears do catch but there is a slight click when reversing rotation of the motor. so it seems there is a gap between the axials that could be closed up. there is some adjustment/slack in the factory bolt holes it will take some fiddling to get it all right.

I am questioning what to use for the oil bath again. sealing everything shouldn't be too hard nor should cutting the gasket. I don't have much experience with choosing a lubricant for situations like this. choosing lubricants for car gear boxes have everything spec-ed out for the most part.

either way i am thinking the lube should be synthectic (for longer life and low moisture absorbsion), tolerate cold conditions (around 0*F is as low as I can tolerate to work in), hopefully get along with the micarta coating (not really sure why it is there in the first place) on the large gear, and provide the best wear resistance possible (while not being so thick it bogs the motor down in low temperatures). what else should I be considering? am I over thinking this problem?