Making bandsaw wheels

[tonyfoale]

Here are some pix of my wheel balancer. The wheel axle sits on the two bearings each side, The bearings need to spin very freely so that means that they must have no seals, be very clean and lubricated with nothing or very thin oil if any. Dry ceramic bearings are the best for low friction.



Some balancers have larger diameter "wheels" on the bearings, usually knife edged. These increase sensitivity, but you ought to use hardened axles if you use knife edges. Plain bearings as illustrated here are amply sensitive for wheel balancing.

This photo shows the weights on the wheel rim.

[Kwick Aronson]

I picked this up at the Long Beach Swap Meet a decade or two ago. The guy was selling them for $63.00 with good bearings ($3.00 cheaper with standard bearings)

It came with a rod to true wheels & magnets to hold it. Also hose clamps to hold the rim for truing.
And it is adjustable for different diameter axle ends.

[Kwick Aronson]

Second picture

[tonyfoale]

I picked this up at the Long Beach Swap Meet a decade or two ago. The guy was selling them for $63.00 with good bearings ($3.00 cheaper with standard bearings)

It came with a rod to true wheels & magnets to hold it. Also hose clamps to hold the rim for truing.
And it is adjustable for different diameter axle ends.

The adjustable width between bearings is nice. I didn't do that, I made it wide enough to handle the widest tyres that I'd use. I am only interested in 3 axle sizes (15, 17 and 20mm) and I have dedicated axles of those sizes, so a fixed width is OK for me. I wanted to keep it as small as I could because I often take it to races.

[charles scozzari]

Very nice work. Please keep us up to date with your project.

[tonyfoale]

Very nice work. Please keep us up to date with your project.

If by project you mean the complete bandsaw then that was finished some years ago and there is a full description in this forum at Homemade vertical bandsaw.

and 5 youtube videos at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...LsTGSRpc2C6QOG

I have used bandsaws for well over 60 years and I have built two, one when I was a kid and this one as a geriatric. Now that that I have used it almost daily for the past few years I must say that is by far the nicest bandsaw that I have ever used. The care that I put into wheel alignment and squareness of other stuff has paid off handsomely.

[mpweir]

Thanks for your many posts, Tony. I have your book from 1984 and reread it every decade or so.
I made a 3-wheel bandsaw maybe 40 years ago, wanting a deep throat without huge wheels. The wheels are at the vertex and capitals of a big V made of large square section tubing. I never thought of using available wheels, but made mine from 3/4 inch plywood, about 12" diameter, with bearing housings machined from cast iron pipe floor flanges. The wheels were brush coated with thinned polyester resin after truing and crowning on their own bearings I glued bona fide saw wheel tires onto them using various adhesives, but the tires always came off. I think the high local loading and "squirm" of the tire material gradually ruptures the bond. I've never seen commercial bandsaw wheels without a recess for the tire, and suspect that may be necessary. Mine works fairly well running on the "hardened" wood, riding up the crown and only coming off when the blade jams or cuts too heavily. You could probably machine a groove in your body filler if needed.
Mike

[tonyfoale]

Thanks for your many posts, Tony. I have your book from 1984 and reread it every decade or so.
Mike

You need the one from this century. Five times the content and three times the illustrations. Check it out at https://motochassis.com

I made a 3-wheel bandsaw maybe 40 years ago, wanting a deep throat without huge wheels. The wheels are at the vertex and capitals of a big V made of large square section tubing. I never thought of using available wheels, but made mine from 3/4 inch plywood, about 12" diameter, with bearing housings machined from cast iron pipe floor flanges. The wheels were brush coated with thinned polyester resin after truing and crowning on their own bearings I glued bona fide saw wheel tires onto them using various adhesives, but the tires always came off. I think the high local loading and "squirm" of the tire material gradually ruptures the bond. I've never seen commercial bandsaw wheels without a recess for the tire, and suspect that may be necessary. Mine works fairly well running on the "hardened" wood, riding up the crown and only coming off when the blade jams or cuts too heavily. You could probably machine a groove in your body filler if needed.
Mike

It sounds similar to the one that I make 65 years ago. That had three wheels to get the throat without large wheels. I made my wheels by casting them in aluminium and machining them on my Myford 7 lathe. The size of the wheels was determined by the swing of the lathe. If memory serves me correctly I crowned the two freewheeling wheels and kept the driving wheel flat, just like I did on the one featured here. On both the old and new versions I made the tyres by cutting around bicycle inner tubes and gluing that on with contact adhesive. I have never had to replace or reglue any and the current saw gets a lot of work.

A groove in the wheel rim instead of a crown would guarantee throwing the blade off. I made a post on this forum explaining how a crown works.