# Wood Bandsaw Conversion to Metal



## GWRdriver (Nov 26, 2012)

I'm about done converting a 14" Delta wood cutting band saw (Model 28-245) to metal cutting and the last bit to be done is to convert blade guides to something better suited to metal.  Have any of you done similar conversions and if so I would be interested to hear what you did for blade guides, and how that worked out.


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## Tin Falcon (Nov 26, 2012)

Well I kind of cheat. I purchased a grizzly woodworking bands saw that has a fairly low sfpm for a wood saw and I cut aluminum and brass on it. 
the blade guides are ball bearings .
I suppose I can take pictures.
Tin


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## Dunc1 (Nov 28, 2012)

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=56056&cat=1,41036,56060,56056

The usual disclaimers


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## petertha (Nov 29, 2012)

Thats pretty much the same bearing principle on my Asian 6.5x10" metal cutting horizontal/upright bandsaw. One bearing on either flat side of the blade & one riding perpendicular on the rear edge of blade. So 2 clusters of 3 bearings.  Each side bearing axle can be adjusted in/out before locking down, its kind of a cam principle. 

Also, ahead of the bearings is a wiper block that looks kind of like a mini wire brush. This (somewhat) keeps metal chips & cutting fluid grunge from getting up into the bearings & travelling around the drive wheels.


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## Tin Falcon (Nov 29, 2012)

this is similar to all bearing style band saw guides I have seen including my grizzly. 
the bearings are mounted on eccentric shafts that move in and out . the eccentric allows for up down and more importantly side to side adjustment. 
the grizzly has only one bearing on either side of the blade. IIRC my grizzly has a nylon brush wiper but like I said was built as a wood saw. 
the grizzly guide  is simpler more solid design a solid block with holes drilled through. then rods holding the bearings and set screws holding the rods.
also on mine the back of the blade  contacts the face of a bearing not the side. I guess I better get a pic when I have the time.
And yes the above photo is from dunc's thread. 
Tin


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## Omnimill (Nov 29, 2012)

GWRdriver said:


> I'm about done converting a 14" Delta wood cutting band saw (Model 28-245) to metal cutting.



Tell me more. I've been thinking I'd like to try converting my Record BS300.

Vic.


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## GWRdriver (Nov 29, 2012)

Hello Vic,
Like many of us, I had been making do using my Asian Horiz-Vert bandsaw in vertical position for bandsawing jobs, a marginal proposition at best.  A couple of years ago I chanced across a Delta 14" woodcutting bandsaw (USA-made, all cast iron) in superb condition for a very fair price and picked it up with the intention of converting it to metal cutting.  Primarily this involved one thing, slowing the blade speed down.  My mentor as a young man had done this same thing with a butcher's meat bandsaw and it made a superb metal saw which he used for the rest of his life.

To accomplish this I decided to look for a 90° reduction gearbox with a NEMA "C-Face" motor mount which would accept the very nice C-Face pump motor I already had on hand.  I had to wait and watch for a while but eventually one (David Brown Ltd) came up on eBay for a pittance and I picked that up.  The gearbox case was cast in a way that allowed me to position the motor vertically as well as horizontally and I opted to mount it vertically in order to keep the machine footprint as small as it could be.  I reverse-computed a combination of final blade speed, motor rpm, and gearbox reduction to arrive at the required pulley sizes.  Very fortunately I found that standard step pulley sizes, all of which I had on hand, would put me within my target speed range.

In surveying the gear case casting I realized that by carefully boring (and inserting sleeve bearings) I could make the gearbox assembly a "carriage" of sorts and mount it on bar bedways, which I fabricated of angle iron and steel bar.  Thus belt changes, tension adjustments, and belt removal could be easily done by sliding the entire motor gearbox assembly on these ways.  A couple of inches either way was all that was required.  I further added a tensioning leadscrew so that belt tension could be very accurately adjusted.  The photo, which should explain all, is of a preliminary trial fit and everything is now in place and running.

Now the only thing left to do is create a better blade guide arrangement.  The stock upper guide has quite a bit of overhang, that is, the point of blade contact is some distance away from the nearest point of guide attachment and there needs to be more rigid support.


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## Omnimill (Nov 29, 2012)

Thanks for that Harry. Interesting solution to the problem!

Vic.


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## surfside (Nov 29, 2012)

GWRdriver, 
That explains everything! 

The blade guides you are referring to are the side guides,right?


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## GWRdriver (Nov 29, 2012)

Surfside,
The kind of blade guides I'm after are something akin to those shown in Tin's photo just above.


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## surfside (Nov 30, 2012)

Oh okay. Did you change the blade guides to optimize your bandsaw?


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## GWRdriver (Nov 30, 2012)

No, not yet.  That's what my original post was about - to ask if anyone on this board has done it, to see what and how they went about it.  It will inevitably end up being something like the photo posted by Tin.


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## surfside (Nov 30, 2012)

Oh Never realized that. Hope someone in here will help you out. I never tried converting band saw to metal.


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## Ed T (Nov 30, 2012)

I bought some ball bearing replacements for the standard delta steel blocks at HF a few years ago. I think it was about $12 for the set of four. Sorry, I don't have the P/N. After some wrestling with the slanted lower guide I got them all in and they have worked fine for several years. There are also a lot of alternative blocks that replace the steel ones made from slipperier materials than the steel ones


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## purpleknif (Dec 3, 2012)

Those look a lot like the guides on my 10" craftsman band saw. Try sears.


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## surfside (Dec 5, 2012)

Change it with roller guides. Try checking some videos on youtube.


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## Beachside_Hank (Dec 5, 2012)

You're probably beyond this stage, but good 'ol Popular Mechanics shows how they did it in June of 1950:

I'm looking to score some old iron cheap on Craigslist to do the same.


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## mwilkes (Dec 5, 2012)

Occasionally i cut aluminium/brass on my little record bandsaw (which has roller bearings). With a fine-toothed blade I've got superb cuts. Only problem I've experienced so far is the plastic disc in the middle of the table melted because so much heat was generated - admittedly I was being a bit greedy about the amount I was trying to cut at the time, and the blade wasn't the sharpest... but it's something to be mindful of.


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## ShopShoe (Dec 6, 2012)

"... good 'ol Popular Mechanics shows how they did it in June of 1950:" (See Post above for link.) 

Page 214 of that issue, Figure 8:

Soooo, that's what those inexpensive vises are for.

--ShopShoe


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## Rex (Dec 11, 2012)

I just converted an older Jet 14", which is the same saw sold by Griz, HF, delta and many others. 
I used a 30 rpm gearmotor I had laying around,which turned out to give 110 FPM - perfect for steel. it was practically a bolt-on.

But I' am also looking for some upgrade blade guides. The stock pot-metal casting that the guide bolts to was broken when I got it. I will probably copy that in steel, and buy a set of conversion rollers.
But who knows, that might be the easy part. I have a bunch of new skateboard bearings.


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