Bandsawing green wood

[jimlee]

I have a standard issue hobbyist Delta 14" bandsaw with a 1/2 hp motor. I am cutting almost exclusively green wood which I know is
not an easy thing to do for a relatively lightweight bandsaw. I have a 3/4" Timberwold blade that works ok but I am wondering if upgrading my
motors power will make a significant difference. I do have a 220v outlet available but I would prefer to stay with 110v. Has anyone done a motor upgrade like this? If so any recommendations for a motor?

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

 

[Owen Lowe]

Green wood on your bandsaw is a very doable thing. What is the tooth count per inch on your blade? I use Timberwolf 3/8†x 3 teeth per inch blades. The 3/4†width shouldn't create all that much drag, but it wouldn’t hurt to try a narrower blade. If you have the 6†spacer block on the saw to increase cutting height to 12†and you are cutting near that capacity, only then would I consider replacing the motor for higher power.

 

[Raul McCai]

half a horse on a 14" BS seems kind of light.
I'd do a larger motor if the mount would allow it.

I think that the limiting factor on bandsaws where depth of cut matters is all about combination of tension and sawtooth gullet.
I run a 1" wide 1.3 TPI lennox woodmaster that I tension to over 20 thousand pounds on my saw.
I can still shove wood through so fast that I overload the gullets on a full depth of cut, but it takes some effort.


You didn't mention the TPI of that timberwolf. It's possible that the TPI and gullet depth are limiting you. Can you get a blade with fewer teeth than you now have?

I've read about people using dual motors on smaller saws to get more oomph. I have no idea how they do it and keep the motors from fighting each other.

 

[Bill Boehme]

I have a standard issue hobbyist Delta 14" bandsaw with a 1/2 hp motor. I am cutting almost exclusively green wood which I know is
not an easy thing to do for a relatively lightweight bandsaw. I have a 3/4" Timberwold blade that works ok but I am wondering if upgrading my
motors power will make a significant difference. I do have a 220v outlet available but I would prefer to stay with 110v. Has anyone done a motor upgrade like this? If so any recommendations for a motor?

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

Are you sure that it is only a half horse? I thought that the Delta bandsaws were 1 HP unless they made a 14" tabletop BS. I know that some of the knockoffs were 3/4 HP and probably even 1/2 HP.

In any event, I think that a half horse motor is up to the task although it might be slightly slower that a 1 HP motor. You can improve performance considerably by replacing the 3/4" band with a 1/2" band. The wider band is not only unnecessary, but really too large to be flexing on a small 14" wheel and taking huge gulps of wood that overload the motor. I have a 16 inch MiniMax with 3.8 HP motor, but I still use half inch bands for most stuff. Also make sure that you are using an appropriate tooth configuration for green wood -- usually a deep gullet 3 TPI blade with wider kerf to more easily clear dust. Don't force the cut, let the blade cut at its own rate which will be slow as the wood gets thicker regardless of HP. Forcing the cut dulls blades quickly. Also, check your blades for sharpness. Sometimes you will encounter wood that has a very high mineral content and can dull a new blade in an instant. I think that woodworkers in general tend to be "frugal" with things like bandsaw blades and use BS blades long after they should have been tossed.

One problem with getting a larger motor is that the frame size will be different which leads to modifying the motor mounting arrangement which usually snowballs into other things as well.

 

[Ron Rutter]

If you have a 5/32" cylindrical chain saw sharpening stone you can sharpen 3 tooth bandsaw blades in short order!!
If your blanks are not too thick, a 3/8" blade works well also.

 

[Brian McInturff]

What size of circle are you cutting? I think the norm is a 1/2"x3tpi and the recommended smallest diameter circle is 6". I use an older Laguna 16" and I think it has a 2.5hp motor(could be 3hp can't remember) and I've bogged it down cutting an 8" think blank, cutting a 14" diameter circle. And like Bill said I was trying to get more life out of my blade than I should've. Bandsaw tune ups don't take long, don't cost much, and sure do pay off. Sometimes a chainsaw and just rough shaping to round is just as good an option too...lol

 

[DON FRANK]

Motor upgrade

I've been a member for a while but just in lurking mode on this forum. This is my first post. I have that same saw and it also had a 1/2 hp motor. Was wanting to upgrade to a larger saw but decided to just upgrade the motor instead. For a few hundred dollars I figured it was worth trying. I installed a 3hp 220v motor. I couldn't find a 1750rpm motor at a reasonable price so I went with a 3450 and changed the pulley size to reduce the blade speed back down. Because the pulley is larger I had to re-cofigure the pulley shroud. This concept is sort of like putting a nitrous bottle on an old Ford Pinto but it certainly worked.
I made a larger table from MDF to support a bigger log blank. That reduced the throat capacity by 3/4" but is worth having. I have been cutting some sizable bowl blanks with good success. I need to experiment with some different blades to see what works best. Based on my experience I'd say go for it. If you can find a 1750rpm it will save you some time.

 

[Raul McCai]

I think that woodworkers in general tend to be "frugal" with things like bandsaw blades and use BS blades long after they should have been tossed.

HA HA HA HA HA too true. I have a several year old broken blade that I refuse to throw away because I'm sure that one day, my welding skill will be up to welding it.
But it's a carbide tooth 162" long 1" wide blade & when new was worth a couple hundred dollars.

 

[robo hippy]

A 1/2 hp motor is good for cutting up to about 6 inches, and will struggle after that, no matter which blade you use. 1 hp is good up to about 12 inches, but will struggle a bit at that height. I have a Laguna 16HD for my big bandsaw, with a 4.5 hp Baldor motor on it. Cuts through 14 inch stock with no problems and pushes a 1 1/4 inch teeth @ 3/4 inch spacing. Now, for your blades, best ones out there are the Lennox bimetal diemaster blades. They cost a bit more, but cut far longer, can go through nails which will dull them but not trash them, and cut straight. I have convinced several other turners who used the Timberwolf blades to try them, and they all switches. I take mine to the saw shop and have them sharpened. The big bladess, 150 inch long cost $9 each. They do a much better job than I could ever do.

robo hippy

 

[Grahamchase]

I have a similar situation as to what you have, I have a 1930s delta 14†model 890 bandsaw. When I purchased it, it was missing a motor so I put on a spare one that came out of a delta 6†jointer that I bought for parts. The problem is that the motor only has 1/3Hp. The past couple of weeks I have been roughing out a load of apricot that I had received. Most of the blanks that I am cutting out are 12†plus in diameter and 4†plus in thickness. The saw has been working though all of this but it has been tediously slow, around 2 to 3 min per blank. When I put the motor on the bandsaw originally I knew that it was underpowered so I wasn’t surprised at how long it was taking. Well as I got to the end of processing this load of apricot (about 60 blanks) it has become a lot worse and I could tell the blade was becoming dull. Not having the time to go out of town to buy a new one and not wanting to wait for one to come in the mail I decided to try and sharpen it myself. I found a video on YouTube that looked easy enough and I wasn’t too worried about messing up the blade as I was planning on throwing it away when I got a new one. Well I sharpened it up last night and did a test cut on one of the few pieces of apricot I had left. The piece was 13†in diameter and 4.5†in thickness; I cut that blank out it 30 seconds!

My point behind this story is that I was convinced the whole time that it was cutting slowly because the motor was underpowered but in the end my biggest problem was that I was using a dull blade. Now I won’t for a second try to argue that a 1/3 HP motor is enough power for what I am doing but in my case it wasn’t the greatest point of weakness. However I do plan on upgrading my motor to something much bigger when the time is right.

Graham

 

[Ron Rutter]

HA HA HA HA HA too true. I have a several year old broken blade that I refuse to throw away because I'm sure that one day, my welding skill will be up to welding it.
But it's a carbide tooth 162" long 1" wide blade & when new was worth a couple hundred dollars.

Raul. I had a jig made from angle iron to weld up blades. A quarter inch taper on both ends & silver solder works great. Our seniors WW club breaks blades frequently- for various reasons, so I get a fair bit of practice! Ron.

 

[Gretch Flo]

Graham-u tube link??? Gretch

 

[hockenbery]

My point behind this story is that I was convinced the whole time that it was cutting slowly because the motor was underpowered but in the end my biggest problem was that I was using a dull blade. Now I won’t for a second try to argue that a 1/3 HP motor is enough power for what I am doing but in my case it wasn’t the greatest point of weakness. However I do plan on upgrading my motor to something much bigger when the time is right. Graham

We all know that sharp turning tools, sharp chain saws, and sharp bandsaws works better. I think most of us use a dull bandsaw more than we'd like to admit in public.

Cutting wet wood especially with bark will often dull a blade sometimes quite quickly.
My bandsaw, a Laguna 16" cuts ok with a dull blade and the change is gradual and it doesn't take that long to cut a blank with a dull blade and the cut doesn't have to be right on the line
It is just finding the right moment to take 5 minutes and put on a new blade that costs $14.

I occasional sharpen the 3 tpi blades but it takes a long time to hit 435 teeth so I usually just pop on a new one.

If there is just a little gas in the chainsaw, I use it up with a dull chain then gas up and deal with the blade at the same time.



Al

 

[Bob Howell]

I found my Delta saw listed a 13 amp motor on the outside plate but had a 9.6 amp motor installed.

I only have 120 v in that area so I got a 15.6 amp motor rated at 1 1/2 hp .The socket is rated at 20 amps and works fine. The motor is too big for the housing so the cover does not fit but the saw cuts great.

I have discussed this with several friends and all agree they wish they had 2hp +

We are all cutting green wood and have the riser block installed.

 

[john lucas]

I haven't read all the responses of this but wanted to respond to one point. You don't have to weld a broken blade, you can silver solder it. I haven't searched youtube to see if I can find a good teaching video but it's quite easy to do. You build a simple jig out of angle iron. Grind the blade so they overlap and then simply heat them up with a MAPP gas torch and silver solder them together. I'm still unpacking boxes from my move and don't know where my jig is but if I find it I'll post a photo.
I found a bunch of them. This one covers it pretty well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNi06buKa8w