bandsaw help

I picked up an old craftsman 10 inch bandsaw today. Lots of coats of house paint, a home brew cabinet/stand that has seen better days. The saw has a serial number that reads 103.0101. I can find that it was built for sears by the king-seely company. I cant find a date, but its old. Fairly good quality. Cast iron clam shell housing, steel (rusty) adjustable table, all the bearings appear good, but they are bronze. I plan on scrapping the stand, building a short tube stand and changing out the 3/4 horse AC motor for a variable speed DC 2hp (or so they say) motor. This way I can get it down in speed, slow enough to cut aluminum and some mild steel. The blade tires are shot, but the wheels are very good. The blade guide is cracked, but I will just machine up a new one (with better geometry).

My questions are

  1. where to find a blade. I did the string as well as the math calculations and figure its 68 1/2.
  2. How may teeth per inch. I recall a rule of thumb that at least two teeth should be in contact with the metal at all times, this could get tough with
1/8 inch AL....
  1. Tires. It had a very bad set of rubber tires on the wheels. No crown left, chunks missing, glue rotted from the inside out. I've read about urathane tires, but I was wondering what's the general feeling about rubber vs. urathane. This saw will see only home use every so often.....

any other suggestions for getting this old girl running again, would be great!!!!

thanks in advance. bob in phx

Reply to
Bob in Phx
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Bob, You will be disappointed with the performance. Do not try to convert a wood bandsaw for metal. It rarely is successful in both performance and invested money. Please keep in mind that you need 80 ft per minute or lower speed and this speed range must be achieved with adequate motor torque and tire traction. Additionally, you need a blade above and below the table. Steve

Reply to
Steve Lusardi

=2E..

I used slices of old truck inner tubes to retread the wheels of a 10" Delta bandsaw. They aren't perfectly even in thickness but they were good enough. I slowed it down somewhat with a larger pulley and used it for aluminum, then as a sawmill to cut a few dozen 10" x 6' oak planks.

I wouldn't bother trying to make it cut steel. Even if you get it going slow enough you are still severely limited by the throat depth, embedded steel grit in wood will wreck your woodworking tools, and once the blade dulls, small parts quickly heat up too much to hold. A

4x6 horizontal is sooo much better even with their quirks. For a few steel cuts you can get away with a saber or recip saw.

Jim Wilkins

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

If the other sources mentioned in this thread don't work out, there's a saw shop or three near you that'll weld up any blade you want for about $5 + the cost of the material.

Al is best cut at woodworking speeds, or a bit less - don't worry about 2 teeth in contact rule when running at that speed. I find a

6TPI hook tooth is a good general purpose aluminum blade. Apply wax to the blade to avoid gumming the teeth.

When cutting steel, the blade that's on my vertical most of the time is a 10TPI raker set, an 18TPI would be more appropriate for a small saw cutting light stock. I keep blades from 4TPI skip tooth (for 2"+ thick aluminum) to 32TPI wavy set on hand.

McMaster has 10" rubbers, but only 1" wide. Your saw shop will have access to a wider selection if you don't want to try some of the cheaper suggestions.

Reply to
Ned Simmons

I have one of those 10" saws and Sears has the tires. The 103.0101 is not a serial number, it is a model number and you will need it if you order from Sears. I cut aluminum on mine all the time with not bad results, except for very thin stuff. The blades can be obtained at Sears also. Hope this helps.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Chandler

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hth,

Wes

Reply to
Wes

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Reply to
Wayne

thanks to all, I have found urethane tires (10 inch) and a new 14 tpi bi-metallic blade. I an changing out the motor and giving the saw variable speed!!! Lets hope it works out.

next up (after its up and running) are cool blocks!!!

Reply to
Bob in Phx

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