Modified portable band saw?

"Dave99" wrote: (clip) But I'm wondering if it

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Induction motors are heavier and larger for the same horsepower, compared to AC/DC brush type motors that are used on hand held tools. Pistol drills, portable circular saws, weed cutters, portable grinders all get their power at small size and weight by spinning really fast. The crossover comes with table saws--the small contractor saws that are moved from job to job use high speed brush-type motors. Cabinet saws such as used in a fixed location generally have induction motors.

The Portaband and Milwaukee hand-held metal-cutting bandsaws are extremely useful and versatile, but their size and weight would jump way up if induction motors were used.

I used a noisy motor from a vacuum cleaner beater bar on my Sherline mill as a spindle motor. It was very loud. I used a router speed controller from Harbor Freight for speed control and was pleasantly surprised by a significant noise reduction at less the wide open throttle. Maybe this could work for you? I doubt full power is needed in every cut. If you try this, let us know how it turns out.

Thanks guys... Leo, you're right... Adding an induction motor would make it less portable, but still a heck of a lot more portable than bringing a full size band saw. I should have included that I would also fix it to some sort of stand, so hand holding would not be needed. It would basically be like a mini horizontal or vertical band- saw. Ronald... Slowing the motor would probably help some.

Milwaukee makes a table/vise for their portable band saws. They make about a half dozen variations of the band saws, and they have various speeds, 200, 250,

I bet a slower speed model with the optional table would fill the bill, albeit not too cheap.

Dennis

This one from Penn Tools looks better than some:

The Penn Tools one looks pretty good. It looks similar to the smaller JET ones. I ordered a fairly cheap portable that comes with a chop stand, plus I'll try the speed control idea. At any rate, I know it will be more quiet than a chop saw for sure. I still think I might try adapting an induction motor to one at some point, but I didn't want to deal with it now. Kama makes one that does both vertical and horizontal, which is cool. But still the AC/DC motor though. Thanks for the ideas.

I guess there is a reason you are shunning the HF H/V band saw, but it seems to fit your criteria. It's on a stand, is fairly quiet, and turns itself off after the cut, to boot.

Thanks Ron... I actually did consider the horizontal. You're right, it does meet the quiet criteria. But it's not very portable. Plus, it's kind of overkill for most of the material we cut. Most of it is pretty light gauge stuff.

Well, the portable band saw/speed control idea didn't work too well. The saw itself was almost as noisy as a chop saw and on top of that, didn't cut straight worth a darn. The speed control works with other motors, but for some reason it didn't work well with the saw. It had to be turned almost all the way up, otherwise it would just stall and hum. Back to the drawing board.

How would it work if you got one of the HF 4x6 Band Saws and a Hand Truck. Leave the legs off the band saw and mount it to the hand truck. If you put the motor end towards the wheel side the center of gravity would be pretty low when moving it about. Just put the saw in the down position for transport and place a big rubber strap over it to keep it there.

You might have to do a bit of work/thinking to clear the motor housing when the saw is in the up position, but I think this would work. It would be relatively cheap and pretty portable with its own hand truck.