Shopsmith Forums

Hi All
I have a shopsmith bandsaw and also have a spare 110 volt motor my shopsmith has a 220 v motor and a stand from an old tablesaw and I was thinking of assembling a standalone bandsaw. Anyone done this? I cannot find another shopsmith or powerstand as I live in the Azores, I mostly need ideas about pulleys or sheaves and gearing ratios and also if anyone has tried this, and also any input - all will be appreciated, OK off to the shop to do some building.

thanks in advance
Nath

If you scroll down in this post, you will find some info on speeds and pulleys:

https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=7758

The Shopsmith bandsaw is normally operated in the range of 700rpm to 1050rpm. You can reach this speed with any motor and the right combination of pulleys.

A typical rpm for small motors is 1750rpm.

I operate my bandsaw in the manner that you are proposing. The only difference being that I have a power stand. A power stand; however, is nothing more than a place to mount everything and a proper set of pulleys.

Yes, what you want to do can be done and I see no problems with doing so.

Protect yourself from the belt/pulley arrange.

tunznath wrote:Hi All
I have a shopsmith bandsaw and also have a spare 110 volt motor my shopsmith has a 220 v motor and a stand from an old tablesaw and I was thinking of assembling a standalone bandsaw. Anyone done this? I cannot find another shopsmith or powerstand as I live in the Azores, I mostly need ideas about pulleys or sheaves and gearing ratios and also if anyone has tried this, and also any input - all will be appreciated, OK off to the shop to do some building.

thanks in advance
Nath

Dude, if I lived in the Azores, I suspect that woodworking would have a really hard time competing with sun, surf, and bikinis!:) Then again, maybe all that tropical wood has it's own magical qualities.

Seriously, though, if you know the shaft RPM of your motor, no doubt the folks here can give you pulley sizes and/or ratios to get you a proper bandsaw speed.

tunznath wrote:Hi All
I have a shopsmith bandsaw and also have a spare 110 volt motor my shopsmith has a 220 v motor and a stand from an old tablesaw and I was thinking of assembling a standalone bandsaw. Anyone done this? I cannot find another shopsmith or powerstand as I live in the Azores, I mostly need ideas about pulleys or sheaves and gearing ratios and also if anyone has tried this, and also any input - all will be appreciated, OK off to the shop to do some building.

thanks in advance
Nath

The following should help you calculate the pulley diameters you need.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/pulleybeltcalc.html

Thanks for all the info, I will be using an Emerson 1 1/8 motor, speed 3450 rpm 115v 60hz, it is the original motor thatwas in the shopsmith before it got a 220v replacement, had a look at that pulley chart, cant seem to get it to work well, also I dont know what to plug into it, gives weird answers, so if anyone can help with pulley sizes that would be excellent, Also about the Azores, yes it is beautiful with different trees, but man I envy you guys in the states, it seems there are used shopsmiths everywhere, also Shopsmith will not ship any spares here, so I have to get freinds to bring stuff when they come for holidays.

OK just waiting on some answers and will see what we have here in the way of pulleys , or will see what online shopping can get me.

regards
Nath

To get 700 rpm on the bandsaw, we want to pick pulleys that give us that reduction from 3450 rpm. If we put a 2" on the motor and a 10" diameter on the bandsaw, we get a 1/5 reduction ( i.e. 2/10), or 690 rpm at the bandsaw (close enough to 700).

If we prefer the upper range of say 1000 rpm at the bandsaw, we could use the 2" on the motor and say, a 7" on the bandsaw, which gives 1/3.5 reduction (i.e.2/7), or 986 rpm at the bandsaw (close enough to 1000).

That should get the discussion going!:D

tunznath wrote:Thanks for all the info, I will be using an Emerson 1 1/8 motor, speed 3450 rpm 115v 60hz, it is the original motor thatwas in the shopsmith before it got a 220v replacement, had a look at that pulley chart, cant seem to get it to work well, also I dont know what to plug into it, gives weird answers, so if anyone can help with pulley sizes that would be excellent, Also about the Azores, yes it is beautiful with different trees, but man I envy you guys in the states, it seems there are used shopsmiths everywhere, also Shopsmith will not ship any spares here, so I have to get freinds to bring stuff when they come for holidays.

OK just waiting on some answers and will see what we have here in the way of pulleys , or will see what online shopping can get me.

regards
Nath

Doggone it Nath, here I was dreaming of woodworking on a beautiful tropical island, and you had to go and punch my engineer buttons! Not to mention making me walk down to the basement for measurements and documentation. (Truth be told, it was not terribly painful, as I happened to also be sipping Cruzan spiced rum from St. Croix.)

Ditto PRMINDARTMOUTH re. the pulley ratio. 700 RPM is good for any blade in hardwood, and recommended softwood speeds aren't a whole lot higher. Additional considerations include maximum linear belt speed, max pulley diameter (limited by available space) and min pulley diameter (limited by belt minimum bend radius).

Here is what else I found. 1) My ShopSmith power stand has a belt cover that will accomodate a 5" pulley, max. The largest recommended motor pulley is 4.5", and the smallest is 2". 2) The SS mounting base instructions state that the recommended pulleys are for 1725 RPM motors only. But as they have motor pulleys listed up to 4.5", the belt (linear) speed will be fine with a 2" or smaller motor pulley.

Bottom line: go with PRMINDARTMOUTH's pulley recommendations, if you can provide a proper safety cover for the big 7" pulley. Otherwise, you will need to use a smaller motor pulley, but that would require some additional research on minimum bend radius for the belt.

Many many thanks - just figuring how I will wire the motor to the switch (I am not an elecricianand US electrics are a bit different to Eoropean), I have a home made inverter that converts 220 v to 110 volt, - use this for the planer and the dust collecter, will need a switch for the bandsaw and also a US style plug, will get a friend to bring that, and also the pulleys which I will get from the UK

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HBM-7-175MM-A ... 564b40c254

and either this one
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RDGTOOLS-2-ST ... 5638e4ab44

or a 2" one from the same place

many thanks for all your help
regards
Nath

tunznath wrote:Many many thanks - just figuring how I will wire the motor to the switch (I am not an elecricianand US electrics are a bit different to Eoropean), I have a home made inverter that converts 220 v to 110 volt, - use this for the planer and the dust collecter, will need a switch for the bandsaw and also a US style plug, will get a friend to bring that, and also the pulleys which I will get from the UK

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HBM-7-175MM-ALUMINIUM-V-PULLEY-BORE-5-8-V-BELT-/370629722708?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item564b40c254

and either this one
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RDGTOOLS-2-STEP-PULLEY-5-8-BORE-/370321697604?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item5638e4ab44

or a 2" one from the same place

many thanks for all your help
regards
Nath

Are you in 50 Hz territory? If so the motor speeds will be slower by .8333(50/60) That will require different pulley ratios for a given spt speed.