1949 Delta/Milwaukee 14" Band Saw

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Rog02:

--- Quote from: Baldrocker on December 21, 2008, 06:50:42 PM ---Serendipity
For some time I've been wondering if an old meat saw for sale locally
could be viable to convert to metal cutting.
Now along comes Rog02, not only does he answer my question he then
goes on to show how. :bow:
BR

--- End quote ---

BR:

This is not a meat saw conversion. This saw is a wood cutting model that was used to cut meat.

There are several differences in a meat saw and a wood and/or metal saw.

The meat saws are generally built with a much lighter frame as the flesh presents less resistance to the blade and therefore less tension is required. Most meat saws I have seen do not have an adjustable upper blade guide, the throat is pretty tall which may be desirable for wood work but for metal cutting the upper blade guard is kept pretty close to the surface for stability. The table on a meat saw is not adjustable for miter cuts, nor is there any provision for a miter gauge, as most butchers don't really pay much attention to angles.

Meat saws generally run higher blade speeds, blade speed for wood and aluminum is 2200 foot per minute and drops to 150 FPM for some steels and cast iron. Some serious re-gearing is going to be needed.

I would give this some serious consideration before embarking on a conversion.

Brass_Machine:
Thanks Rog!

I am going to mod my saw in the beginning of 09. Want to add a better table (removable) for vertical cutting and liquid cooling\cleaning for horizontal operations... Seams i go through a lot of blades.

Eric

Rog02:

--- Quote from: Brass_Machine on December 21, 2008, 11:32:25 PM ---Thanks Rog!

I am going to mod my saw in the beginning of 09. Want to add a better table (removable) for vertical cutting and liquid cooling\cleaning for horizontal operations... Seams i go through a lot of blades.

Eric

--- End quote ---

I mis-understood you Eric. I thought you were talking about Horrible Fright's 14" upright band saw. The brush as designed, probably will not work for the little 4X6 horizontal saw.

They indeed are blade eaters as supplied from the Pacific Rim. I have found Starret and equivalent quality blades work well and outperform the cheap blades from Horrible Fright. Changing to a hydraulic downfeed dampener increased the quality of cuts by degrees of magnitude. The addition of the coolant system further enhanced the performance and extended blade life. I cut 4130 tubing and plate with mine and can get a year or more out of the blades now after extensively modifying the saw.

The best way to look at the little import horizontal saws is to consider them a partially assembled kit. With the addition of a few parts, modification of several existing parts and some careful deliberate tweaking they can be made to work acceptably well. Fresh out of the box they really don't get it. An acquaintance of mine purchased one from HF and when he got it home found the castings to be so misaligned it was never going to cut straight and had to exchange it before the mods could begin.

Baldrocker:
Bugger
Thanks for that, saved me some biccies.
BR

Brass_Machine:

--- Quote from: Rog02 on December 22, 2008, 12:15:13 AM ---
I mis-understood you Eric. I thought you were talking about Horrible Fright's 14" upright band saw. The brush as designed, probably will not work for the little 4X6 horizontal saw.

They indeed are blade eaters as supplied from the Pacific Rim. I have found Starret and equivalent quality blades work well and outperform the cheap blades from Horrible Fright. Changing to a hydraulic downfeed dampener increased the quality of cuts by degrees of magnitude. The addition of the coolant system further enhanced the performance and extended blade life. I cut 4130 tubing and plate with mine and can get a year or more out of the blades now after extensively modifying the saw.

The best way to look at the little import horizontal saws is to consider them a partially assembled kit. With the addition of a few parts, modification of several existing parts and some careful deliberate tweaking they can be made to work acceptably well. Fresh out of the box they really don't get it. An acquaintance of mine purchased one from HF and when he got it home found the castings to be so misaligned it was never going to cut straight and had to exchange it before the mods could begin.

--- End quote ---

It's ok Rog, I probably wasn't clear. I am using Rigid blades from Home Depot right now. I go through 1 every few months, but I do a lot of cutting. I started to tweak it, but I got further to go yet.

Eric

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