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The DIY Bandsaw..

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velocette:
Hi
Can I express my totally biased opinion on the construction of building a metal cutting  bandsaw.
The frame needs to be strong enough not to flex when the blade is tensioned.
Two wheels give half of the blade in contact  with the wheel.
Three Wheels need more blade tension and an heavier stiffer frame to perform.
 Four wheels would create more problems than it attempts to solve.
Take the lead from the bandsaws used in an industrial situation and find out how they are made.
What is the material and the sizes plus the amount of you you plan cut in a year.
 Eric
 

vtsteam:
Eric, on a 3 wheel bandsaw, like mine, the drive wheel often has nearly half the wheel in contact with the band because it is located in the acute corner of an unequal sided right triangle, at the back of the throat. Its only advantage is that it is compact vertically, at the expense of horizontal footprint. And is lighter and easier, therefore to move around.

NeoTech:
The frame will be welded out of 50x30x4mm tubing. And i thought i would go with a car frame approach on it. All corners will be reinforced with a tab thus minimizing flexing, then cross braze the large square parts. The overhead part is necessary though so if it would flex it would be in that backbone tubing in the throat.

But yes, more contact wheels needs additional tension, and 4 wheels need 2 tracking wheels. The benefit of 4 wheel setup would be that the tension is distributed more equal over the 4 contact points. The optimal is 2 large wheels. Out of a fabricating standpoint is 2 large wheels also the hardest to achieve.. Especially if you dont have woodworking tools. and dont own a slip roller.

I imagine a 3 wheel contact setup with two larger and 1 smaller drive wheel could be better, but it makes tracking of the band a little bit harder. i've only experiment with it in CAD so far..  And by looking at a tons of pictures of bandsaws from different manufacturers. But at such a low speed a bandsaw would move..Is it really an issue? I found several multiroller setups on metal specific bandsaws, and when it comes to the wood cutting ones they are almost always 2 wheel ones because speed necessity..

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