# 14" Band saw motor pulley size?



## briwayjones (Sep 1, 2015)

Can anyone tell me what the approximate size for the motor pulley on a 14" band saw. I'm guessing since all the motors run about the same speed on band saws that the pulleys should be about the same size between them?

I got a band saw but the motor doesn't have the pulley, so I need to know what size to get.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Yeah, there's a huge amount of variance in band saw blade speeds. For one, not all motors turn the same speed, some are 1750rpm and others are 3600rpm. Use the same size pulley on a 3600rpm motor ad you would a 1750 motor and you're asking for trouble. What size motor pulley depends on the speed of the motor you have, the size of the pulley on the saw and how fast you want the blade to move


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Woodworking blades are generally based on how many feet per minute the blade cuts which could vary depending on if you were just cutting parts or resawing. Here is a calculator to get the speed you wish. http://vintagemachinery.org/math/sfpm.aspx


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## briwayjones (Sep 1, 2015)

epicfail48 said:


> .What size motor pulley depends on the speed of the motor you have, the size of the pulley on the saw and how fast you want the blade to move


It's a 1750rpm motor.


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## briwayjones (Sep 1, 2015)

Steve Neul said:


> Woodworking blades are generally based on how many feet per minute the blade cuts which could vary depending on if you were just cutting parts or resawing. Here is a calculator to get the speed you wish. http://vintagemachinery.org/math/sfpm.aspx


Thanks, Steve! I haven't even looked at the wheel pulley size yet. Forgot about it.

What speeds are good for general cutting with a finer blade verses resawing with the appropriate type of blade?


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

900 RPM is a good speed for a 14" bandsaw so a motor pulley about 1/2 the size of the bandsaw pulley if it is a 1750 RPM motor.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

briwayjones said:


> Thanks, Steve! I haven't even looked at the wheel pulley size yet. Forgot about it.
> 
> What speeds are good for general cutting with a finer blade verses resawing with the appropriate type of blade?


It's a personal choice thing but me I run a saw from about 1000 to 1500 feet per minute. If the saw is in really good condition you might get away with a faster speed but at a faster speed if there was any tracking issues you would spend all your time adjusting the saw back and forth.


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## Joeb41 (Jun 23, 2012)

I never looked at the formulas or sfpm charts but my old Delta 14" (28-200) has a 1725 motor, a 4" motor pulley, and a 6" pulley on the saw. It has been that way since new and works well with any wood I cut.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Joeb41 said:


> I never looked at the formulas or sfpm charts but my old Delta 14" (28-200) has a 1725 motor, a 4" motor pulley, and a 6" pulley on the saw. It has been that way since new and works well with any wood I cut.


You're running at 4,213 feet per minute then.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*do the math or use a chart*

OR just go to the Grizzly site and check the FPM on the different models.

A 2 speed 14" has 1500 and 3000 FPM speeds:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/14-1-HP-Bandsaw-Polar-Bear-Series/G0555P

The 14" resaw has a 3000 FPM speed:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/14-2-HP-Deluxe-Bandsaw/G0457

The 19" has 2 speeds 1700FPS and 3500 FPS.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/21-5-HP-Industrial-Bandsaw-with-Brake/G0531B


I don't really know the purpose of the slower speeds as I've always used the faster in the 3000 FPM range for resawing wood and general contour cuts.

You can plug in your motor and machine pulley sizes here, but you will still have to calculate the circumference of the wheels at the particular RPM.
http://culvermotor.com/Engineering-Formulas/Pulley-and-RPM-Calculator.html

Circumference is PI X D or 2 PI X radius.
OR 6.282 X 14" X RPM in inches. divided by 12 to get FPM.


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## WarnerConstInc. (Nov 25, 2008)

Its feet per minute. 3000 feet per second would be scary to stand in front of.

My 36" saw runs about 6500 feet per minute


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Right you are!*

My ballistics experience was showing. :yes:


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

I bet 3000 feet per second would cut smooth though. :laughing:


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## Joeb41 (Jun 23, 2012)

Steve Neul said:


> You're running at 4,213 feet per minute then.


 Do you think it's too fast, too slow, or OK. It's the way I bought it many years ago. Thanks for your input.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Joeb41 said:


> Do you think it's too fast, too slow, or OK. It's the way I bought it many years ago. Thanks for your input.


If you are happy with it I would leave it like it is. For me it would be too fast.


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## WarnerConstInc. (Nov 25, 2008)

The smaller the saw, the lower the sfm is.

Some of the big tannewitz saws are running near 9k sfm, it is a little intimidatingto stand in front of.

They will cut anything that you shove through it, as fast as you can shove it through.


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## briwayjones (Sep 1, 2015)

The wheel pulley is 6.25". And the size of a readily available motor pulley from TSC that fits my motor is 3". That will give me a FPM of 3077 which sounds in line with what a lot of band saws are.


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

briwayjones said:


> The wheel pulley is 6.25". And the size of a readily available motor pulley from TSC that fits my motor is 3". That will give me a FPM of 3077 which sounds in line with what a lot of band saws are.


Sounds about right.


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## Mad (Dec 9, 2017)

My Delta 14" wood only single speed Bandsaw with original Delta motor and original pulleys (all part numbers match the paperwork from 60 years ago) apparently has a higher surface feet per minute than the 1,000 to 1,500 mentioned earlier in this thread, and a slower SFPM than the 3,000 mentioned later in this thread.

The spread between 1,000 rpm and 3,000 fpm seems kind of wide, in terms of ideal SFPM for a 14'er in wood. So this looks like another learning opportunity I don't want to let slip by, because I'm in the midst of buying a new drive pulley, and I'd like to know what is the reasoning behind ideal speeds in wood, and I'd like to also learn about what parameters should be considered in finding the optimal balance of speed choice.

With a 1,725 rpm motor having a 2.75" pulley driving an 8" pulley turning 14" blade wheels, the calculator on VM dot org has determined the blade speed to be 2,172 SFPM on this originally equipped Delta 890.

In purchasing a new drive pulley, is there any reason for me to consider aiming for a lower (1000-1500) or higher (3000 to 3300) RPM for wood only?

I would use the band saw primarily for ripping, rather than intricate scroll saw type of work. And the woods won't necessarily be that hard or exotic, if material and types of cuts make a difference.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Wood cutting FPM ...*

Going only from memory, wood cutting speed on 14" bandsaws range from 3000 FPM to 3500 FPM off the Grizzly site. Larger saws have a higher rate, up to 4000 FPM.

Memory is confirmed:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/14-Deluxe-Bandsaw/G0555LX

I would start there and see how it performs. Remember, the most important issue is having the correct number of teeth per inch, 6-10 for cross cutting 2 - 4 for resawing, 3 being the most common. The sawdust has to get out of the kerf and the fewer the teeth the easier it is ejected. Heat is the enemy of all cutting tools and if the sawdust can't get out, the blade heats up and binds in the kerf. :|

You can always get two machine pulleys and a different length belt or one of those link belts if you don't have one already, and vary the speed by changing the diameter of the pulley.


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## Sawdustmaker99 (Feb 1, 2018)

It’s not a one size suits all. Figure out what blade speed you want and the motor rpm. It’s relatively simple math from there. My saw is 18” and turns the wheel at 1/2 of the motor speed which is 1750.


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## Gary Beasley (Jan 21, 2009)

One thing to consider is the horsepower of the motor. Higher hp means you can get higher cutting torque at the teeth. My G055 was bogging too often cutting wet wood so I put it on the low speed pulley and now I get faster cutting speed over all. It has a one horse motor. I imagine if you have a higher torque motor you will be happy with a higher fpm.


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## Mad (Dec 9, 2017)

Thanks Gary... The bandsaw saw came with a 1/2 hp motor, which was the maximum HP Delta offered in the 890 at that time (1952). 

Sawdustmaker99... "simple math" doesn't calculate the first and most important part of the equation here... which is "figuring out what blade speed is wanted". That question is not easily answered with simple math, even though optimal pulley size can be easily calculated... once the desired blade speed is known.

So if I wasn't clear before, please forgive my stumbling words, but I'm trying to gain some understanding about the first part of the problem, which is figuring out what blade speed I want. Rather than just pick some number out of a hat, I'm searching through old threads (like this one) to try and get a feel for the experience others report.

And in this thread in particular, the reported experience didn't easily or simply "add up". One respondent reports being happy with 1000 fpm, while another reports being happy with 3000 fpm. That's a HUGE difference. And that disparity motivated me to learn more about why some like one speed, and others like a wildly different speed, even though the material is wood in all cases, not metal (which I know should be much slower, in the very low hundreds, not thousands).

So I'm not asking how to calculate pulley size for any given desired speed... I'm asking what speeds are desireable, and why?

Bill, the Grizzly Bandsaws may be similar to the old Delta Bandsaws in many respects, but in the case of blade speed, the current Grizzlys at 3,000 to 3,500 fpm are significantly faster than the factory 2,172 fpm of the Delta that I have. Are you suggesting that I look to Grizzly's speeds as a pattern of what I should "upgrade" the Delta to?
Are the Grizzly motors in those faster saws more powerful? I was not planning to replace the original 1/2hp motor, as it runs beautifully and likely has more copper and iron inside than any new motor I could find today.

So motor size will be one limiting factor in determining optimal blade speed, along with the 14" wheels and blade widths no wider than 3/4". Iam currently running a 1/2" skip 3 tpi.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*size matters ....*

Your 1/2 Hp motor is not meant for "serious" woodworking. They probably didn't have resawing 8" planks in mind when they used that motor. I doubt if it would resaw a 6" plank without struggling, so a larger motor, 1 HP is what I would recommend AND it's what came on my 14" Craftsman Pro bandsaws. I have no difficulty resawing 6" thick stock with the 1 Hp motor. Ya gotta know when you've brought a knife to a gunfight, and change your approach. :surprise2:

I owned several Delta 14" saws and sold them because I bought them with that intention. They were well made and ran great. It's worth investing some time and money ito upgrade them.


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## Sawdustmaker99 (Feb 1, 2018)

Assuming I remembered the pulley size and motor rpm correctly my saw runs at 3800 fpm and is 1.5 hp. With only 1/2 hp I’d probably go towards 100fpm. After looking up current models either they’ve changed it or I didn’t something wrong as it’s listed around 3000 fpm.


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## Mad (Dec 9, 2017)

What about using multi step cone pulleys on both the arbor shaft and the motor shaft? Both shafts have a long enough extension and keyway cut to support at least 2 or 3 steps... as the shafts stick out more than 3 inches.

This would enable multiple speeds if mount one step pulley, say, on the arbor shaft, from high to low, and the other step pulley on the motor shaft from low to high. Same belt, different drive ratios, sort of like a drill press, or like the wood/metal version of this same saw... only much simpler.

Would investigating this two speed idea further offer any material benefit in terms of different types of blades (narrow vs wide, fine vs coarse) or different types of materials (dry vs wet, hard vs soft) or different types of cuts (rips vs curves)?


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## Maylar (Sep 3, 2013)

Only wood vs metal, but that's a major speed difference and you'd have to change blades too.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Not enough range in RPMs*

Step pulleys are no larger than 5" or so. If you get two and mount one on each shaft, the variation is speed will not be all that much. 
Typically the ratio of reduction is 4:1 , 7:1 or 10 :1. A 10 :1 ratio is used for cutting metals like CRS. The 7:1 is used for cutting metals like aluminum. The 4:1 ratio is primarily for woods of various hardness.

I would aim for a FPS rate of 3000 on the saw you posted. Just see how that works with the "under powered" motor you have. Nothing is cast in stone here, and that's how I ended up with a drawer full of pulleys including steps, cast iron and die casts. I have about 25 V belts I've collected over the years as well.

If you really want to reduce the speed with a better ratio, consider a jack shaft. It's an intermediate shaft between the machine and the motor and can have different size pulleys and belts that you can swap out. I did this on an old 12'"Craftsman saw when I needed to cut steel and I didn't have a dedicated horizontal metal cutting saw. 

I would just stick to wood cutting and keep it simple. Depending on the RPM of your motor, either 1725 or 3450, the machine pulley will be either a 4" or 8" or so, if I recall..... I could be a bit off. QUOTING:
_With a 1,725 rpm motor having a 2.75" pulley driving an 8" pulley turning 14" blade wheels, the calculator on VM dot org has determined the blade speed to be 2,172 SFPM on this originally equipped Delta 890._


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Gotta love this internet age we live in, so much information, so many questions. About forty years ago I bought a Delta 14" bandsaw, made a 6" riser and went to visit the local blade supplier, told him what I had to cut and he made up the appropriate blades for me. 

I think the manufactures of the saws have the speeds figured out, all we have to do is pick the right blade for the job.


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## Mad (Dec 9, 2017)

My saw was made 66 years ago. Man hadn't made it to the moon yet. The vacuum tube computer, the size of a building with the memory of a singing birthday card, was still an experiment, and the internet was only a ridiculed figment of George Orwell's imagination in a book written just a couple of years prior to my saw being built. Suffice it to say that man has learned quite a bit since that saw rolled off the line.

It is not unreasonable to seek out that knowledge, and benefit by it. Even Delta, the manufacturer, advertised the many improvements they made to the saw in the late 40's, over the previous version released in the late '30's.

I get that I can ask questions that may seem too basic, or too numerous, or too over thought for you to tolerate. But what I don't get is the ridicule for asking... when so many more positive and productive options to respond (or not respond) are available.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*You are doing just fine.*

Ignore the criticism and carry on. I for one will stick with you and help when I can. I learned what I know by mostly doing and screwing up, some reading, some internet, some advice from friends who know more than me, with a dose of common sense and a smattering of knowledge of physics thrown in. I remember in a large meeting of 1200 employees at GM, the Director finally saw my hand go up to ask a question. He said "It wouldn't be a meeting without a question from Bill." I never asked a question at those meeting that I didn't already know the answer to >... holding management's feet to the fire, so to speak.
So, ask away.


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## Mad (Dec 9, 2017)

Thank you Bill. You not only patiently answer my questions, but you take the time to answer everyone else's questions too, and manage to do so without belittlement. I noticed this before I joined this forum, and in fact your legacy of helpful posts was the main reason why I joined WWT.

I hope the owners and administrators recognize the fact that there is no shortage of woodworking, machinist, hobbyist, light construction, and garage shop forums around the net... as numerous as GM car and truck enthusisasts forums, which the owners of this website also own examples of.

Since the topics on subject specific forums are largely the same for any given specialty of interest... what really distinguishes one forum from another is the quality of posts and the level of participation of the members. Prominent posters really can make a difference, to the point of making or breaking a forum's traffic levels and viability.

In this regard, and in my opinion, Bill's generosity of time, his interest in helping other members find solutions to their problems, and his ever abiding level of respect while doing so, are a complimentary constellation of factors that help make this forum. Individuals really do make a difference, and thank you Bill, for being one such individual in this corner of the net.

I do have some other pulley questions, but I'm going to start a new thread, because the next line of questioning on sheaves and belts isn't limited to just bandsaws, but might be applied to all sorts of belt driven woodworking machines.


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## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

Don't get @Mad, just keep asking away! I am a beginner, and believe me, I learn a lot from your questions, too. If you stop, then my learning slows down.


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