Old Craftsman band saw

Y

yota

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for some time now I've been contemplating getting a vertical metal cutting band saw. most of the purpose built ones are huge and expensive. there are some Delta and maybe other brands of wood/metal cutting saws but have not seen one for sale in my area for a long time. I already have a 1970's Wells & Sons horizontal, a fairly new Taiwanese 17" wood cutting vertical and a tiny german made Proxxon that I use for cutting brass and aluminum up to about 3/16" thick. I want a vertical that will cut mild steel.

so, been thinking about converting a wood cutting band 1.jpgsaw to metal cutting. did a lot of googling and found a YouTube by Mr. Pete where he used a pull gear at the motor and a large driven pulley to gear down an old Delta wood cutter. yesterday I was shopping online and found an old 12" craftsman that had a pull gear on it and a 10" driven pulley about an hour away. bought it today for 150.00.

no idea how many feet per minute it is running but its pretty slow. the pull gear has 4.4", 3.4" and 2.4" pulleys, measured by outside diameter. I spent some time on google today and the saws were apparently made 1960 and 1961 for sears by King-Seeley. would love to find a manual but nothing popped up. anyone know what type blades would be best for cutting mild steel and aluminum? all I have right now are a few wood cutting blades the guy gave me.
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one odd thing. every one of these that I found online had a single small drive pulley and a slightly bigger driven pulley. no pull gear. I thought the pull gear and 10" driven pulley was a jury rig but the stand casting has a set up to clamp the stay arm for the pull gear so now I'm thinking it may not be a jury rig. not sure.
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Very similar to the one I got from my dad, the speed reducer is different but should work the same. If you put the model number into google I'd be surprised if you can't find a manual.

As for blades McMaster-Carr should have what you need, bi-metal and choose the number of teeth depending on how thick of material you're cutting.

Speed reducers were a factory accessory on these saws, my dad used his for building an aluminum airplane.

John
 
matthewsx said:
Very similar to the one I got from my dad, the speed reducer is different but should work the same. If you put the model number into google I'd be surprised if you can't find a manual.

As for blades McMaster-Carr should have what you need, bi-metal and choose the number of teeth depending on how thick of material you're cutting.

Speed reducers were a factory accessory on these saws, my dad used his for building an aluminum airplane.

John
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great history on your dad's saw John. that's a hell of a project. I did of course google the model number and manual and only found some dead ends. will be trying again tonight or tomorrow.
 
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Well heck, that’s cool.
I love the price.
 
I'll check to see if I have a manual for mine, might be a couple of days because I'm traveling this week.

John
 
talvare said:
Maybe some of these can be of use to you.


Ted
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thanks Ted. I looked at those about an hour ago and the 1st one you list is very close and probably good enough. I down loaded it for now. still hope to find the right one but this does help. thanks for taking the time to look those up!
 
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