4x4 North

Was given this little sweetheart 2 weeks ago. It was originally from a GM plant, and had a 3 phase motor. Looks basically unused. As far as I can tell everything is there except the motor and original motor sheave.

I'm pretty happy as the 18 inch saws I've found online are in the 2-5 thousand dollar range in freedom bucks.

Let's make it chooch again.

Not sure if you can read it, but manufactured in 1988. I can't find any reference online to this model, not that it matters.

Petticoats removed.
Tires rotted off but are easily sourced through amazon or fleabay.

This motor was left in a building I bought. The building used to be a pepsi plant. The motor was coupled to a stainless centrifugal pump. Label says "milk pump"

It's 1800 rippums, 120 VAC single phase. I checked the no-load-amps and I'm right at 9 amps, so I'm guessing it's 1.5-2ish HP. Haven't finished getting the chunk off the load side shaft. The motor spins the correct way.

Just a pic of my notes.

To do list:

Finger out blade length (wheel center to center distance X2 + circumference, thanks Joe Pizenscky for the timely video!)
Order new tires
Find out what feet/minute it should run for metal and what feet/minute for wood.
Finish removing the dingus from the motor shaft and measure diameter so I can get a sheave
Decide on a motor sheave diameter.
Consider a VFD (not sure how well this oldie motor would play with funny frequencies)
Mount the motor and build a tensioning/locking system.

Nice score. I'd love to have one like that.

So, did some quickie calculating this morning, and it turns out that the speed I'm looking for when cutting steel is 50-300 sfpm.

Inputing my "knowns" into the formula means that to achieve 300 I would need a motor sheave less than 1/2 inch diameter, which obviously isn't possible.

I guess I'm in for a multiple reduction setup, or a gearbox setup.

Haven't decided if I want to make this thing useful for both wood and steel (although I'm sure 300 sfpm would cut wood). I do have a 14 inch delta milwaukee vertical bandsaw that I can use for wood.

Looking at options, and, considering I'll propably need a substantial reduction gearbox (like 10:1) I really doubt that I still need a 2 hp motor...

wow, that is super nice.

also, quite a bit newer than you'd expect for something to have gone from GM to Pepsi to Free

what do you want to cut is the biggest deal. I had an old vert. bansaw at work that we always just left at ~150 SFM and adjusted how fast or slow we pushed on stuff depending on the material. it functioned fine, but was slightly a pain to change speed on. Got a new saw thanks to some fucked up paperwork and now it is a turn of the dial to adjust speed

I run steel at about 150-200 SFM and aluminum at 350-450 SFM, I really just turn the dial a couple times and let it rock. Because the SFM is really critical as a factor of thickness of material, quality of fixture and force of feed, it really let's you use a pretty big range. If you are thinking of doing mostly steel, i'd shoot for under 200 SFM and use a different saw for wood, unless you are using only very hard wood.

getting a reduction will be worth it, if you already have the 2hp motor, keep it. Use a couple pulley's to step the speed down and you can get a couple options that way if you want to use the saw for other stuff. If you are cutting some half inch or 1" or whatever or even 1/4" and you want to really lean on it, you can use close to 2hp.

Biggest thing to be aware of is the blades. 3/4" blades are good for holding a little bit more straight, thinner blades are good for contours. i can't remember the max radii based on blade width off hand. Different tooth pitch is important to match to your material thickness. Too tight of teeth and it will rub more than cut, too loose of teeth and it will just snap the teeth

V belts are pretty forgiving for how perfect things need to be aligned. I'd definitely go with the two stage reduction option. Got a crappy drillpress anywhere to harvest some stepped pullies from?