I picked up a couple of treadmills the other day at a surplus biz. I
thought they would be a varispeed DC unit. I found that they used a
motor-controlled cone pulley arrangement with a 1+ hp (haven't torn it
apart yet) AC motor. It has about a 12:1 speed range (3/4 - 10 mph).
It should be great for a bandsaw app as the most torque will develope
at the slowest speed. These are old hospital grade units that are
getting replaced a lot these days. Just a thought if you have any
surplus resources in your area.
Respectfully,
Ron Moore

Roy wrote:

I got a lot of mixed results in regards to gear reducer drives, VFD's
and jack shafts in regards to my powering up my home brew bandsaw.
I had thought I could do it with my 1.5 hp DC motor and a gear reducer
and jackshaft, but then along came the VFD's etc........Not looking
to spend a ton of money of course but not necessarily looking to cut
corners either. I want it to be useable in the home shop for metal
cutting mainly with wood and other materials secondary.

Anyone have any offerings as to how or what would be the best yet most
economical way to power this bandsaw?

Specs....3 wheels (12" approx diam 37.75" circumferance) Preferable
speeds for metal cutting and hopefully speeds for wood cutting as
well.

I found a neat crank type gear reducer however it may be a bit to
light for this job. Its at the below link on Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tegory=26 227

I am at the point I need to decide how I am going to power this thing,
so any info would be appreciated.
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