So a guy here in town has a 14" Rigid band saw for sale pretty cheap. Are these any good for metal cutting? Sheet metal to roll bar tubing etc ?
Unless it's specifically a metal cutting bandsaw, it's probably WAY to fast to do so with any sort of blade longevity. 14" usually means a wood saw...
converting a wood bandsaw to metal has been covered here before , there should be a lot of info with a search. it's not hard to do with a jackshaft , i did it on mine do you know for a fact is is for wood? check it out anyway
The addtion of 3 or 4 step pulley and a good quaility blade with the correct tooth count for metal sawing may do the trick. Observre the number of revolutions the saw makes in one minute and multiply that times the blade length in inches. Then divide that by 12 and that will give you the feet per minute. You might be surprised to find the the speed is not all that much faster than the recomended speed for cutting 1/8 mild steel.
my 14 inch buffalo has cut much much metal. slow the saw down if you want a few pulleys are cheap. not to mention a rpm controll for a roughter may work.
See if you can get a serial no./ model no. off it and check for the Rigid website or go to a Ridgid dealer and find out what it's application was. Like has already been posted it it is for wood a simple gearing change will put you into a metal cuting mode. Frank
I have an old 14" Jet vertical bandsaw that I added a jackshft to and slowed down the blade. It works great for cutting metal.--I use an 11 TPI bimetallic blade. Somewhere, buried on here is a complete thread I did a couple of years ago on the conversion.---Brian
A Porta-Band saw is a handy thing to have too. Parts are readily available and they can be found in pawn shops every time the economy takes a dip, or a dump, like now. Keep your eyes open!
No, this was what I was mentioning, if you slow it down to 1/2 speed, you also lose 1/2 power. Do it right with pulleys.
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