Bike wheel for a bandsaw..

[Lew Hodgett]

Knock yourself out.

Lew

[Andy Dingley]

Yes, however a good quality bike wheel, well built on a decent hub, will cost more than a bandsaw wheel. A junkyard bike wheel, with poor quality spokes and no tension, won't do it.

If you really care, go over to rec.bikes.tech and ask Jobst Brandt, the guy who wrote the book (literally) on bike wheel theory. If you just want to tweak up a wheel to run true, go to the late, great Sheldon Brown's website and read the step-by-step instructions.

[B A R R Y]

Read and understand the book first, or risk humiliation.

That was a shame... A loss far too early.

[Jay R]

Why not look at Grainger or McMaster Carr?

They have a bunch of varied size rigid pulley type wheels for a fraction of what you are looking at doing.

I don't think a bike wheel will hold the tension you need to run a bandsaw blade true.

[PCPaul]

I would, but I'm in the UK. And we don't seem to have places that sell general engineering stuff to the public (or for sane prices)..

Unless anybody knows different? (I'm near Gloucester if that helps)

Well I know a 12" kids bike wheel can hold my weight and I'm 200lbs, so it's in the ballpark for 1/4" blades. As others have said though, the bearings might not last too long...

[mac davis]

Probably true, but being paranoid, I rather not be using the saw when one wore out/broke up...

I guess finding a junked saw the same as yours with one good wheel isn't an option?

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[mac davis]

that's sort of what I'd be afraid of doing.. lol

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[mac davis]

No math to prove myself right or wrong, but it seems that putting weight on a wheel and tire mounted on a bike is not the same force/pressure as putting a steel band around 1/2 of it and tightening it until the blade "pings"?

Still sort of downward force, I guess, but different tension/angles?

Can you tell that I failed math?

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[PCPaul]

Well as far as I can see, the force at any particular point should be towards the centre - otherwise the blade wouldn't be tightly wrapped onto the wheel...

...and bike wheels are designed to handle the full load (say 200lbs) on

*one* point in contact with the ground - so having the same load spread over half the wheel ought to be better.

I think.

:-)

[Andy Dingley]

Yes, it's quite different. The axle (fixed) on a bandsaw wheel is cantilevered and "overhung", that on a bike is supported from both sides by the fork. This also means that a bike's load-bearing axle is particularly short - the bearings are mounted at the outer ends of the axle. Where they're mounted away from this, towards the middle of the axles (old 7-speed screw-on rear blocks) the axles started to break. Later designs (Shimano cassettes) moved the bearings back out again and had reliable axles again.

A rare exception to this would be a Mike Burrows (e.g. Adam Hart-Davies') or a Canondale "Lefty" with a single-sided fork and an overhung front axle.

As far as the _wheel_ goes though, bandsaw tensions aren't a problem for a decent bike wheel. The impact loading is also _much_ reduced.

A workshop I'm vaguely associated with has an old Victorian multi-tool machine that I restored - planer (removed), horizontal borer and bandsaw. The bandsaw wheels were rolled iron hoops (18" - 20" ish AFAIR) on cast iron hubs. As the original spokes looked dubious, we replaced these with bike-spoke tech, all according to Jobst's book. Works fine.

[Goo ger]

replying to clare at snyder dot ontario do, Goo ger wrote:

band saw wheel building.