How much horsepower?

[SteveC]

I have a vintage 12 inch band saw made by Shopmaster in Minneapolis that was made back in the 40's or 50's. Long since out of business. My grandfather owned the saw. He powered it with a 1/4 horse power motor. For most uses the 1/4 horse worked OK, but all the smoke that was stored it in escaped recently when I was resawing some lace wood to make some veneer for a jewelry box I'm making. Surprisingly, the motor still works even after all the smoke escaped. I plan to replace the motor. How much horsepower is typical for this size band saw? The blade is an odd length of 78 inches.

Second question. What's a good finish that will pop the grain of the lace wood?

[Robatoy]

One option is replace the smoke seals.

If the mounts can deal with it, a 1/2 HP would be a bit of an upgrade.

Don't ask me.. I do everything with water based lacquer. Benjamin Moore makes a great acrylic clear lacquer. That stuff pops all the grain I ever want to enhance. The Minwax products in the same class are supposed to be pretty good too. Maybe not the right answer as I spray everything.

A lot of the illustrious gentlemen here like wipe-on poly, shellac and tung oils. You may have started a 250 entry thread here.. good on ya!

r

[Greg O]

Typical, or what HP should you use?! As much that will fit in the saw! Seriously, I have a 1-1/2 HP motor on my Crapsman bandsaw and it really woke up the saw. It may be a bit overkill, but I had the motor laying around so I used it. For practical purposes, about 1 HP would be great as long as the saw is rigid enough to handle it. Greg

[Leon]

Yeah but replacement smoke is almost as expensice as buying a new motor. Not totally unlike buying a new drill "kit" vs. just buying 2 new batteries.