Craftsman 12" Band Saw
 

My dad gave his Craftsman 12" band saw to me a couple of weeks ago. He used it for woodworking, but I'm wondering if I can use it to cut metal (aluminum and 1/4" steel). Is this something that I can just buy a metal blade for? I have to worry about the blade speed also, right?

Yep -- wood saws speeds are too high for metal work. Is it variable speed? If so what's the slowest it will run?

The high speeds create too much heat and take the set right out of your blades... and blades for bandsaws aren't cheap. When I say they'll take the set out - I mean they won't even complete one cut!

A wood saw will have 2600 fpm where my Wilton metal band saw in 116 to 300+ fpm (mine is variable) so you can see how much too high the wood speeds are.

Just saw an article in either PHR or Hot Rod about converting one of those to a metal saw speed with a couple additional pulleys. Of course I can't for the life of me find the article now but it was recent. Can also be done with a variable speed motor. If you Google it though a bunch of info will come up.

Thanks! I was totally off on my thinking ..... I thought that the wood saw speed was way too slow for cutting metal. I had it backwards .... which is really a common explanation for alot of things in my life!!

I don't believe that this is a variable speed unit, but I'll check into the thought of using a different pulley to drop the speed.

What model is your Wilton Greg? I've been looking at picking up one and found a Wilton 3130 still in the box for a decent price on Craigslist. Good info in this thread about the speeds... I'm just starting to look into them and thats good to know. I'll be doing mostly aluminum tubing for intercoolers and intakes so it will be easy work.

Wilton Wood and Metal - variable speed Model 8201VS

I'm really NOT happy with the saw. It's just "okay"... doesn't have the power I'd like... single phase etc but is FINE for most of the stuff we do.

i came across same problem about a month ago with a 14" rigid from HD and I had to lower speed by adding two other step pulleys which I found in my drill press. pretty much the way it works is from 1" motor pulley ran a belt to 4" part of the step pulley.on that same step pulley I used the 1" portion and ran a belt to other 4" pulley. It slowed down big time my only problem was finding belts to my needed lenght but I got close enough w autozone stuff. lucky for me I live 5 minutes away from paramount saw, they will make you any saw blade to your specs. it vibrates a bit due to more slack on one belt than the other . still needs refining but now cuts 1/4 steel like butter and all I had to is sacrifice my drill press. I any body is interested I can take some pictures

Sure I'd love to see how you put it together! Thanks.

Yes .... I'd like to see some pictures of what you have done also.

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/...v11/saw007.jpg
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/...v11/saw003.jpg

here is how I did it, got bandsaw on sale at home depot $250 w tax and about 20 bucks on belts and material plus the sacrificing of the drill press but the good thing is that I can switch it all back in about 15 minutes.
hope it helps