Official Luthiers Forum!

Greetings,

I have to replace the motor on my Delta 14 inch bandsaw. The one that I use now is a 2 hp. Have had it for about 15 years now, but it has ceased to function. Can others who use the Delta 14 inch for resawing tell me what HP motor they use. Have my eye on used 3 hp but don't know if that is too much for the saw and blades.

Please advise.

Ken

Ken, I replaced the original 3/4HP motor on my Delta with a 3HP motor that I had laying around the shop. It works fine, no problem. Be sure you replace it with a 1725rpm motor, or you'll have to rethink your pulley combination.

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Jim Womack

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. "
Will Rogers

Hi Ken,
A 3hp motor will be a fair bit heavier (and bulkier) than you 2hp motor. I run a 3hp on my 16" Hitachi resaw that has a 3" wide blade and it is more than adequate for resawing anything up to it's 11" maximum height. As you won't be able to run blades anywhere near this size (and likely near the tension) then I think that going 2hp is not necessary. I have a 25 year old jet band saw that I a 1hp 3600 rpm motor on. I had to change to permanently installed vulcanized tires because the extra speed was throwing the rubber tires off the wheels (Again I did this like 25 years ago or more). This saw will slice through ANYTHING with no problem at all! I don't have a riser black on it but I considered it but just bought my 24" re-saw instead but I have used the entire 6" capacity of the saw in some gnarly woods without any hint of an issue with a sharp blade. So I would suggest that you don't need to go with more hp, spend the money on quality blades and saw set-up.

Shane

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Canada

I'll differ with Shane - I upgraded my Delta from an original 1 HP to a 2 HP Baldor and the change made a world of difference. I wouldn't go smaller than the 2 HP you already had.

On the other hand, my motor isn't running at 3600 rpm either - I don't really know what that would do. Mines at a standard sedate 1750 rpm.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I see again that my proof reading skills require much more attention! I agree with Jim, What I wanted to say was I wouldn't go above 2hp on that saw. My post appears to suggest that I think 1 hp is enough. And that is not the case with typical blade speeds, I think the saw could use 2hp but as mine is now configured the 1 hp is quite nice. Also I have two bandsaws, so the use of my jet is now fairly intermittent as I use the General 15" (made in Canada) unit more now and I don't re-saw on either small bandsaw as I have two re-saws for that. But certainly blade selection and maintenance are almost more important in my opinion. You can only feed wood through a saw as fast as the blade will slice and clear the waste. When re-sawing that means that the blade has to have the room to hold all of that dust in its gullet starting at the top of the cut until exits the cut at the bottom. Feeding too fast will result in overheating and a cut that wonders.

Shane

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Canada