The Forestry Forum

i just acquired a breezewood bandmill. it has an electric motor on it and i am going to change it over to diesel. i guess i need to find out the correct speed for the band . any siggestions how i can get the proper speed ie: size pulleys etc. any suggestions would be appreciated   thank you  dale

Most bandsaws used to saw lumber are run at about 5000ft per min., you will need to know the size of you band wheels. Look for a engine that has peak torque generated at a lower rpm than maximum rpm. Use this rpm to figure out the diameter of the pulleys you will need.

Your motor should have the rpm on the data plate. With that, the ratio of your existing drive versus driven pulleys, and the operating rpm of your diesel, you can easily figure out the new drive pulley size.

I have a Breezewood B2000 mill. My mill has the Kohler 23HP engine on it. The engine runs at 3600rpm at full throttle and no load. The pulley on the engine is a 2 groove B series belt with a pitch diameter of 3.4". The mill came with a 18.4" pitch pulley on the driven shaft. I changed it to a 15.4" which made the blade run faster. The mill works better with the smaller pulley. If your mill is the B2000 model it was available with a 28hp Kubota engine.

thanks for the information...as i get into it a bit more i will let all of you know how its going . i am sure there will be more questions...lol   ty dale