Band saw wheel width.

[Grower]

Hello, I am running 1 1/4" blades on 3/4" wide x 24" diameter bandsaw wheels, never had a problem. What am looking at doing is running 1 1/2" blades on the same wheels. Will they be wide enough? 

[Southside]

Well I run 1 3/4" on my super 70 and the band only runs on top of the V belt, so from that perspective I don't see an issue.  

[DanielW]

I think you'll be fine with wheel width. A few other aspects that might be concerning are:

a) Blade Guide: Often needs to be changed out (or modified) for 1 1/2" bands.

b) HP: You don't see much advantage to 1-1/2" unless you have the HP to pull it - assuming you're using the more common 1-1/2"s which are a little thicker. I'd say you really need at least 20 HP (preferable at least 25) to be able to pull them and see any significant advantage.

c) Mill Build: Wider blades generally run a little truer with less wave, but you need to be able to put a little more strain/tension on them to see this. A lot of the smaller/lighter mills these days can't handle much extra strain/'tension being put on them without the wheel/bearing mounts flexing and causing tracking problems. Not a concern if it's a heavier/well-built powerhead.

[Grower]

Good advice! It has a Mitsubishi K3H diesel fitted, turned out to be a great wee motor, depending which specs you read its either 24 or 27hp I will stay with the 24hp as when it was sold to me, unsure of what it came out of though, I was told possibly an air conditioning unit from a bus but they are also used in Mitsi MT250 tractors, it runs on the sniff of an oily rag and great lugging ability especially when we were cutting 140 year old macrocarpa that was 3 feet through. The mill pulleys are fitted with 1 1/2" shafts at each end as a footnote. I will stick with the 1 1/4" blades after reading this. Thanks chief! 

[DanielW]

It sounds like you have enough power (your 25 HP diesel will probably pull better than a 30 HP gas) and it sounds like a sturdy, well-built mill with decent wheel diameters. I'd think you could pull of 1 1/2"s just fine and see a reasonable gain in stability/wander. You might still have to modify your blade guides, but not a big deal. I'd be curious to see some pics of that mill.

[esteadle]

Hello, I am running 1 1/4" blades on 3/4" wide x 24" diameter bandsaw wheels, never had a problem. What am looking at doing is running 1 1/2" blades on the same wheels. Will they be wide enough?

Yep. Blades ride on the crown of the bandwheel and will try to center themselves on that crown. Assuming your bandwheels are properly crowned, aligned, and co-planer, they will auto-center.

Move the blade guides back if you can by 1/4". The bands center on the wheels if properly aligned. 
Take the opportunity to dial both of them in to 1/8" 'grace' on the guide back stops if present.
I think you might see some longevity advantage on spin time, due to the larger cross sectional areas of a 1.5" blade.