Blade Speed

[EZ]

When I got my Baker mill, I redone the whole mill, except the blade speed. I just figured it was factory set at the right speed so I never check the speed. I check the blade speed and it was 4600 fpm. Being that I'm having trouble sawing pine I put a bigger pulley on and tryed it out on 18 inch oak. Man, it zip right threw it, then I put a pine on and same thing, no problem with waves. The blade speed is 5200 fpm, I was a little leary about going with the bigger pulley because of the 16 hp motor, but it seems to be not a problem. Don't under stand why the factory wood have the blade speed slow like that. But owell I'm happy now, so now I'm going to sit here and look pretty. ;D
EZ

[Furby]

Hey, that's my job!!!!!!!!!!! >:(



 :D :D :D

[Neil_B]

EZ, mine came with about the same speed as yours. I changed the 19" drive wheel to  a 16" and brought the speed to 5300 or so. Makes a heck of a difference eh ;)

[EZ]

My band wheels are 24 inch, I thought about going with 21 inch wheels, but then I wood have to have all my blades cut and rewelded. Which that wood have been another $300 for that. 16 inch wheels, do you have a lot of blade breakage.
EZ

[Neil_B]

Oh no EZ, I've got 24" band wheels. What I changed was the main drive wheel that runs off the pulley of the motor. I still find it hard to figure out when dropping from 19 to 16 that it would go faster but the numbers indicate that's what it does. Simple mechanics I guess but still hard for me to visualize.

5" drive pulley on motor
16" drive wheel
24" band wheels
3000rpm on motor

Certainly learning alot about mechanics, hydraulics, electrical and welding by playing around with these. ;)

[shopteacher]

EZ,  when you had the 19" wheel the 5" pulley had to go around just about 4 times to turn it once. When you drop to 16" the 5" pulley now only turns about 3 times per one revolution of the 16 wheel. Thus the system speeds up.

[EZ]

New-Sawyer, my drive pulleys are my bandwheels, so I guess thats where I was messed up. Sorry.  ;D
EZ

[Neil_B]

So you changed the one on the motor?? What size was it and what did you change it to? Does it have the centrifugal clutch or just a straight pulley?

My motor pulley is also the clutch so I couldn't change it without expense. Plus the 19" drive wheel was cracked so it made sense to change it instead :

[EZ]

The old pulley was 4 3/8, the new pulley is 5 5/8. I tried 4 different sizes, and the 5 5/8 works really well. The clutch is the manual type with a brake.
EZ