Ryobi Bandsaw Conversion ?

[Ken I]

I have a Ryobi 7" bandsaw meant for woodwork - it is hopelessly too fast for metal.
Has anyone modified one of these for use on metals.
I'm thinking of simply changing the toothed wheel / brive belt to slow it down.

Any comments.

Regards,
Ken

 

[ian99]

I’ve done a lot of dumb things in my shop, but the dumbest was converting my 14” Rockwell Delta band saw to cut metal.

You need a cutting speed of 50-100 ft/minute for steel and perhaps 200 for Aluminum, so what type of speed reducer are you going to use??

The Ryobi 9” runs at 3,000 fpm just like my Rockwell so you will need at least a 30x reducer. I tried doing this with a variety of pulley/cogs/belts and was totally unsuccessful.
I ended up with a 30:1 worm drive reducer with sprockets and a chain drive between the reducer and the band saw. All of this cost me more than if I had bought a new cheapo metal band saw!

Also, can you find a metal cutting blade that will actually cut steel in the size you need? You may end up having the blades custom cut.

Fixtures to hold the metal are also an issue.

Basically not recommended.

 

[Wizard69]

I have a Ryobi 7" bandsaw meant for woodwork - it is hopelessly too fast for metal.
Has anyone modified one of these for use on metals.
I'm thinking of simply changing the toothed wheel / brive belt to slow it down.

Any comments.

Regards,
Ken

It isn't that simple! You need a significant speed reduction that you can't get from a single stage conversion. Depending upon the metal you may need to operate in the 80 to 300 feet per minute range. That is achievable but most commercial dual purpose machines did this with a gear box.

A modern approach might be to use a 3 phase converter with a four pole or better motor to give you variable speed over a wide range and to allow for less of a speed ratio for metal cutting. To work well though you would still need multiple speed ratios. Of course this also requires a VFD and probably custom pulley arrangements.

In any event do the math, it isn't as easy as it looks nor especially cheap. The issue with the difficulty is the lack of space on these small machines. If you want to retain usage on a wide array of material you will need multiple ratios between the motor and the drive wheel which is difficult on the compact machines.

In the end I can't say if it is worth it for you. Anything can be made to work given the required engineering skills and time. The trick is will it suit your needs after you are done.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Hmmm: I have a grizzly woodworking saw that came from the factory geared down. I use it for aluminum and brass but it is too fast for steel.


there have been home cobbled ways to slow down a bs using multiple pulleys. You may want to think about a DC 90-100 v motor and a pulse width modulator.

I have a Ryobi 7" bandsaw meant for woodwork

Ryobi I have never seen touched or used a ryobi tool that IMHO was worth having in my shop. I have owned and used several of there products. I was disappointed in every one. IMHO they are tool shaped objects that have the ergonomic design of a brick and are destined to fail. I have had them fall apart on me. I tis an experience to have a palm sander barf bearings on your lap.

My advise sell the ryobi and buy something designed to cut metal. A harbor freight porta band or a 6x metal cutting band saw?

IMHO not worth the effort to convert the ryobi.I would hate to see you spend hours trying to adapt it to use only to have it fall apart .
Tin

 

[Ken I]

Guys, Thanks for the comments (Tin's especially) - I thought as much.

However - hope springs eternal in the breast of man - Ah Well - I'll start looking for something better.

P.S. Tin - the Ryobi bandsaw blades are absolute rubbish - barely useable on MDF.

Regards,
Ken

 

[Tin Falcon]

You are quite welcome. I really try to look for the good in things and have been told it is a character flaw. Would not go that far but I do try to avoid generalizations and terms like junk. I also felt like i needed to be honest in my experienced opinion of ryobi tools . Harbor freight can be hit and miss but I have heard at least as much good about them as the bad.
Tin

 

[Ken I]

Tin,
Agree - in any case I have quite a few Ryobi power tools and I am generally quite happy with them - relative to price - that is.
However their band saw blades are little better than toothed straping material - so I make my own on a friends DoAll / Welder.

Ken

 

[Dunc1]

If keeping the price down is driving the conversion then you might consider building a powered hacksaw: lot simpler construction. I used plans from Pop Mechanics, Feb 1976 but there are lots of plans available. A real workhorse, I modified the plans a bit to take a larger blade -Starrett made blades that were thicker & wider with fewer teeth per inch for large cross sections. Slower perhaps, but it always got the job done.

 

[Paulsv]

I have a Ryobi 9" that I looked at converting. I considered making a belt reduction system, or getting a gear motor or gear reducer from Surplus Center, but I realized that the conversion would cost me almost as much as getting a chinese 4x6 bandsaw, and I'd end up with much less tool for the money. In the US, the Harbor Freight 4x6 can be had for about $200 with a 20% off coupon.

 

[MachineTom]

I also had the idea to convert a wood saw to a metal saw. I bought a 1/2 hp gearmotor, 230 single phase with 80:1 reduction, output is 23rpm. So at 1:1 that is 85 SFM with 14" wheels just right for steel. Then I got a sale flyer on a Jet vertical saw and bought it.

Motor is new unused in the box. PM if interested.