14" Bandsaw – V-belt pulley

Setting up a router jig to make the V-groove pulley. The first wheel becomes the upper wheel. After this the pulley is removed and screwed to the second wheel and the process is repeated. The pulley remains on the second wheel which becomes – the lower wheel.

Having mounted the bearing flanges on both wheels and as mentioned in the previous bandsaw post I now need to make a temporary drive pulley or doughnut with a V-groove so I can spin each wheel from the saw motor to true the circumference for run-out with a wood chisel. For this sort of stuff you must have a router mounted in a router table. The ALDI setup is OK for my needs - with modifications.

First thing is to remove the standard fence.

Earlier in the year during the construction of the 8” Bandsaw I made this router jig for cutting V grooves in pulleys and discs.

I came up with this adjustment solution similar to the supplied fence setup.

A major feature addition is a scissor jack which acts as a router lift for bit height adjustment - works well.

The scissor jack threaded rod extends out from under the bench and the homemade knob allows for easy bit height adjustment. Mind you it’s requires some effort to turn the knob.

There's the missing clamp!, make a note Alan to screw the base down.

Disc all setup in the jig to cut the V grove around the circumference. Raise the router bit to make the first pass and slowly rotate the disc a full 360, raise the bit a bit more and rotate the disc again...repeat until full depth of the V-bit has been reached.

That's a good result.

I have a good selection of V-belts, got them from the market from the same outside trader over a period of time - $1.00 each.

Here's the disc with a V-belt that will be driven by the saw motor. Note that most of the centre will be cut out with a jigsaw to clear the bearing flange on one side of the bandsaw wheel so we end up with a V-grove pulley ring (like a doughnut). After the first wheel is turned true along with a 5 degree crown the pulley is removed and fitted to the second wheel - process is repeated.

Here's the motor I'm using for this project, it's a 1HP 4 pole motor from a water pump.

Last time I made a wooden pulley and could not get rid of run-out which caused vibration so this time I bought one from a motor supplier in Glen Waverley for $20.

Back soon....