Belsaw Feed Rate

[snowshoveler]

Hi folks
Long time no milling.
I tossed all the flat belts off my mill and finally got around to putting it back together with V belts and pulleys.
I have the arbor setup to run at 560 RPM.
The feed was always faster than I liked on this mill.
I have good power but am wondering what a normal rate of feed is for the mill.
I am thinking that a bit slow is better than a bit too fast.
I have seen a few mills with that variable feed setup with a friction wheel that moves across a plate.
This may be the best idea on a small mill. You can feed quicker in small wood and slow down in the larger stuff or hardwood.
Thanks for any help.
Regards Chris

[bandmiller2]

Chris been wondering where you went its been a wile. Which feed setup do you have on your Belsaw, they had a couple of different ones depending on age. Most folks complain about the feed too slow. I think its just a matter of changing drive pulleys. Both of the circular mills I setup I cheated and put in a gearbox to change the feed speed. Is your feed driven with a belt that runs directly on the arbor.?? You don't have the feed set up backwards do you, feeding at gigback speed.?? Frank C.

[snowshoveler]

Hello
  My mill was a cobbled up sort of affair.
The feed runs off a pulley on the arbor.
Then the belt goes to the foreward reverse doo dad.
Gig-back was just a bit shy of light speed.
More than once I ran the carriage off the end...yikes.
The transmission on my engine has a high and low speed in it and I have always ran in the low gear.
At 1500 engine rpm the output was 1000rpm.
When I switched to the V belts I figured I would run in high gear and get some speed on the blade and then slow down the feed rate.
If my memory serves me correct I think the arbor was a bit less than 400 with the flat belts.
I did try it in high gear once and the blade was the right speed. It just had the sound whwn cutting.
But anything more than a 2x4 was too much zoom zoom.
I watched all the you tube vids I could find and they all go a nice calm speed.
Its possible that I had it setup wrong but I don't think I could have screwed it that bad.
I plan on putting the smallest V belt pulley I can find on the arbor shaft and go from there.
These mills are pretty forgiving so I should be much better than before.
Regards Chris 

[loggah]

According to my belsaw manual.the feed would be 1" for each revolution of the arbor. 540 arbor r.p.m. would feed your carriage 540 inches in one minute, gigback is 3 times faster. Don

[bandmiller2]

Chris, your going to have to put a smaller pulley on the arbor or a larger pulley on the feed works or both. If you have the Belsaw 40" saw 400 RPM is too slow,  most were hammered for 540 rpm, PTO speed. Frank C.

[Remle]

snowshoveler

If you have a M 14 Bellsaw their is a manual that you may find useful for free from the Vintage Machinery Org. Search for it with this "www.vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=1050". The carriage drive has a break down page complete with pulley sizes ect.
Remle

[snowshoveler]

Well now.
I am at work now and we have a nice printer....so the manual is printed and in my posession now.
I should be able to get pretty close to the right speed now.
Thanks
Chris

[Tripp]

Timed a log when cutting yesterday. A twelve foot cut takes 11 seconds. I am running a 3 inch pulley on the arbor and a 16 inch on the feed works. My feed works are v belt and I am running about 600 rpm on the saw.

Tripp

[snowshoveler]

Hi Tripp
That info should help me get in the zone.
My V belts arrived for the arbor today so I should be able to assemble a few things this evening and maybe get a good start on it tommorow afternoon.
Thanks Chris

[snowshoveler]

Well...
I put the new belts on and I put a twist in them like some other folks do to get the blade going the right way.
I did not like it then. And I still don't like it.
I will have to pull the engine out of its shed and turn it around and then run a shaft back its side.
Good thing is I can use the same belts. Will need a good sized piece of shafting though. Have a pallet load of pulleys and bearings so that part is not too bad.
If I ever get it done and working I will put a few pics up.
Chris