Moped Wheels Drive Shop-Built Bandsaw

Moped Wheels Drive Shop-Built Bandsaw FARM SHOP Tools Tony Foale has designed machined and built over 100 homemade parts and tools in the past 5 decades Often he uses spare metal from one job to fashion a tool or part for another but a recent creation used two moped wheels he found at a flea market Foale says the 1-in wide by 16-in dia wheels were perfect to run the 1/2-in blade on his shop-built bandsaw One was a front wheel with bearings and a brake and the other was a rear wheel without bearings just right for a single-sided mounting Foale built the frame and tilting table for the saw from his inventory metal and mounted an electric motor to drive the blade Foale says he knew from experience making motorcycle wheels years ago that the original rim shape of the moped wheels would need to be modified The slightly curved edges needed to be removed and the rim well in the center had to be filled completely so the surface was smooth He used his 55-year-old Burgess bandsaw to cut off the outside curved portion of the rims He smoothed the cut edges to create a true outer diameter then used stripper to remove the old paint and bead blasting to remove metal residue Minimal machining was needed to true the outer diameter Foale filled the center rim well with polyester car body filler a product he says is easy to apply adheres well to metal and sets hard He machined the filler smooth to the edges with a slight crown on the center then glued a thin rubber belt made from the moped inner tube to the surface to provide traction for the blade Foale machined a triangular spacer to fit inside one of the wheel housings The spacer and wheel bolt securely to the output flange of the bandsaw’s 25:1 gearbox The idler wheel didn’t require a spacer No stranger to design and building Foale taught himself machining and welding using those skills on projects small and large For 15 years he owned a business that designed and built chassis for racing motorcycles many of which won championships in several countries He also worked for 3 years as Director of Advance Design for Segway He’s written books on chassis design and authored technical articles on motorcycle and automobile handling Foale says he’ll use his bandsaw for cutting different types of sheet metal aluminum and some steel His motor uses a compound reduction gearbox to slow the blade speed to less than a tenth of that required for cutting wood The motor is mounted on a pivot so he can easily change speeds for cutting different metals Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Tony Foale www motochassis com

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