Ridgid Bandsaw Motor Upgrade?

[Scott Hubl]

I have a Ridgid bandsaw that I invested alot of time in "dialing it in" getting it running smooth as silk.

I have the riser block too.

I want to upgrade the motor for cutting larger turning blanks, hollow form blanks that will be its 12" capacity without having to go at a snails pace to cut them, without bogging down and outright stopping the underpowered 3/4 HP(IIRC) motor.

Trent Bosch uses a plain old Delta 14" BS with riser block that he added a larger motor for this same use. He added a 3HP motor.

~Has anyone upgraded their Ridgid bandsaw motor and if so what motor did you get?~

I want as basic a "bolt on" option as possible, staying with 110V.

I don't know much about electric motors except more HP means more power in most cases .

I do know there are different mountings and such, but I don't want to do 6 months of motor research just to do one motor upgrade.

Thanks

[Lance Norris]

Scott... I dont have an answer for your motor question, sorry. I also have the Ridgid bandsaw and would like you to describe what you have done to improve the vibration issues with this saw. I have mine running pretty smooth, but wonder if I can make it even better. I so far have balanced my wheels, installed a Powertwist belt, installed Urethane tires, and added a plywood shelf in the lower stand structure. What have you done?

[Scott Hubl]

Hi Lance,
I bought mine over a year ago.

The first one went back to HD because of major vibration issues, the second one was about the same, I fought with Ridgid for awhile to get a new balanced set of wheels, That took some doing, but they ended up sending me a set then 6 weeks later another set showed up( must have been a error on their end).
I believe that a tool should be at least Close to usable out of the box.

Yes there is always work to be done, but balancing the wheels I felt was their responsibility and not mine.


Anyways I did the same as you, first adding a link belt, then following WOOD magazines bandsaw issue that included the Ridgid BS in the article.


I added 3/4 plywood to the top of the stand between it and the BS itself then added 3/4 plywood to the lower part.


Added the Urathane tires.


Added Cool blocks.


And then all the regular dialing it in kinda stuff.


When all that did not remove the Vibration to my liking I insisted Ridgid replace my Wheels , it took some doing but I did get them as a warranty issue without having to tote the BS to a service center.


I can balance a nickel on it now, even a dime. 99.9% of the vibration problems stemmed from there poor QC of the wheels.


I added a new tension spring when Woodcraft had them on sale a few weeks ago , and want to add the Carter quick release when I find a DEAL on one.


Like Trent talks about in his "Vessels of Illusion" DVD you need a more powerful motor for cutting green wood blanks.


The standard motor on the Ridgid is underpowered I believe.

[Scott Oldfield]

OOh me too!!

I have the same bandsaw and have been wanting to upgrade my motor too. Any info anyone could offer would be great.
Thanks,
Scott

[Lance Norris]

Scott... here are some pics of mine. I am happy with it. I dont need a larger motor, because I have a big steel frame Grizzly and its 2hp, but I am interested in what you find for a larger motor. Keep us posted. You mentioned the Carter Quick Release. I really like mine. I think its a great upgrade.

[Lance Norris]

~Has anyone upgraded their Ridgid bandsaw motor and if so what motor did you get?~

Scott... remember also, you will need a 1725 rpm motor that turns counter-clock wise, looking at the shaft end.

[John Branam]

I just got the Ridgid bandsaw about a month ago. Lots of vibration.

Lance- How did you balance the wheels?

[Jerry Allen]

I just replaced my stock 3/4hp motor with a Leeson farm duty 1 1/4hp one I got on eBay for $60. It was worth it and not too much trouble. I had to replace the the pulley on the motor because farm duty motors usually have a thicker shaft, 5/8" vs. 1/2". I expected to get a TEFC (totally enclosed fan cooled) motor, but it was not. The pictures on eBay were very dark so I couldn't see clearly and the seller made some reference to "sealed" which I took to mean TEFC. I've got the lower comparment pretty well blocked off so it doesn't see much dust anyway.
The 5/8"x3" tpulley was cheap at Grizzly. They also have decent prices on TEFC 1 1/2hp motors. Most motors are reversable by swapping a couple of wires. Usually the info is printed on the motor for reversing direction and 120/240V conversion. Make sure you get one that turns in the right direction or is reversible. The mounting plates are pretty standard, the most common being E56H. Mine was not, but had holes in the same place so it fit with no trouble. Some mounting plate specs include multiple holes so they can fit many applications. The ones from Grizzly are mostly generic. Check the shaft length and diameter too before buying. Lots of places have motors online, but you will find pushing $200+ is not uncommon for less than 2hp, and can be way more for higher hp. eBay has some deals from time to time, but the auction can be like a bunch of pirranas feeding. Buy It Now is nice if you can find what you need.

[Lance Norris]

I just got the Ridgid bandsaw about a month ago. Lots of vibration.

Lance- How did you balance the wheels?

John... take off the blade. Take off the drive belt. Take off the lower wheel brush. Spin the upper wheel. When it stops, take a sharpie or some other marker and mark, on the face of the wheel, at the very bottom. Now, spin the wheel again and if the mark stops again at the bottom, thats the heavy spot. I took a 1/2" drill bit and started drilling at the heavy spot, until the wheel stops at random places when spun. Dont drill clear through the wheel, you'll weaken it. Just remove some material, and spin again until you get it to stop at random. Do the same to the bottom wheel. Consider replacing the drive belt with a powertwist link belt. This belt makes a HUGE difference in vibration reduction.

http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/10885

[Nathan Hawkes]

I agree 1000% about the belt; the factory belt is TRASH! Also, like you, I modded my ridgid 14" BS. I bought a grizzly riser block, which fit quite well, with a little dremel filing. All of the pieces from the grizzly kit fit, but the guide arm to raise and lower the guide can wobble just a hair from side to side when raising/lowering the guide assembly. This just means that you have to adjust the guide blocks between raising/lowering the guide assembly if you're not careful to torque it one way or the other. I'm fine with this, as the grizzly block was about $60, and the Ridgid block is something like $140. Apparently it used to be about the same price, but I couldn't find it for any reasonable price. Plus, it adds some color to the shop. HAH! Anyway, I built the "Fine woodworking" bandsaw cart that in the pictures was designed for the ridgid saw. It helped a LOT with vibration as well. I should add here that the reason I built the bandsaw cart was more because of the topheaviness with the riser block. My shop is embarrasingly a shed with a plywood floor, and when I'm moving around heavy tools, it flexes a little. I knocked the bandsaw over when moving it!!! I put the cart on 6" industrial casters rated for something like 1000lbs. The cart is really quite handy. The FWW editor even put some clever plywood "wings" for lack of a better word, on it for resawing support if you're resawing boards. I'd be more than happy to send you a .pdf file if you like. I put on an Iturra coil spring; the carter ones sold by Woodcraft are too short; they need to be 3" long, not 2.5". I added coolblocks, replaced the crappy rubber tires with urethane ones, and I put a 2HP baldor motor on it that I got on eBay. It had been dropped during shipping, and the capacitors were cracked, and the case scratched. It was a freight company I bought it from. Long story short, Brand new motor never even uncrated for less than $100 WITH the new replacement caps and shipping. I know that'll never happen again!! It also has a feature that is REALLY handy; a wind-down brake, which slows it to a stop in less than 10 seconds. It even fit the factory pulleys, but it was Dual-shaft design; one on each end. I don't know what it was intended for, but Baldor said it would be fine for the bandsaw. I just put a little box over one end to keep it from winding up around my apron or anything & sucking me in. This was NOT a 110V motor, but I had a Leeson 110V 1.5HP motor that it replaced; the original 3/4HP motor went on an old 4" jointer. A 1.5HP motor is about the highest you're going to be able to run on 110V current; they draw something like 16 amps. Unless you have a 30A 110V circuit, which isn't very common unless you replace it, you're not going to be able to run anything else while the bandsaw is running, and you're going to have a big power loss through any long extension cords.



Just look for a used motor on ebay that has these characteristics;

SINGLE PHASE POWER!! there are a lot of cheap motors on ebay that run on 3-phase industrial power where there are three hot leads instead of your one on 110V power.

-1725-1750 rpm. This matches the factory motor. Unless you replace the pulley on the drive wheel with a larger one, a 3450rpm motor will spin the blade WAY too fast.

-5/8" shaft, as long as yours is the same as mine was; You can pretty easily measure this by eye with a ruler if you don't have a dial caliper.

-TEFC; totally enclosed fan cooled. You don't want a motor that's going to have its wiring wraps exposed to constant dust clouds.

-Continuous duty rating. A 'compressor' duty one isn't going to hold up to the abuse of running a lot of blanks through, or resawing a lot of boards. They're meant to run for a while, then cool down.

-CCW/CW rotation; I'm pretty sure that the ridgid motor is CCW rotation, but not positive. As mentioned already, most motors can be rewired to switch direction of rotation.

The size mount isn't that crucial, especially if you build a better stand than the factory one, or stiffen that one. Make sure the motor HAS a base plate, though. There seem to be a fair number of motors on ebay that do not have any motor base plate at all, and are meant to be easily installed & removed from their installations. HTH.

[Jerry Allen]

Like Lance, I balanced my wheels, but did it differently:
I marked the wheels. Both wheels would stop at the same area, but not the exact spot, maybe a 5 degree pie, so it took two marks to define the heavy spot. I drew a line halfway through that area across to the other side of the wheel. I then placed a 3/8" flat washer along that line to the opposite outer edge and taped it in place. Spun the wheel again to check balnce again and moved the washer along that line until it was perfectly balanced, i.e., the wheel did not stop in the same heavy spot when spun. Depending on how out of balance the wheel is, a larger or smaller washer may be required, but generally, moving the washer in or out along the line should correct the imbalance. Moving it out yields more opposing weight, inboard, less.
When I achieved balance, I marked the spot and epoxied the washer to the wheel, using the tape to hold it until the epoxy cured. Works great.


(in my last post I refferred to a 5/8" shaft, which is the common size, not 1/2", but meant to say that the new motor had a 3/4" shaft where it was originally 5/8"--no big deal, just check it. 3/4" shaft pulleys are available if necessary)

[John Branam]

Thanks for the info on balancing the wheels. I will be upgrading the drive belt this weekend.

[Scott Hubl]

Thanks for the replies so far.

So far I know I need a motor that is-
Single Phase
1725RPM
5/8" Shaft
TEFC
Continuous Duty
CCW Shaft Rotation
And needs a mounting plate. ( What kind I havent a clue? )

As I said, I do Not want to have to learn all about motors to do a one tool upgrade, I have a million and one other things to learn in my life, and Electric Motors isnt on that list.

Here is basically what the stick on label has on it-
AC Motor
Motor C.A.
Model 8288-48
PH 1
Hz 50-60
TR/Min 1725
A 105
Rating Cont.
CL B
Made in china
120v/220v
Motor is non reversable
CCW Rotation Shaft End.
No Relube Necessary

There is a wiring diagram for 120 or 220 hook up.

But thats about all the info it has on it.

Can anyone determine exactly what replacement motor I need at 1 1/2 - 2HP by this label info? I would like it to be 120/220 as for now it will be used 120v, but if I move I want the option of running it at 220v.

I realize these motors are expensive, thats why I don't want to order one up without being 100% SURE its gonna be a 1 2 3 swap out.
I don't want to go buying another pully, or modifying the motor/pully cover to "make it work" If i'm gonna upgrade I just want to swap the parts and be done.

And NO I'm not buying another bandsaw.

This one will do the job just fine with more HP.

Thanks again for the Help.

[Jerry Allen]

Scott, here's a start, but I'd keep looking if you want a better deal.
http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2008/Main/245
You can also search for Leeson, Dayton, Baldor and eBay for what you are looking for.
The frame and mount is probably 56 which is pretty standard. Some others will work, but you need to find dimensioned specs to make sure. 3"x5" rigid mount is common. Some bases will be bigger, but still have the 3x5 pattern included.

[Randal Stevenson]

Here is basically what the stick on label has on it-
AC Motor
Motor C.A.
Model 8288-48
PH 1
Hz 50-60
TR/Min 1725
A 105
Rating Cont.
CL B
Made in china
120v/220v
Motor is non reversable
CCW Rotation Shaft End.
No Relube Necessary


But thats about all the info it has on it.

About all, or all?
I would strongly consider both emailing Ridgid, and asking on their forum what is the frame type. Just a WAG, but that model number on the motor, makes me wonder if it is a frame 48.