Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.
It seems as if it would be very useful to construct a pedal-powered bandsaw, however.
Lucianosays:
The issue with this technique is not that the pedal power isn’t effective, it’s that his ratio is not good.
He needs to gear it up so that one revolution of his wheel is multiple strokes… he could also store the energy in a flywheel for greater cutting ability. Put the saw on a rod and institute a method to drop the blade onto the work once the flywheel is going and doing 60 strokes a minute and watch the blade cut the metal like a scrollsaw.
Pedal powered lathes, scrollsaws, bandsaws, etc were quite common before the advent of steam or electric power.
Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.
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It seems as if it would be very useful to construct a pedal-powered bandsaw, however.
The issue with this technique is not that the pedal power isn’t effective, it’s that his ratio is not good.
He needs to gear it up so that one revolution of his wheel is multiple strokes… he could also store the energy in a flywheel for greater cutting ability. Put the saw on a rod and institute a method to drop the blade onto the work once the flywheel is going and doing 60 strokes a minute and watch the blade cut the metal like a scrollsaw.
Pedal powered lathes, scrollsaws, bandsaws, etc were quite common before the advent of steam or electric power.