Band Saw Bearings

pcooper

Phillip Cooper
Corporate Member
I didn't want to hijack the other bandsaw thread, but I have a question that Bruce's answer sparked. I did the upgrade on my Rikon bandsaw, it now has sealed bearings for the guides which i like...for the most part. The lower set however seize with sawdust, and they're sealed. I've replaced them several times with new sealed bearings, and in short order they're seized again. I just replaced them again today just before posting, so we'll see how long they go. Question is, how can one prevent the sawdust from getting into the bearings, and is it a dust collection kind of fix? I saw someone else on here that added a pvc shop made dust collection gizmo just under the table, and I wonder if that is something that would work for me? I'd like to see pictures of that again, been a while since I found that, and guess I could find it again, but if anyone has ideas for this problem I'm very open to suggestions. Bearings aren't that expensive, but I don't like having to down the machine for a while when I'm in the middle of using it for something. Routine service intervals are not often enough for this problem, at least for me.
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
I found waterproof skateboard bearings on Amazon for about $20 (correction $10). for a tube of 10 pieces.
since I started using them I never had any problems with the guide bearings and they are much less than the bandsaw guide bearings I was using.

There are different kinds of sealed bearings, some are sealed to keep the grease in and some are sealed to keep everything else out. These skate board bearings are made to go through puddles and also last for many years in sawdust.

shielded more better than sealed...


ordered these in 2011 and still in the saw checked just now and they spin freely.
 
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pcooper

Phillip Cooper
Corporate Member
Mike, thank you so much for the link, I've got them ordered, they sure look different than what I've used, mine are black side seals, and I'll bet that is to keep the lube in and not outside stuff out. Can't beat the price either.
 

pcooper

Phillip Cooper
Corporate Member
I found a way to add dust collection at the bottom of the table near the blade, a bit of PVC, a bit of vac hose, a y to the main dust collection hose, and once turned on it works really nicely. Who knows, maybe the bearings I have may last a bit longer, but will change them out with the new ones once I get them. I did a re-saw after this install, and have little to no shavings going on the floor where I once had a pretty nice pile. This has to help my situation. I do more re-saw work in this machine than any other, so it's nearly always got a wide blade in it, produces a lot of shavings. With what I do, the main dust collection port would cover over with dust and fill the case, and I know I have enough flow in the system, it's just not very open inside the saw case. I'll bet this helps that situation too.
 

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