Bandsaw guide/thrust bearing trouble

[Andy Fox]

I just tuned my new bandsaw according to Mark Duginske's recommendations. I set the guide bearings to within a paper's width of the blade. Thrust bearings were set to about 1/64" behind the blade (stock). The blade was not touching the bearings until stock was being fed. I then successfully resawed six 5" wide, 2' long cherry boards with saw marks about 1/32" deep.

This resulted in:

1. A pile of grease 1/2 the size of the bearing behind the upper thrust bearing. I'm pretty sure it isn't leftover cosmoline.

2. The lower thrust bearing cover popped off, but I don't see any grease (inside or outside).

Questions:

1. Is this a normal occurence, a sign of overworking the bearings through bad feed technique, or do I have really cheap bearings (which I already suspected just based on their look and feel)?

2. If cheap bearings, what is the typical cost of replacements.

3. Is it generally possible on most saws to replace the bearings with cool blocks?

[lou sansone]

does not sound normal to me.. what type of saw do you have

lou

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

The grease might be cosmoline smell it & burn a little then smell the smoke it'll smell like cosmoline if it is. It ould also be the grease from the failed lower bearing

There outta be lube in the bearing. The covers shouldn't pop off.

You can usually replace guides.
Note: Most bearing guides las a very very long time.

[Mike Cutler]

Andy.

That is definitely not normal. If it is a smallish bandsaw12"-14" it still should have been able to handle a 5" x2' long piece of material.

As to whether or not folks change out bearings for Cool Blocks, well that's a personal choince. I prefer bearings myself. Otheres prefer some form of Cool Blocks, or Euro style bearings. Most bandsaws seem to have some form of an Cool Block retrofit available

If your saw can be outfitted with Carter guides(bearings) you may want to consider the upgrade. The Carter positions the thrust bearing so that thback edge of the blade exerts pressure aginst the outside diameter of the bearing, and not the face as is typical on smaller bandsaws'.

If you want to change the bearings to a higher quality. Contact a bearing distributor in your area. They will need the numbers that are on either the dust cover of the bearing or on the face of the outer race. You may just have to bring it in if you can't see these numbers. Make sure that you at least upgrade the bearing to a sealed unit, and not just one with a dust cover. An ABEC 3 rating should be more than sufficient for the bearing quality itself.


Good luck. Getting a bandsaw tuned up seems to be a persnicity task.

[Andy Fox]

Lou: It's a new Craftsman 14" (Rikon-like design). I'm still debating about returning it. I posted a thread about some other challenges with it last week.

Cliff: Thanks, not sure I can distinguish cosmoline vs. grease by smell, but I'll try. It looks like grease, as I've never seen a glob of cosmoline, and pretty sure I got rid of it all.

Mike: Thanks for the detailed bearing info. I might have to see if Carter makes an entire upper guide assembly, as mine doesn't run square to the blade and isn't adjustable for angle.

[Mark Pruitt]

Andy, if I had a brand new saw that gave me that kind of problem, I would definitely return it. What you described isn't normal by any stretch. I'd just box it up and carry it back to Sears, tell 'em it has defective bearings and ask 'em to replace it.

[CPeter James]

Don't spend new money on something that is going to be long term problems. This saw sounds like a lemon. There are better saws out there, Grizzly for one. As to the bearing vs. cool blocks. I know true experts who run hardened steel blocks. The high end saws now run ceramic guides. The reason, the blocks cool and clean the blade. Bearings just pack the pitch harder onto the blade. Makes sense to me.

CPeter

[Andy Fox]

Mark, I'm getting close to doing that, except I'll get a refund, since a replacement saw will probably have the same issues.

[Mark Pruitt]

Mark, I'm getting close to doing that, except I'll get a refund, since a replacement saw will probably have the same issues.
A refund is even better! Then you can go looking for something better. Here are a few good places to start:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/category.aspx?key=420000

http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/SEARCH.exe?ADS=&SEARCH=119.,120.&OLDINDEX=C2006061911224813090&JUMPTO=12&SHOWCOUNT=15&RESTRICTCATEGORY=on&RESTRICTBRAND=on&RESTRICTDESCRIPTION=on&RESTRICTHEADLINE=on&RESTRICTCOPY=on&SEARCHMODE=1&LC=120.003

http://www.woodcraft.com/depts.aspx?DeptID=4065

[Mark Pruitt]

Andy,
If you're not already doing this, you can improve a blade's performance by rounding over the back edges with a grinding stone. Here is one, but there are others as well:
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=7303

I definitely do not think that rounding the back edges of the blade would have averted the problem you experienced, so don't think that the problem was a result of user error. You got a bad saw (or at least a saw with bad bearings). This is just an additional tip for future reference. Best of luck.

[Andy Fox]

CPeter: Thanks, I'm starting to see things that way too.

Mark: Thanks... Duginske recommends rounding off the back too, and I did that.

[Mike Cutler]

Don't spend new money on something that is going to be long term problems. This saw sounds like a lemon. There are better saws out there, Grizzly for one. As to the bearing vs. cool blocks. I know true experts who run hardened steel blocks. The high end saws now run ceramic guides. The reason, the blocks cool and clean the blade. Bearings just pack the pitch harder onto the blade. Makes sense to me.

CPeter

Hmm....... Ya' got me rethinking my position on bearings with this post. Pitch buildup on the blade has been an issue for me.

Thanks for the heads up info.

[glenn bradley]

Stop the madness, take it back. I very sorry to hear that you've had that kind of quality problems with what some of the rags rate as a pretty good saw. Maybe just a lemon but, I would be nervous everytime I used the replacement if it was the same model and source, eh?

[Rye Crane]

Hi Andy,

You may want to call Louis Iturra, Iturra design. 888-722-7078 or 904-642-2802 Jacksonville, Fl.

Louis has a great catalog, you can find just about anything for bandsaws and a good history of both the Delta and Jet 14" saws. It's a very good reference.

It does sound like you should bounce that saw back to the seller. I bought a Delta 14" and after I got through hot rodding it with Iturra's goodies I could have bought a MM 16 so instead I kept the Delta and picked up a MM 24.

Good Luck, sorry to hear you've had so many problems.

Rye Crane
Pittsburg, CA.