Bandsaw bearings

[Robert Flowers]

I need to clean the guide bearing on my bandsaw, been cutting a lot of yellow pine for a new workbench. I though I would soak them in something. Maybe Simple Green?
What would everyone recommend?

Robert

[Stewart Lang]

You can soak them in Simple Green, but that will likely also remove the grease inside the bearing housing. To do a thorough cleaning you can *carefully* pop off that thin metal plate housing on sealed bearings and thoroughly soak and spray them down with Simple Green, alocohol or mineral spirits to clean out the gunk, and then re-grease them and pop the plate back on. Should be just like new then. I've done this with my bearings.

[Carroll Courtney]

WD40 is also a good cleaner

[Tom Bender]

Mechanical cleaning would be my approach. That would not contaminate the inside. Soak in motor oil and work it in well. Then wipe clean.

[John Lanciani]

If they are 6200 2rs (most newer bandsaws are) they can be had for about $.75 each on Amazon or eBay. Hardly worth fussing with.

[John K Jordan]

I clean mine as needed with a hand-held brass brush.

JKJ

[glenn bradley]

With good dust collection my bearings last well over a year with regular use. I haven’t really paid attention but I’m still on my original 10 pack from well over a decade ago. I do buy sealed bearings as opposed to shielded which are generally what comes stock. I also agree that they’re cheap I would only bother cleaning some if I didn’t have any spares on hand which I pretty much always do and would recommend everyone to do.

[John K Jordan]

With good dust collection my bearings last well over a year with regular use. I haven’t really paid attention but I’m still on my original 10 pack from well over a decade ago. I do buy sealed bearings as opposed to shielded which are generally what comes stock. I also agree that they’re cheap I would only bother cleaning some if I didn’t have any spares on hand which I pretty much always do and would recommend everyone to do.

Maybe I misunderstood. I thought the need for cleaning was from sap buildup on the outer faces of the bearing which to me wouldn't be a reason to replace the bearings. Robert, are the insides of your bearings gummed up too such that they won't spin easily?

I cut a lot of green wood and occasionally have some buildup on the outside contact surface of the bearing which is easily removed. But if I'm remembering correctly I've only changed the bearings once in the last 10 years. I do have good dust collection.

JKJ

[Mark Rainey]

The roller bearings on my Rikon 10-326 seize up quickly if I do heavy resawing for laminations. Cleaning them by opening them up just helps for a short while - they seize up quickly. Here

[John Ziebron]

There are many different types of shields on ball bearings. Most common in many of our woodworking machines are ones that have a Z or ZZ suffix. That is a single or double metal shield on the bearing. But this is not the best shield to have if the bearing is exposed in the path or atmosphere of fine dust that is .005" or smaller. The best shield in those locations would be the RS suffix which indicates a rubber seal. All of the standard bearings on our machines can be purchased with a suitable shield for it's location. And as John L pointed out, many of these bearings can be purchased rather inexpensively. Here is a good link to help one understand bearing shields: https://www.asensar.com/article/basi...ng-guides.html

[lowell holmes]

Visit Lowes or Home Depot and check if they have a solvent. Just tell them what you need and they will take you to it.

[Curt Harms]

For those that saw green or pitch laden wood, would it be better to look into block style blade guides? Not much there to gum up.
Here is an early version on my Rikon 10-325. Currently I have guides made from 1/2" Corian. I've thought about using brass as well. I like something softer than the blade's teeth so if the teeth contact the guides it's the guides that suffer most. Easy to clean up/square up/make new guides if necessary. They make ceramic block guides but I don't know how I'd drill holes in those and it's necessary to drill holes for me.