Shopsmith Forums

Has anyone attempted to replace the bronze sleeves inserted into the older style bandsaw blade autotrack and U/L steel rollers? What bushing did you use, how did the replacement go, and how do the new ones operate? I searched for posts related to this and didn't find any threads discussing the topic. Everyone heads to the ball bearings.

I purchased an 1981 mk V with bandsaw last year, all in used but good condition. Previous owners (Im 3rd owner) appear to have never bothered aligning the machine or accessories in any meaningful way. I lubed and aligned everything. Tires were newer with no cracks so I've left them on until they go. I purchased new blades and cool blocks. The saw has the dreaded squeeling written about in depth on here. I don't use the saw enough to justify a Carter upgrade. The saw cuts well with no issues.

I narrowed the squeeling noise down to the lower roller and found it worn compared to the other two. I pulled off all 3 rollers and measured them. All rollers and shaft dimensions are identical except for a lower roller OD blade wear groove and the ID of the bronze bushing in the lower roller. The bronze bushing ID on the lower roller is worn 0.0095" and I can feel significant radial play when the roller is on its shaft. The steel OD has a grove 0.020" deep slightly off center worn into it from the back of the blade. The lower roller ran extremely hot compared to the others after i purchased it and appears to have been overloaded by not having the upper roller adjusted out far enough to support the blade. The temperature dropped after i adjusted the upper roller out slightly.

I've heard mixed reviews on the replacement 608zz ball bearing upgrade and am curious if anyone has tried replacing the older bronze inserts in the steel rollers. I measured the roller inserts to be 1/4 ID, 3/8 OD, and 1/2 wide. A wide variety of bushing materials are available online at www.bronzebushings.com and I'm thinking about buying 3 oil impregnated bronze sleeves, model AA-304-2. The new $2.50 each and made in the USA. Seems like that may be preferable to Chinese ball bearings that many report don't last long. I have the mechanical aptitude to press out and install a sleeve so I'm up for it. Thoughts?

Ed

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I'll remain tuned in to this thread. I am interested in hearing how the solution works out. I have never seen a bandsaw bearing like the one you posted (neither grove or brass bushing).

The squeal is what interests me. I don't believe it is the bearings that cause the squeal. I believe it is the blade against the outer race that causes the noise. I came to that conclusion by applying a small amount of grease to the outer race while running with the squeal. The noise ceased immediately.

Is there a part number on that bearing.

Part number from my manual is 502578, "roller assembly". They're never referenced as bearings. All 3 rollers are the same part number. The bandsaw serial number is 13786. The part number is both the steel roller and bronze insert, it is not split out to identify the bronze insert or steel roller separately.

I had the idea to swap the rollers around this morning when everything was apart. I moved the worn lower roller up to the autotrack location and the autotrack down to the lower roller. I believe the autotrack sees the least load when cutting so the worn roller would not have an impact. After installing, I made several small adjustments to the upper roller alignment, ran some scrap through, and found I have no squeeling. I've been here before and it'll be back at some point.

I haven't tried grease to the back of the blade to try to distinguish if noise comes from the blade to OD contact or from the bushing ID to shaft OD. I'll have to try that when the noise is back. Regardless of the location, it seems that excessive load would be the likely cause and that the loading caused the wear I found in my lower roller.

I'm going to look for 3 of my older style rollers on ebay and try my replacement insert idea on them. Right now my saw works well and my only option will be ball bearings if I mess up with the inserts.

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none of your attached img shows up.
anyone else see the pictures?

Ed84 wrote:Part number from my manual is 502578, "roller assembly". They're never referenced as bearings. All 3 rollers are the same part number. The bandsaw serial number is 13786. The part number is both the steel roller and bronze insert, it is not split out to identify the bronze insert or steel roller separately.

I had the idea to swap the rollers around this morning when everything was apart. I moved the worn lower roller up to the autotrack location and the autotrack down to the lower roller. I believe the autotrack sees the least load when cutting so the worn roller would not have an impact. After installing, I made several small adjustments to the upper roller alignment, ran some scrap through, and found I have no squeeling. I've been here before and it'll be back at some point.

I haven't tried grease to the back of the blade to try to distinguish if noise comes from the blade to OD contact or from the bushing ID to shaft OD. I'll have to try that when the noise is back. Regardless of the location, it seems that excessive load would be the likely cause and that the loading caused the wear I found in my lower roller.

I'm going to look for 3 of my older style rollers on ebay and try my replacement insert idea on them. Right now my saw works well and my only option will be ball bearings if I mess up with the inserts.

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Pictures are showing up for me (using Firefox on a Mac).

They all showed up here with Firefox and W10.

An update on this. I purchased 3 spare rollers from ebay and purchased 3 styles of bronze bushings from McMaster Carr. So a total of 9 bushings . The prices vatied from 0.83 to 1.15 per bearing, so 9 bushings ran me $14 with S&H +tax.

My worn out bushing pressed out with no issues. I hammered it out with a cut off 3/8" bolt I found whose od matched the bearing id. The new bushings dry fit to the shaft, spin freely with no slop.

Pressing the new bushing in was straightforward. I put a small chamfer on the bushing od. Lightly oiled it and the roller id pressed it in with my bench vice.

I started with an "Ultra-Low-Friction Oil-Embedded Sleeve Bearing with PTFE" bushing in the auto-track bearing. Ill run it a while to see if it's wearing.

Im going to slowly replace bushings over time to see if any work better than others and if they're quiter. I'm avoiding a wholesale changeover of the bushings because my remaining rollers are still good. I'm unsure of what the original bearing material is and don't want to end up with a pile of worn out rollers.



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Interesting thread. I have two band saws, and the older one had the bronze rollers like yours. I recently replaced them with the Shopsmith bearings. http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... lerkit.htm

After replacing all of them, however, I also decided to go for the Carter Stabilizer, which makes the upper and lower back up bearings totally irrelevant (unless I switch back). So only the new dual autotrack bearings are in use.

algale wrote:Interesting thread. I have two band saws, and the older one had the bronze rollers like yours. I recently replaced them with the Shopsmith bearings. http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... lerkit.htm

After replacing all of them, however, I also decided to go for the Carter Stabilizer, which makes the upper and lower back up bearings totally irrelevant (unless I switch back). So only the new dual autotrack bearings are in use.

But the Carter stabilizer is for use with very small blades.

jsburger wrote:

algale wrote:Interesting thread. I have two band saws, and the older one had the bronze rollers like yours. I recently replaced them with the Shopsmith bearings. http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... lerkit.htm

After replacing all of them, however, I also decided to go for the Carter Stabilizer, which makes the upper and lower back up bearings totally irrelevant (unless I switch back). So only the new dual autotrack bearings are in use.

But the Carter stabilizer is for use with very small blades.

Yes, that is true, but I fail to see your point.