Bandsaw Bearing Upgrade Problem

[tvidnoviciii]

I have a bandsaw with the older style brass bushing rollers, but with the aluminum table (SN plate is long gone), that I bought used 5 years ago. The squealing finally got to me and I decided to do the bearing upgrade. I went with double bearings as per

http://shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewtopic ... 583#p15583

I got all of the hardware, including the bearings from McMaster-Carr.

I'm currently going through the bearing alignment proceedure outlined in

http://shopsmith.com/ss_forum/maintenan ... t8542.html

and my problem is that the lower bearing housing does not have enough travel to the right for the blade to naturally land in the groove between the two bearings (see pic). There is also not enough clearance on the right hand side of the bearing to just move the whole setup over. It looks to me like I'm going to have to modify the bearing housing to get the proper alignment.

Are there alternatives that would allow me to avoid modifying anything, while keeping the dual bearing setup? Has anyone had a similar problem and had to do a modification? If so how did you modify the machine?

FYI, I'm performing the alignment with a 5/8" Olsen resaw blade, tensioned to the 1/2" setting, as per the manual, I've already aligned the auto track bearing, the upper guide bearing is not attached to the bandsaw at all, andd the pic was taken after I forced the blade away from the lower guide bearing and then turned the lower bandsaw wheel to allow the blade to drift back toward the bearing. At the time of the picture, the blade had just touched the bearing.

Thanks,
Ted

[jsburger]

I did that upgrade many years ago and everything worked perfectly. I am not sure what the problem could be. I can take pictures of mine if you want.

[Ed84]

I've not upgraded to ball bearings. You could try removing the guide blocks to see where the blade wants to naturally ride.

I did some filing on the oblong bolt hole of the lower guide assembly to center the blade on my lower roller. The casting isn't very beefy so I removed as little as possible to shift it over 1/16".

The guide roller brass bearings are replaceable and available from McMaster Carr for dirt cheap. I'm experimenting with some and started a separate post on the subject several weeks ago.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[jsburger]

I've not upgraded to ball bearings. You could try removing the guide blocks to see where the blade wants to naturally ride.

I did some filing on the oblong bolt hole of the lower guide assembly to center the blade on my lower roller. The casting isn't very beefy so I removed as little as possible to shift it over 1/16".

The guide roller brass bearings are replaceable and available from McMaster Carr for dirt cheap. I'm experimenting with some and started a separate post on the subject several weeks ago.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

The guide blocks should never be adjusted to move the blade from where it naturally wants to ride.

[Ed84]

I agree. My phrasing isn't clear. Removing them was meant as a troubleshooting step. If they're not set properly, they could be pushing the blade inward and creating the alignment issue he encountered.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[tvidnoviciii]

The guide blocks are nowhere near the blade. It is already where it naturally wants to be.

Ted

[Hobbyman2]

Does the top roller slot align up with the blade.

[JPG]

temp.jpg (30 KiB) Viewed 8267 times

[Hobbyman2]

just looked at myn and the bottom roller doesnt have a grove ?

[JPG]

just looked at myn and the bottom roller doesnt have a grove ?

That is because thee has not replaced the single bearing with a pair of narrower ones.