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Hello,

I upgraded the Rikon guides on a 10-325 to the quick adjust guides about 18 months ago. I took them off last night to replace with some ceramic blocks from a place called space age ceramics.

I was surprised to find that one of the bottom guide bearings and also the bottom thrust bearing were basically frozen up. I’m surprised I didn’t notice it during use or a blade change.

I fairly regularly use the compressor to clear out any dust. I have been cutting more MDF than normal lately while making jigs. Perhaps that contributed, I’m not sure.

What should the expected life of these bearings be? I saw that the replacement set of 6 if 50 bucks. I would hate to have to spend that every couple years on bearings. Could it possibly be from not blowing out the dust enough? Perhaps a dust collection problem? (seems to be working OK though)

Brad


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Most affordable bandsaws use ZZ (double shielded) bearings, as they are inexpensive and have low rolling resistance. The challenge is that dust sucks the grease right out - with fine MDF dust it can happening in mere months.

I recently rebuilt a 5hp 12" Grizzly table saw that I got for a song, as the bearings had all run dry. Replaced all with 2RS and its good to go.

Any time I replace bearings in wood cutting saws, I switch to 2RS (double sealed) bearings—ABEC 3 has been more than precise enough for any wood shop tool use I have.

No need to buy brand name bearings for this application - what numbers are on the side of your current bearings?

Junk bearings. This has been covered with Rikon. I suggest replacing them with brand name quality bearings.

Andy

It’s these: https://www.rikontools.com/product/C10-326

Any recommendations on a brand that is known to work well?


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Brad,
Can you look on the bearings themselves to see what the numbers are? It will be stamped into the shield on the side.

I also have the little Rikon, and the same thrust bearings siezed on mine. The blade made a heck of a screetching noise on that siezed bearing, so I'm surprised that you did not know they were bad.

I found these were a standard size of bearing, and found the replacement bearings via the bearing numbers on ebay pretty cheap. I bought 10 of them, so I'm good for a number of years to come. Haven't had to replace any of the replacement bearings yet, so I guess the ebay cheapies are better than the ones that came with the bandsaw.

Edited: I searched my old emails, and found that I bought 626ZZ bearings (6mmx19mmx6mm) from VXB Bearings off of ebay. Measure yours to make sure they are the same model and size.

I used to religiously blow off my tools on a daily basis with 120 PSI from my compressor (OK, more like 60 PSI at a sustained output)...I've stopped doing this as I've come to the suspicion that the procedure actually blows stuff INTO the parts as opposed to out of...e.g. creates more problems than it solves

I have a 14” craftsman, identical to the Rikon.
I buy sealed skateboard bearings for next to nothing.
I bought 608-2RS Skateboard Bearing, 8x22x7.
They last longer than the sorta-sealed ones.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Many towns have a bearing shop in one of the industrial parks. Mine is currently called Applied Industrial Technologies. It has had many names in the 40+ years I have been here. You take your old bearing in. They measure it, go to the back, and come out with one that fits in the same space usually of much higher quality. Or, they order the right one for you. They have saved many of my machines, both cars and tools.

I got these from Amazon.

20 Bearing 626ZZ 6x19x6 Shielded Miniature Ball Bearings VXB Brand

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002B ... UTF8&psc=1

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Switching from ZZ to 2RS will change the lifespan quite noticeably. ZZ are metal shields that protect from large debris, and side impact, but allow grease-sucking dust to run the bearings dry. 2RS are rubber shielded, have slightly higher rolling resistance, but keep the fine saw dust from pulling out the grease.

If you currently are running 626ZZ and not happy with the lifespan, try 626 2RS. Almost any that you can order from Amazon or Ebay will work. First three numbers indicate bearing size, and the letter/number combo the shield configuration.

If you find a decent price on some rated at ABEC 3, those are more than precise enough for the speeds on the bandsaw.

I have to agree with the gentleman that suggested that quality bearings matter, if for no other reason than the labor hours spent on changing and readjusting a set of bearings exceeds the cost of a quality bearing set after the second replacement.

We've been running SKF 6202 2RS bearings on our GO-514X2B for about two years, after seeing the VXB-sourced 2RS lower bearings routinely die after a few months of use. While the uppers lasted longer based on what I see in the machine log, the cost difference between the SKF bearings ($72/set of 9) and the VXB-sourced bearings (~$25 per set), was more than offset with better service life and lower life cycle costs.

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Just for interest in Europe, on my Electra Bekum 12 inch in the UK (though they are sold under several brands) the thrust bearings also go. In my case after a few years in an amateur workshop. Replacement price was fairly cheap so not an issue.

What did bother me was that I couldn't work out why the machine was behaving so badly until I checked these thrust bearings. I now know to check all the guides since the side ones can come loose as well.

[quote="bcombs510"]Hello,

I upgraded the Rikon guides on a 10-325 to the quick adjust guides about 18 months ago. I took them off last night to replace with some ceramic blocks from a place called space age ceramics.

I was surprised to find that one of the bottom guide bearings and also the bottom thrust bearing were basically frozen up. I’m surprised I didn’t notice it during use or a blade change.

I fairly regularly use the compressor to clear out any dust. I have been cutting more MDF than normal lately while making jigs. Perhaps that contributed, I’m not sure.

What should the expected life of these bearings be? I saw that the replacement set of 6 if 50 bucks. I would hate to have to spend that every couple years on bearings. Could it possibly be from not blowing out the dust enough? Perhaps a dust collection problem? (seems to be working OK though)

Brad


Anything to report on the new ceramics yet? I just ordered a set for my 10-325 to hopefully replace my Carter setup. I lost two of the bearings within 15 minutes after my last complete bearing change which was last week.

Thanks, Michael

Michael,
I thought the Carter thing was supposed to be a nice upgrade... Did you find it wasn't so great (in case I considered getting one)...?

Daniel,
Thanks for the tip on the 626 2RS...

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I thinks they make a great set of guides! That bearings are what don't last. I've purchased expencive ones, cheap ones....I'm done. Ceramics... $75 shipped. I've got ceramics on my Laguna and love them!

Let me add.. The Carter guides work perfectly if you can get past the shreeking bearing noise.

Hey Michael,

Some observations:

1) The lower thrust block didn't fit on my 10-325 when using a 3/4" blade. I had slid the guide housing back as far as it would go, and the block back as far as it would go, but the block still stuck out past the back edge of the blade. Their recommendation was to swap one of the guide blocks with the thrust block, which worked.

2) If you have the Rikon 90-100 upgrade to your 10-325, buy the blocks for the 10-326 and you'll be able to use your quick adjust knobs still. I'm going to order the http://spaceageceramics.com/products/ae ... de-blocks/ blocks x4 and along with the set I already have I'll be able to use the 90-100 upgraded guide housing. Unfortunately I didn't know this up front and had to put the old guide housing back on before upgrading to the blocks.

3) I only have one session with the blocks and the woodslicer (thanks again for the recommendation) but they worked great. I was able to get 5 slices out of some 1 inch stock. I was mostly surprised by how clean the surface of the slices were when using the woodslicer blade. Just a couple of passes through the drum sander and all the saw marks were gone.

Brad

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Glad the blade worked out. The main rub I had with the 10-325 was being able to get enough blade tension. A better spring would be the next upgrade I'd go for on your setup. What kind of yield have you gotten out of the woodslicer so far?

I was able to cut basically the equivalent of 8 sets before it started to dull. I say basically because I had also cut a bunch of Paulownia for making linings, but that stuff is just a step above balsa wood, so it hardly counts.

Question though... IIRC, you mentioned about cleaning your blade in a solution. Is that right? How often do you do that? The blade was indeed a little gummed up because I had cut two sets of cocobolo and then some wenge and a somewhat high volume sapele right after it. Would I have been better off the clean the blade after the coco before moving on?

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