Bandsaw bearings

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

I knew my Elektra Beckum bandsaw bearings were on the way out. The machine was making an awful noise every time I used it and the blade felt as though sometimes it was "jumping" through a cut. With a fairly big (for me) job coming in I decided that today I had to sort it out. I am lucky in that my local motorbike shop holds most of the bearings for the machines I have and if they don't have it there is a specialist bearing retailer about 5 miles or so away. 2 bearings on each of the pulleys, one set were really bad and a different sized set on the belt tensioner that were virtually seized. Pleased to report they all drifted out nicely and the new ones went in easily too. All back together and the bandsaw is now running like a dream. Apart from a bit of petrol and a cup of coffee for my able assisstant (my son) the whole job came to £34. Pleased with that, should be good for another 10 years now!

[Derek]

Alway very satisfying when a job goes just right with a great result at the end. Luckily you had places close to hand to acquire the parts. And it probably cost less than if you got the parts from the machine makers.

[David Buskell]

Parts from the machine makers or their spares agents would probably cost triple that!

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

I have a feeling that when I changed the bearings onmy Axminster 330 a few years ago they were the same size as the ones on the bandsaw pulleys. I got those ones from the motorbike shop too.