7x12 Horizontal Bandsaw Gear Box Repair, Part 2

This saw is around 17 years old and gets used daily for cutting metal and plastic stock to make parts for the business. The saw has been getting noisier over the last few years and the last month, that noise became unbearable. Of course this all had to happen in the week between Christmas and New Year. Finding parts and getting them in-house was a PITA!

Harbor Freight had no parts available for this model saw that was discontinued so 10-15 years ago. Their new model saw is nearly identical, having a few new guards, safety features and paint scheme. However, they have no cross references for parts.

In this video, we'll be reassembling the gear box with new bearings on the worm shaft. Also cleaned all the sludge out of the gear box off camera while the gears were out of the box, highly recommended. End result was eliminating all the horrible noise and getting rid of a lot of backlash in the gears.

I think the root cause of this problem was an assembly error at the factory. I suspect the set screw may have broken during installation. That made it feel tight but the bottom of the screw didn't hold the spacer in place properly. Over time, the thrust force from the worm pushed the shaft and bearings out of the housing. You can see where the spacer has a gouge worn in it where the set screw was. With the upper bearing loose, the bottom bearing had to do all the work. Over time, it wore out and started making noise. Now reassembled with a high quality set screw and new FAG bearing from Germany, this thing should be good for many more years.

Harbor Freight saw:
https://www.harborfreight.com/1-hp-7-inch-x-12-inch-hydraulic-feed-metal-cutting-bandsaw-34272.html

Luckily Grizzly has an identical saw and their updated parts ordering page is excellent.
Grizzly Saw:
https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-7-x-12-1-hp-metal-cutting-bandsaw/g0561
Parts:
https://www.grizzly.com/products/g0561/parts
You can look up the bearing p/n on their site or simply measure the ID, OD and thickness.

Replacement bearings (FAG brand) from McMaster-Carr, less expensive than Grizzly:
https://www.mcmaster.com/bearings/system-of-measurement~metric/for-shaft-diameter~17mm/for-housing-id~35mm/bearing-trade-number~6003-2z/width~10-mm/

Or Amazon for 1/4 the price:
https://amzn.to/3tBzoL4

Cliff's Shed has a good video on gear box repair that I used for reference:
https://youtu.be/6x275cVbhLI
Cliff went so far as to fabricate a new worm/worm gear combo!

More to come...
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Intro/Outro:
Louisiana Fairytale by Austin Rogers
https://web.archive.org/web/20170402222425/http://drfiddle.com/show_tune.php?id=94