Replace my bandsaw bearings with 2RS?

[Patrick Lestrange]

I'm working to restore an old bandsaw and want to replace all the bearings. They're crunchy with debris and one of the wheel bearings has seized up.

The blade guide bearings are double shielded (ZZ) and the wheel bearings are shielded on 1 side (Z). I haven't disassembled the electric motor, so I'm not sure what those look like yet.

Can I replace all of these with sealed bearings (2RS)?

That should help them last longer with all the dust they'll see, but I keep seeing folks say they don't spin as easily as the shielded varieties. Will that be a problem?

[Mark Gibney]

I always use 2RS bearings. I haven't noticed any hindrance to how the machines run.
I've put them on some big machines too, but I think I read on here recently that 2RS bearings don't do as well at high rpms. But I don't know any more about that.

[Jim Morgan]

My Powermatic bandsaw came with shielded bearings; I regularly had to replace the lower blade guide bearings because they got clogged with saw dust & siezed up. Since switching to sealed bearings, I have not had to replace them. I don't see any decrement in performance.

[Dwayne Watt]

Sealed bearings are fine. Even those will accumulate debris eventually, though.

[Bill Dufour]

The friction increase is minimal and will not be notice on a powered machine. More for things like a gravity conveyor with hundreds of bearings all moving together. Any rs bearing should handle 5,000-7,000 rpm no problem. How many rpm are the small blade guides?<br>Max rpm can be increased by special grease, precision fit etc.&nbsp;<br>
BilL D.

[Patrick Lestrange]

The friction increase is minimal and will not be notice on a powered machine. More for things like a gravity conveyor with hundreds of bearings all moving together. Any rs bearing should handle 5,000-7,000 rpm no problem. How many rpm are the small blade guides?<br>Max rpm can be increased by special grease, precision fit etc.&nbsp;<br>
BilL D.

The motor I have says 1720 RPM, so I'm not sure what that translates to for the blade guides. It's gotta be under 5000 rpm though.

Thanks for the insight everyone! I'll go with the sealed bearings, so I can avoid replacing them as frequently.

[Bill Dufour]

For the blade guide bearings price a tube of ten vs individual. They will clog and freeze up. Nice to have spares on hand when needed.
Bill D