Yates American J-120 Band Saw – Drive and Brake Assembly

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Still with a while before the righting of the bandsaw was planned, I kept on pushing to get more done on it before that.


I pulled the drive wheel and brake assembly out of the saw to get it all cleaned up.


It was pretty simple, it was just these 4 bolts on the inside casting of the base. Probably easier to remove with it sideways, but also not bad if it’s hanging when upright either, I don’t think.


I disassembled the whole thing. The pulley/brake drum has to come off in order to get the brake arm/pad off.


The key between the pulley and the drive shaft was pretty out of whack. I’ll be replacing that one for sure.


I was hoping I would be able to keep the existing bearings, because they felt ok in the saw. Once I got it removed and tried them, though, there was a bit of roughness to them. That’s unfortunate. This is the bearing on the wheel side. Luckily, 5205 bearings are still available, though not the cheapest.


The bearing on the pulley side was the same size, but with a groove for a snap ring. This one was similarly a little rough, so I opted to just replace both of them.


After getting the bearings on order, I cleaned up the pulley and taped off both the V-Grooves for the belts and the brake drum. Then I gave it a coat of paint to match the rest of the parts inside.


Much like the threaded rod for the motor platform, I also painted the non-bearing surface of the drive shaft. Again, figured I might as well, as it will help stave off rust.


Once the bearings arrived, I used some clamps and some blocks with holes drilled in them to press the bearing sin place. You can get one bearing on the shaft before hand, but I found it best to press the other on in place.


Given the age of the machine, the likelihood that the original brake material contained asbestos was pretty high. I don’t think it was still on the original brake material as they looked to have less wear than I would have thought 60 year old brakes would, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. Also, while it’s already removed it’s a quick easy thing to do rather than tearing the whole thing apart again later.


At this point the whole thing was reassembled, and just waiting on the brake material to finish curing. Everything here cleaned up quite nicely, with only some munged up threads for the bearing retaining nut, but they were still workable.


Once the brake material was fully cured I got the assembly fully back together. Here it is reinstalled in the saw.


That was another major piece done and checked off the list before standing this up. No reason to slow down now, so I keep plowing ahead in the next one, but that’s it for now.

Thanks for checking it out.

Series Navigation<< Part 2: Cabinet Base and Motor MountPart 4: Upper Wheel Assembly and Guide Post >>
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