I recently acquired a Rockwell 28-3X5 bandsaw. I've been looking for a saw for a while and I was lucky enough to trade some machining for this one. It has a bearing rear blade support and adjustable solid side supports. Has anyone here done a complete bearing upgrade on this kind of saw?
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Rockwell 28-3X5
- Thread starter Bob D
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
- Messages
- 10,446
I have just the same machine, without the blade welder, yours looks like it has vee shaped guides, mine are different, not so good as vee guides, what upgrade are you suggesting?, for metal cutting, what you have is fine. How are your tires on the wheels, I have two saws by Rockwell, both had urethane tires, both needed replacement due to cracking clear through, expensive and a ***** to install.
The saw has a 1" blade on it and the guides are setup for a smaller blade, maybe 1/2"? So the 1" blade that is on it now is not supported very well. I can just make different guides or space out the ones that are there. I just wasn't sure if someone had done a bearing guide upgrade.
My tires appear to be in good condition. I didn't see any cracks, but now that I've said that I'm sure that they will fall off. This is a 480V 3 Phase unit so I'm removing the variable speed pullies and adding a VFD so I can run it off single phase power. I'll probably remove and sell the blade welder. I don't see where I'd ever use it and what I'd get for it would probably pay for most of the VFD.
My tires appear to be in good condition. I didn't see any cracks, but now that I've said that I'm sure that they will fall off. This is a 480V 3 Phase unit so I'm removing the variable speed pullies and adding a VFD so I can run it off single phase power. I'll probably remove and sell the blade welder. I don't see where I'd ever use it and what I'd get for it would probably pay for most of the VFD.
with a VFD, I think you would need a transformer to get 480V unless the motor can be rewired to low voltage. A blade welder could pay for itself over time, shame to devalue a nice machine too. A single phase motor might be a good option if everything in the drive train is in working order and the welder will work on 240V.
The motor can be wired for low voltage, you just have to wire the windings in parallel instead of series. I use the KBAC motor controllers for these things and they work well. I prefer the ability to control the surface speed with a dial. I have already calculated and purchased the correct pullies and belt to get the full speed range out of the saw using a VFD with the current motor.
The welder tag calls out 25A at 120V, so I couldn't use my existing circuit for it. At a cost savings of $10 per blade (I looked into it), the juice isn't worth the squeeze on this one.
The welder tag calls out 25A at 120V, so I couldn't use my existing circuit for it. At a cost savings of $10 per blade (I looked into it), the juice isn't worth the squeeze on this one.