jet band saw -- replacing the base

[Sam the Cat]

Anybody ever tried this ? Purchased a Jet 14" band saw couple of years ago -- working great, expect for the dust collection. The 2" port (besides not conviently attaching to any dust sucking machine in the shop) does not work well. I noticed on the new machines that they now have a 4" port in the cast iron base -- anybody ever replace their base ? I am going to price this out tomorrow but am I nuts ? Other choice is to add my own port to the door -- cheaper, I know.......

If I pull out the base do I need any fancy tools to extract the lower axel ? I have a shop full of tools but nothing out of the ordinary -- like gear pullers

[kkfitzge]

I recently bought an older Jet bandsaw that needed new lower bearings. Driving the old bearings out with a pneumatic impact hammer was straightfoward, because I didn't care if I damaged them.

Installing the new bearings was a different story. Each bearing is a double press fit onto the wheel shaft and into the lower casting, so you need a way to press the outer and inner races simultaneously. Because there are two bearings opposite each other, pressing one in tends to force the other out. I tired all kinds of wierd routines with clamps, levers, and lots of hammering, to no avail. It became evident that the right tool for this job is a really big honking bearing press, which I don't have. Finally, I took the whole lower casting to a machine shop, and $10 and 1 day later, I was in business.

Oh BTW, my saw has a 4" dust port... in the lower door.