Thread: Need some photo's of a Rong Fu RF-115 bandsaw

Originally Posted by tanii51

Rob to spur you along this is realy pushing its limits but i cut off a piece from a 5 inch piece i got from a scrap metal place
had to turn it near the end but it worked mine doesnt cut all that square but much easier than a hand saw
john

Hi John
That a similar size piece to what I had to cut for D1-4 adaptors.
Like you I had to cut it in half with 2 cuts and then I was right for single cuts as it cleared the frame.



Dave

Originally Posted by tanii51

rob i wonder if you can take a few pics and post of the speedie seal and how you do it
in fact your whole process
could be a few others interested too by the sounds of it
john

OK I will take some shots.

The only downside of what I'm doing is that the Dufor has to be machined down to about 2 mm wall thickness, which is not as much as I would like - but I'm using what I have, and if it wears out (unlikely) I will have to BUY a thicker walled bush - crikey, spend money

The alternative is to machine out the centre in the pulley to the OSD of the Dufor, but I don't want to do that as it could weaken it. The pulleys are under fair pressure when tensioned.

This will work, and it should out last me, so this is how it's going to be.

Rob

Originally Posted by nearnexus

Why is the bronze gear worn near the edges and not in the centre?

Looks like the mesh point is not correct.

Yes. I think Andre is using an old photo from http://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/ta...-parts-151445/

Michael

I don't know if this is the case for all these BS clones, but here goes.

One problem with these BS is that there's no way to lubricate the bush/ spindle combination in situ.

That's probably why mine wore out so badly. Never been greased.

HOWEVER, thinking over a glass of red it hit me that the bolt hole through the centre of the shaft that takes the bolt to keep the pulley on is deep enough that it goes to at least the centre of the bush/pulley.

So here's the plan - why not drill through the side of the shaft into that central thread hole, in line with the centre of the bush.

Then tap a thread of the correct type onto a grease nipple.

You can then grease the bush by removing the bolt, screwing in the nipple, add grease, reverse process, job done in a few minutes.

If the shaft is too hard to drill I will grind a hole with a burr in the die grinder.

What do you recon

Cheers

Rob

Is the bolt gutsy enough that you can drill down the centre of it (probably only needs to be a 3mm or so hole)? That way you could do that, mount a grease nipple on the head of the bolt and go from there.
I've found that if I have to (even partly) disassemble things, maintenance does not happen as often as it does when everything is there.

Michael

Originally Posted by Michael G

Is the bolt gutsy enough that you can drill down the centre of it (probably only needs to be a 3mm or so hole)? That way you could do that, mount a grease nipple on the head of the bolt and go from there.
I've found that if I have to (even partly) disassemble things, maintenance does not happen as often as it does when everything is there.

Michael

I wondered about that, but I have my doubts by the time you take the depth of the coarse thread into consideration.

I will investigate further.

Rob

Not sure about a hole in a hardened shaft Rob, they can be prone to breakage. Mine has a button oiler in the boss of the pulley.
Could you drill and tap a hole in 'your' pulley boss for a grease nipple.

Phil
bandsaw (27).jpg

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

Not sure about a hole in a hardened shaft Rob, they can be prone to breakage. Mine has a button oiler in the boss of the pulley.
Could you drill and tap a hole in 'your' pulley boss for a grease nipple.

Phil

I had thought about that but didn't want to weaken the cast.

I will have a look again.

Rob

Made up a sleeve to go over the damaged shaft.
Did away with the poxy spacer by extending the sleeve and bronze bush - this gives rear face support to the pulley.
Tack bronzed the sleeve onto the original shaft at one end. Quench hardened the sleeve.

All fitted and works great with absolutely no pulley weave or runnout.

May add a greaser later.

Here's some photos that give an idea of how I did it.

p2.jpgp1.jpgp3.jpgp4.jpgp5.jpg

The wall thickness of the bronze bush can be seen in the last photo.

Fitted the new blade and cuts great. Have yet to fine tune the adjustment.

Two of the blade rollers are heavily grooved so may swap them over as well.

With the 1 HP motor it cuts effortlessly.

Rob

Nice job Rob, that fix will last the saw out.

If you dont have new bearings on hand I got away with turning the bearings around and only replaced them a few years back after one seized.

Dave

Originally Posted by Dave J

Nice job Rob, that fix will last the saw out.

If you dont have new bearings on hand I got away with turning the bearings around and only replaced them a few years back after one seized.

Dave

Thanks for the positives.

The two rollers that press against the back of the blade are grooved.

Would that affect alignment ?

I was wondering if it was worth swapping then with a side roller, as they would still be OK for that.

Rob

I would swap them as the blade will want to run back in the groove.

Dave

Might as well I suppose.

Once that's done i can use it to make up a vise jaw and a locator to mate with the screw thread thingy under the bed.

It certainly cuts through steel well.

Glad I bought it.

Rob

If you need to cut the vise jaws on this saw a G clamp works well to hold it and screw a bolt in the hole in the bed to rest it up against

After fixing the bearing and shaft I still had about 1/8" vertical runout on the cut, and with a square on the cutting plate you could see the blade move out at the top of the arm movment.

There is no adjustment on the swing arm, and I thought, I wonder if the base is twisting on the floor surface.

So I put a steel plate under a leg to induce twist and watched the blade travel v the square.

That was the problem.

Moved the saw to a flat area of floor and it's within 1 mm through the cut arc.

The stand is pretty crummy as provided. If you were to make a solid stand and use pull down bolts to mount the saw (instead of the side mount arrangement), you could effectively use shims to induce sufficient twist to get perfect swing arm travel.

Interesting stuff.

Rob