Bandsaw Guides

[Ron Solfest]

I upgraded from a ubiquitous Delta 14” with a riser block to this Laguna 18” 15yrs ago. I’ve hated the ceramic guides since getting it and had a terribly difficult time fitting my fat fingers through the table to tighten the lower guides every time I changed a blade. Love the capacity and table size but lousy guides.

15yrs ago I looked at the Carter guides but was too cheap to pull the trigger. Finally last weekend ruining another board I was resawing and saying bad words about the guides broke the camels back.

Carter guides arrived today. Unfortunately the lower guide block did not align with the Laguna mounts, but drilling and tapping a couple of holes in soft cast iron solved that issue. Would have preferred not to spend $350, but the Carter guides appear to work well so far, hope I continue to be that happy going forward and can stop the muttering I been doing for 15yrs.

 

[robo hippy]

I have a Laguna 16HD which has the ceramic guides. I do run a 1 1/4 inch wide blade on mine. I never minded the ceramic guides. They do not keep gunk off of the blade, and it is about time to get the ceramic thrust block replaced, but I haven't gotten "a round 2 it" yet. My bandsaw for cutting circles out of the slabs I cut on the big saw has standard roller guides. I have had the saw 30 years and they are still running fine. Well, at least no squeaking yet.

robo hippy

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

I resisted the Carter Guides for a long time also. When I did pull the trigger I could not believe how well the old Griz cut even with a dull blade. Hope you enjoy them as much

 

[Ashley Bell]

I have cut my own guides for my laguna from some really hard oak and they work like a dream!

 

[Steve Tiedman]

I have cut my own guides for my laguna from some really hard oak and they work like a dream!

Hey, why not? A great idea for any very hard, wear resistant wood. End grain oriented sugar maple may be a good one, too. This may be meaningless, but I wonder if an occasional drop of a light machine oil onto the contact surface of the wood, like 3-In-1 Oil, or even plain mineral oil, might be suggested, to add some lubricating quality to the wood?

Some of the extremely hard, oily woods of the global temperate/equatorial zones would be ideal. King of them all would be lignum vitae, now a listed threatened species and availability may be an issue, but it has some cousins that could act as effective substitutes.

Lignum vitae - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

End grain-oriented cocobolo (I think now another threatened species) would also probably work well for the purpose.

I have two older Delta 14" saws, one runs with Cool Blocks just fine, but the other's Cool Blocks were old and in rough shape so I replaced them with a set of ceramic blocks. Both saws also get replacement thrust bearings. The saws cut wonderfully.

 

[Webb Willmott]

Are the Carter guides really that much better, or is it when installing, the guides are properly set up and the old guides were not? My reason for asking is I replaced my roller bearings and after adjusting, it was night and day difference between old and new.

 

[Ron Solfest]

Are the Carter guides really that much better, or is it when installing, the guides are properly set up and the old guides were not? My reason for asking is I replaced my roller bearings and after adjusting, it was night and day difference between old and new.

Time will tell.

The biggest issue I had with the Laguna ceramic guides is that the lower ones were near impossible to align and tighten in the cramped area with little finger access. I had to fudge around with my finger tips from both hands trying to tighten the lower left one and often the act of tightening the knob would move it.

So far the alignment process with the Carter guides was easier and more deterministic. They seem to work well after a few dozen cuts. Hope I feel the same down the road.