Thread: Hammer N4400 Guides

Originally Posted by mat

Has anyone researched, thought about or replaced the guide bearings on their N4400 with aftermarket ones? Any information gratefully received.

When I first got my N4400 I also had misgivings about the blade guides. So I went and made my own. I made small wooden blocks that have a raised section that fitted in the grove of the frame after removing the existing guide.
The front part has a channel into which the actual guide fits. A hole is drilled and threaded (5/16") through the middle and length of allthread inserted and superglued in. The actual guide has and elongated hole for lateral adjustment and is made from Lignum vitae, a very hard and oily wood and the whole thing is bolted to the existing framework. In my old bandsaw I used Lignum guides for years without problems. They can actually be adjusted without clearance to the blade. For the thrust bearing I turned piece of Lignum the same diameter and length of the exisiting one. Turned a spigot at one end to accept a normal ball bearing of similar diameter, held in place with a washer and machine screw through a threaded hole through the centre.
I also purchased a blade stabilizer from Carter Products in the US for blades smaller than 1/4" for fine intricate work. The only problem was the freight cost more than the item. Model JET1 fits the N4400.
I had my N4400 now for more than a year and I am very happy with it. Perfect cuts with plenty of power. I am still using the original guides and they seem to be working fine so far execpt for very narrow blades <1/4", hence the Carter Stabilizer.
I tried to attach a picture. Not sure if it worked as this is my first attempt at this. Maybe someone can tell me how to do this or where to find the information.
BF

Hi,

Im struggling to wonder why you want to replace the guides? I've got the the 4hp variant of the N4400 and run plenty of timber thru them all the way from tiny to 8 inch high resaw on a one inch rip blade. I cant fault the machine. its bullet proof...

are you sure your issue is not associated with your adjustments or usage pattern?

I've gotta say, I'm not sure why you'd want to fool with that setup either. I've only had mine for 6 months but it seems pretty solid.

I have a N4400 at home which runs well with no obvious wear of the guides.

However, our local wood guild has a N4400 and I have seen first hand the wear on the bushes primarily the upper thrust bearing. Because the force is on the edge the shaft pulls to one side and wears the bush. This machine gets a lot of use and perhaps some over zealous users.

The guides running in bushes rather than bearings may well work OK for moderate home users but probably not well for heavy or commercial usage. From a first principles engineering review the setup could easily be improved.

The side guides also rely on a slight toe-in to the front of the blade. I have seen some setups where the original machining of the components is less than ideal in this respect.

common mistakes on bandsaws:

1) is to push too hard. let the blade dictate the speed (you get a good feel for it - like a nice pair...)
2) blunt blade
3) worn wheel rubbers
4) misaligned guides

Hi Blackforester,
I just can't picture in my mind how your guides fit onto the N4400
Can you please post a photo showing them as mounted on the bandsaw?

I had problems with my N4400 side and thrust guides gumming up after about 4 years use. I had to pull them apart and grease them (see an earlier topic in this forum). This does seem to have increased the wobbliness of the disks on the shaft, so it makes nonsense of the "allow 0.3mm spacing tween blade and guide" advice in books.

Hi Paul,

Here are some pictures of the alternative home made installed guides to the N4400. The blue "Carter" guide is for blades narrower than 1/4" for intricate work. With this guide the lower guides are moved out of the way altogether and the only guide is the groved bearing. I was concerned about this but it really works well as you can see in the sample. I hope this help.

Hi Blackforester,
thanks for the photos - they make it very clear how your guides fit onto the N4400 so if my existing disk guides get too wobbly on their bushes I have an alternative.
Paul

I think Felder/Hammer treat their guides as disposable wear items that have to be replaced when they become too loose. The sales rep in Melbourne also suggested to soak the guides in WD40 or similar overnight from time to time to keep them in working order.
BF

Hi Blackforester.
I'm sorry for my English. I use the electronic translator.
I have the blue "Carter". But, I can't do small radius using a blades of 6 mm (1/4"). What width the blades was used by you (your third photo)?

You can get ceramic guides for these bandsaws now, although from memory it's around $500.00 for the kit.

Hi Nikolay375,
I use a 3/16" blade for the Carter Stabilizer JET1. It is important that the lower guides are moved out of the way when using the Carter guide and the Carter guide is moved somewhat forward so the blade is firmly seated in the groove of the bearing.
Hope this helps.
Blackforester

There are possibly some alternative ceramic guides to the ones that Felder sells.
I went to this website: spaceageceramics.com and found that they have really increased the range of bandsaw guides that they sell.
They sell directly what they call "Euro guide block threaded pins" which look likely to be replacements for the Hammer side guides - cost for 4 of these is $96 US which is far cheaper than the Felder guides. They also have "Euro Thrust bearing pins" - 2 for $54 US.

The big advantage of the ceramic guide blocks is that they can be setup to lightly touch the sides of the bandsaw blade and they don't need to rotate, so they should have no wobble (unlike my current Hammer side guide disks).

I'll create a new thread to ask for forum members who have bought and used these guides to give us their experience.
I

I'm interested to see where this goes. I am about to purchase the hammer n4400 and was looking at getting the ceramic guides from felder. $500 is quite a lot though!