Thread: Home made blade guids

If you face those guides with carbide they will be more accurate and out last any bearing guides many times over

Hi Yanis,
My saw is a bit different, as my Guides are at Right Angles to the Blade on a 14in.
Yes mine wore out, & the price was out of this world, so I cut up some Cotoneaster Wood, & they have been there for quite a long time now.
If I see any wear, then, I just Turn it around, or in one case I just Sanded it flat again.
Works for me.

On my old bandsaw I did the same as issatree did using Lignum vitae. A very heavy oily wood with a specific gravity of 1.15 to 1.30. This wood was actually used in propeller shaft bearings of early steamships as normal metal bearings used to crack due to the vibrations. I used to set the guides very close, virtually touching the blade. I used them for years without any trouble. I now have a Hammer N4400 with ceramic guides.

Correction! Lignumvitae is the common name i.e. Tree of Life. Either Guaiacum officininale or G.sanctum. Got mislead by the latin name and should have checked first. It's always best to use correct terminology.

I whipped up a couple of guides for the 5/8" blade out of some scrap hard wood. The originals are brass and for the 1" blade.

I am looking for advice on bearing guides as I said in my original post. The lower guide is only a rear bearing which is seized. My idea is to make a pair, upper and lower.

In WA there is a tree called Wandoo the timber from which which makes very good guide blocks. We use these on the 36" horizontal milling Bandsaw at the tree loppers yard. Actually the blocks are not conventional guide blocks but push down on the blade holding it straight and level. Admittedly the blocks and blade are water cooled.

Back to the OP.

One thing you will need to be aware of is that you should not use just any old bearings.

At 3000 FPM blade speed a 1" (1/12 ft) diameter bearing will be doing 3000/(1/12 x PI) = ~11500 rpm
Smaller bearings will turn at correspondingly higher RPM

While there's nothing particularly special about these RPM it's still more than some bearings are capable off sustaining in the long term especially on a dusty bandsaw.

I would go for some sort of safety margin and go for bearings that are capable of withstanding ~20,000 rpm.

Just take the bearing from the lower guide into a bearing place and ask them for a 20k RPM replacement.

Originally Posted by Blackforester

Correction! Lignumvitae is the common name i.e. Tree of Life. Either Guaiacum officininale or G.sanctum. Got mislead by the latin name and should have checked first. It's always best to use correct terminology.

Another timber worth considering for band saw guide blocks is Gutta Percha or any hard & oily timber.

Have a look an Mathius Wandel site he does bandsaw blade guides on the site which are well thought out, as is all of his gear.
Cheers Steve