Thread: Advice on Bandsaw guides/bearings

Quite a lot of the older European made saws use that type of guide. I thought the guides, unlike the back bearing, were not designed to spin? A similar setup is used on the Scheppach Basato bandsaws that Hare and Forbes (Machinery House) used to sell so you might get some better info. if you Google those machines.

They look good and all there to Me.
I had an Italian saw with the same sort .
The L&R guides didn't spin and are just left off the blade .I just used to bring them in until they touched then backed them off a little .
My bearing at the back used to sieze and stop spinning and the blade back would grind it up a bit. It was a cheap small thing . If yours is still spinning freely then a clean and oil for that is all . Good old English and Aussie machines used good larger bearings than My one and all that Ive seen with a bearing there are normally spinning nicely, even without much maintenance I think . I'd just wire brush the rest and put it back together . Maybe a little candle wax on those thread adjusters for the guides. If you want to oil or grease you could . The dust sticks to it though . I sometimes oiled them .

You probably want to get rid of the paint on the round bar bits to give full smooth adjustment for blade size changes. Or just tracking adjustments. I go between 3/8 blade up to 1/1/4 and keep the 1/1/4 on most of the time . This means moving things around a bit.

I made a set of Tungsten lined guides to replace the timber guides they used to have fitted on the Wadkin. There doing well . The Wadkin runs a nice big smooth as silk back bearing on the upper and lower.
That was what I used below on the Italian saw.
10102008017.jpg

Rob

Thanks aldav and Rob.

I will try to find a manual for one of those machines you mention aldav. You both say that the left and right guide don't spin but on mine I think they might be meant to because the spin quite easily.

The back thrust wheel is spinning okay on the top guide but quite stiff on the lower guide so i'm thinking of rplacing the bearings, Although I'm not sure how to get the bearing out yet. I do like the idea of using candle wax as apposed to oil on the threads.

Cheers for your input.

Cameron.

On my Hafco BP-335 the guide bearings do spin but only if there is enough side pressure to make the blade touch them. They should be adjusted so there is a small gap between the bearings and the blade
Setting_up_Blade_Guides.jpg
It goes on to say that on narrow blades the Lower rear thrust bearing should just touch the blade.
Not sure how to upload a PDF .. if someone can give me some pointers I will upload the whole thing.

Gaza, you don't need to upload the PDF as it is readily available from the HAFCO site here, so anyone can download it from the source, rather than having potential copyright issues associated with unauthorised posting of a copy of the manual. HAFCO generally have the manual for their products, and often parts lists in the Downloads section for the product for potential purchasers to peruse prior to purchase.