Bandsaw Guide Bearings

[Stew Hagerty]

Overall I'm pretty pleased with my Grizzly G0555X, except that is, for the guide bearings. Even though they are actually bearings and not blocks, they're a pain in the butt to adjust. I've looked at the Carter Guides and they look like they would be a vast improvement. Does anyone have any other recommendations?

[Neil Brooks]

Yeah.

If you search the forum, you'll find the necessary info (parts #'s and prices) to call Grizzly, and order the parts needed to convert your G0555X to accept Cool Blocks -- a worthwhile update, IMHO.

If you can't find it, lemme' know, and I'll post (PM might be more appropriate, here) a link to a post I made (on another forum) that lists the relevant info.

I'm glad I did it. Quite reasonable ($), too !

[Tim Thomas]

I don't have that model of band saw, but I do have a 14 inch saw equipped with Cool Blocks. I've been very pleased with them. They are easier on your blades than metal bearings because they don't generate as much heat, hence their name. Really easy to adjust properly, in my opinion.

My one piece of advice to any band saw owner: If you haven't read Mark Duginske's "Band Saw Handbook", I highly recommend it. You can pick up a used copy through Amazon for less than $5. That book will tell you everything you need to know to get the maximum performance out of your band saw.

[Harvey Pascoe]

Ball bearings generate ZERO heat.

No matter what guides you use, they're all difficult to adjust especially the lowers.

Nature of the beast.

[jerry cousins]

don't have the grizzly - but did buy a mm16 with euro bearings -and switched to carters. found the carters way too cumbersome to adjust (could just have been my fat fingers) and finally got a set of laguna ceramics - they are great (but they are pricey). the lagunas have a lot of surface for blade support. i use it primarily for resaw.
jerry

[Bill White]

I too use Cool Blocks. I'd buy 'em again.
Bill

[Scot Ferraro]

Love my Laguna Ceramics -- they make them for other brands of saws and are well worth the money IMHO. Run cool and no moving parts to wear out. Plus they support the blade at 10 places for truer cuts.

Scot

[Steven Hsieh]

I have the G0555P bandsaw. I have no problem adjusting the bearings. What I would do is keep the back bearing and change the sides with ceramic.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I use Cool Blocks and feel they work well. Steel blocks originally came with my saw (I know, I'm showing my age).

There was fella either at SMC or some other forum that swore using maple blocks soaked in mineral oil worked great too. I may try that one day.

Jeff :)

[Neil Brooks]

There was fella either at SMC or some other forum that swore using maple blocks soaked in mineral oil worked great too. I may try that one day.

Similarly, some use lignum vitae.

[Archie Sullivan]

I've done exactly as Neil suggested.

Bought some lignum vitae pen blanks at Woodcraft:

211477

Planed and cut to size:

211478

Installed:

211479

They work great and last a long time. Plus they are much cheaper than cool blocks - about $2 versus $15.

[chris ormsby]

I purchased my grizzly in 2002 and it was basically a piece of junk since day one. I walked away from it several times and thought it was all me. If you haven"t upgraded yet, I just converted my grizzly to carter guides. I was amazed how well and easy it was to set up. i bought the guides and stabilizer package. This weekend was the woodworking show and i finally broke down and spent the money. carter had a booth and they demonstrated setting up their guide system from scratch. it actually worked as easily as they said it would. The key was to follow their set-up method. It was a bit of a pain to set up the kit to match my saw, but once it was mounted, adjusting it was a breeze. I was doing re sawing .03 thick by 4 inches tall dead straight no drift at all. 5 min later i was doing scroll work. This success was with used blades that had been beat up with my saw not working correctly.