PM 14" Bandsaw Blade Guides

[CPeter James]

I have a new PM 14" bandsaw and it has the Carter style ball bearing guides. Is there any way to convert this to solid block style guides without spending a small fortune?

CPeter

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I'm just kind of curious why, the roller guides are usually considered an "upgrade" to the stock blocks. I'm happy with mine.

[CPeter James]

Because I am a turner and cut green bowl blanks and the roller guides just pack the sap onto the blade rather than cleaning it like block style guides .

CPeter

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Ah. That makes sense.
I cut my turning blanks with a chainsaw or my Shopsmith bandsaw..... Green wood stays off my PM.

[Curt Harms]

I'm not familiar with Powermatic's design. I have a Rikon 10-325 that uses the common Asian bearing guide design. I just removed the bearings and screwed wooden guides in their place. I was concerned the guides would try to rotate and bind but so far that hasn't been an issue. I just used some sort of tropical hardwood soaked in mineral oil and so far so good.

[CPeter James]

I have an update. Today I was in a fellow woodworkers shop and looking at his Jet bandsaw, noticed that it had Carter bearing guides. I asked if it came that way and he said no, that he had updated it. The short story is that I bought his old guides which are the block style and fit perfectly on my PM. However further examination showed that I could retain the PM rear bearing and use the Jet blocks with a minor amount of filing on the jet block holder shaft. It was a matter of about .005" All other things fit perfectly. I think for my purposes this will be a great solution. The ceramic blocks made short work of the caked on wood dust and sap from cutting green turning blanks. Also, it runs quieter. Funny how things work out. Yesterday, I had no idea of a solution and today I have it changed.

CPeter

[glenn bradley]

Fantastic. Everybody wins. You can't beat that ;-)