Ceramic Guides Vs Bearing guides on bandsaw

[Matthew Curtis]

Could someone explain to me the pros and cons of each. I do not know enough about them to make an informed decision when purchasing a new band saw.

I have an old bench top model that I used cool block on with sub optimal success. It is time to upgrade.

I looked at the Lagunas in person yesterday, but have also been looking online at the Grizzly models as well.

Thanks for the help

[glenn bradley]

This is always a lively topic. Cool blocks are great for smaller blades since you can bury the blade in them. Folks seems to prefer ceramics for larger blades and situations where you really need to force the blade to stay on path. I usually run 1/2" blades and find them adequate for resawing on my machines which have bearing guides.

For curves I like the guides as close to the material as is reasonable. Although the thrust bearing is always involved, I am not too particular where the guides are when sawing straight. The saw tracks well whether the guides are right above the material or 8 inches away. If you are well aligned and aren't rushing the machine I find the side guides less important than a lot of folks make them out to be . . . . blasphemy!!! :D

[john lawson]

I have owned two bandsaws that used Laguna ceramic guides. One was a Laguna 18", the other is a Centauro (Minimax) 24".

On both saws the ceramic guides made the bandsaw perform better and they are much easier to set and reset when you change blades. I really like them as an upgrade to a saw, especially if you change blades often or do much resawing.

Having said that some people find they don't need them or that they are too expensive for what you get. They don't set them as close as I do and find them unnecessary.

[Geoff Crimmins]

If you're cutting wet or resinous wood ceramic guides will help scrape sawdust off of the blade, while bearing guides will compress sawdust onto the blade. After a few years bearing guides will fill with wood dust and have to be replaced. After many years ceramic thrust bearings can get grooves worn in them and have to be replaced. I much prefer guide blocks rather than guide bearings. I can't really think of an advantage to guide bearings, but marketing seems to have made them seem desirable. If you buy a saw with bearing guides and later decide you would rather have ceramic guides, you can replace the bearings with ceramic blocks. http://spaceageceramics.com/

--Geoff

[Art Mann]

I think the answer to your question depends on the brand and model of saw under consideration. I own an old Craftsman branded Rikon and the bearing guides are awful. They ruin an otherwise capable small machine. The problem is that the mechanics of adjusting the bearings are so sloppy that it isn't possible to just set them and tighten everything up. The act of tightening the bearings in place causes them to move substantially from where they were set. You have to guess where they bearings are going to be after tightening. It is a trial and error process. As I understand it, Rikon has redesigned the mechanism somewhat and is actually offering a retrofit kit for some models. I don't plan to find out whether that is true but you might take a look on a new Rikon machine.

I also have a Laguna 14/twelve bandsaw with ceramic guides and they are just about as easy to adjust as any design you can get. Just loosen the guides, lightly squeeze them against the blade, and tighten the screws. It takes maybe 10 seconds.

[Bill Space]

HI,

I don't have any experience with ceramic guides, but have a question which may be of interest to the OP.

I seems like as far as support to the blade to reduce twisting goes, that the ceramic guides would have a much wider contact area along the length of the blade than bearing guides would. The curved bearing guides length of contact on the side of the blade would be very small, compared to the flat surface of the ceramic guides. So the ceramic guides may be superior as far as blade twist reduction goes.

Is this much of a positive? Seems like it would be, but I might not be seeing this correctly.

[Ben Rivel]

Better control of the blade. Less noise. Easier/quicker to setup. Ive got ceramics on my Hammer N4400.

[Curt Harms]

I think the answer to your question depends on the brand and model of saw under consideration. I own an old Craftsman branded Rikon and the bearing guides are awful. They ruin an otherwise capable small machine. The problem is that the mechanics of adjusting the bearings are so sloppy that it isn't possible to just set them and tighten everything up. The act of tightening the bearings in place causes them to move substantially from where they were set. You have to guess where they bearings are going to be after tightening. It is a trial and error process. As I understand it, Rikon has redesigned the mechanism somewhat and is actually offering a retrofit kit for some models. I don't plan to find out whether that is true but you might take a look on a new Rikon machine.

I also have a Laguna 14/twelve bandsaw with ceramic guides and they are just about as easy to adjust as any design you can get. Just loosen the guides, lightly squeeze them against the blade, and tighten the screws. It takes maybe 10 seconds.

Art, I have a Rikon 10-325 and agree about the sloppy blade guide adjustment. What I've found to help is to tighten the screws slightly before adjusting the guides. Then there is not so much movement with final tightening. I also replaced the bearings with blocks, currently Corian. The replacement guide set runs about $150 last time I checked so I think I'll stick with what I have for now.

[Matthew Curtis]

Are the aftermarket blocks the replace the bearing guides any good?

[John C Cox]

Well this is timely.. I just replaced the frozen guide bearing on my Rikon 14". The bearings just fill up with sawdust. This last bearing went 1 cut before clogging and locking up. And this is not the first... This one particular bearing (lower, outboard) seems plagued. I have to pull this bearing every time to clean it out. Aggravating - as that means readjusting guides...

It looks like there will be a set of ceramic guides in my future...

[Chris Hachet]

Solid guides can work very well. I have three band saws in my shop-an older Taiwanese jet with cool blocks, a Powermatic 87 with the Doall style guides, and an old Walker Turner 14 inch with Carter products guides.

All three saws work just fine. Solid style guides do a nice job keeping the blade clean. The carter style bearing guides do need cleaned once in awhile because we build guitars and cut a lot of exotic and resinous wood with the saw.

Not everyone likes Ceramic guides-the gentleman that I bought the Walker Turner 14 from had replaced it with a Laguna 14-12, and he really preferred the Carter style bearing guides. He sold bandsaw blades professionally for decades so I would trust his judgement...