Simple Small Blade Guide For Euro-Guides

[Sam Blasco]

My grandfather used lignum vitae, I'm using phenolic. Take scrap blocks, let the blade cut it's own kerf, sandwich and clamp them between the existing guides and set the thrust bearing directly behind them. Note that on the bottom you can project the guide up into the throat area. They work very well, require no guide changing, and when the wear, use the other side.

[Mark Singer]

Sam,
Don't they want to spin?

[rick fulton]

Sam –
Excellent shop tip. Thin blades have always been a pain on my MM16. Extending the blade support from below must greatly reduce the problem of blade twist. Can’t wait to try this.
Thanks!
rick

[lou sansone]

sam
that is a great idea.... thanks

lou

[Jim O'Dell]

Sam, that IS a great idea. I have a band saw that I haven't been able to get power to yet, and I've never used a bandsaw, so for a complete novice, how do you cut the kerf using the band saw blade? Do you build some sort of jig to cut it, then install from behind? Oh, and careful, this is not going to help the sale of certain accessories:eek: :eek: Jim.

[Jim Becker]

Very interesting Sam. So...can you confirm how are you keeping them in place on the existing Euro guides? Just the clamping pressure of the guides themselves?

[Sam Blasco]

Mark and Jim B,
Just the clamping pressure alone holds them in place and they are tight enough that they don't spin.
Jim O,
You can hold the block in place, spin the wheel by hand and carefully cut the kerf. Or us a coping saw or hack saw by hand with the block in the vice.

[Jim O'Dell]

Thanks, Sam!

[Howie French]

Sam, having just recently take'n delivery of my first bandsaw (brand you might be partial to), I really appreciate this tip.

thanks for sharing,

Howie

[Dan Forman]

Ingenious idea, thanks for sharing.

Dan

[Carlos Cabrera]

I bought the cool blocks that Minimax sells and were not impressed by them plus they take a whole lot of time to install. I really would like to try this but I have never worked with any phenolic material. Can someone tell me where I can buy some ? Thanks a lot !!!

Carlos

[Mike Forsman]

Sam,

Really good idea. Thanks for sharing.

[Brad Olson]

Thanks for the tip on this one. I tried it with a 1/8" blade on my 20" Grizzly bandsaw and it works great.

I'm using Jatoba for the guides

[Salem Ganzhorn]

Sam this is a great tip! I have never been happy with thin blades on my 18" Jet with euro guides. This should let me use even thinner blades with no problem. And even better I should not have to go through the tediousness of adjusting my lower guides back and forth when changing blades!!
Thanks again!
Salem

[Van Huskey]

Sam this is a great tip! I have never been happy with thin blades on my 18" Jet with euro guides. This should let me use even thinner blades with no problem. And even better I should not have to go through the tediousness of adjusting my lower guides back and forth when changing blades!!
Thanks again!
Salem

What a bizarre coincidence! I just linked to this thread earlier today in another thread... BTW I don't think Sam comes around here any more.

[Salem Ganzhorn]

Van, it is no coincidence. I should have thanked you as I followed your link :). Thanks you just saved me a couple hundred dollars!
Salem

[Jim Becker]

Sam is alive and well, working hard on multiple fronts. As long as he's "subscribed" to the thread, he'll see the activity.

Jim
SMC Moderator

[Chris Padilla]

My balsa wood guide didn't last long.

[Van Huskey]

Try bass wood, it will likely last twice as long, maybe 5 minutes... :D

[Salem Ganzhorn]

I recently gave this tip a try. I cut some guides out of the same stuff they make acetal bearings out of. Unfortunately it did not provide enough support. They didn't last long at all :(.
Salem