Centauro CO 600 blade tension and guide questions

[Mike Kees]

So I have got my machine repaired and rebuilt. I have 6 blades from some 3/4'' blade stock,lennox flexback 3 tpi .032 welded up and a tension gauge. My question is where do you figure out basic tension suggestions ? Have it set at 22,500 right now.The guide on my saw is a Euro style one. Not sure if this is original or not. The disks on the side of the blade have thickened perimeters (1/8'') is that normal ? Also my thrust bearing is toast.It is a flat disk mounted to a short shaft,it has 1/8'' plus play in it. So wondering what options are for this machine. I believe it was Tom King who replied to one of my earlier posts and had used Carter guides. I like the look of the design of the euro guides is there a reason to switch to another style ? This saw will be set up with the 3/4'' blades for ripping/resawing basically full time as I have a 14''' Delta in my shop as well.

[Tom Trees]

I don't know if you can get them cheaper across the pond, you might be better off trying from the likes of Felder, Minimax/SCM or Laguna
as these Italian design saws have interchangeable parts like those rollers which you can swap out.
Here's a link to a UK supplier of Italian bandsaw parts, with a good description on them.
https://www.scosarg.ie/accessories-spares/bandsaw/guides
You should hopefully find the same ones you have on your machine there, which might be handy if the code has worn away.

Tom

[Mike Kees]

Thanks for that link Tom. The guides on that page are what I have looked at on Minimax saws,better quality than the ones on my saw presently. I guess there is nothing money can not solve.:D

[Matt Day]

Wish I could help you Mike. Mine are Carter, but my lower thrust bearing is toast too if that makes you feel any better! The PO used a standard 6200 bearing and the blade ran against it without the rub collar that goes on it, wearing it down through about 1/4 of the bearing cage.

As far as tension, I go roughly by the gauge then by finger pressure on the blade. There are tensiometers you can buy.

[Mike Kees]

Matt are they the carters with the zepher thrust bearing and the side guides are fixed,I was just looking at their site. I have a tension gauge,just not sure what my tension is supposed to be exactly.

[David Kumm]

Mike, when I was experimenting on my Oliver 217, I tensioned the 1" blade so it did not engage the back bearing except when pushing stock too fast. I'm a believer in depending on the thrust bearing as little as possible. That translated to 25000+ for my Trimaster. After 25000 the cut quality did not improve but if I'm sawing 12" Hickory, I will run a little higher tension. Different blades have different sweet spots but for me it is eliminating the back bearing. Dave

[Matt Day]

I agree with Dave, the thrust bearing should only touch the blade during cutting.

Mine are Carters, the ones listed on Carters site labeled for the 600. By the way, I’ve found out that sawblade.com carries basically the same guides for cheaper, about $100 cheaper.

[Mike Kees]

Thanks David and Matt. I was on sawblade.com yesterday,crazy eh.

[Jacques Gagnon]

Mike,

I modified my bandsaw and installed Euro guides. I purchased the upper guides from Felder (roughly three months delivery, unless you want faster delivery... at a cost). I bought the full assembly rather than a couple of individual parts. Ordered locally and delivered at the door.

I had secured a set of used guides that were installed on the bottom.

[Mike Kees]

Was looking at Grizzly.com yesterday and noticed they sell a set of euro type guides for their bigger bandsaws. These may be a candidate to retro fit on the Centauro,I might phone and see if I can determine the shaft diameters and if they will match up or not. Anyone out there tried using these ?

[Tom M King]

If you're going to leave it set up for resawing only, and run one type of blade only, like I do with mine, the guides don't make a whole lot of difference.

I needed to make one resaw that was beyond the capacity of the stock setup, so I took the upper guides, table(rigged lower piece of plywood for temp table), and anything else off that was in the way. The Woodmaster CT 1.3 cut just as good as when it was being guided, but I did go much slower than the normally fast feed speed.

[David Kumm]

I've taken uppeer guides off resaw blades in the past too. My favorite guides are Wright. Dave

[Mike Kees]

Ok I think I have made up my mind to just go with the Carter guides. Tom if you did it again would you still put the bigger guide on the bottom ?

[Tom M King]

I don't know that it really mattered. The used machine I bought needed the whole bottom guide assembly to be redone. I bought it for a job that required at least 10,000 lineal feet of cutting, and thought that the larger ones would last longer. The small ones, I'm sure, have worked for many more saws than my only one, which might be the only one running the same size on the top, and bottom. I can't say for sure if it mattered, or not. This is the only way I've ever run it, and it works so good, that I have no reason to do anything any differently. It just didn't make really good sense to me to have the smaller setup on this saw. We pushed it hard, for a half day at a time, over multiple days, and it never even gets warm.

I get paid for producing work, so don't put time in working on equipment more than is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, I would have fabricated a new box in the frame to support the larger guides, rather than just hacking into the guards themselves. I spent about 45 minutes doing what I needed to getting the new guides on the machine, and then went to making money. I don't even remember the details of exactly what I did, but I know it involved a 4-1/2" sidegrinder, and thin metal cutting disks.

Here's the job I bought it for:
http://historic-house-restoration.com/images/CIMG1802.JPG

[Mike Kees]

That is one cool job. Thanks for the information on how the guides have worked out.