Space age ceramic guides

[Jeff Bartley]

Good morning!

I’m considering replacing the euro guides on my agazzani bandsaw. Has anyone here used the space age ceramic guides? Thoughts and/or experiences?

Thanks! Jeff

[Jason Lester]

I swapped the guides on my Rikon 10-325 to the ceramics. They're much easier to adjust in my opinion.

[jerry cousins]

i changed over from the euro guides on the mm16 to laguna ceramics - made a big difference - easier setting, deeper guiding (that doesn't sound quite right but hope you understand what i mean), and better/tighter tolerances.
jerry

[Joe Jensen]

I've been using Laguna Ceramics on my two bandsaws for many years. Very happy

[Jeff Bartley]

Do you guys think it’s the laguna guides themselves that account for the improvement or the ceramic itself?

My motivation is that I need to replace a thrust bearing and I thought of trying the ceramic in the euro guides on my saw. But I don’t love the euro guides, they work but one of them doesn’t stay where you set it and another is super hard to turn by hand. That made me think of just replacing the guides.

Am I missing any other ceramic guide besides Laguna and Space Age Ceramics?

[Joe Jensen]

I like the ceramic, I would not say the Laguna guides are amazing to adjust. I'd look at Carter guide if changing.

[David Zaret]

i put the laguna guides on my MM16, i like them more than the bearings, but, the back ceramic pad definitely grooves with use, and does require periodic rotation. generally speaking, they are ok - better than the bearings.

[Jeff Bartley]

Joe, which Carter guides do you recommend?
And David, how long have you been running the Lagunas?

[Brian Deakin]

If you search ceramic guides on YouTube there a number of useful videos
One of the better ones is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0goh3RbsJ6M&ab_channel=Half-InchShy

When changing the width of the blade mounted on the bandsaw it is essential you check that the ceramic blocks are set so they are behind the depth of the gullets
Failure to make this adjustment can result in the leading edge of the ceramic guide coming into contact with the gullet of the blade and chipping of the ceramic guide

To save time adjusting position of the depth of the ceramic guides I use washers or nuts to pack the length of the threaded rod which secures to guides then reposition them backwards or forwards

Additionally to extend the life of the guides you can rotate the guides 180 degrees and use a fresh portion of the ceramic guide ( You will need to reposition the depth of the ceramic guide)



Additionally Alex Snogress has several video's on YouTube which are helpful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU&ab_channel=thewoodworkingshows

[David Zaret]

two or three years.

[Erik Loza]

Do you guys think it’s the laguna guides themselves that account for the improvement or the ceramic itself?

My experience, now that I’ve had time to play with the ceramics on our (Felder) bandsaws: I think they are worth having but probably would not pay extra to get them. What I notice is that they are more forgiving with poor blade tensioning and guidecsetup than euro guides. Particularly to the thrust bearing. During my Italian days, I remember more than one customer torching their upper thrust bearing by driving the back of the blade into it. If the blade isn’t tensioned correctly or euro guides set up poorly, the thrust bearing takes the brunt of the abuse. Since ceramic is pretty much indestructable, I guess the blade then takes the abuse, instead?

I never had a problem with standard euro-guides but also realize that many folks find correct guide setup to be some form of sorcery. So, I think the value in ceramics is not that you get a necessarily better cut but that if you are one of those who is not great at getting your guides set up, they are a LOT more forgiving of that. I hope this makes sense.

Erik