Ceramic guides on a Minimax MM24 bandsaw

[Dee Dee Martin]

Anyone up here ever install ceramic guides on a bandsaw that had euro guides? I can't figure out how to make the replacement. I'm wondering if I need to also buy new guide brackets....but then, I'd have thought Louis Iturra would have mentioned that when I bought the guides from him....

[Jim Becker]

Derik, if you have the ceramic guides I think you have (blue ones), they should be a direct replacement for the Euro guide assembly on your saw...or any Euro saw, for that matter. I could be wrong, But I think you release the whole Euro guide assembly by loosening the post that holds them to the telescoping arm and put the new guides in their place.

[Dee Dee Martin]

Actually, mine are red. Not blue.

I have no problem removing the guide assembly from the telescoping shaft, but the problem I then have, is how do I remove the euro guides from holder that they each thread into?

They thread into their own assembly, and this threading in and out, is how the approach the blade. There's then a brass locking nut on the end. I figured the brass nut must unscrew all the way, and come off the end, thus releasing the guides...but that nut doesn't seem to come off.

Just seems so odd that I can't find anyone, anywhere that has replaced their euro guides with ceramic.

[Jim Becker]

Ah...different animals than the "blue" ones. The Cool Block set has holders that completely replace the Euro guides...you don't pull out the guides, you replace the whole assembly on either side of the blade. That means you can switch back and forth relatively easily. You may want to talk with MM and see if you can get just the mounting blocks that your new ceramic guides go in or how to remove the Euro guides from the existing ones. Rob or Mark should be able to help you out.

[Dee Dee Martin]

I posted the same question on the Minimax forum on Yahoo, and got no reply from MM.

I called Louis Iturra (I really like that guy), and it sounds like I have to actuall grind down the end of my euro guides, to get those brass nuts off.

Sounds like that should work, but then I can't ever switch back to the Euro's if I desire.

[Jim Becker]

If that is the case, I would seriously consider buying a second set of the Euro guide assemblies from MM so you have the option of using the ceramics or the Euro guides.

[Jamie Buxton]

I posted the same question on the Minimax forum on Yahoo, and got no reply from MM.

I called Louis Iturra (I really like that guy), and it sounds like I have to actuall grind down the end of my euro guides, to get those brass nuts off.

Sounds like that should work, but then I can't ever switch back to the Euro's if I desire.

Hmm.. I don't know the Minimax guides specifically, but it seems to me that the Euro guides on all the Italian machines are identical. On my Laguna, I removed the euro guides non-destructively. As in your case, the brass lock nuts didn't want to screw all the way off. It turned out that there was fine sawdust impacted in the threads. I scrubbed the threads with a old toothbrush and some paste wax, and the nuts unscrewed just you'd think they should.

[Steve Jenkins]

I posted the same question on the Minimax forum on Yahoo, and got no reply from MM.

I called Louis Iturra (I really like that guy), and it sounds like I have to actuall grind down the end of my euro guides, to get those brass nuts off.

Sounds like that should work, but then I can't ever switch back to the Euro's if I desire.

I looked at the euro guides I took off my saw and to remove the nut it looks like you just have to file down the knurling a little bit. May even get buy with just sanding it some. Like Jim I got the blue ceramic guides that came with the entire mounting assembly.

[Jim Becker]

Like Jim I got the blue ceramic guides that came with the entire mounting assembly.

Don't have 'em...the Euro guides complimented by the Cool Blocks for narrow scrolling do everything I want.