Problems with Jet Bandsaw Guides

[Larry Frank]

I have a 16" Jet Bandsaw that I use mainly for resaw. I have problems with the guides and they do not do a very good job. They look like this..

IMG_20161203_0641331_rewind.jpg

They do not seem to do a good job a holding the blade and I have too much drift. Yes, I have watched the Snodgrass video and adjusted my saw with his suggestions.

Does anyone have good experience with the Jet guides?

Carter has an upgrade kit for the saw that I am seriously thinking about. While it is not cheap, it is cheaper than a new saw.

[glenn bradley]

In my experience (which means you can consider all of the following as a lot of hooey), guides will partially overcome other problems only on very low height cuts. Once there is a few inches of blade between the guides their effect is overcome by the underlying problem. Even the best guides will not be able to force a problem to go away.

The first thing I would want to know is does the behavior exist with 3 or 4 different blades (preferably at least one new one and blades of differing width). You can follow all the videos and advice you find but, if your cutter is the problem you will only chase your tail.

Assuming we have a good blade in hand, the wheels are co-planer, tires in good condition, table properly squared, aligned and all that; I follow the basic setup steps:

- position the blade on the wheels front to back; this is an area fraught with discussion and voo-doo but, unless you are running very hard tires or a blade with an obscene set, positioning is pretty tolerant.
- tension the blade according to manufacturer's recommendations; another area of voo-doo. I use the flutter method as I am running Timberwolf blades for the most part. I also flutter my Woodslicers with good result.
- confirm table to blade perpendicularity.
- confirm miter slot to blade parallelism (if you use the miter slot at all . . . I do).
- saw as thick or thin as you like to your heart's content.

Blade condition, material, saw power, and feed rate can all contribute to a fouled cutting path. I haven't adjusted my Grizzly 17" saw since the initial setup. My dad's 17" has remained consistent as well. His 14" Delta required a little bit of love at some point but, I will take the blame for that as I probably failed to secure some setting adequately.

Once you've got your wheels under you, so to speak, you should be able to change blades on a whim only adjusting the guides to suit a different blade width if that comes into play. I wish there was a 2+2=4 equation for bandsaw setup as it seems to torture a lot of folks. I am no expert but, if I were nearby I would drop in and at least take a shot at helping out. Anyone near Larry who is comfortable tweaking a bandsaw?

[Larry Frank]

Yes...I have checked all the things that you suggest. My wheels are close to coplanar and am not going to adjust any further. I have tried with a new blade and a used one. I do not have 4 or more blades for resaw.

My question was about the Carter guides and what experience do people have with them?

[Mike Cutler]

Yes...I have checked all the things that you suggest. My wheels are close to coplanar and am not going to adjust any further. I have tried with a new blade and a used one. I do not have 4 or more blades for resaw.

My question was about the Carter guides and what experience do people have with them?

Larry, Get those guides off the saw and install the Carters. My 14" jet had similar guides, and I replaced them with the Carters maybe 10-12 years ago, and modified the lower guide to bring it closer to the underside of the table. It's a world of difference. Those Jet guides in my opinion, are not very good. That thrust bearing setup never made sense to me.
My 14" does not resaw as well as my 18", but prior to changing out those guides, resawing was to say the least, an "exercise".
I actually gave the OEM guides away to someone here on the board. I couldn't in good conscience ask anything other than postage for them.
Change them out, you'll be a lot happier. I promise.

[glenn bradley]

Yes...I have checked all the things that you suggest. My wheels are close to coplanar and am not going to adjust any further. I have tried with a new blade and a used one. I do not have 4 or more blades for resaw.

My question was about the Carter guides and what experience do people have with them?

Sorry about that; sometimes we (meaning me) are over-helpful in our replies and lose the purpose of the thread. I put Carter guides on an old Delta 14" and the improvement was immediate. The saw tracked fine with the steel friction guides but, people had talked up the Carter guides so I figured, why not? Smoother, quieter and all the things we like in a set of guides. On the other hand there are folks who ditch their bearing guides in favor of the style you show. I assume it has to do with the material they are cutting as I run bearing guides on all my saws and am very happy with them.

[Van Huskey]

First, if you are having consistent drift with more than one blade (that came from different lots) then your problem is not likely to be the guides, but... I guess we aren't going there.

Carter makes the best of breed small bearing guides and I have installed them on a dozen or so saws when they were the only aftermarket option and I as trying to replace oddball guides like the plate guides on later Delta 20" saws. The problem is small bearing guides are actually a poor overall choice of the options out there. One of the best options is a solid guide but consumers have decided that bearings are better. In general the Euro style guides you have are significantly better than small bearing guides BUT the Jet doesn't have the greatest version of them but I have always found them to be as good if not better than small bearing guides. My suggestion is if you really want to change guides check to see if Space Age Ceramics makes a set to fit, you get the benefits of solid guides with the properties of ceramic. If not you may be stuck with Carter, which again is the best of that type of guide.

I will say if again, I can't help myself, if you are getting consistent drift from different blades chances are VERY high it isn't a guide issue though you might be able to beat the saw into submission using the guides. Keep in mind for resawing with the correct blade/tension/feedrate the guides, particularly the side guides, should play very little part in the quality of the cut, with trinity I mentioned above in balance you can resaw fine with no guides on the saw at all.

[Geoff Crimmins]

Laguna makes Laguna Guides that are supposed to retrofit on Italian bandsaws with European guides. I don't know if they will fit on Jet's Euro guides, but it's an option to look into.

--Geoff

[lowell holmes]

I can't speak about the 16" saw, but I put Carter guides on my 14" Jet band saw and I am completely happy with them.

I had reason to talk to Carter and they are not only knowledgeable, but helpful. If you have questions, you might want
to contact Carter.

[Roger Chandler]

I have a friend who is a turner and has that same 16" bandsaw. She started having issues with hers, and at one of our club meetings asked if I would come to her shop and see what I could do. I took the whole thing apart, guides both bottom and top, and readjusted the whole setup. I told her that the best thing she could do would be to get a new guide system for her saw. That particular guide that goes around the back of the blade is seriously lacking in blade support.

I have an 18" Jet bandsaw, and I just replaced a couple of the ten bearings on that saw. I would not trade a roller bearings system for any other in a bandsaw, as lateral support and adjustment can be made to make great tracking saw, and blade tension is also extremely important. I have both a Jet 18" saw, and a 14" class Grizzly bandsaw. Neither of them have drift when resawing, but I am a stickler for precision setup and a proper blade for the job.

I did not read the other responses here in this thread as my time is limited at the moment, so if this has already been covered, please pardon the repeat. Good luck!