Ceramic bandsaw guides for green wood?

[Rob Price]

I didn’t post in the main section because I’m primarily interested in green wood issues. I have the usual bearing style guides on my Jet 14 bandsaw, and in general they work great for me. I set up my saw using the ‘Alex Snodgrass’ method and I’ve always had great success- except with green woods. I get a ton of build up on the blade and bearings immediately when cutting any green wood blanks. I’ve considered just not using the guides at all- I’m usually roughing out bowl blanks or other blanks that will either go straight to the lathe or drying rack, so I don’t need Uber precise cuts.

but I came across space age ceramics who make aftermarket ceramic guides. the concept makes sense to me, instead of a rolling bearing that just compresses all the trash against the blade the square ceramic edges help scrape the blade clean. That’s one of the reasons folks seem to like the Laguna style guides.

It’d be $70 to upgrade my saw. I think I’ll try it but wanted to see if anyone here had experience with them.

[Dale Winburn]

I only use the ceramic guides. I had the same problem with buildup when sawing green wood so I switched to ceramic guides, they work great.

[Peter Blair]

My Laguna saw has them and I think they are an improvement BUT I still have to clean my blades if I'm cutting sticky green wood, just not quite as often as I did with rollers.

[Reed Gray]

Some woods will mess up the blades no matter what you do. I also have a Laguna and love the ceramic guides. I have tried spraying Glide Coat (used to be called Top Coat) which is great for getting things to slide like on the tablesaw and bandsaw tops and it really reduces friction and keeps it from rusting, but it doesn't seem to keep sticky madrone from coating up my small saw blade (1/2 inch 3tpi).

robo hippy

[Dave Fritz]

Is this the product Reed? https://www.amazon.com/Glidecoat-Rep.../dp/B07576NFHW

[Dale Winburn]

I use a spray can of PAM (kitchen non stick spray) to lub the blade and guides, works great.

[Bob Bouis]

The reason the Lagunas work so well for green wood is that they are square and wide but have a small contact area. They are designed to be in light contact with the blade across the entire band (other than the teeth, obviously). They basically scrape the gunk off and prevent it from getting fused to the band by the wheels.

It may be that not all ceramic designs do this. I know Space Age Ceramics sells replacements for "euro" style guides that are round and have a very large contact area with the blade. Are they designed to actually touch the blade the whole time? I'm skeptical about that, but maybe they are and they work fine. I don't know.

[Rob Price]

The kit I’m looking at replaces the bearings with square blocks.

[Dennis Ford]

I replaced bearing type guides with square ceramic blocks on my band saw when I restored the old saw. I mostly cut green wood with it and love the ceramic blocks. It is true that some woods still cause build-up on the blades but does not affect the function of the ceramic guides. It is still a good idea to clean the blade occasionally but I would never go back to bearing style guides on my shop bandsaw.

[Van Huskey]

The ceramic block guides will result in a significant reduction in buildup on the blade, just know it isn't 100%.