Bandsaw blade guide options biger bandsaw

[Devon Prescott]

Executive summary: Big bandsaw rebuild (not restoration) needing guides. I know about Carter and I am ignorant of other options.

I have a 36" bandsaw project in (slow) motion. This weekend I took the blade guides off and cut through the grime. This saw had at least 2 lives before it came to me. Life 1 was at a lumber yard (or so the lore says). Life 2 was at a machine shop in a smaller town. In life 2 it got converted to cut metal (complete with a 3 speed transmission).

The blade guides (wood blocks with a wheel in back) are horrible. The lower guides have been braised by way of repair (I will try and post pictures). The upper guide set looks that cylinder style you see on Northfield saws but everything has been sliced into with the back of a blade - and I don't think this cylinder ever rotated to support the back of the blade. I cannot fathom how many hours of work this saw did to destroy these guides in this manner.

Who should I be considering for blade guides?:

• I know about Carter Products - they do have a custom blade guide entry on their web site and a large number of different fixtures and parts. I have a set of the rollers for my Rockwell and I like them - but thumbscrews would be better than hex keys.
• Who else should I look to?
• If I had to I could probably made some guides I can fab-up small (simple) metal projects - I know how to use a file. Plus I have a bit of lignum vitae stashed away for something like this.

Parameters of the saw and the project (for those who love detail):

• 36" wheels (actually 35.62 to be exact).
• 2" wide wheels
• I don't really know what blade I will run yet - the only wood blade that came with the saw is 1 3/4" and is older than I am.
• Yerkes and Finan brand (similar to Hall and Brown and a number of other cast iron G-frame saws that were made in the late 1800s and early 1900s).
• I am NOT attempting an original restoration - this saw was heavily modified already to serve a metal shop. Preserving that modification would serve no historical purpose.
• USE 1: I am thinking a lot of resawing (I can get thick slab-sawn boards from a local mill in quantity)
• USE 2: I am also thinking some quartersawing - getting log quarters from the same local mill and breaking them down.
• Metal cutting will not be supported any longer (I have access to a HEM saw for that anyway).
• I have a smaller bandsaw (20" Rockwell) that I use for curves so this saw will be all about the slicing.
• The transmission has come off. If do any speed modulation it will be done with electrons.
• I am going to use some tricks I learned elsewhere to dampen vibration to see what works and what does not.
• If get this thing running well enough I may finally cast off my pet table saw (14"/16" RT-40) that takes up too much of my shop.