I've plowed my way through more than I ever wanted to know on the topic.. (eg https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....mparison/page7) as well as later threads.
On my little bandsaw I can twang on the blade and guess that the tension will be about right for what I want to do. My problem comes with my new-to-me Centauro-made MM20 with the broken tension gauge. It looks like replacing the factory gauge involves some fairly major disassembly of a saw that is otherwise working perfectly. -- and then, per the myriad earlier discussions of built in spring gauges, may not be particularly accurate or reproducible.
I thought that a third party gauge might make it easy to set the blade with some reproducibility. I don't care that much about "real" accuracy, I'd just like to be able to consistently get the same tension in the correct ballpark. With the enormous resaw blade in the saw now my "by feel" methodology is failing me-- I can push it or twang it, adjust the tension by two full turns and feel no difference-- it's just stiff, no matter what.
So, per the earlier thread from a 15 years ago-- Carter, Iturra Lenox Starrett -- it looks like the Carter is no longer sold, can't find it on their web site. I tried to contact Iturra a couple months ago for a different part and had no response to email or phone calls, so are they out of business? EZTension won't work on blades this large. That leaves Lenox and Starrett. Does it matter between them? A Starrett seems to cost a couple hundred more, it that just inflation due to the name?
Is there a better way that doesn't involve spending hundreds of dollars? I'm not interested in building a DIY device, I just want a quick check to tell me that my tension is in the right ball park-- that I'm not cranking it down so hard I'm in danger of breaking something.
Or is it worthwhile to tear the saw apart and replace the OEM gauge (assuming the part is available) instead?