Band Saw Guide upgrade

[Lee Schierer]

I am considering upgrading my band saw guides to the ball bearing type. Since the lower guide recently broke I'm considering an up grade from either Carter Products or Sawblade.com. I've seen posts where a number of SMC members have upgraded to Carter guides, but I ran across Sawblade.com while searching. Has anyone ordered or have experience with Sawblade.com? They don't identify a business location on their web site. Sawmill.com has a kit that will fit my Delta 14" band saw. I have never done business with this company and would like some references before I decide whether to make a purchase from them.

[Tom M King]

I was just looking at the portable metal cutting miter bandsaw that Sawblade.com sells. I need to build a dirt screen, and have been looking at options for cutting all the parts.

If the price is close enough, I'd go with Carter. They're great people to deal with. I would probably go with Carter anyway.

[Edward Weber]

I've had the carter kit on my 14" saw for 15 years or so, it works fine.
I buy my bandsaw blades from Sawblade.com. Never had an issue they didn't take care of immediately. They sent me the wrong blade once and simply sent out the correct one.
Shipping can be expensive, but that may be for the large box bandsaw blades come in.

[Dave Sweeney]

If it matters to you, sawblade.com, according to their Facebook page, is located at 9502 E. Hardy, Houston, TX 77093.

[Thomas Crawford]

I upgraded my 16" Jet to Carter guides a few years ago and its been a great upgrade. Very easy to dial in for different blades.

[Tom M King]

The Sawblade kit looks pretty nice.

https://sawblade.com/order-band-saw-...pgrade-kit.cfm

I'm not even sure there is any difference in the two. The kits for the Centauro 600 look identical.

[Lee Schierer]

A quick update. One contributor contacted me vis PM saying that he had parts that he thought would fit my saw. They were left over from when he upgraded his saw. We worked out the specifics and he shipped them to me. The arrived today and they are now installed on my saw. The parts he provided were from a 1985 saw. They were far superior in fit and finish than the parts on my saw from 2000. The guide on my saw was a bear to adjust due to the sloppy fit of parts. My casting itself was much thinner in all respects to the same casting from 1985. For the time being my saw is completely operational. I may consider upgrading at some point in the future to a ball bearing guide.

A point of interest. The Sawblade.com part appears to be almost identical to the Carter guide. It is a bit hard to tell since neither site shows the parts clearly. Carter did supply me with a scaled drawing of their parts so I could check the relevant dimensions since my Delta model number 28-274C was not familiar to them since the saw was sold in Canada. Both suppliers were responsive to my inquiry. Sawblade.com sent me a copy of an invoice with a link to pay for the kit and they even called me twice.

[Thomas Crawford]

Thought I'd add that I really like the Lennox Bi-Metal blades here: https://www.bandsawbladesdirect.com/

About twice the price as the thesawblade.com but they last a very long time for me.