Bandsaw Guide Advice

[Larry]

I'm thinking about putting BandRollers (Woodcraft) on my Delta 14". I'm using Cool Blocks now and I'm not impressed. Any pro's or con's out there?

[George]

What're you doing with it? I cut a lot of green wood for turnings, resaw, and do the occasional bandsaw box. For all but the last, ceramic guides are the berries. Slick as goose sh*t, non-wearing, don't gum up, and inexpensive. For the small blades I use cool blocks and enclose the teeth.

Anyone out there using the ceramic thrust "bearings" yet?

[Greg G.]

That's a fair amount of money for something I've never found necessary. Tweaking and technique gets more results than complexity and expense. They are noisy, and subject to failure. Heck, I've gone through 2 rear roller bearings in 6 months - I can't imagine having to replace side rollers that often at $50 (and up) a pop.

For 1/16" blades, I use homemade solid oak blocks soaked in WD-40 with the blade fully imbedded.

For re-sawing green wood, I use ceramic blocks and a 5/8" 3TPI heavy alternate set blade. They help cut the resin off the blade.

For everything else, I either use ceramic or cool blocks. I have noticed that the cool blocks don't fit the holders very well and do wear somewhat.

The ceramics guides don't wear at all, but you have to be careful about setting clearances, or they'll spark at the weld when the blade gets hot (and expands).

Proper tension is also important - the guide on the saw is bogus.

FWIW,

Greg G.

[Greg G.]

Not yet. I was wondering about those myself...

Greg G.

[RonB]

My 18" Jet came with what they called Euro guides which are essentially large, round friction pads which are allowed to rotate and reduce wear. I was predisposed to learning to use the saw with those and then upgrading to rollers like the Carters. After using the stock guides for a year or so I just forgot it. I can't see spending another $150 on guides that will provide marginal improvement and more maintenance.

If I was into doing bandsaw projects day-in and day-out I might feel differently.

[Pat Barber]

[Sam]

I used to have a sawmill with a 52" circular blade and always used deer horn for the blade stabilizer as it seem to have the "oil" built in and never overheated.

[TWS]

Yeah, that article certainly challenges most other literature related to bandsaw tuning. I would like to hear from other bandsaw experts on their view of that article.

TWS

[Greg G.]

That is interesting, I've never tried deer horn. Probably never will, however, because I don't have any deer horn in my scrap pile. ;-)

SWMBO would have a fit if she saw me stalking a deer for it's horns - she's more likely to be caught feeding them apples. Not that either is very likely, 'cause we live in a large, overcrowded metro city.

You know, now that I think about it, I remember hearing about a herd(?) of deer trapped on I-75 in downtown Atlanta by the access control fences and unable to escape. Made a mess of rush hour. That's it - Road kill! ;-) Perhaps I'll get to try DH after all...

Greg G.

[Andy Dingley]

I had a long (far too long) talk with someone recently about deer, and the fact they didn't even have horns. Except that some do, but some taxonomists then argue as to whether they're really deer.

Deer, apparently, have antlers. Which are a whole different material to horn. So whenever poor muggins here is wondering whether to use horn or antler for something, he should think about how much wear it's going to see. If it's going to see any wear (like this blade stabilizer) then avoid deer and antler altogether and go for buffalo horn. Cow horn works too, but only comes in thin layers. Horn it seems is the stuff that's solid, hard wearing, and has this property of self-lubrication.

Which leads me back to the other threads, and how on earth you're supposed to work buffalo horn (which is resistant to most rational tools).

[Woodcrafter]

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[George]

Sounds a viable replacement for the bottom bearing I'm always cleaning sap off of. Maybe even the top.

Thanks.

[Greg G.]

You might also take a look at my Delta 28-206/276 Bandsaw page - there might be some useful info for you there:

G.

[Sam]

I wasn't thinking too deeply. I DO know that bulls don't have antlers. So, is this what defines, antlers fall off but horns don't?

[John]

I bought a pair of the rollers from Harbor Freight a while ago at a tenth of the $50 cost. Seemed worth a try at that price. However they are still in the box (somewhere) as I continue to use the cool block type. John

[bridger]

that's part of it.

[Andy Dingley]

I think so.

But the practical aspect is that antler is fast growing and porous, horn is slow growing and solid.

[bridger]

well, dense. most of them are hollow for much of their length. antlers, on the other hand are pithy in the middle and more so towards the root, but never hollow.

[Andy Dingley]

They're solid if you cut round the void though.

This was my original question. How do you rip black buffalo horn to make stock boards? Is that pale line a void, or just discolouration?