Still fine tuning / adjusting my new 1412 bandsaw. I assume the ceramic blade guides are supposed to be parallel to the blade. The back of the upper rear guide is ~.025" away from the blade when the front of the guide is touching the blade. Is there a way apart from filing the entire guide block to get the guide parallel to the blade? Or is it ok to have only the front part of the guide adjusted properly?
Another rookie question: Are the ceramic guides better than ball bearing guides?
The guides are not perfect, Until you get the feel of these guides you can wrap a dollar bill around the blade and snug the guides up to bill.
I now typically just give them a light push up to the blade and give the blade a spin. If there is resistance loosen one side and retighten and spin the blade again. Repeat until the the blade is not pinched.
It is OK if the whole ceramic piece does not touch. I went through this and found that I was way over thinking things. A rep once demonstrated to me that with a good band saw you do not need guides at all.
Absolutely!!!! The ceramic guides actually will keep the blade clean as they scrape the sides of the blade during use. They will not get hot. They may last for ever. They do not vibrate or make noise with no moving parts. Ultimately I found, if cutting green or resinous woods, the ceramic guides don't pound the dust onto the blade. I very shortly owned a Rikon with bearing guides. I found that if the wood stuck to the blade the band saw was very loud from the debris getting caught between the bearings and the blade. Eventually the blade and bearings became caked with debris.
I did a lot of research between the Rikon and the Laguna purchase. Have you watched the Laguna video concerning their ceramic guides?
Check these Laguna video's out
FWIW I immediately removed the clear guards on the guides. I did not see much point to their existence.
Surely, there is a way to pivot the guides horizontally (as a unit) and - after pivoting - to adjust them laterally to the blade.
I have no idea, I've never used either. I made mine from lignum vitae.
I have the Carter ball bearing guides which was a nice upgrade from the original Euro style. Nice thing is they adjust on every axis (except pitch, which isn't really needed). No problems with gunk buildup 95% of the time, but when it does happen it can be very annoying. At this point the best fix I have is to use a razor blade (as a scraper) on the bearings, blade, and tires.
The cost of the "upgrade" to ceramic is a bit steep for me to seriously consider right now ($200+) but I fully believe the ceramics have it all over the bearing guides, including the added clearance of almost an extra inch of resaw height.
-BR
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