Carter bandsaw blade guides

joec

joe
User
I read a post somewhere recently with glowing reviews on the Carter guides and now cannot find it. It has me thinking of a upgrade to my Laguna bandsaw. The price is steep for this ($300+) so I wonder if anyone here has them, and could offer an opinion on their experience.
 

tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
Do you do more curves than strait? Do you cut more gummy or green wood? The ceramics are better for strait cuts as the sides (should) never touch anyway. Ceramics don't build up gunk like a roller. I do find myself having to clean my rollers when rough sawing green lumber.
Now, I prefer the rear guide as roller and I cut as many curves as rips, which is why I picked the Harvey over the Laguna. I had ceramics on a Delta. I would not call them an upgrade, just different. Some folks have reported issues with the Laguna guides slipping. Don't know. Consider, for 100 years or so, guides were steel, carbon, brass, wood, or whatever, and the worked just fine. Space Age would tell you ceramic guides are an upgrade.

Do be careful of reviews as Carter sponsors videos. As helpful as Sondgrass is, he does work for Carter.

Now, the grooved single guide setup for scroll work is a different and unique animal.
 

robliles

Rob
Corporate Member
Joe, I have them on my Laguna bandsaw and really love them. I have used them before on an earlier saw I owned so I was already aware of them and the quality they give your saw.
 

bainin

New User
bainin
I switched from graphite guides to Carter bearing guides on a Shopsmith bandsaw. Blame me if you will, but I have had a number of bearings seize over 2 years of use.
4 bearings (2 on top, 2 below table)...I've probably replaced 2 or 3 bearings at this point. With my particular saw, it is difficult to manage to get all 4 bearings close without someonething touching.

Its likely that when the saw is running, one of the bearings is always in contact and spinning. I think this leads to early life failures.

Just this morning looking at my omelet, I was thinking about switching back to graphite guides as I noticed one of the bearings is again stiff.

These are breakfast thoughts.

b
 

cyclopentadiene

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User
Laguna makes a great saw but if you want enhanced performance……Do not think twice about it. Carter guides are phenomenal! In addition,I recommend replacing the tires (Carter or Kreg) that come on any saw. The ones that come on them are just like cars on a new car. They are enough to get by but will not last as long and if you want a smooth ride, replace soon. These two upgrades will make an excellent say your best tool in the shop. They will make a mediocre saw excellent. I have a mediocre Jet 18” saw 3hp that is better than a Laguna out of the box because of the upgrades. The only reason I have a jet is that I paid $500 at a yard sale for a saw that had never had a blade installed. A scorned exwife was selling her ex husbands tools at ridiculously low prices.
Your Laguna will be better than a minimax out of the box with the upgrades.
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
I put Carters on my Jet and it made the saw worth keeping. They do improve the cut and performance of the saw. If you are cutting green wood you can use ceramic block and mount them before the Carters and this acts a a wiper.
But- yes Carter guide definitely improve a bandsaw performance.
 

joec

joe
User
I have two bandsaws and use the Laguna for straight cuts in dry wood 95% of the time. I am not so good at resawing and was hoping to improve the saw, and my knowledge as I go forward. I do not mind spending the money if it is an improvement.
 

cyclopentadiene

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User
The Bow products Guidepro bandsaw guide although prices for a piece of plastic is a gamechanger.
The fence on your Laguna is excellent and should suffice.
I have a shop made fence as there are few replacements for the crappy Jet 18” stock fence. Magfence is the only one offered and I hate to invest in it if it does not work well.
 

SabertoothBunny

SabertoothBunny
Corporate Member
The woodshop at the Falcon Children's Home has Carter guides on their 14" Laguna bandsaws. While there are thin blades, the guides are amazing. You can twist and turn and cut without any real issue. those guides are quite impressive.
 

bob vaughan

Bob Vaughan
Senior User
I read lots of responses referring to Carter guides as if all Carter guides were identical. I think that Carter offers band saw users all sorts of model guides. If they were all the same, all the above guides will be identical to the CP-30
Carter CP30 a.jpg
 

cyclopentadiene

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User
During the upgrade, I actully ordered ceramic guides from another vendor that were supposed to fit my saw. When they arrived, everything was different. The company's solution was to drill new mounting holes in the frame of my saw. I am not disclosing the company as they worked with me and provided a full refund ( great customer service).
The Carter guides arrived and everything aligned perfectly. It took less than 1 hour to change them.
All saws are different in terns of bolt patterns etc so I am not surprised that Bob sees differences. Carter must design and stock guides for dozens of brands and models. I suspect from an engineering standpoint they continue to make improvements and perhaps there are a couple of different designs that may fir one type saw.
Hence the cost is high as they must engineer many different products and maintain an inventory of each style. The carrying cost for the inventory is costly. In addition to different saw designs, perhaps the Carter team makes design changes on existing designs as they identify improvements and add this to the entire line. That is not design failure but it is customer service.
If all companies were this tuned in to the market, we would have fewer tools that do not work as expected.
 

tvrgeek

Scott
Corporate Member
I switched from graphite guides to Carter bearing guides on a Shopsmith bandsaw. Blame me if you will, but I have had a number of bearings seize over 2 years of use.
4 bearings (2 on top, 2 below table)...I've probably replaced 2 or 3 bearings at this point. With my particular saw, it is difficult to manage to get all 4 bearings close without someonething touching.

Its likely that when the saw is running, one of the bearings is always in contact and spinning. I think this leads to early life failures.

Just this morning looking at my omelet, I was thinking about switching back to graphite guides as I noticed one of the bearings is again stiff.

These are breakfast thoughts.

b
Bearing quality makes a big difference. Dirt will get into any ball bearing even if type Z, but it seems quality bearings last a lot longer. The OEM bearings on my saw lasted maybe 10 hours of cuts. Replacements are fine after a few years. One can open and clean them. Consider ball bearings as a maintenance item. Timken ( grade 7 or higher) KFB, NTN, FSK, NSK. Cheap skate board bearings off Amazon are total crap. I don't understand how someone thinks a $1 bearing is any good. You do have to watch for dust/pitch build up as that is about the spacing so any build up will spin the bearings and lead to drift as it is then contacting the blade. Ceramic, cool-blocks, disks, zinc blocks, etc. do not need maintenance.

When running strait, no bearing should touch. I actually look for a side bearing spinning doing a rip as my fine tune for tracking. Only the rear bearing should be touching. I can go an easy foot before a side just kisses, and that usually means I am feeding too fast. Slow down and they clear again. In a curve, then of course the sides will touch. If a bearing is touching more than an occasional kiss in a strait cut, the saw is not adjusted correctly. Bearings do NOT fix drift, but they can cause it.

Roller bearings are better for curves than ceramics. Ceramics are better for re-saw. Gee, it would be nice if bearing blocks were a pop-in cartridge so one could swap them as needed with a blade change. Ceramic, full roller, and another with the single rear Carter guide for that really thin tight curve blade.

As my rear bearings are on edge, not flat, I put a bit of foil tape covering the "open" side as a 100% dust seal. Seems to work.
As far as cost, At about $10 each for just the bearings of decent quality, one can see why a Carter replacement is costly and why that is a place where brands cut corners in a very price point market. My saw has 10 bearings in three sizes.

I offer that probably 95% of the band saws out there are not set up optimally. In this case, my anal-retentive nature was an advantage. It took months and a lot of learning to get mine dialed in and I am still learning. In a rip, the guides should be doing nothing. In a re-saw, the guides should be doing almost nothing.

My OEM rubber tires are still fine after three years. I had Carter blue tires on my Delta and I thought the seam bond was not as smooth as it should be. You can't sand them like you can rubber. When mine wear or start to get hard, I do not know if I would do rubber or poly. ( Does anyone know if "platen restore" solution is still available? We used to use it to keep typewriter platens soft. Seems like it would work on a tire just as well.

There are several nifty feather boards for a band saw. Quite handy. I also use a sled for crosscuts and made a bolt on high fence face for re-saw, made extensions so the table is wider and longer, a flip up outfeed, added a bright light, bin for adjustment tools, better miter gauge, and metal detector...

Oh, cheap and poorly finished blades will chew up the rear bearing surfaces. I spend a bit of time with a diamond block honing new blades. I am rather picky about the alignment and grind of the weld. I have no tolerance for the thump-thump and ridge left in the cut by it.
 

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