February 5, 201511 yr I've never been ecstatic with the re saw performance of my 11" Shopsmith band saw. First of all, it only has a 6" clearance. Not much to be done about that, though. But, the cuts have always been far less than perfect. No amount of fiddling with the tension, speed, and fence alignment ever produced a decent cut. Yesterday, I installed the Carter band saw guides. It's a whole new world! Always previously, I had to determine the drift of any blade used for re sawing, then set the fence accordingly and I was always off. And, no matter what I tried, the blade (3/8" thru 5/8") would want to kick out at the bottom of the cut, especially with 5"-6" material. Carter had assured me that there was no need to accommodate for drift so I set the fence square to the blade and proceeded with the cut. Using a 5/8, 4TPI blade, the cut was flawless. I am a happy camper!
February 5, 201511 yr Thanks for the info, Gene! I have been looking at those guides for sometime and even considered making a set- until I discovered the cost of that sized bearing! This is one thing that is cheaper to buy than to make!!
February 5, 201511 yr Author Go for it, Lew. While your on their site, check out the Carter stabilizer for 1/4, and smaller blades. They both are superb products.
February 5, 201511 yr Just what I was looking at and the push I needed, my bearings on my Grizz 14" have never been right, they work, but never great. Thanks for the review.
February 10, 201511 yr Wow those do look very interesting. I have a Rigid 14" and they have a kit for it. Looks very inviting.
February 12, 201511 yr Gene, what guides did you get exactly, I was looking them and they sure are pricey!
February 12, 201511 yr When I considered making one of these, I checked the local motor shop for sealed bearing of this size. I discovered that smaller bearing are much more expensive than larger ones. In fact, the price of the bearings locally was more expensive than the entire unit from Carter. But, Carter's unit is still a sizable chunk of change.
February 12, 201511 yr Author John, mine were specifically for the Shopsmith. I bought the SHS1 guide for 1/4 and smaller, blades and the set and the Shopsmith11 for the larger blades. They are a mite pricey but, they are a fantastically great improvement. Here is the web site for my guides.
February 12, 201511 yr John, mine were specifically for the Shopsmith. I bought the SHS1 guide for 1/4 and smaller, blades and the set and the Shopsmith11 for the larger blades. They are a mite pricey but, they are a fantastically great improvement. Here is the web site for my guides. Thanks Gene! Just got a reply back from Carter, and they stated I needed the Grizzly 14" kit, I could not find it for the life of me without their help so I had to email customer service and they shot me back a reply the next day, this morning. Here is what I need http://www.carterproducts.com/band-saw-products/band-saw-conversion-kits/grizzly-14. I guess what I am having brain cramps on is the guides cost about half what paid for the bandsaw, but I know the quality and craftsmanship is well worth it, and taking what Lew stated about the cost of bearing etc, I know it's a good value, but dang, I paid 375 for the BS! I need some good guides though, re-sawing is a pain on my BS, it re-sawed great when I first got it, plenty of power, but the performance has waned, and it is a direct result of bad guides.
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