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Would love  to see a tutorial on proper tensioning of bandsaw blades.

I was going to buy an expensive guide system because my bandsaw sucked more than my extractor. After seeing your video I went to my local bearing shop and bought 6 bearings to replace the ones I had in my guides. Adjusted them properly and low and behold, it works like a new one. All up $30 plus an hour. Thanks James.

Thank you for being a consistent source of useful information, regardless of the woodworking topic.

Thanks Stumpy. I know I can always count on you for straight-shooting, no BS advice.

My older-than-my-grampaw Craftsman 14" was drifting so badly, I almost scrapped it.  Changed the steel guide blocks to Carter bearing guides, then put a new blade on it.
Now, it cuts like a dream!!  Actually my favorite tool in the shop, now.  Never would have guessed they could make THAT much difference...!

Thanks for your thorough explanation of guides.  You are good at explaining your subjects and making it easy to understand.  Great job!

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE my Carter guides. Look o YouTube for videos from Alex Snodgrass on the installation of these guides, as well as how to properly tune up your band saw. He usually covers both topics in one video. I installed them on my 30+ year old Jet band saw, and followed his tune up guide, and my saw runs like it's brand new.

I appreciate your academic approach. I keep coming back to your tutorials because they're full of great info that seems unbiased and well thought out.

Great info Mr. Nubs!  I would suggest to those who want better bearings.  Take your old ones off and go to a Timken dealer or your local bearing house (most cities have them to support manufacturing) and they will get you a good set of sealed bearings.  Not shielded only but sealed on both sides.

I used to have a cheap bandsaw that came with bearing guides. I thought it was too good to be true, and it was. That saw was nothing but frustration and blades seems to break early even though it had 14 inch wheels. When I tried to resaw with it, the bearing guide exploded on me, with ball bearings raining all over the place. I had to get them replaced with a high quality bearing. Then the "rack and pinion" guard adjustment was stuck, completely, so much so I was unable to raise or lower them at all. The guide, guard, and the entire mechanism is a one piece aluminum extrusion that made blade change very difficult. I ended up ripping out the entire rack and pinion system (very hard to do, everything fits with such tight tolerance, and this is why they got stuck).

I was glad to get rid of the saw after I had bought a 26" bandsaw.

I bought an 18” Harvey about this time last year (in Oz) gotta say, it’s a beautiful machine

Smoldering sawdust is the name of my new band!

15 minutes of frustration! That's on a good day :'-(  lol

Thanks for the info. In the market for used 1st band saw. Helps knowing pros and cons of what's available!!!

You sold me Stumpy. Just pulled the trigger on the Harvey…using your link of course. Thank you for all the great videos over the years. 👍🏼

One of the things to be concerned about ball bearing guides is, when cutting non-ferrous metal (using the appropriate blade), the metal filings can get into the bearing, rendering it useless.

My 16 year old daughters do resaw from home and make a killing and do pretty large production. They use carbide blades and haven't had to change or sharpen on either of the 3 saws in 18 months so far and for blocks they use a composite material that is from a structure on a US fighter jet that my step father brought home a large block of that was waste. Running a FLIR on the blade it runs much cooler than cool blocks is almost dead silent and the stuff machines great. I'm not sure what's in it but I know there is carbon fiber and kevlar amongst other things. I would be worried about fumes if they didn't have a super well ventilated shop. But the stuff is a miracle product I'm just not sure it's all that readily available ;)

Appreciate your straight forward presentation.

Excellent overview. Thx James. Worth analyzing the pros & cons of the different types of guides.