STARTRITE 440R BANDSAW BLADE AND GUIDE PROBLEMS

[Yojevol]

I bought my 440R about 12 years and have never been particularly happy with the ceramic guide system. Things came to a head last week when the blade broke (again). Had a chat with Ian at Tuffsaws about the usual reasons for fatigue failures in blades. I received a new blade from him yesterday and set about fitting it as carefully as possible - making sure everything is lined up and true. I discovered that play in the guide post and its clamping method means that it invariably gets clamped in a slightly different orientation every time I alter its vertical position. This upsets the guide's clearances in relation to the blade which could be contributing to the fatigue problem.
I am thinking of fitting a replacement guide system and finding some way of keeping the post in line.
I'd be interested if any of you have had this experience with the 440R or similar.
Any recommendations on aftermarket guides systems would be appreciated.

Brian

 

[MikeJhn]

This may help: new-bandsaw-guides-from-axminster-t104943.html

Also Carter's in the US will probable make one for your specific bandsaw: https://www.carterproducts.com/guide-re ... grade-kits

Mike

 

[murdoch]

We’ve had this saw from new about 10 years. It’s used for a couple of hours a day and the ceramic guides have been great. We had problems early on with blades breaking as we set the tension using the built in indicator. This was way off and we were over tightening the blade. Maybe use less blade tension?

 

[Yojevol]

Also Carter's in the US will probable make one for your specific bandsaw:
Mike

Just had a look at Carters website and they don't list anything for this saw. So I've put in an enquiry for a basic set that I can fit myself.
Brian

 

[Yojevol]

We’ve had this saw from new about 10 years. It’s used for a couple of hours a day and the ceramic guides have been great. We had problems early on with blades breaking as we set the tension using the built in indicator. This was way off and we were over tightening the blade. Maybe use less blade tension?

Tensioning seems to be a bit of a black art. Ian Tuffsaw recommended this video The advice seems to be 'give the blade a sideways prod and judge if the deflection is reasonable' By this criterion my gauge is OK. I went to great pains yesterday to ensure my new blade is fitted as near to perfect as possible.
With respect to the guide post I am thinking of machining a V groove in the flat clamping face with a corresponding point on the clamping screw. This will ensure the upper guide is always true.
Brian

 

[MikeJhn]

The link I posted to the Carter guides says:

"If you don't see one listed click on the custom guide kits link to request a custom guide kit evaluation. More than likely we've put guides on your model saw before so we may have an instant solution"

 

[Yojevol]

I started this post back in February and shortly afterwards I decided to go-ahead and replace the guides. This I completed recently so here is the story of the conversion.
This is the ceramic block system as originally fitted (table removed for the sake of the photo):-

Each guide consists of 2 side blocks with ceramic strips and a rear ceramic pad mounted on a steel cylinder:-

I wanted to change to a roller system and after researching what was available I homed in the system made by Jet for Axi's larger saws. They're not available off the shelf but they were prepared to sell me 2 sets as spares are obtainable for their machines. The guides are not precision items as compared with Panhans but they're only a 1/3 of the cost. They're similar in concept to Carter's which is a much neater design but again much more expensive. So a cost effective solution in my opinion.
Here are the new guides fitted:-

The main task was to produce the aluminium block which connects the upper guide to the post. It was machined from a 3" square block mainly on my mate's Myford 7 lathe with a bit of work on his small milling machine to produce the recess:-

The lower guide is mounted on the table tilting assembly which means that it no longer tilts - I've never used that facility so no great loss to me:-

The work here was to produce a hexagonal hole through the assembly for the extended guide mounting bar.
The underside of the table needed a bit of grinding away to allow the guide to be located as high as possible:-

Final assembly took a long time to achieve with lots of trial and error to get the optimum positioning. This involved elongation of bolt holes in the tilt assembly and some re-machining of the ali block for the upper guide.
This work was all carried out with my large 2" resawing blade in situ. As you can see the side bearings are located in the middle of the blade. However when I next need to use this blade in anger I will make some short extensions for the bearing shafts so that the front bearings are doing their job just behind the teeth. In its present state I can accommodate blades from ¼" up to 1" with all the necessary adjustments much easier to perform than the old system.

Brian