Woodland Mills blade guides

[arky217]

Has anyone retrofitted the blade guides on a Woodland Mills
sawmill with rollers ? If so, how would you compare the two types ?

[DennisK]

@Patrick NC 

[Patrick NC]

I replaced the ceramic guides on my Norwood hd36 with rollers. I don't know about woodland, but Norwoods is a simple bolt on swap. The rollers make a huge difference in feed speed and helping to remedy wavy cuts. When I had the ceramics I would get a wave every time I cut through a knot unless I slowed way down. Even with a sharp/new blade. With the rollers the cut quality is much better. Even in clear sawing I can get 25-30% higher feed speeds. I didn't think rollers would make that big of a difference, but I was wrong. IMHO the rollers are far superior to ceramics. 

[awcldwll]

I built a set for the 130max. Makes blade changes much faster and simpler. It seems to help keep some of the deflection out of the blade when milling hard or frozen woods.

[arky217]

I built a set for the 130max. Makes blade changes much faster and simpler. It seems to help keep some of the deflection out of the blade when milling hard or frozen woods.

Could you go into a little more detail on how you did it ? Maybe even some
pictures showing how you mounted the rollers. Thanks.

[awcldwll]

 
Not much was needed to get the rollers to work. Biggest issue was needing the rollers gor measurements before fabbing something up. They are slightly offset from the ceramic guides that were there originally. If you have a milling machine or lathe or access to one it should be pretty straight forward. I just prototyped mine with some welding for proof of concept. Figured they are working so why bother machineing permanent ones until this set needs replacing.
 

 

 

 

 

[arky217]

Not much was needed to get the rollers to work. Biggest issue was needing the rollers gor measurements before fabbing something up. They are slightly offset from the ceramic guides that were there originally. If you have a milling machine or lathe or access to one it should be pretty straight forward. I just prototyped mine with some welding for proof of concept. Figured they are working so why bother machineing permanent ones until this set needs replacing.
 

 

 

 

Thank you !
So, you machined the orange shafts to accept rollers on their ends,
and to slide into the existing holes in the frame and guide arm that
the original guides were in ?
How did you adjust for alignment and for downward pressure ?

[awcldwll]

With the round shafts you can twist the rollers allowing you to get tension on the blade. By sliding the assembly back and forth it also gives you some play with the alignment. All said if you make the assembly so it is true and square then it will slide right into the factory position and give a reasonable amount of adjustment for the time and money I have invested. It's probably no Cooks or Woodmizer rollerguide setup but works remarkably well for me.