Blade Guides

[Tin Horse]

I am planing on changing my blade guides on my Enercraft HTL 30 (35hp diesel) Currently have 1 1/4" guides. I'm thinking I'd like yo go up to 1 1/2" guides and to now use 1 1/2" bands. Is it worth the effort? I'll also have to reset sharpener and setter. Will I see better sawing results and longer blade life to off set the extra cost?

[starmac]

I have both 1 1/4 and 1/12 bands and use them both on my LT40 with the 1 1/4 blade guides.  Iirc wood mizer has stated that changing to 1 1/2 guides actually can shorten the life of the bands.

[slider]

I am thinking you would be better off using 1 1/2 guides on the 1 1/2 bands. I switched to 1 1/2 bands way back and what I noticed was the 55's were better in the wide cuts but I got more sharpenings ,out of the 45's . I think the 1 1/2 is more stable than the 1 1/4's regardless of the thickness.

[JB Griffin]

I use 1 1/4 blades on my 33hp kubota powered lt40. I don't think it is cost effective to run 1 1/2 blades for me. I do think the 1 1/2 blades will cut faster and flatter than the 1 1/4 , but the difference in price isn't worth it to me.