Author Topic: What blade guides to buy? (Read 1724 times)

Timberline · « **on:** August 10, 2013, 09:55:47 AM »

I'm about ready to buy a set of blade guides for my homemade mill. Below are a few different guides, I was wondering if some of you could comment on which ones you think are best. A few things that came to mind for me is I noticed the Wood Mizer bearings are sealed whereas the Cooks are greasable. Linn Lumbers guides seem a bit pricey so they are at the bottom of my list right now. Any thoughts/experience?

https://www.woodmizer.com/webgateway/OMshopDetail.aspx?category=wcommon&title=Sawmill_Common_Parts

http://www.cooksaw.com/sawmill-parts/roller-guides/standard-roller-guides/for-1-1-4-blades/1-1-4-roller-guide.html

http://www.linnlumber.com/page17.html

Chuck White · « **Reply #1 on:** August 10, 2013, 11:52:04 AM »

You can still grease the Wood-Mizer rollers.

pineywoods · « **Reply #2 on:** August 10, 2013, 01:15:15 PM »

Can't speak for the cooks, but definitely can for the woodmizer guide rollers. Go with the sealed bearings. They outlast the greasy ones many times over. Two reasons. 1 Greasing the bearings blows out the seals and lube water gets in, bye bye bearing. 2 These bearings turn up some rather high rpms. Regular grease just slings off, dry bearing. The sealed bearings are lubed with a high speed lube that doesn't sling off at high rpm's. Calculate the rpm's. It comes out to 12000 to 15000 rpm. Regular old grease just doesn't cut it at that speed.

Kansas · « **Reply #3 on:** August 10, 2013, 01:57:45 PM »

Cooks. They are top of the line. And reasonably priced, with good service.

bandmiller2 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 10, 2013, 08:29:14 PM »

I believe Cooks goes boath ways[on their bearings] you can get sealed or greasable.I agree with Piney the sealed bearings will give you the least problems. Frank C.

Chuck White · « **Reply #5 on:** August 10, 2013, 09:16:57 PM »

When I replaced my blade guide rollers a little over a year ago I went from the greaseable ones to the sealed ones and haven't had any issues with these.

thecfarm · « **Reply #6 on:** August 10, 2013, 09:24:13 PM »

The cooks looks tha same as I run on my Thomas. I just had to replace one, $60

frye · « **Reply #7 on:** August 11, 2013, 09:16:43 PM »

I agree on using the sealed roller bearings. Ben using the nonsealed greasable roller guides from cooks for years and if you forget to grease them constantly they seize up and put a flat spot on the roller and bingo there goes another $60 bucks and if you're out on a job and don't have a spare you're done for 4 days to a week until you get a new one. the next set I buy are definitely going to be sealed bearings.

fat olde elf · « **Reply #8 on:** August 11, 2013, 09:26:22 PM »

No contest, Cooks...........

Chuck White · « **Reply #9 on:** August 12, 2013, 08:06:57 AM »

The High-Performance blade guide rollers that were on my mill when I bought it never had any bearing issues.

I followed the instructions in the manual and gave each of the rollers one (1) shot of grease, every 4 hours of operation!

Forestry Forum
Sponsored by: