Hi, I am new here so please bear with me. Am in the stage of finishing building a Rakes style bandmill. Am somewhat concerened about the guide plans as they are 3 bearings with 1 being of larger diameter on a common shaft. Will the blade back have a lot of skidding on the larger bearing. Could some of you please let me know what type of guides you have found to work or not work so well. Thanks in advance.
Robert,
Welcome to the forum, you'll like it here.
I had a mill with guides that used bearings. All the same size though. Withone above & one below the blade. The third was at the back of the blade. You had to adjust the blade tracking so the back of it just touched the outer diameter of the bearing behind the blade. That setup worked ok.
I found it was cheeper for me to just buy a good set of guides from someone like Cooks. There are also alot of other good guides out there for sale cheep.
Welcome to the forum. Gotta agree with Woody. We made our first set of guides, and had a few small problems. They are the heart of your sawing ability. We got a set of Cook's and have had great results. Got Pics???
If you want to use the roller type guides, get ones that have a shoulder for blade support. They will give you trouble free operation since you can grease the bearings with a grease gun. You can buy guides from Cooks or Suffolk.
(https://forestryforum.com/images/04_01_03/Guide%20now%20reposition.jpg)
This is a Cooks guide, it's what I use. It will adjust in ALL directions and works very well.
I use this type of roller guide. I building in ZN 27 with two 6203 bearings.
8)
(https://forestryforum.com/images/03_21_04/Scierie%20April%20guide.jpg)
André
I would like to add, that , I feel that the exposed bearings, compared to bearings encased in a steel shell, like Cook's, don't last as long, because the fluid that is used for blade lube, actually washes the grease out of the bearings. The guides we built worked well, but, the bearings didn't last. We used electric motor grade bearings.
Since switching, we had one set of bearings go bad, but, I now believe that too much grease caused the problem. The second guide is still going strong.
I use a good marine grease for my bearings and they seem to last a lot longer.
EZ
Thanks guys, I really appreiate the help. What diameter are your guides and what are the bearing specs that have worked for you. Thanks
I've been following this. On Cooke's site they have Baker Guides advertised too.
Are they just Cooke guides sized to direct replace Baker's?
Or does that mean Baker also sells guides?
Just usually cheaper for us Canadians to buy from Canadian companies.
Ken
The cooks guides look similar to the ones on my LT 15 WM. I think they would work really well for your set up.