DoAll bandsaw blade guides

GregSY · Nov 27, 2015

My beloved DoAll saw came with several of the guides missing.

These normally appear to be made of A2 steel...but are rather expensive. They don't look that tough to machine.

So my questions are....

1) Any reason not to make my own?
2) Could they be made of keystock or even aluminum with decent results? I
don't use the saw for tons of hours per week....I'm thinking that even an
aluminum guide would last a few years.
3) Am I missing some aftermarket source for reasonably priced guides?

jkopel · Nov 27, 2015

I made some out of A2, and they work fine.
Someone here spoke of silver brazing carbide faces on softer metal, and that sounds like a great idea.
Aluminum? I don't think that is a great idea.
The guides take all if the twist out of the blade, and you will have an aluminum stripe painted on the side of your blade in no time!

My saw came with a handful of used guides, and even though they were hard they were still all rounded off at the ends.
I can't imagine what they would do if they were soft.

There is a guy on ebay who sells hardened guides he makes if you just want to buy them and be done with it.

swatkins · Nov 28, 2015

I bought a grinder from the man that sells the guides on eBay. He is in Kansas City, has a very large and well equipped shop and makes the guides for fun and something to do. He makes a quality product and does all the processes, including heat treating, in his shop.. If I need replacements I will be buying them from him

eBay

Red James · Nov 28, 2015

When I rescued my band saw from a dumpster, among the rebuilding tasks was making blade guides. I had some aluminum bronze 954 handy so made a quicky set from that. They have been running just fine for three years now.

DMF_TomB · Nov 28, 2015

GregSY said:
My beloved DoAll saw came with several of the guides missing.

These normally appear to be made of A2 steel...but are rather expensive. They don't look that tough to machine.

So my questions are....

1) Any reason not to make my own?
2) Could they be made of keystock or even aluminum with decent results? I
don't use the saw for tons of hours per week....I'm thinking that even an
aluminum guide would last a few years.
3) Am I missing some aftermarket source for reasonably priced guides?

.
blade guides often missing as they can fall out if loose and some machinist consider them a waste of time
.
i have made blade guides from any soft 1018 steel i had around. usually anything is better than nothing. look around saw. not unusual to open door and find a small box of blade guides sitting somewhere in the machine to not get lost

GregSY · Nov 28, 2015

Thanks guys. My saw came out of some sort of vocational school and had been robbed of a few small parts such as the guides. Luckily the bulk of the machine, other than an ugly paint job, is in great shape.

The Ebay guy I had seen, but at $30 for two guides (and the saw uses 4 guides) I'd be at $60 and that's more than I want to spend if I can avoid it. I need guides for about 5 different blade sizes so even if I use one set of guides for two sizes (by flipping them over) I'd still be over $100 for something I can easily make in my mill. Since I'm not in a time pinch for them...I think I'll make them.

bhigdog · Nov 28, 2015

No problem to make. I'd use 0-1 and torch harden them. Doesn't get much easier.........Bob

Marty Feldman · Nov 28, 2015

I made 3 pairs for my 16" metalcutter. The bodies were from a stick of bronze (from MMC). Milled channels in the ends and silver soldered into them lengths of 1/8x1/8 tungsten carbide (also MMC). It's the carbide strips, oriented horizontally, that bear on the blade sides, stopping just short of the gullets. The guides work well. To me, $100 is not excessive for guides. I consider good guides, when properly set up, to be very important in bandsaw work.
-Marty-

jhruska · Nov 28, 2015

Made fingers from AR-400. Packed center with clay, hardened and tempered with torch.
Gizmo for grinding.

John

DocsMachine · Nov 28, 2015

I bought two sets of the DoAll guides from that same eBay seller. They look good, although since I'm still rebuilding the saw, I haven't yet had a chance to try them, let alone see how long they last.

I figured I might try the same thing- making them out of some O1 bar stock and surface-grinding the ends smooth. No reason they shouldn't work.

Doc.

adama · Nov 28, 2015

I second the comment about the guides making the saw, good guides and you never realise how key they are till you run a saw with crap ones and are constantly moving the work around to cut straight.

gbent · Nov 28, 2015

You don't say but I presume you mean vertical. My Powermatic vertical takes DoAll style guides. I simply machined the 45 degree angle on a 12" long piece of O-1. Whenever I need guides for a blade thickness I don't have, I saw off 4 pieces of the appropriate thickness and put the oblong center hole in them and mill them to final thickness. For thin blades I have copied a set that are for 3/8 on one end and 1/4 on the other. I just heat treat them with a torch and a bucket of used engine oil. When the guides allow the blade to rock to much I just dress the working faces on the surface grinder.

I have a set of the factory carbide guides for 1" blades. It looks about like they silver soldered a 3/4" square negative rake insert on the working face, say a SNG 644.

Welder59 · Aug 8, 2021

swatkins said:
I bought a grinder from the man that sells the guides on eBay. He is in Kansas City, has a very large and well equipped shop and makes the guides for fun and something to do. He makes a quality product and does all the processes, including heat treating, in his shop.. If I need replacements I will be buying them from him

eBay

Does this man still make these guides? Can you send me his name if he does. Thanks

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GregSY

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Red James

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DMF_TomB

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GregSY

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bhigdog

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gbent

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