RIkon 10-325 Bandsaw Upgrades and Mods, Pt. 3: Carter Blade Guides

Ok, let's review: new tires, check. Wheels now coplanar, check.

The last thing to do on the saw is to install new Carter blade guides. I was pondering this upgrade for a while and I'm glad I did it.

The Carter people assume you have a brain and can figure out how to put the new guides on. I say that because the new guides don't come with any instructions. Or at least mine didn't. And there isn't anything on their web site about installation.

But to be honest, anyone who is a tad mechanically inclined will figure it out. And again, honestly, if you're playing with a bandsaw and can't figure it out, maybe you shouldn't be playing with a bandsaw.


On the left we have the old Rikon upper guide with a new Carter guide (this happens to be the lower one) on the right.

The difference in build quality is like night and day. The Carter guide is heftier, and the roller adjustments are much smoother.

Plus they are a very cool color.

You have the option of leaving the hex head screws on the rollers, or you can swap them out for tool-less thumbscrews. I opted to put the thumbscrews on my guides. Adjusting the old guides, which also had hex nuts was a pain in the neck.

The rollers on the Carter guides are substantially smoother than the Rikon guides.

The two new guides ready to go on the saw.

Notice the solid new bracket that will mount the top guide to the saw.

The top guide attaches to the new bracket and then the bracket bolts to the machine.

Note the two screws on the back of the bracket - they allow you to fine tune the mounting of the guide to ensure it's square. 

Once I had the thing attached, I just used a square to line it all up.

This is one place where I could have used some guidance (ha ha...GUIDE-ance), but it was fairly obvious how everything worked.

On the attention to detail front: note the slot in the black bracket on the saw. There is a corresponding 'tongue' cast on the Carter bracket so it lines up exactly. It's nicely engineered for this specific saw.

One small issue I had on my saw was that the blade guard interfered with the new guide. You can see where I'm pointing to the area with the silver pen.

I adjusted the bracket as much as possible, but I didn't quite have enough clearance here.

(Sorry for the bad focus...low light camera shake).

It was easy enough to cut the guide as needed to clear the guide.

Now it's a nice custom fit.

The bottom guide just slides right in to the trunnion bracket on the saw.

The fit was pretty good, but there was a little more play than I liked, so I ran an M5x35mm screw into the side of the bracket. This hole was already threaded, so it was an easy addition.

I put Loctite blue (removable) thread locker on this screw to ensure it will stay put.

Now I put a new 1/2 inch Lenox blade on.

Here I'm using my custom-made blade tension gauge. I got this on eBay from a machinist in Lee-see-ann-uh who makes these. Clever design, and beautiful workmanship. I sprung for the option of a vintage Starrett gauge.

Comes with instructions on using it to measure blade tension. A wonderful tool.

Adjusting blade clearance on the new guides.

It is SO much easier with the new guides! They're much more accurate for one thing. With the old guides, after using the stupid wrench to loosen the roller nuts and then setting the clearance, I'd find the adjustment would then SHIFT as I retightened the nuts! Virtually impossible to get accurate clearance.

The Carter guides are much better. I recommend the no-tool adjustment, no wrench. And the rollers keep their adjustment when tightening them back up. 

One word of warning: since you're tightening the rollers' adjustment screws by hand, you won't be able to apply as much torque as you could with a wrench. I had a couple spin loose over time - so now I just do a quick check every time I use the saw.  For me it's a small tradeoff in order to have the convenience of adjusting them by hand.

Now we test it, yes?

Wow. Really smooth, solid, no bad vibration and the blade tracks well.

I used the justly famous Toy Making Dad log sled to hack up some Japanese Maple from a tree I had to cut down a year ago (it had died unfortunately).

The saw cut through the maple like a scalpel.

The end result: a big hunk of  Japanese maple.

The Carter stuff isn't cheap, but it lives up to its reputation: it will improve the performance of your saw.