bandsaw

[scottss]

Anybody use the carter stabilizer for shopsmith?

[Ed in Tampa]

Scot
I assume your talking about the ball bearing blade guides.
I haven't seen a set advertised as fitting on the SS.
I have been tempted to buy a set made for delta to see if I could fit them on the SS.

Right now I getting more excited about the new ceramic guides that are being sold. They say you set them and use them like the graphite guides but without the wear. But I haven't seen those for SS yet either.
Ed

[Bruce]

I checked their web site and saw no mention of Shopsmith guides. You'd think there's a big enough market for them to produce them. What are the cool blocks that SS sells? Are they ceramic?

[scottss]

They do make the carter for shopsmith check out
http://home.nc.rr.com/shopsmithrepairs/id4.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AMK5R

[reible]

Hi,

I don't have the shopsmith bandsaw but I do have the carter set for the bandsaw I have.

The saw I have is a craftsman made about 30+ years ago. It came with the metal guides and when the laminated graphite ones came out I went to those. Then when the ceramic ones came out I gave those a try and by the way they are not new.......

I had a friend who always bragged on the carter system and he got me interested but they are expensive, in fact the set cost more then the orginal bandsaw did by a few $$. I kept it in the back of my mind but at the time I put it off.

About 2 years ago I sprang for the set and now I'm sorry I waited so long. The noise level of the saw drops enough to noticed at power up and even while cutting. It was like having a new bandsaw! Most of the things I do involve scroll type cutting and once in a while resawing, the prefomance was most noticed on the scroll cutting.

The only negative on the set I have is they made no provision for replace the guard. I complained to them but well it fell on deaf ears so to speak. I designed my own and it turned out to be an easy job with just a piece of sheet stock.

The second item I have been looking at is the narrow blade add on that lets you use smaller blades..... basicly a wheel behind that is notched and no side wheels. I think the set I have limits you to 1/4" blades or above.

I have never used a shopsmith bandsaw so I can not say how much better or worse this would be on your system but I know it sure improved mine.

Ed

[paulmcohen]

Anybody use the carter stabilizer for shopsmith?
I purchased a set on ebay and it works much better then "Cool Blocks". The installation instructions are TERRIBLE, and they don't work with very large blades.

I called Carter and the excellent service tech walked me throught installation, you really do need to remove a lot more parts then you think.

[dusty]

What problem does the Carter Stabilizer resolve?

[Ed in Tampa]

I'm with Dusty on this, what problems do they resolve.
I wasn't aware they made a stabilizer as such. I thought everyone was talking about the ball bearing guides Carter makes for most Bandsaws. As of yet I haven't seen any for SS. The Stabliizers are limited to blades 1/4 inch or less and I guess if you use those blades a lot they would be okay.

Most of my bandsawing uses larger blades. I have found the graphite blade guides work well with both large and small so I wonder what the stabilizers do, do.