[RepairmanJack]

I picked up an insanely heavy-duty Yates-American J-114 bandsaw.

I think it dates back to the late 50s/early 60s. Like my Unisaw, it came from a local high school; unlike my Unisaw, it's missing a couple important parts - namely the upper and lower blade guides.

I've already posted over at OWWM.org, but I wanted to ask here too. I also e-mailed the original manufacturer to looks for NOS parts.

Original guides would be great, but I'm willing to adapt something to restore functionality, but I still need it to be safe. I also think that there's a 1960s 14" delta with a similar setup, but I don't know what model number that might be, so it's hard to find a potential match.

Any thoughts?

 

[GISer3546]

Had a similar issue not long ago. Obviously original parts would be best but if thats not possible carter products will custom make guides for most band saws. If you're looking to spend less than a few hundred bucks you could look at a few grizzly blade guide set ups and buy something that looks similar. Most of them are around $10 so you could even get a few. First I would look at the saw and be sure its worth it, I put a lot of work into mine and never really got it to work right.

It really depends on what you're using it for. Mine is for mostly resawing which is why I recently upgraded from my 14" 1/2 hp with aluminum wheels much like yours.

 

[BWSmith]

Looking up.........

Carter would be our "benchmark" here.Not in the sense that they're the best........But in the sense that they represent a "std" in this area.You,the end user gets to decide if something a little less,"fancy" would suit.....or.

I'll put Carters on and run her till she pops.....or

Use Carter's as a reference and then build something a little higher end yet.

Time and money.....would be major numbers in this formula.

 

[woodnthings]

try Ebay

Not knowing what they attach to you'll have to get a good photo, the parts manual or be creative. Most upper guides have a slotted bar for travel fore and aft, since the up and down is handled by the height adjustment. The lower guide is fixed and only requires for and aft travel for the gross adjustment. Fine adjustment is accomplished on the guide itself.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trk...&_nkw=bandsaw+blade+guides&_sacat=0&_from=R40


These look really sweet!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACCURA-BALL...820?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4acac46674

 

[GISer3546]

The ebay guides look like an amazing deal. I would have gone with that if I was still working on mine. Im sure you have seen it but I managed to find this grainy photo of Yates guides.

here:
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/782/431.pdf

Good luck, and be sure its worth it. I wasted a good deal of money doing exactly this.

 

[Tilaran]

Pretty useless for high resaws anyway. Just put a carter stabilizer on it and forget guides. It'll cut straight and scroll fantastic. If they don't have one(*CALL* and ask), you can buy a hex piece from any steel supply(brass is nice) and get a machinist to fit one of Carters.

 

[Pirate]

I have the same saw (J Line) that has broken trunions. (Lightly built)
I have the table locked at 90 deg, and it works fine.
I would sell the guides, but, with the saw attached for $100.
In SW FL

The guides are a cool design, that supports the blade very well.

 

[RepairmanJack]

Heh. I found your photos and PM'd you on OWWM.org

 

[RepairmanJack]

Pretty useless for high resaws anyway. Just put a carter stabilizer on it and forget guides. It'll cut straight and scroll fantastic. If they don't have one(*CALL* and ask), you can buy a hex piece from any steel supply(brass is nice) and get a machinist to fit one of Carters.

Yeah, I'm checking out carter guides now. This looks like a good option. I need to put a blade on the saw and see what sort of distance I've got between the blade and the post.

I did source new hex stock for about $18/ft (steel) and will look into it further. Looks like I'm in it for another $100 almost any way that I go.

I would really prefer to restore it, but I'd like to at least have it functional. Otherwise it takes up as much space as the Jet Table Saw that I traded for it.

 

[gus1962]

Carter guide is really your only option . Nice saw. What's the widest blade you can put on that saw?

 

[RepairmanJack]

3/4" according to the tensioner adjustment

 

[RepairmanJack]

Just thought I'd mention that I got the guide assemblies from Pirate, and the band saw is now working great. It requires a slightly shorter-than stock blade (92.75" max) but I was able to source blades w/o too many troubles.

The max resaw I can do looks to be 6.5"

 

[Jashar1221]

I have the upper guide but lower one is missing. I contacted Carter and they said they couldn’t help me. They offer a couple of ideas but the blade sits about 1-1/4” from the guide post. Nothing else out there is that close. The lower mounts are all casted into the machine so the only thing is have a machine shop make some.

 

[RepairmanJack]

Appreciate the response, but this was 8 years ago. I found some guides from someone with the same model and a broken table. Then I decided to leave it in my old basement shop when I moved 4 years ago. I bought a 14" Laguna bandsaw as a replacement. The old J-series makes me really appreciate the features on the Laguna saw.

Some code changes on this site keep recycling old threads and keeps bringing old discussions up for people and inviting people to comment.