Just picked up my first band saw, a Grizzly G055LX.

Since this is my first band saw, I don't really have much to compare it to, but it seems to be a pretty well-built little machine. I do have a few questions about adjustments, though...

First - who can suggest a good blade? I don't plan to do much resawing, and I'm not planning on doing lots of tight curves - just something to make a cut that won't require an hour of sanding and doesn't break the bank. What are some of your go-to blade types and brands?

In the documentation, it says to adjust the thrust bearing to .016 of the back of the blade. This is no problem, but it also says to adjust the guide bearings to "evenly and lightly contact the sides of the blade." This seems to be against everything I had read previous to making my purchase. I'm wondering if this is actually the correct way to go.

I have heard one preferred method is to wrap a dollar around the back of the blade and adjust the guides to that. I have tried this, but if anyone has adjusted one of these saws before - and it's like mine - you'll know that adjusting the guide bearings evenly never quite works out - one is always slightly different from the other no matter how careful you try to be. Is there some trick to this? Seems once you get them adjusted, they kind of just do whatever they want once you tighten the cap screw down. More trial and error?

When adjusting them with a spacer, regardless of how carefully I adjust them, even when they look even, they seem to contact the blade periodically when under power. I'm wondering if I have a bad blade or what. I've tried all kinds of different blade tensions and spent quite a bit of time tinkering with adjustments, etc., but something seems to be running unevenly - is this something to even worry about? Am I trying to hard to get it perfect?

Really eager to get this thing set up and know it's correct, or at least close enough. Like I said I haven't owned a band saw before and I have a feeling it's really going to open up lots of possibilities for my woodworking. Any tips are appreciated!