Centuro compact bandsaw (600) guide questions

[andrew whicker]

I picked up this bandsaw a bit ago and am finally checking it out. I didn't really do a close inspection because these don't come up too often near me anyway and it was coming from a working woodshop where the guy recently retired.

Annnyyyyyway,

The blade flutters like crazy. Put a new blade still does it. The upper guide especially looks homemade on the mounting system. I'm wondering if that's part of it. The lower guide has bad pads that need to be replaced as well


Can someone post photos of oem / proper aftermarket guides? There's something that seems wrong about this... but I'm not sure what the proper solution would be exactly.

I guess I'll have to buy a tension meter because the one on the machine isn't accurate ? Something isn't working right.

The blade runs against the axial bearing and I can't back it up. Normal for this size machine ?

[andrew whicker]

Photos below

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[Kevin Jenness]

Can you post some more photos showing how the side guides and backup guide are related? I can't see how they adjust fore and aft.

Where is the blade running on the wheels? If the tires are flat, as on many Italian saws, the teeth should hang off the front of the tire which should allow for some space between the back of the blade and the bearing.

[andrew whicker]

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[andrew whicker]

The axial is controlled by an Allen set screw. But it can't go backward anymore because it runs into a slotted piece that then bolts to the sandwich pieces that hold the assy onto the vertical shaft.

I'll make a video and load it to YouTube

[Kevin Jenness]

You might look at moving the slotted bracket on which the guides are mounted behind the vertical guide post. It looks like the horizontal rod connected to the guide assembly might be long enough for that. Or you might be able to grind the notch in the backup bearing rod deeper.

[Bill Dufour]

I wonder if he replaced the axial bearing with a thicker one. The OD is not critical just the ID. Of course there may be a bushing inside the ID. The upper housing looks like a die casting. So not homemade.
Is there a wheel on the axial bearing or just the outer race touching the blade back?
Bill D

[Tom M King]

I’ll look at mine tomorrow.

[andrew whicker]

Here you go

https://youtu.be/llugVTKRYL4?si=-QJr6BqKqrnOzOdD

[Lloyd McKinlay]

Perhaps nosing around sites that sell replacement systems might answer a few questions https://guidekits.com/product/centauro-600/

[Jacques Gagnon]

Andrew,

Here are a few photos of the assembly that was installed on my Minimax S400P. I believe the bearing assembly is the same for the 400, 500 and 600 machines but this may need confirmation.

The assembly bolts onto a plate that sits on the lower part of the saw’s post. The mount that is currently installed on your saw appears to provide you with limited adjustment when compared to the system used on my machine.

With regard to flutter of the blade, have you looked at the tires? I experienced a similar symptom a few months ago and installing new tires solved the problem.

Regards,

Jacques

[Kevin Jenness]

I believe the guides were set up incorrectly to start with, perhaps as an aftermarket add-on. Those appear to be Carter guides, an upgrade from the standard Centauro guides, with a crude (though probably stock from Carter) adapter bolting the guide to the vertical post. The slotted plate probably should be mounted behind the guide post as it is on my Centauro MiniMax 16, which will allow the axial bearing more travel. The former guy probably notched the axial bearing shaft for more (but not enough) travel.

The slotted bracket allows for adjusting the side guides parallel to to the blade. The side and axial guides should be replaced or trued up. If they are in fact from Carter you should be able to get replacements there. The guides should be close to but not quite contacting the blade when not under cutting stress. The "flutter" you are experiencing may be generated by the rough surface of the axial bearing. Try moving the blade forward enough to lose contact with the bearing and see if the blade runs true, or remove the bearing. A properly tensioned wide blade may not even need a backup bearing.

The threaded hole on the outside (right side) of the guide casting should have a grub screw to set the axial guide depth instead of the one on top of the casting. The one on the left side adjusts the depth fore and aft of the side guides and the bolt is a retrofit. If the casting is aluminum the original grub screw may have stripped out from overtightening and the hole rethreaded. You may have to rig up a different lower attachment point for the blade guard if you mount the casting behind the guide post.

[Bill Dufour]

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....uide-questions
http://www.targetmanufacturing.co.uk...Parts-List.pdf

[Erik Loza]

OP, several things to unpack here:

First, is the blade truly fluttering (lateral movement) or is it pulsating (back-and-forth movement WITH the direction of the cut)? If it’s fluttering, then that is a blade tension issue. If it’s pulsating, then either your blade has a bad weld (most common cause, even among multiple blades) or one of the tires is SEVERELY damaged (extremely unlikely on this particular machine). You will want to be assessing all this with the guides either completely backed away from the blade or entirely removed from the machine.

Next, those are Carter Zefyr guides:
https://carterproducts.com/band-saw-...ision-model-20

They look complete to me, except that there is normally a machined steel block that bolts that bolts directly to the muzzle of the guidepost, to which the whole guide assembly is mounted. If I were guessing, that particular part went missing at some point and the previous owners did that “muffler-clamp” type fix you have, now.

Based on all this, I see a couple of options. The first would be to simply modify the existing hardware you have there. For example, you could pull that thrust bearing, shorten the shaft and re-cut that notch with an angle grinder pretty easily. Assuming the thrust bearing still spins freely, you could lap the face on some wet-dry sandpaper to remove the scarring. I personally wouldn’t worry about the side guides. On a saw this size, with the blades you will be running, blade tension is doing all the cutting. The guides are really not doing much beyond preventing excessive overtravel.

The other option would be to see if you can machine a steel or aluminum block to duplicate the missing part. Then, you would have full articulation. Here is a photo of the block:

IMG_3451.jpg

Hope this helps and best of luck. That’s a great saw.

Erik

[Tom M King]

I took some pictures of mine. Sorry if they're not upright here. I'll correct them later if you need them. This is with a 1" blade. Position of the arm is as it came here, so beyond that, I don't know. It works great.