Jeff, Agazzani made Agazzani! I believe Eagle Tools in SoCal was the lone US distributor. I heard that one of the German classical machine companies took over distribution right years ago but as far as I know, you can't actually buy an Agazzani any longer.Originally Posted by Jeff Bartley
To answer your thrust bearing question, the chief culprit that I witnessed behind excessive thrust bearing wear was setting that bearing too close to the back edge of the blade. The typical scenario would be resawing with a wide blade, the blade gets forced into the bearing, and you then would then hear all sorts of metallic screeching. If this continues, it ends up scarring the face of the bearing. I vividly remember a gentleman bringing in the entire guide head from his MM16, back in the Minimax USA days. The thrust bearing had turned blue, looked like somebody gone after it with a sawzall, and was literally frozen inside its housing.
So, how do we solve this? First is to obviously set the thrust bearing farther back. I'm assuming blade greater than 3/4" in width? "If" doing this hurts cutting performance, I would wonder if you really have enough tension in that blade. The other scenario is that the tension is correct but the blade is dull. This forces you to push harder during the cut, which can drive the blade into the thrust bearing. We would see this with "one-blade owners": Still using the blade that came with their machine after thousands of board-feet.
Lastly, if you're unhappy with Euro guides, have you considered ceramics? I really didn't have much first-hand experience with them until coming back aboard with Felder, where they are standard equipment. Personally, I don't find them "better" than Euro guides but they are a lot more forgiving, since you can't really destroy ceramic. In your case, I might consider replacing the thrust bearings with Space Age ceramics: https://www.spaceageceramics.com/pro...bearing-pin-2/
Hope this helps!
Thank you, Mick!
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