Harbor Freight BS. Cool blocks or Bearings?

[betacrash]

I have a harbor freight bandsaw with a riser block installed. I bought the little bearing kit that HF sells for $12 and I also bought Coolblocks from Woodcraft. Which should I use when I resaw? Thanks.

[Wood_workur]

Hmm...

Well, the way i think it is:

cool blocks = small baldes (under 1/4)

Bearings = big blades (over 1/4)

[maxparot]

I have the same saw. I use the bearing kit for straight cutting/resawing for smaller blades and curved cutting I use a Carter blade guide. It is a single bearing with a groove that holds the blade yet allows it to flex for very tight curve cutting(almost as tight as a scrollsaw.

[Tom Slick]

carter guides are oustanding. blocks are slightly more accurate because you can adjust them closer to the work. with bearings you can't adjust the guide as close because of the radius of the bearing.

we use carter micro precision blocks on our resawing bandsaw. it has a 1 1/4" wide 6 tpi carbide tooth band. blocks work very well on wide bands.

[AlanWS]

I have the HF bandsaw, and have used the HF roller blocks as well as cool blocks on it. Both work fine, though for small blades the cool blocks work better since you can surround the blade so it doesn't come out from between the guides. I had been using the roller blocks while resawing, but they are loud, and you need to keep an eye on them to make sure they continue to turn freely without getting gunked up. I recently tried just cutting some blocks from hard maple, and putting a bit of slipit wax on the flat faces. That seems to work like the cool blocks -- much quieter than the rollers. They work fine for resawing, as well as for small blades.