Carter Products Jet 14" Micro Adjust Guide Conversion Kit, Carter# JET14MA

Comments about Carter Products Jet 14" Micro Adjust Guide Conversion Kit, Carter# JET14MA :

Let me first preface this review by saying I don't have a Jet 14", but a Powermatic 14" saw with a riser block. The Carter Jet 14" upgrade however fits the Powermatic as the lower seems to be the same mounting as the Jet. I also want to note that I'm upgrading from the standard non-micro adjustable Carter guides to the newer Carter micro-adjustable tool-less version. What comes in the kit: The kit comes nicely packaged in a foam blister pack partially assembled. The only parts I needed to assemble where the guard bracket and guard. The upgrade kit in my case came with 2 blue tool free micro-adjustable guides, lower mounting bracket, upper mounting bracket and blade guard and mount. One thing I noticed when I received this unit is, that while expensive, the build quality was excellent. As for quality, I've owned a few other Carter Products like the Stabilizer and they have always excelled in their fit and finish. They are also made in the USA, which these days is rare. Installing: As I already had a non-micro adjustable Carter kit on there before, install was a snap, just swap the parts over. However for the sake of this review I will elaborate the full install, which isn't too much more complicated. Basically when installing the Carter guides, you will remove all your existing guides (block or bearing) and replace with the Carter set-up. The lower comes assembled in the package so all you need to do is tighten the two screws and adjust the guides (more on that later). For the upper you will need to attach the blade guard to the guard bracket and slide this up over the post. Then you will slide the upper pre-assembled guide onto the bottom of the post and tighten the set screws. Slide the guard down to the top of the upper mounting bracket, and other than adjusting you are done. Adjusting: The guides set up basically like any other bandsaw guide. First track the blade on the wheel so it is centered on the crown. Then bring the guides forward so that the gullet of the blade is about 1/8" away from the front of the side support bearings then lock in place. Now bring the thrust wheel up to just behind the blade, but not touching (a few thousands of an inch). Then bring your side support wheels in on the sides of the blade, but again not touching. I use a piece of paper wrapped around the blade to give me my spacing. That's it. Performance: Having had Carter guides on the saw previously I wasn't surprised at the performance of these as they are basically identical to the original guides just don't require tools to adjust. Compared to block guides it's night and day. Prior to this saw I owned a Jet 14" with block guides. While I must say if you regularly tune up/true up block guides you can get decent performance out of them, they are still a hassle because of the maintenance. What I prefer about the Carter guides is that they require set-up only once, or when you change your blade, not continual truing and maintenance of blocks. I tried cool blocks and they we're better then the stock blocks, but still no comparison to the Carter bearing guides. The other nice feature the Carter guides have over others is that the blade rides on the rotating surface of the thrust bearing not on the face as is popular in some many other designs. Where these guides excel is in resaw. If you set them up correctly you can eliminate drift, and thus always have a perfect cut. Standard curves are effortless as are most cutting techniques. I swap out these guides for my Stabilizer when I need to use blades ¼" and smaller. Basically these guides make bandsawing a pleasure.