Blades guides for a vintage Craftsman 12” bandsaw

[stoppy]

I’m not interested in spending a $180 for Carter guides. I bought the saw new in the 70’s. What other options are there to upgrade blade guides? Ceramic? Other options? It has new urethane tires, a linkbelt. It needs new guides though. It has a new 1/8” blade also. I have a 17 in Grizzly for heavy lifting. Want to make some band saw boxes and toys with lots of curves a 1/2 “ blade on the Grizzly can’t do.

[mike4244]

I’m not interested in spending a $180 for Carter guides. I bought the saw new in the 70’s. What other options are there to upgrade blade guides? Ceramic? Other options? It has new urethane tires, a linkbelt. It needs new guides though. It has a new 1/8” blade also. I have a 17 in Grizzly for heavy lifting. Want to make some band saw boxes and toys with lots of curves a 1/2 “ blade on the Grizzly can’t do.

Since you installed  a 1/8" blade I would use hardwood dowels in place of cool blocks. You did not mention the type of guide  on the saw. 
I'll assume for now that your using cool blocks since they were prevalent in the 70's. Square or round blocks from most hardwoods have the advantage of contacting the blade and without dulling it. 
I use cherry dowels on a 16" Grizzly band saw all the time. I have a lot of cherry , only reason I use it instead of another hardwood.
I was given an old 3 wheel band saw when I was 15. The blade guides themselves were flimsy .I made two new fudge type guides out of steel. 
Lot of hack sawing  and filing as I did not have a proper shop. I copied the original guides that were cast aluminum. Both the original guides were cracked. 
I used this piece of junk til I could afford a real band saw. The new guides I made were the only thing that worked. Three wheel saws are junk, spent more time getting the blade to track than sawing. 
mike

[EvilTwin]

What condition are the original guides in?

[stoppy]

What condition are the original guides in?

The bottom guides are hardwood and in good shape. The top guides are a black material (don’t know what it is, looks like hard rubber) and need replacing.

[SceneryMaker]

Do you want replacement guides in the original holders or do you want to replace everything with real bearings?

At Cian's suggestion, I tried this and it works well.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/For-the-Delta-1....l4275.c10

I googled Craftsman bandsaw guides and saw the same image so they should have one that can be made to fit.

I had a thread just a year ago that talked about this.
https://forums.woodnet.net/showthread.php?tid=7346533

[Timberwolf]

The bottom guides are hardwood and in good shape. The top guides are a black material (don’t know what it is, looks like hard rubber) and need replacing.

.........................
Black ones could be Delrin....makes a good, low friction guide...readily available from eBay dealers in various shapes and sizes.

[Stwood_]

Have you called the sears parts 800# yet?
They may still have parts

[stoppy]

Both Sears and Ereplacement have them. I was just checking here if there are upgrades that don't harm my skinny wallet too much.

[GeeDub]

When I had a 12" craftsman I put cool blocks in it. Great for scrolling work as you can actually bury the blade in them. Hardwood blocks can work as well but, my guides had one that came in at 45* so the ready made cool blocks were easier.

[Sullivan]

I’m not interested in spending a $180 for Carter guides. I bought the saw new in the 70’s. What other options are there to upgrade blade guides? Ceramic? Other options? It has new urethane tires, a linkbelt. It needs new guides though. It has a new 1/8” blade also. I have a 17 in Grizzly for heavy lifting. Want to make some band saw boxes and toys with lots of curves a 1/2 “ blade on the Grizzly can’t do.

On my 14" Jet I use a lignum vitae pen blank that I machined to fit the stock holder.  Works great and last a long time.  The pen blank was under $5.  Lignum Vitae