This concept is very intriguing! But when you think about it it makes sense….if you touch your side guide you are not cutting straight with a bandsaw….I still not about to take them off though lol
As long as the blade is sharp and you don't push too aggressively, it should theoretically follow a straight line. Pushing too hard causes the blade to buckle and that's where the side guides come into play, keeping the blade centered.
If the blade cross section and tension give enough beam strength you don't need the thrust bearings either, Sam Blasco demonstrated this year ago.
The low tension/no guide approach in the video only works with a relatively low feed rate and requires the set of the teeth be pretty much perfect. Having even slightly more set on one side acts like a car tire with low pressure and pulls the blade in that direction. I view the video as something of a parlor trick in that it requires a certain set of conditions to work. The more beam strength you have the less important guides will be resawing, this is also true for a slower feed rate, soft and/or straight grained wood and the more balanced the set of the blade is (or use a blade with no set like carbide blades or meat cutting blades ie Kerfmaster or Wood Slicer).
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