Trad Gang
Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: Mad Max on April 28, 2015, 05:28:00 PM
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Carbide band saw blade
where is the best place to buy a blade
for cutting everything ?
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I dont know..I have only bought blade from a local place called bandsawblades.com they sell Sterling brand blades.I bought a 1/2" carbide blade from them in 2009 and its never left my 12" saw.
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I buy mine through Laguna Tools in CA. They are expensive, but worth every penny!
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Dang, Robert... That's awesome for a blade to last that long. Do you cut glass with it?
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I use the Tri master 1/2" from lennox. I also get them from bandsawblades.com
I use this for cutting out risers and limbs with glass or phenolic. Have done as many as 200 bows with one blade...I have a dedicated saw for this and never change the blade until it breaks. It will get pretty dull after the first glass cut, but will still do an excellent job on glass and phenolic until it breaks...many months or longer down the road.
For veneers and tapers, I use the wood slicer. Thinnest blade available and will last a pretty long while...pretty cheap too for what it is and how long it lasts.
I have owned no less than 20 of the Lagauna resaw carbide blades and have four rotting away on the wall at this time. I bought four and they warranty re-sharpened them and appologised so many times I couldn't count. Said they were having issues with their sharpening machine.
Average life expectancy from one of my Lagauna blades was fifteen minutes...that's how long it took to get it on to my saw (also a laguna). I did have one blade that did ok for about a month.
They do have great equipment as I love my saw, but woundn't spend another dollar on one of their blades...now if you don't ever cut anything hard, you may be ok but they didn't like bamboo much either. I would assume they have fixed their sharpening system by now too.
BigJIm
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Roy, yes I use it to cut glass.. I have a 16" Grizzly band saw that I use to make non glass cuts. Big Jim cuts a lot of glass and his tri-master blades last a long time, they are a good investment. I live 5 miles from Band saw blades inc, I can call him and get a New blade in 15 minutes. My 12 inch Craftsman saw was a $50 craigslist buy in 2009, I bought "cool blocks" for it and the $120 carbide blade.
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So what tooth pattern on the carbon blades do you use for cutting glass? :dunno:
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I'm think my sterling blade is a 4tpi triple chip..I'm pretty sure they make a new version of it now. At the time (2009) I had never owned or used a band saw..i walked into the building and told the guy I wanted a 80 inch long 4tpi 1/2" carbide blade.. I thought I had bought a Lennox tri-master blade until last year when I asked the guy at BSB inc if he could sharpen it..he told me he sold me a Sterling blade..and he does not sharpen blades. Not a problem, it still cuts glass nicely.
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The Tri-master I bought for big bucks was welded wrong and wobbled badly. Sent it back and received a replacement that was worse. Called the company and they re-credited my account and told me to keep the blade. It cuts good but leaves a very ragged edge. How good should a free blade cut?
James
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highlandwoodworking.com there out of atlanta pretty quick service for me. I too like the big feller said lenox trimaster
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Wow, Jim you sure got a bad run of luck with your Laguna blades! I had some of their blades a few years ago that were really brittle and were breaking on me, but the past couple of years they've been great. I'll run the same blade on my saw for a couple of months before needing to resharpen, and that is using it every day and cutting all kinds of really hard woods, including snakewood. I've been extremely pleased with mine.
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So you can get the carbide ones resharpened? What is the cost. I use bi-metal blades for everything 6-10 variable pitch. They have enough backbone to not wander when resawing against the fence. I can do a ton of resawing and still cut out several sets of limbs before it is junk.
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Laguna resharpens there blades!
There blades are made different for Resawing
Don't know about the others
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Yes South, lots of problems. They were really good about it and I love my laguna saw, but won't even run the four new blades I have hanging on the wall as I found every one of them to have been a waste of time.
the trimaster lasts a long time and does a good job, but if you are going to cut glass with it, I wouldn't waste my time trying to have it sharpened weather they will or not. It will just get dull immediately after the first time it cuts glass.
Strangely, it cuts nearly as well on glass while being dull as a regular blade will cut on wood mostly sharp.
BigJIm