Official Luthiers Forum!

Coiling and recoiling.

Check out Highland woodworking site, they have it all in the library.

I finally printed it out with drawings and taped it up on the backside of my Laguna.

I do remember it's important to use your foot, and gloved hands. And you have to stand up with it as you uncoil a blade, reverse is true, squat down with it as you coil it up. Where you start with your hands is all important.

I've also done the "let 'er fly" method and it works well for uncoiling, teeth up, of course.....

With the best blades, and the cantankerous woods we cut, I've found to count on 1/4 inch per slice, less the saw kerf, well, you come out with useable slices, usually an extra too, which can be used, just not too saleable, those orphans. Still, I'd rather have an orphan a billet, than ten pieces that won't clear in the sander.

All the wood I've gotten from LMI or Allied has been 3/16 or better and usually with resaw marks. They know. I've noticed that tops however will often have one side sanded..... why....?    (grading),,, ahhhh!!

We're having some fun now. If your new blade isn't performing it may be it's just no good out of the box. Try another.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Bob, I did set for drift. As for the guides, I did my best. The lagunas are a bit tricky to keep square. I ended up wrapping a thin piece of paper around the blade and carefully sqeezing them together while tightening. The resaw king actually had much less vibration than the t-wolf but something wacky was going on. Clogging seems the best bet at this point. I'll give laguna a second chance because if it would cut straight, it has the thinnest kerf combined with the best finish by far.

Do any of you retrofit brushes to clean the blade? Dry lube to keep oily dust from sticking?

 

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Woodslicer from Highland Woodworking.  Thin kerf, very nice.  I just wish it held its sharpness a bit longer.

Kent, I use a RK blade on my LT-20 bowlsaver BS. I found it wandered a bit too, at first. I stopped this behaviour by tensioning about 30% more than Laguna said to and paying particular attention to locking down the fence tightly and keeping the wood hard against the fence. I'm prolly going to build a vaccum fence too sometime soon. I haven't tried any cocobolo yet, but I have a nice couple of billets of the stuff that I intend to use shortly. I'll let you know how it goes.  

Well, start by tossing most of the blades you have been talking about. Keep in mind that this is just an opinion

I used the TriMaster for years. Very smooth cut...on some woods....some of the softer woods would be hard to cut straight. Still, it was the best overall for most hard woods. Some cut easy, some cut slow. I hated to cut bubinga or ovangkol with it, took forever.

Now they have come out with the Woodmaster CT in a 1" width so it will fit my saw. After talking with a few folks and looking at photos of the blade. I sprung for 5 of them (cut the cost from $112 down to $78 each that way). My resawing world has changed. I enjoy it, it is relaxing, and effortless. Bubinga and ovangkol slide through that blade with ease. And for the most part, the cut is as smooth as the TriMaster.

The problem with the TriMaster? Too many teeth and the gullets too small to clear as they should. Plus the rake angle of the teeth is not optimized for wood (it IS a metal cutting blade). That blade was overheating. Coco and a lot of other woods would build up deposits on the blade and in the gullets. And the overheating eventually caused slight warping in the band. It started wandering well before it started to dull. I don't think any of my TriMasters actually got dull. They just got to where they would no longer cut straight.

The Woodmaster? Cuts at a good rate regardless of the wood, though I do not feed overly fast, just keep very light feed pressure. The gullets do not plug. The blade stays very clean, even after several cocobolo billets in a row. Maybe not the thinnest kerf, but reasonable. And, more important, very consistent.

I don't try to cut overly thin. I resaw sides at about .12, on the average, and always get 6 slices from anything that is 15/16 or so thick. If it is a slightly heavy 1", I get the 6 slices plus a "veneer". The uniformity of the "veneer" tells me how consistent the cuts are.

I initially wondered about the longevity of this blade. But I am on the first one and it is cutting just like when I first put it on the saw. And I have a stack of both backs and sides over 2 feet tall of each. And most of it is dense tropical hardwoods including some real bears like pau rosa.

I have a brand new TriMaster, still in the box. And it will probably stay there. As for using non-carbide blades? Not worth the bother and they don't last. If I were to use them and replace them before the ruined some expensive wood, I would end up paying at least twice as much in blades as the Woodmaster.

I am a VERY happy resawer

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Grant

Dave, I tried cranking the tension up to way off the scale. No help.

Grant, .120" sands out to what with that blade? The T-wolf AS-S needed about .105" - .110" to sand to .085" in Wenge or Mahogany.

And by the way, I sent you a PM. Squeedunk Lake? You gotta be making that name up!

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Amazing Grant this is the very blade I have coming in. You got a great price. But, you do a lot more sawing than most of us hillbillies.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Kent, Actually .120 sands out to way more than I need, but I like to play it safe, just in case. For my own use, I could probably cut to .100 and be fine, but some folks like to start with their wood a bit thicker.

Still, as the cost and availability of high quality keeps going as is, thinner (and consistent) IS the direction to go in IMGO

Grant

Bruce, you gonna love that blade.

G

Good.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Grant,

I have taken your advice and ordered one, found out Lenox blades where having a price increase and got a 15% off coupon and ordered another one 144" for $98 shipped, thanks for the heads up.

Peter