Official Luthiers Forum!

I bought a 93 1/2" x1/2"carbide blade from
Grizzly for my 14"Rikon.
The F'n blade has cut 6" of Ebony & Coco with NO problem-on this little saw!

I'll get some more ;for sure!

Mike

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Mike Collins

Fillipo here is a link to the WoodmasterB http://www.spectrumsupply.com/woodmasterb.aspx
It's listed under sawmill blades. I use this blade too. Cut is a bit rougher but not bad. Handles the toughest of woods with relative ease. It can be sharpened and should last you a long time. At least I hope it does and I don't see a post titled "Uncle Bob The Reference Standard for Garbage Saw Blade Advice" Talk to Al at Spectrum. Great guy, great welds and great service. Buy the way Lenox Welds are among the best there are.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Here is a link to video of Laguna RK blade slicing Bubinga 2mm thick.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video. ... 1613363219

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Lance Peck

Has anyone tried the 1/2" bimetal hook tooth version of the Lennox Diemaster 2 ?

-jd

60 back and side sets of bloodwood cut this month with RK blade.
A little rougher cut than on some species but perfectly straight.

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Lance Peck

Nice looking blood wood but quite different than what I'm used to seeing. We usually buy the deep red stuff.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Now that is some beautiful bloodwood! Is that the same species as the deep red stuff?

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

This is the same species as the solid red bloodwood but it is a rare endemic variety that grows at high elevations in the Peruvian Andes.

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Lance Peck

Uh, I want some of that. Plus, you got any harp guitar sized sets?

Mike

Hey Flippo,
Thanks for posting this thread. I don't make a ton of money and I have been tempted to buy one of these Laguna blades for a while now. When I was looking for a carbide tipped blade I decided on the Woodmaster CT upon Bob C's recommendation. Couldn't be happier with it. If you aren't going to call Laguna for a fix I still think you should call the guy them for a refund. If they truly believe in their product, they'll take their blades back and issue a refund.

Those blades are way to expensive to not function properly.

To the forgotten Woods sponsor- nice saw & setup, but that's a bit more rigid and much larger than anything most of us here are likely to have. Is that a 2" blade?

We cut it all to Dreadnaught size. LMI bought all we had in stock so if you want a set give them a call, I'm not sure when they will list them.
If you want a harp size set let us know your exact size requirements and we can watch for a billet big enough in the next shipment.

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Lance Peck

Yes the saw is bigger and more rigid than most home shops are likely to have. But that is my point I would like to make about the RK blades. The blades do work correctly if the saw is adjusted absolutely correct for the blade. That includes having enough rigidity to remain in alignment during the cut. It only takes a couple inches of incorrect alignment to dull the blade. When the blade gets dull it will start to wonder and there is no leeway. It is a 1.25" blade, I think that is the widest RK they offer. FYI after 6 sharpenings the blade is done.

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Lance Peck

Reading through these it sounds to me like who ever is making Lagunas' coil stock has an out of control process. It could be the metallurgy/heat treat variances, sharpening problems, who knows, but trying to make a case that they're all good or all bad is silly. People are definately not talking about the same blades even though they have the same name and are bought from the same company. Perhaps they're buying their coil stock from China. Just my $.02.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I see what you mean Filippo, saying that the RK is just fine if you have the tool and know what your doing suggests that BobC is such a novice at resaw he can't get a HD Laguna set up to cut without premature dulling even though he had a half dozen RKs at his disposal which are now hang'in as ornaments on the wall. Maybe someone from Laguna should drop out to RC tonewoods and give Bob a quick run down on the basics... Makes me wonder though why it is that he was doing OK 'before' the RK's revealed his inexperience, and has done just fine ever since he gave up on them as a lost cause...at least I hope he is doing well, because if he is still going through CT BS blades at that rate he must be losing money hand over fist considering how reasonable his prices are.

Cheers

Kim

Even if it were true that it requires a certain caliber saw, and a precise setup, it probably excludes the majority of the members of this forum, who, if you're like me, are using some variant of a consumer grade saw that is marginally set up, which would mean those blades are useless to us...

My takeaway from this thread is that there are some inconsistencies with materials and/or manufacturing, and their QC is process is letting crappy blades out to the public.

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Jim Hansen

Isn't that what I said ?

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Jim Hansen

I won't be buying a Laguna RK. The 1" 1.3tpi woodmaster CT far exceeded my expectations and as a complete novice with the most basic setup, I am able to keep my tolerances very reasonable even on a bad day. I have zero reason to explore further unless I really needed less kerf. Even then I can't see spending on a RK.

sharpened blades dull just as fast in dense wood.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Coil stock is from Sweden... I posted that earlier. I think I already posted my setup. Not sure if I've seen Todd's, Bob's, or Filippo's. It could very well be a setup (equipment) issue. Please state your equipment. I run my RK with quite a bit of tension. I use the 3/4" and I believe the 1" blades (I need to verify that). I am pretty sure that the smallest RK (3/4") would not work very well on a 14" saw.

Mike

I have a 1" x 1.3 tpi Woodmaster CT that I've been using & a 1" Resaw King that I haven't tried yet.

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but according to my micrometer the RK is only 0.0235" thick while the Woodmaster is 0.035" thick. I suspect this could contribute to the RK being finicky - more tension needed & precisely set guides to help the thin blade stock stay straight.

BTW
Edited

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Just to clarify, my statement was in jest. I do know that Laguna will send free blades to people who do refer other customers - they offered the deal to me.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

It is an alignment problem. Everything must be in perfect alignment. I'm not talking about "setting the drift". The RK blade is not like all kinds of other blades. The extra thin metal reacts differently to alignment of everything. Under tension look at how easily you can twist the blade with your fingers compared to other blades. This flexibility will respond to out of align parts, like guides, wheels, fence and any other part that the blade touches and slight out of align problems when the wood is fed. I'm not trying to imply that anyone does not know how to set up their saw. All I am saying is that the RK blade needs a different alignment protocol than other blades and once the user learns how to align the saw to carry the blade...bingo everything works. And when suddenly everything works and all blades out of the box work correctly I think it is not unreasonable to say the problem was "user error". I was an RK victim of user error for 3 years until I solved the puzzle.



No, not a coincidence at all. There likely could be something wrong with the "blades alignment". One tooth bent a little and the alignment is off. Or a tooth that got chipped? If the blade is not handled with care it could be compromised by bending a tooth while unfolding or installing the blade. It could be damaged in shipment, I would like to see a tooth protector on the blades when they are shipped. However I am convinced when I had problems in the beginning like you have described that within a few inches of cutting a hard species the blade became dull it is because the feed and alignment were off, my error.



No, that is not what I have surmised at all. I'm sure you all know how to setup and operate your equipment. But what I know is that if you are having the RK problem that you describe then you don't know how to operate the RK blade correctly. It is not a matter of not knowing how to operate the saw, it is more about learning how to operate the blade.



Like I said above I also experienced the same problem on my 24" Laguna but not since I learned that alignment issues were the problem and Laguna made the design change to the RK blade last year.

Can the Woodmaster CT cut hundreds of sets of "hard" wood without wear? RK blades do require resharpening.

I'm not trying to convince anyone to use Laguna. I'm just passing on a little knowledge and suggesting that owners of RK blades not assume the blades are bad just because that is what they read on a forum.

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Lance Peck

I'm not in this at all, and don't even have a band saw big enough to handle the blade, but my question would be, "Why on earth would anyone want to buy a blade that difficult to set up, when there are other blades available that will work with less attention to set up, are less expensive, and last longer?" Just wondering?

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Filippo, Just to clarify again, For us the problems you reference are not systemic with the RK blades we receive from Laguna. We just got in 3 new blades to add to our rotation and if any of them fail out of the box as we use them I will post the result here.

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Lance Peck

Once you learn the set up it is not more difficult than any other blade, it is basically a one time set up. The RK blade has an extremely thin kerf and the cut is clean enough that not much thickness is lost to remove saw marks. This results in extra sets of wood from billets and that means less wood waste and perhaps the difference between making money and not. It also means perfect book matched sets.

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Lance Peck