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Thread: Bandsaw blades for a new 14/12

  1. #1

    Bandsaw blades for a new 14/12

    As usual before posting I have done a few searches here. This place always has the best power tool information bar none.

    I have a different kind of bandsaw blade question. Probably why I really could not find much specific to my usage.

    I am just now purchasing a Laguna 14/12. Lots of folks with that one on their watch list with the Rikon and the Grizzly for competition. For a multitude of reasons the 14/12 is the right one for me. However I can definitely see why folks would take the Grizzly first and even the Rikon. If I was actually doing veneer resawing, I think it would be a harder choice for me. That brings me to how I use a bandsaw. I use bandsaws mainly to cut big blocks into smaller blocks. I do no veneer rasawing whatsoever. I am a carver and I use bandsaws to get wood blocks down to the right sizes and shapes. As I continued to grow into a full fledged carver, the thickness of wood that I carve on and the types of wood have changed quite a bit over time. So now I am often cutting on 4-6" thicknesses with the bandsaw. While I often cut basswood, I now have other woods I work with including black walnut and ash....occasionally some of the more oily exotics and harder woods.

    So first off, I have never bought any of the Laguna blades for anything. Did not see a particular reason and Laguna stuff can be a little pricy. The 14/12 takes 115" blades. If I stay within Laguna for blades, I would think a 1/4" x 6 tpi. Proforce would be one choice that I would use for just about all thicknesses of basswood and stuff like basswood. Then a 1/4" x 14 tpi Proforce for harder woods, slower going, less saw dust to move off the blade edge. I am figuring 1/4" so that I can cut some turns at a reasonable radius. I might keep my smaller bandsaw, load it with an 1/8" blade and keep it loaded that way for really small radius work that is not too trying for it.

    So to be honest, as long as the Proforce blades are not ridiculously overpriced for what they are which would probably send me more to an Olson or something like that for these less than exciting blade sizes I guess I would just get a couple of Proforce blades to start. Olsons are not that much cheaper though. I have experience with the Olson Flexbacks. Not a bad blade. I wonder about cutting more exotics and hardwoods. Often a real resaw blade is recommended in those instances even if not doing veneer resawing. Again within Laguna, I could get something like a 5/8" ProForce....not sure about the TPI for hardwoods at 4-6" thickness if I do that. Can do one of the Laguna 5/8" Sheer Force resaw blades or a Resaw King. Many of you are familiar with that blade but again mostly as a veneer resaw blade.

    So for the 1/4" blades, does it make sense to get a couple of Laguna blades for simplicity or is the $28 and change they want for those simply way more than I should pay for 115" blades of this type? To me, the price sounds reasonable if they are good blades. If not then Olson or Timberwolf would likely be pretty close in price.

    For something for thicker pieces of hardwoods/exotics, should I just stick with Proforce or something like it in a wider blade, something with a 1/2" or 5/8", 12-14 tpi to accommodate the slow going or should I get a resaw blade though not doing any veneer resawing? If I really should get a resaw blade I have to think that a Resaw King would be massive overkill for what I am doing and that even a Woodmaster CT might be overkill, just not massive overkill, especially relative to cost. I am not going to worry that much about radius of turn for cutting the hardwoods/exotics. I just want to make clean, trouble free, safe cuts and I will be a happy camper.

    Any recommendations much appreciated especially regarding the thicker exotics/hardwoods.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Doylestown, PA
    Posts
    7,576
    I would recommend talking to someone who knows more about bandsaw blades than me. There are a number of good sources, I've had experience with 2, Super Cut bandsaw and Woodcraftbands (Not related to the Woodcraft stores AFAIK). I would call, tell them what you want to do and see what they say. The times I've called though not that often I got someone who seemed knowledgeable.

    http://www.supercutbandsaw.com/how_to_choose.html

    http://www.woodcraftbands.com/

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    251
    I have the Laguna SUV14 and feel the Laguna blades are worth the extra money. If you watch Woodcraft or Rockler, you can usually get them on sale or use a coupon. Olson blades break regularly at the welds on my bandsaw (I had similar issues with my Grizzly), I haven't had a Laguna blade break yet and have only ruined one 1/4" blade when I tried to saw thru a nail buried in a board.

    As far as the pro-force, I'd recommend a 1/4 -4, 1/4-6, 3/8 -4 for green wood, and 5/8-3/4 blade. The Laguna blades cut really well. As far as the 1/4-14 TPI, I don't use mine.

    I'm not sure if you will have to use the cool blocks adapter guides for 1/8" blades on your saw. I need to change them out for the 3/16" blade on mine.

    Before you spend the money on the high tooth count blades, try the lower tooth count pro-force blades. With the saw set up properly they cut better than any other blade I have tried in the past.

  4. #4
    Never had a bad experience with Lenox or Timberwolf blades.

    Erik Loza
    Minimax USA

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Dickinson, Texas
    Posts
    7,655
    Blog Entries
    1
    Highland Hardware sells good blades. I really like their Sterling blades. Apparently, they are B-metal and you can set the tension lower allowing good tracking.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Great Falls, VA
    Posts
    813
    James, suggest you take a look at the blades from Ellis Manufacturing Co. in Verona, WI: http://www.ellissaw.com/. I learned about Ellis through SMC about a year ago, and now use them exclusively on both my Grizzly G0513X2 and Rockwell 14". Excellent quality, very reasonable pricing. They'll make any of their blades in whatever length you want. They do require a minimum order of $50, but for your Laguna 14/12, you can probably get four or five blades for that. My G0513X2 takes 131-1/2". The 1/2" 3 tpi hook tooth blades for it that I recently bought were about $11.20 each.

    David

  7. #7
    I use TW blades. But try one from sawblade . com. I cut hard wood last week and t'was pretty smooth.

  8. #8
    Does anybody know if you can use 3/16" wide blades on the stock guides blocks? There seems to be scuttle that you would need adapter blocks.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    lost in the NW Atlanta 'burbs
    Posts
    163
    James,

    If you're cutting 4-6" thickness you don't want a fine-tooth blade, they'll fill the gullets long before they get through the stock and you'll have problems. Even 6 tpi is too much tooth and not enough gullet for thick stock. Basically, you want the gullet to fill up just as the tooth exits the stock at a reasonable feed rate. It's counter-intuitive but the thicker the stock the less teeth you need in the cut for the best cut quality. If the gullets fill up before they leave the stock the teeth don't cut and that part of the blade just wanders around and burns its' way through the wood until it can empty the gullet. 12-14 tpi blades are for very thin stock, <5/16" usually. I personally wouldn't use a 6tpi blade for anything more than an inch. You can accommodate for this by slowing down the feed rate but who wants to spend 15 minutes crosscutting a 6" blank?

    I'd suggest the Highland WoodSlicer for general use, any good 1/4" or 3/8" blade in a 2-3 tpi deep-gullet pattern should be good for cutting curves in thick stock. Highland sells a Woodturner's blade for $23.00 in your length. Or go to the Carter website, they sell good blades as well. I have a few of the Laguna silicon blades, they work as well as any.

    The biggest thing is to match the tooth pattern and pitch to the stock thickness and your desired feed rate.

    HTH,
    Bill

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    251
    Josh,
    Laguna claims the ceramic guides are god for 1/4" and up, for 1/8" or 3/16" they recommend their cool blocks adapters. I haven't tried using the ceramic guides on the 3/16" blade. Like Bill says, the fine tooth blades will fill the gullets on thick wood.

  11. #11
    I don't do any veneer resawing.
    At this point the blade lineup is as follows. These are all 115":
    - 3 TPI Hook, 3/8", Flex, Lenox, Carbon
    - 4 TPI Hook, 3/8", Flex, Lenox, Carbon
    - 3/4T, 5/8", Kerfmaster, Lenox, Carbon
    - 10TPI, Raker, 1/4", Flex, Lenox, Carbon
    - 14 TPI, ProForce, 1/4"

    I figure the 10 and the 14 give me two blades with a high tooth count for whatever....thinner stock...cleaner cuts, slow feed. I am really more interested in experimenting with slow feed, higher tooth count in the thinner stuff and see what happens.
    the 3 and 4 TPI, 3/8" flex backs for general purpose maybe 3+" to 5"
    The Kerfmaster 5/8" for bigger blocks, straight cuts, specialty woods maybe

    Somehow I neglected to get a 1/4" 3 TPI to cut a few tighter turns. Not sure how I missed that. Any suggestions for a 115" that I should try? I need at least one 1/4" blade at 3 tpi. I might have been thinking that the 3/8" 3 and 4 tpi blades would cut as tight a turn as I would need. Maybe they will but I think I would feel better with at least one 1/4" at 3 tpi in the mix.

    Actually just remembered why I did not end up with a 1/4" 3 tpi. Proforce only offers a 1/4" 4 tpi and Spectrum Supply where I got the rest of these did not have a 3 tpi, 1/4" either. I forgot to go hunting for a 1/4", 3 tpi elsewhere. Is 4 tpi the least I am going to find in this length at 1/4"?

    I am really a slow feed rate kind of guy. By that I mean I like to go as slow as I can while still getting a clean cut depending on the thickness and wood type. By that I mean that I will never go as fast through the stock as I can go but end up on the opposite end going as slow as I can go and still get a good cut. I will usually do a few test cuts with blades I have not used before just to get a feel for feed rate.

    PS I am actually beginning to wonder if I just won't find 3 tpi, 1/4" blades at 115". If that is the case maybe I should just get a Proforce 4 tpi and make that my 1/4" tight curve blade. Am I barking up the wrong tree looking for 1/4", 3 tpi at 115"?
    Last edited by James Nugnes; 01-12-2015 at 2:41 PM.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Lubbock Texas
    Posts
    931
    [QUOTE=Curt Harms;2348105]"...............I've had experience with 2, Super Cut bandsaw...." blades
    http://www.supercutbandsaw.com/how_to_choose.html

    I recommend the supercut blades also. I use the carbide blade and they are cheaper than most blades and last a lot longer.
    No PHD, but I have a DD 214

  13. #13
    Well I hate to say it but I think I just wasted a bunch of time and some shipping cost could have been saved if I had realized earlier that in fact I won't find 1/4", 3 tpi. I should probably just have gotten a Proforce 1/4", 4 tpi as I likely won't do better than that. Really torques me off as I just should have realized when I did not see it at Laguna Tool or at Spectrum which has just about everything that Lenox offers that I was looking for something that does not exist in 1/4", maybe at any length.

    So all things being equal, what does the board think....just get a 1/4". 4 tpi Proforce????? This one likely ends up the blade that is on the saw a good deal of the time. So it should be a good blade anyway.

    The 14 tpi Proforce was a stupid purchase on my part. While I want to experiment I really don't need a fine cut. Everything take of the bandsaw is processed much farther. So a really fine surface is not going to do anything for me. Kicking myself for that one.
    Last edited by James Nugnes; 01-12-2015 at 3:32 PM.

  14. #14
    Just thought I would post something a post giving Laguna's bandsaw blade department a thumbs up. I have or had a Proforce 115", 4 TPI blade. It was the blade I used most on my 14/Tweive. It broke right at the weld last night.

    Laguna just replaced it this morning no questions asked. Told them it had broken right at the weld and it had...and they are just sending one out to replace it.

    I have to admit I had gotten used to 3 or 4 tpi blades but only had a 6 that I could toss on in a pinch. The 6 is a nice blade. But it won't go through wood like a 4.

    Anyway....very happy with Laguna's support in this instance.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    Stark County Ohio
    Posts
    137
    I get all my bandsaw blades made up at Cammel Saw Canton Ohio.

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