WoodWorker II blade question

[Ken Shoemaker]

I got a WW II 40T and just haven't been happy with the cut. I've been cutting alot of red oak and find that the blade leaves 1/8th inch, VERY thin, squre, chips on the cross cut, rips are fine. I've tried raising and lowering the blade to see if that would help - not.

BTW - I've got the saw tuned so that I can stand an 1/8" drill bit on end, turn the saw on and off with the bit still standing.

I bought the blade because of glowing recomendations, but just not impressed.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Ken

[Brian Kent]

Zero clearance insert?

[Bruce Page]

Ken, I can get that with my WW if I feed to quickly. Crosscutting performance is also improved if you can raise the blade so the gullet is above the board and the blade’s teeth are coming down on the workpiece. I raise the blade high like that only if I feel it is safe to do so. As good as the WWII is it is still a compromise between a dedicated rip blade with fewer teeth, and a dedicated crosscut blade with more teeth.

[Dave Falkenstein]

Excuse my obvious question, but... Are you certain that the blade and miter slot and fence are aligned? I have two WW II blades for my table saw, and I get very clean crosscuts in just about any material.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Welcome to the wonderful world of over hyped WWII ownership. Most feel that because it is expensive, as compared to other blades, it has to be better. Red oak probably splinters more than any other wood. Try putting some blue painters tape on bottom of stock where you will be cross cutting it. Even 96 tooth blades on the miter saws have trouble with red oak and splintering. I don't ever recall seeing a production shop in my area running Forrest blades. Here, most run Freuds. Yeah, I know some one is going to take me to task for not worshiping Forrest blades.

[Gary Keedwell]

Originally Posted by Bruce Wrenn

Welcome to the wonderful world of over hyped WWII ownership. Most feel that because it is expensive, as compared to other blades, it has to be better. Red oak probably splinters more than any other wood. Try putting some blue painters tape on bottom of stock where you will be cross cutting it. Even 96 tooth blades on the miter saws have trouble with red oak and splintering. I don't ever recall seeing a production shop in my area running Forrest blades. Here, most run Freuds. Yeah, I know some one is going to take me to task for not worshiping Forrest blades.

Well, it won't be me. I have two of them and am not overly impressed. As a matter of fact, I'm working on my Morris chair right now and my choice to cut my QSWO has been my freud. My cross cuts have been as smooth as a babie's behind.
Gary

[Dave Falkenstein]

Originally Posted by Bruce Wrenn

...Yeah, I know some one is going to take me to task for not worshiping Forrest blades.

Have you ever used one Bruce?

[Ken Shoemaker]

Thanks for all the comments. Here are some answers.

ZCI = Yes, always, even on 45 degree miters. I have several of them.

Blade parallel to miter slot = Dead on. I bought the Mster Plate and Dial indicator. 4' straighedge and got all the table wings flat.

I will try lifting the blade higher... MAN, this S*%KS!!!!!! I spent alot of money on this thing as I know you all did. It's funny, I bought a blade at a ww show a couple years ago and it was without a doubt the best blade I ever had. It was a heck of alot cheaper than this... Sorry for the rant.

[Bob Genovesi]

Hi Ken,

I agonized over the same decision and decided to stay with my Freud dedicated blades. I have Freud's rip, crosscut, and combination and while I know it's a pain to swap them, I feel the results are better in all cases, I just plan my cuts.

Bob

[Jeff Wright]

Ken, I believe Forrest will refund your money if you are not happy. Why not give them a call?

[Doug Shepard]

I've got a Forrest Dado King and have been real happy with it. After years of reading glowing comments on the WWII I finally bought one a year ago last fall during a VG Amazon sale. Didn't get around to using it until just this last fall though. I was interested in reducing the amount of blade changes from my normal blades which are a Freud 80T croscut and a Freud 24T rip blade. While I think it's a good blade I dont think it's going to reduce or replace my use of either of those 2 Freuds. It's just not as good at crosscutting or ripping as the dedicated blades. More chipping on the crosscuts and sheet stuff and a bit of burning on rips through 8/4 purpleheart. I would need to do a comparison with another combo blade in order to give a fair assessment how it stacks up there.

[scott spencer]

If all is as it should be, the Forrest is as good as any 40T general purpose blade going. I've used a few WWII's and all were good, but that doesn't mean that every example is up to snuff. IME, the performance of the WWII has been on par with other top general purp blades like the Ridge Carbide, Infinity Combomax and Super General, Tenryu Gold Medal, and DW7657, which all typically gave a slightly better performance to the DW7150PT, LU84, LU86, Tenryu RS25540 and RS25550, and Leitz 40 and 50T...haven't tried a Freud Fusion yet.

A general purpose blade is a compromise by design that won't excel while working in the ranges of a good specialized crosscut or rip blade. It will typically outperform a lower end crosscut or rip blade though. The WWII's crosscut performance is eclipsed by an LU80, LU74, DW3218, Leitz 80T, CMT, LU88, etc. It's ripping performance is cleaner than a 24T blade but bogs down and burns more in very thick wood.

With that said, it's likely that there is something not right with your WWII, or you were expecting it to outperform a good specialty blade. Usually when we try a blade, we try a sample size of "one", which may or may not be representative of the population....some variability is at play here, which is a present with any brand, but you'd expect a $100 blade to have superior QC to a $50 blade. Did this WWII come from Amazon? (this isn't the first Amazon wWII complaint I've read) What blades were you using before that gave better results? I'd contact Forrest and describe your setup and your results.

[Brian Hale]

I've got 2 WWII's 40t and also feel they're a bit over hyped and over priced. The first i got from Woodcraft and wasn't impressed at all for a blade at that price point but thinking it might just be that single blade i purchased another one from Amazon when they had a sale on them about a year ago. Same results. I then sent one to Forrest for resharpening. No improvement.

Over all it's a nice General Purpose blade but it's not a substitute for a dedicated rip or crosscut blade. For a general purpose blade it's certainly as good as my LU82M010 60 tooth GP blade which sells for ~$45.

Brian

Edit: Another thing to consider is that the WWII doesn't come with a coating like the Freud and as anyone who has cut oily wood can attest, cleaning it can be a real PITA.

[Mike Cutler]

Originally Posted by Bruce Wrenn

Try putting some blue painters tape on bottom of stock where you will be cross cutting it. Even 96 tooth blades on the miter saws have trouble with red oak and splintering.

Ken
This is a very viable solution. I use this method with Wenge all the time. Use the 2" wide Blue Painters tape and really press it into the wood.

One test you can make to seperate out the problem is to put your material on a sled. If there is any gap between the material and your installed ZCI you can get chipping. The sled will provide a dead reference and support the cut edge.

I must be in the minority here. I've always had good success with the CMT blades. I'll have try some of the blades in Scott's post.
I think Brian wins the cool TS blade collection award. Those are some nice blades you have there Brian.

[Ken Shoemaker]

I just checked to see what the blade was that inpressed me so much. It appears to be a Signature Series blade made by Oldham. I bought them both (table saw and miter saw) at a woodworking show in Chicago a few years ago. I didn't even know what burning or chipping was, ripping or cross cuts. That was untilll the WWII.

I think the Signature blade is sold at Menards. Well, off I go to see it they have the same thing there.

BTW - Thanks to Jeff for the suggestion. I'll call Forrest tomorrow to see if there is a return policy that will ease my pain. I don't have the reciept because I never thought I'd need it because of their reputaTION.

The saga continues..... Be safe.... Ken