Which Lenox bandsaw blade, for hours of resawing?

[dirk martin]

I'm going to be resawing 8" to 12" wide hardwoods on my Minimax MM24, for hours on end. I'm shooting for 1/4" and 1/8" stock.
I have a wide belt sander, so don't really care about the smoothness of cut, as it's easy for me to sand down to my final thickness.
My biggest desire is high feed rate, using my stock feeder.

Anyone have experince with the Woodmaster B, or Diemaster 2 that they can share?

I'll probably go with 3/4" or 1" for beam strength.
There's no way I'm gonna pull this off for under $100 a blade, is there...???

(Mostly domestic hardwoods, with a piece of purpleheart or bloodwood here and there...)

[Mike Cutler]

Lennox 1", 2/3 varipitch Tri-Master.
Your saw is a much better saw than mine, Rikon 10-340, and I can do what you need to do all day long with this blade. I can't achieve a face tat doesn't need sanding, but it's only one or two light passes through the sander and its good to go. Statistical variation in board thickness is measured with a vernier.

[James Conrad]

Hi Dirk, As we had discussed in you other thread for my MM20, I'm using the Diemaster 2 - try the 1/2" in either .025 or the thicker .035 kerf gets you down to 3tpi. The Tri-master is a nice blade too, but 4x the price - I have used the 1, 3/4 and 1/2", but I always seem end up back with the bimetal as it does what I want with a good balance of quality result, blade life and economy.

[Montgomery Scott]

I bought the 1" woodmaster CT for my MM16 specifically for some 9" thick ebony cants. The blade cut it easily and gave a smoother cut than I expected given the thickness and hardness of the wood. Money well spent. In softer wood it produces a surface than cleans up quickly with a sander.

[dirk martin]

Lennox 1", 2/3 varipitch Tri-Master.
Your saw is a much better saw than mine, Rikon 10-340, and I can do what you need to do all day long with this blade. I can't achieve a face tat doesn't need sanding, but it's only one or two light passes through the sander and its good to go. Statistical variation in board thickness is measured with a vernier.

Looks like $249 for that blade in 176 inches....darn....not cheap.....

[dirk martin]

I bought the 1" woodmaster CT for my MM16 specifically for some 9" thick ebony cants. The blade cut it easily and gave a smoother cut than I expected given the thickness and hardness of the wood. Money well spent. In softer wood it produces a surface than cleans up quickly with a sander.

It's odd, I look here:
http://www.toolcenter.com/176_Band_Saw_Blade.html

And I only see the CT in a 2 inch blade....odd

[dirk martin]

I bought the 1" woodmaster CT for my MM16 specifically for some 9" thick ebony cants. The blade cut it easily and gave a smoother cut than I expected given the thickness and hardness of the wood. Money well spent. In softer wood it produces a surface than cleans up quickly with a sander.

I found the CT in 1", at Bandsawbladesdirect, and it looks like it'll still spoil a $200 bill.....

[James Conrad]

Try Spectrum Supply (http://www.spectrumsupply.com/band-saw-blades.aspx)

[Tai Fu]

I use Woodmaster CT, it would be about the cheapest you can go as far as carbide goes. I guess Woodmaster B wouldn't be a bad choice either if you don't mind the shorter blade life (shouldn't be too hard to sharpen actually given how BIG the teeth is). For me the Woodmaster CT cuts the best at 4-6" (I am using 1.3 TPI here), while anything 8" and above produces a fairly rough cut that needs some work when resawing maple. Maybe they cut better in harder wood or there's something about the setup of my bandsaw. I'm not sure how much tension is needed. I've tried to resaw 12" of baltic birch plywood... not an ideal situation (and who would resaw bloody plywood??) but I could only get baltic birch in 3/4" but I needed 1/2", so I just resawn it instead of going out to purchase inferior lauan plywood. It needs some passes through a jointer and random orbital sander to get it smooth.

[dirk martin]

Got my Lenox Diemaster 2, and loaded it up on my MM24.
It certainly isn't as sharp as other new blades i've used.
I am surprised how hard I have to push the wood into the blade....but like I said, I'm spoiled by other blades that are much sharper, but haven't been lasting more than 6 or 8 hours of steady resawing.
However, I love how straight the Diemaster cuts, and since I got the 3/4" blade, I can give it quite a bit of tension.
I just hope it lasts as long as many say it should.

[James Conrad]

You shouldn't have to push that hard it it should be sharp as any other blade, find that odd for sure. Where did you get it from?

[Dave Cav]

Another vote for the Lennox WM CT; I'm using it on a 17" Grizzly G0513.

[dirk martin]

You shouldn't have to push that hard it it should be sharp as any other blade, find that odd for sure. Where did you get it from?

From:
http://www.woodcraftbands.com/index.htm

After resawing 10 or so boards, my arms are tired.
That's how hard I have to push.

[dirk martin]

I bought the 3/4" x .035", at 3H, for $3.25/foot.

[Jeff Duncan]

Carbide blades are not quite as sharp as steel blades....this applies to everything from planer knives to circular saw blades to bandsaw blades. However they last so much longer it's still well worth having them. As far as how hard it is to push that could be a couple things.....for instance if your carbide blade has more teeth than your previous blade it may feed a bit slower.

Ive got easily several hundred bd. ft. through my RSK and it's still cutting pretty much like new! The Woodslicer blades I was using before did not last for very long re-sawing hard woods. They cut great when new, and fast as well, they just didn't last. I think you'll find you get a good amount of life with that carbide blade.

good luck,
JeffD

[dirk martin]

The Dimaster 2 is not Carbide.

[Andrew Hughes]

Hi Dirk,how tall is the stick your resawing?I would think after 10 inches the 3t hook would start needing some pressure.
I use woodmaster ct and olsen blades on my B 20/20 and the olsen 1tpi does fine up to about 10 inches.I could see the 3tpi needing some pressure after about 8 inches.

[dirk martin]

Well, my Diemaster 2 broke, and not at the weld. No idea why. My hired hand was feeding a new board into the blade for resawing, and as soon as the board touched the blade, it broke. This was after 2 days of steady resawing.

Now running a Woodmaster CT, and loving it....