What carbide bandsaw blade?

[Wade Lippman]

I googled and found, surprisingly, that this topic hasn't come up in a few years.
I need to replace my wide bandsaw blade. Many years ago I picked up a cheap Laguna when they changed designs and closed the old ones out. It was a real pleasure to use, but I sold it with my BS when I moved. Maybe the new ones are even better. (or maybe not).

So, those of you with experience with several brands... what is a good value?

[David Kumm]

What saw? Carbide likes higher tension so the saw needs to handle it. Dave

[Wade Lippman]

Rikon 10-345 18". It claims i can handle 1 1/4" blades.

[John TenEyck]

I've never used a Laguna blade, but I'm extremely pleased with the Lenox Woodmaster CT 1" x 1.3 tpi on my 17" Grizzly. I use it exclusively for resawing and slicing shop sawn veneer. I would chose something with more tpi for thinner stock. You didn't say what your needs are, so this may not be a good choice for you. My friend bought a 3/4" x 2 tpi version for his MM16, for more general work and is very pleased.

Ever BS manufacturer seems to claim their saws can handle a wider blade than they can fully tension. My Grizzly can supposedly run a 1-1/4" blade but I see no reason to try anything wider than the 1" now on it. It cuts beautifully straight as fast as I can shove wood through it. Knowing nothing about your Rikon, I wouldn't go wider than 1".

If you consider the Lenox blades, look at Spectrum Supply. Best prices I could find; more importantly, beautiful weld and it runs perfectly true.

John

[Mike Cutler]

Wade

You have the "newer" version of my Rikon.( I have the 10-340.) I've been using a 1" Lennox TriMaster, 2/3 varipitch, since day one. Their $$$$ but the results are very good.
I haven't tried a WoodMaster CT myself, but I've heard only good things about them.

[Curt Harms]

.................................................. .......
Ever BS manufacturer seems to claim their saws can handle a wider blade than they can fully tension. My Grizzly can supposedly run a 1-1/4" blade but I see no reason to try anything wider than the 1" now on it. It cuts beautifully straight as fast as I can shove wood through it. Knowing nothing about your Rikon, I wouldn't go wider than 1".

John

I regard the last band size increment as "Sales Optimism";). I run the 14" Rikon and 1/2" 3 T.P.I. bands. As long as I give the teeth time to do their work it works fine and a slower feed seems to produce a little smoother cut so less sanding/planing required. There's a reason why heavy duty resaw machine bands run at 5000 f.p.m. or more.

[John TenEyck]

A slow feed is required on a 1/2" blade when you want to resaw with it on a 14" cast iron Delta, for example, because it simple can't put much tension on even that blade much less a 3/4" one. But I'll relate and interesting observation I made with feed rate, smoothness, and kerf. My friend has the same 17" Grizzly that I recently bought. You can easily tension a 1" blade to 25 - 30 ksi on it and it runs at 4500 fpm. He had a Lennox bi-metal blade on it; can't remember which one specifically, but it was a 1", 1.3 tpi blade. I demoed his machine before I bought mine. He set it up for slicing veneer and I fed a piece of 12" wide stock into at about the speed I would with my 14" Delta. The cut was smooth. When I finished the cut my friend said to feed it faster, as fast as the blade would cut it. So I took another slice, easily 5X faster than the first slice. The cut was not nearly as smooth. Then my friend said "OK, let's go run both through the drum sander." So we did, and much to my surprise the second piece was smooth before the first. So, while the slower feed rate gave a smoother cut, the faster feed rate produced a narrower kerf and cleaned up to yield a thicker piece. I learned something new that day.

John

[John Terefenko]

I use and love my 3/4" tri-master carbiode Lennox blade

[Rick Fisher]

i'm shopping for the same. I would order but I keep forgetting the length of the blade I need..

I had a Tri-master for years.. it was my favorite.. I had a Woodmaster CT .. it was great .. can't remember what happened to it .. The Tri-Master left a nicer cut but I think it was way more money