Frank Snyder
03-26-2008, 2:17 PM
I recently lost my year-old Laguna Resaw King bandsaw blade to multiple cracks on the blade body. I didn't realize this until I noticed that my blade was moving back and forth while running. I thought it had something to do with the wheel tracking, and then it just snapped and scared the mustard out of me. I then did some research here and there about this problem, and I learned that I was not the only Resaw King blade owner to experience this. I was also disappointed to learn that it was not a true carbide tipped blade (stellite?). Instead of dealing with Lagauna again, I researched alternative bandsaw blades and found the Lennox Trimaster to be considered an excellent blade for resawing.
So I looked on-line for dealers and came across Bandsawbladesdirect.com and placed an order for an 150" x 1-1/4" 2/3 Lennox Trimaster. It arrived yesterday and upon opening the box, I discovered that they use a plastic blade guard to protect the fragile carbide teeth. The only problem was that the plastic guard was about a foot short and two of the exposed teeth had chipped. I installed it anyway to see if this made any discernible difference to the cut quality, and I was amazed at how easily it was to send hardwood scraps through the blade...like a hot knife through butter. My Resaw King needed considerable force when resawing. However, the cut quality wasn't quite as clean as I what I was used to with the Resaw King, perhaps due to the chipped teeth, so I contacted Bandsawbladesdirect.com and told them about the problem. I sent them pictures of the broken teeth via e-mail and they said that the blade would need to be replaced and that I would need to send it back to them. As I'm in the middle of a project which requires a lot of resawing and this is my only blade, I asked if they could send me a new blade now and I would return this one when the new one arrived. Instead, they said I could keep the defective blade as a backup and they would send me a new blade free of charge. I'm not used to this sort of treatment from retailers, so I felt their accommodation was worth some praise. I will definitely buy my bandsaw blades from them in the future.
So I looked on-line for dealers and came across Bandsawbladesdirect.com and placed an order for an 150" x 1-1/4" 2/3 Lennox Trimaster. It arrived yesterday and upon opening the box, I discovered that they use a plastic blade guard to protect the fragile carbide teeth. The only problem was that the plastic guard was about a foot short and two of the exposed teeth had chipped. I installed it anyway to see if this made any discernible difference to the cut quality, and I was amazed at how easily it was to send hardwood scraps through the blade...like a hot knife through butter. My Resaw King needed considerable force when resawing. However, the cut quality wasn't quite as clean as I what I was used to with the Resaw King, perhaps due to the chipped teeth, so I contacted Bandsawbladesdirect.com and told them about the problem. I sent them pictures of the broken teeth via e-mail and they said that the blade would need to be replaced and that I would need to send it back to them. As I'm in the middle of a project which requires a lot of resawing and this is my only blade, I asked if they could send me a new blade now and I would return this one when the new one arrived. Instead, they said I could keep the defective blade as a backup and they would send me a new blade free of charge. I'm not used to this sort of treatment from retailers, so I felt their accommodation was worth some praise. I will definitely buy my bandsaw blades from them in the future.