Has anyone been to the Forrest saw blade website recently? Is this the right website for the company? They seemed to have expired their domain name recently! Anyone know what’s up? I mean, this is disasterous, how could someone let that renewal expire!
http://www.forrestsawblades.com/
Anyway, the blade on my Makita SCMS is leaving burn marks on the cuts, I’m thinking its time for a new blade, is the Chopmaster worth the money?
Replies
http://www.forrestblades.com/ ?
Thanks! I guess google failed me!
Try this site: http://www.forrestsawbladesonline.com or this one: http://www.forrestblades.com
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Edited 6/4/2007 10:31 pm by highfigh
Yes, the Chopmaster is worth the money.
Bill
In their magazine ads, Forrest lists their web site address as http://www.ForrestBlades.com
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
Every Forrest blade I have ever bought has been well worth the money and then some. Also, their sharpening service can't be beat.
Hi Napie, It's me again, I need someone to ask so I hope you or someone on this thread have an answer on Dado sets, Forrest or otherwise. What is the the value leader in 10" dado sets. I have been wavering on pushing the 'place order' tab for the Forrest "Dado King" set which is north of $300. I'm going to do a large room of cabinets and drawer/chests in high quality plywood, and I want to dado the panels on my saw instead of having to use a router. Whadda'ya think .. time for a great dado set? Which one? redlooking for fun in 'write' places..
I have a Dado King and like it. It's up to Forrest's high standards. 10" might be overkill -- never saw a need for more than 8". Unless, that is, you use your two outer blades to make tennons. In that case, the 10" will give you an extra inch or so. Unless you have a 3 HP saw, it'll definately be underpowered.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Mike, thanks. You rang the bell three times there. How bout long rabbits in plywood with the dado vs a clamp fence and a router? Tape first, shallow fence cut the outsides with a fine kirf single blade first before either dado or router ... those are three inputs I got waiting around at the car wash, and the first was from a grandma out of the blue who was listening to me and a guy who struck up a conversation!!red
Long (or short) rabbets in ply are no problem. I got the Dado King when I had a kitchen-full of cabs to make and it worked fine for rabbets, dados and grooves. As to the choice between dado blade and router for rabbets, both work fine. I usually make the choice not based on results (both are fine), but on which is the easier setup, e.g. the dado blade is already on the saw anyway; the router would be easier to use on a dado where the size of the board and the orientation of the dado put it far from the fence, etc.
The blades on the Dado King are first class -- as good or better than the blade you'd use to pre-cut,so why bother? For cab work, I've never had tearout bad enough to worry about, or that a bit of sanding didn't take care of. That said, if I'm worried about it on a cross grain cut, I'll tape off and pre-cut the grain with a utility knife and straight edge.
As for getting information at the car wash, hey! It's at least as reliable as the Internet! ;-)
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Mike,
Thanks, I like the tape/line knife idea as well as the Wa-Zen of your choices. Perversely, I want to rabbet surfaces which will be revealed in final assemblies as well as the internal structural datum and box assembly cuts.
Any difference between the 8" Freud and the Forrest King offering? Also, I'm trying to get dado RPM and cutter speed information from these or other vendor. In metal milling or turning, I learned years ago to pay attention to the charts and lubrication schedules. Here in plywood, I'm pretty sure that information is somewhere to be found, particularly for something as endothermic of Watts and prolific of tailings as a full wide dado. What I love about woodworking is that I can feel what is going on in my hands and my back. I prefer to work parts freehand if I can. I'm also trying to figure out which RPM of several called out on the plaque of my Emerson (1.56 kW ~ 2.2HP) 1 phase table saw motor is actually wired up and running.So now I'm also releaved to consider the 8" dados and not have to buy the 10" Forrest King as it was going to cost more than the table saw. Well, I blew that already with the Biesemeyer Fence addition which was = ~ 3 X ($saw). _red
I have Freud blades and like them, but I have no experience with the Freud dado. Don't they make the adjustable (not wobble) dado that you turn a screw to change the width? If so, I have heard good things about that one.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
I have the Freud 8" Super Dado for about 8 years and have been pleased with it. I use it on a contractors saw and would not consider a 10" dado blade for that style of saw because of the power. You might also look at the Infinity or the CMT brands I have friends that use those and they have been happy with them.good luck Troy
Troys,Thanks for your reply. And it isn't really the cost. But I hate to have to try every bloody option myself every bloody time. And what's worse, produce goods that are not satisfying in the process. Even a small difference when experienced time and again adds up. A truly great tool just seems to talk to call out to do the job, where the less than admirable tool has a barrier to setting out along the path where it will be used. And the vendors don't seem to have any information such as feed rates or blade speed. In a standard material, what is the load for a given feed rate. I bet the quality of the finish of the cut is strongly dependent on that. I also bet so is the time or board feet to resharpening. I take it you haven't resharpened the Freud in the 8 years? It is so hard to get this kind of information except from users who have the experience.With my new Biesemeyer fence I have been trying some of the narrow kirf carbide Freud 10" blades. It seems like half a HP or more drag reduction than I'm used to. The upper and lower kirf lip and the saw faced edges are finish quality. Probably everyone on this blog knew that already. But I'd love to discover a similar result for the dado work. I bet the Ra of the finish and the pull out of the surface veneer goes with the drag.I do see on some of the videos on this site guidance not to use the dado/saw for larger work due to kickback. In metal milling there is a technique called 'double fence' which confused me for the longest time. It turned out to just be clamping to the moving bed where the double fence is the virtual fence formed by the ways of the mill bed. So when I was watching that video, I thought about using a modified miter sled for center panel dado cuts? In any case, techniques such as knife blade scribes and taping are on my radar thanks to inputs below.red
In my experience, dado blades are often actually safer than normal blades because they don't normally go through the workpiece which reduces the chance of pinching the blade and the blade is less exposed. I disagree that the chance of kickback always increases as the size of the piece increases. With large pieces, you have inertia working for you -- the weight of the piece helps stabilize it and resists kickback. Also you can get better control and leverage with a larger piece. Also, I use a low HP saw and my experience is that, on my saw, the motor will simply stall if things start to bind up. As for load/feed rate data, I'd be surprised if you'll find any. This ain't metalworking! ;-)
You will find that your ears will tell you what feed rate is best for your particular task, each task being different. Variables like depth of cut, width of the dado, hardness of the stock, variations in the stock, etc. will require that you adjust the feed rate as appropriate. For most dado work, I'll feed until the motor just starts to "work", and hold the rate there. For delicate pieces, or deep dados, I'll go slower.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Mike, et. al.So at lunch I found and read the review in FW #176 comp on dado sets. I want to do some melamine and I have a soft spor for Amana, so I picked their 46 tooth set - amazon for 195$ and 5$ shipping. Hot dog a new toy. But I probably have to wrap it up and wait for fathers day. Has anybody made a splitter for the insert for a dado/rabbet cut? It would be like a second rail/fence? It owuld have to be specific to the rabbet dimensions, but if it were monolythic with say a zero clearance insert that might work. red
Hi.Just have to talk to you about this!Why bother with the fine-blade score?Why not clamp a fence to the line, and draw a 1" chisel along it to ~1/64th depth?You get a no-fuzz surface after routing or dado-ing,a lot less set-up and blade changing, and more righteous stock left if you boo-boo your scoring cut(s).
TonestackI'll report the results without aids and then emply your ideas as necessary. Thanks for the good input. It is on the list!!red
Buy the best, only cry once.
Yeah, get it, but the 8" would be fine.
Napie, got it!! Will do, but a guy I know said stuff he does is after he is sure it is the choice that will give him the fewest reasons to be sorry. So I just ran out and got under the saw; I have an Emerson multi motor wired on the 120 single phase tap. It calls out 13 amps, so about 2.2 HP and it calls out two speeds but I don't know which speed it runs. So I just found out, again, that I don't know what I'm doing. But all will be well since, thanks to Donald Rumsfeld, I know know that I don't know and can take action. I wonder if Forrest or someone must have tip speed or rpm ranges for these awsome things. So now I will work to get the MSDS for the 8". Thanks red
This may sound radical have you thought of having the blade sharpened.
You can make it fool proof but not idiot proof
Jointerman,
The website you reference says in the first line that they are a distributor of Forrest. JohnWW gives the website for Forrest.
Alan - planesaw
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