Carbide bandsaw blade

[pditto613]

What carbide blade are you using to cut glass bows with?  How well does it work?

[jrstegner]

Lenox tri-master, works great. Expensive, but I am on my third bow building season with it.

[Stagmitis]

Maybe Im the oddball but I use my table saw with a diablo 24 tooth framing blade.

[pditto613]

Stag, your not odd.  I cut my sight window of the table saw as well.    I am making kids bows and I glue them up with 2” glass them cut the blank in half for 2 bows.  Was doing it on the Tablesaw but it has spit it back at me twice.   The bandsaw is safer for this.

[Shredd]

Maybe Im the oddball but I use my table saw with a diablo 24 tooth framing blade.

  Damn Oddball...  They'll let anybody on this site...      I use a carbide circular blade also,  as much as I can, but I like to use more teeth to prevent any tear out or chipping of glass... Save my expensive carbide bandsaw blade for when I really need it... It does not touch glass...

[Crooked Stic]

6/10 VP bimetal after its dull on wood

[pditto613]

I have been looking at the Lennox and the Laguna resaw king.  Using old blades now.   Was looking for a cleaner more consistent cut.

[Longcruise]

I did a few with an abrasive wheel mounted on the tablesaw.  Worked great but changing the wheel out is a PITA.

Lemme see now.   What other methods have i tried??‽‽

First there was the hack saw with the frame bent at an angle for clearance.   That worked pretty good.  Also was employed in cutting sight windows.

Then there was the plain old drum on the drill press with 36 grit 3" drum.  Works but it's slow with the low  RPMs of the DP. 

Then there was the jig saw method.   That works but it's slow and impossible if you don't dip the blade in water about every inch.  Even then the blades are sacrificial.

Since getting good quality 36 grit belts for the Rigid oscillating unit it's the go to.  I can profile a bow in about 15 minutes with the final 1/32 or so finished with a flexible hand sander about 8 or 10 inches long and made from a piece of lam.  Takes a little time but it is pretty darn accurate.

Wrecked two bandsaw blades and quit that!!

[pditto613]

I use the my 6x89 sander for profiling limbs. I doesn’t take very long at all.  But I need to rip a 2” blank in half. Can’t do that with a sander.   Kids bows are too flexible to do it on the table saw.  It flexs and pops and kicks back.  Last time I did it it almost cost me a finger.  And I really need my fingers.  I think l am going to pull the trigger on a Lennox tri master blade for my bandsaw

[Autumnarcher]

I mark out my limbs with template the use a bi-metal bandsaw blade to cut em out a shy of my line. Cleanup and finish on edge sander.
 I use a Wood slicer resaw blade but never on glass or G10. Cuts beautifully smooth.

[Mad Max]

I don't cut fiberglass with a band saw.
Here is how I do my shelf/site window

https://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/index.php?topic=155571.msg2688026#msg2688026

[Flem]

Thats impressive Max. I have never had much success milling on the drill press.
You, deserve a Milling machine

[BigJim]

I use a lenox tri master for cutting out the sight window and all of my riser blocks which are i-beamed with g10. I used to cut the limbs out with it as well, but when they snag, you will have to throw away a bow. I now use the table saw with a masonry blade to cut out limbs.

BigJim

[Mike L.]

I went in to get my super duper thin kerf table saw blade sharpened and asked about a custom bandsaw blade for cutting fiberglass and wood.  It was really expensive, can’t remember whether it was $140 or $180, but it’s so much better, I think it’s worth it.  I cut one side of a limb profile and forgot to set the bearing guides and it was still clean and smooth. 

[kennym]

Mike, is that what they call a diamond blade?

[Mike L.]

Kenny, I just called to ask them.  It’s a medium grit carbide gulleted blade.  It was 105” and when it starts to wear out I can apparently flip it inside out and get another 30% life out of it.  The shop I bought it from ordered it custom.  I don’t know where they had it made.  I can post the name of the shop and number if that’s allowed? 

[Mike L.]

Oops, 105” for $150. 

[pditto613]

I just got my Lennox trimaster yesterday.   I will know soon if I wasted $170
That is an interesting blade Mike. Does it cut the wood of the bow good?  Any burning?

[Tim Finley]

I user a carbide finishing blade on my table saw works great smooth and fast . I just put a new one on last winter the old one did close to 3000 bows it was getting pretty bad lots of smoke from the handle area . With the table saw you dont have to grind off the glue first .

[Mike L.]

The blade works surprisingly well, actually.  Much better than I expected.  There’s no smoke or discoloration because of the spacing of the gullets and all the cuts I’ve used it for are clean.  The best part is that I can actually get some use out of my wood blades; last time I skipped changing it out just to cut a shelf, the wood blade was toast after that.   I’ve only used it for 3 or 4 bows so far, and there’s no visible wear yet.