Carbide tipped bandsaw blades

[KWood255]

Has anyone here tried the carbide tipped blades from Wood-Mizer or elsewhere? If so, can you share your results? Worth the extra $? Thanks 

[Magicman]

There are several sawyers who successfully use them but they are not an option for me.  I only custom saw and the customer is not concerned with how many blades it takes to saw his logs.  I do charge him for the blades in the event of a metal strike and that would be a deal breaker for the customer. 

[terrifictimbersllc]

I used one carbide blade to saw 4500 board feet of 1" lumber from untreated dusty dirty cedar power poles. Regular blades were cutting about 300 bf each before giving lumber that was too wavy for me.  They're great but it's an $80 mistake to hit metal or otherwise mess up one on the mill. Economics make sense if there is low chance of hitting metal, the wood is abrasive, or the operation is a high dollar one for the customer and he wants to maximize production because of paid labor situation. 

[farmfromkansas]

I have a carbide tipped blade for my shop bandsaw.  A sharp steel blade cuts better.

[Percy]

I use WM's carbide 7 degree turbos(I think). They work very well. I mainly cut logs from a loggers setting which means metal strikes are rare. I have the diamond stone to sharpen them and touch up a few but mainly I just run them till they are dead or starting to wave. When Im cutting a stringy wood such as Sika spruce, the feed rates are slower than a 747 but still pretty good as blade changes aren't nearly as often. I've done guzzintas(math) and the carbides are almost as cheap to run as the doublehard 747 but when I factor in the time saved on blade changes , its probably about even costwise. Buy one and try it.... ;D

[Southside]

I tried some, had good cutting results but between metal strikes or band breaks the #'s didn't make it worthwhile. 

[boonesyard]

I ordered one 5 week ago, still don't have it. They are 6 to 8 weeks out so if you want to try them, get them on order cause it's going to take awhile. I ordered one to try for flattening kiln dried slabs on the mill. I've been using turbo 7s for flattening with good results, I just wanted to try a carbide to see if I get maybe a bit smoother cut.  

[rojen]

I'm curious so please report back.  I'm cutting hard maple without risk of metal so this sounds appealing.

[moodnacreek]

Interesting to read the posts from bandsaw users. In general carbide tipped saws are more productive. In certain woods it does not work. Eastern red cedar can chip the corners and dead locust may un braze the carbide. On circle sawmill saws the teeth only come in stand-all style and take more power but you may be able to saw for days or weeks and when it is time to sharpen you find broken carbide.  Don't hit metal.

[longtime lurker]

Carbide does well in dense woods. It is however brittle and prone to chipping under shock loads, and it doesn't like sand and stones on the outside of logs for this reason.

Stellite does better when it's abrasive, but not super dense as well. It's softer than carbide and less inclined to chip but being softer it doesn't stand up as well to dense species. Hard and abrasive use carbide as in those conditions the edge rolls on the stellite though it's still better than carbon steel.

Carbon steel cuts faster and cleaner but as soon as the density goes past about 60 lb/cubic foot it struggles to hold an edge long.

Lower your band speed to cut steel.:D

[moodnacreek]

And then there is tungsweld , the seldom seen allturnative to carbide saw bits. this is a way to get hard teeth in non stand-all. I can't keep carbide [stand-all] in my edger but have good luck with non stand-all.           attn. L.L.

[longtime lurker]

And then there is tungsweld , the seldom seen allturnative to carbide saw bits. this is a way to get hard teeth in non stand-all. I can't keep carbide [stand-all] in my edger but have good luck with non stand-all.           attn. L.L.

I fixed the breakdown saw problem with it throwing teeth.
Around the 70-75 lb/ft3 density mark remove the insert tooth blade and weld the teeth on. Then they can't shake out. Problem solved. ;D
(actually it's a sawmill design issue....woods that hard she's inclined to bounce in the cut just a little. The horizontal saw bouncing up and down in the cut was slowly stretching the keepers open until they'd just rattle on out. What it really needs is the boom reinforcing to the point it doesn't bounce but anyway.... welded on teeth solved the symptom if not the problem.)

[longtime lurker]

Interesting to read the posts from bandsaw users. In general carbide tipped saws are more productive. In certain woods it does not work. Eastern red cedar can chip the corners and dead locust may un braze the carbide. On circle sawmill saws the teeth only come in stand-all style and take more power but you may be able to saw for days or weeks and when it is time to sharpen you find broken carbide.  Don't hit metal.

<<< needs to sharpen carbide teeth 3 or 4 times most days. Helping keep Simonds afloat for circle saw users everywhere, that's me.

[Southside]

LL ever consider giving up sawing logs and making lumber out of rocks? Might be easier on your equipment.  :D

[Larry]

I slabbed some extra big logs for another sawyer a couple of weeks ago that runs a LT35.  He runs carbide exclusively and loves em.  He only saws wood for his cabinet work, no custom sawing.  He is very selective about what he saws and a suspect log gets checked with a metal detector. 

They would never work for me because I saw 70% yard trees and junk.  Too much metal.  Having said that, I did run carbide on a job to re-saw dry and super hard tropical timbers.  A regular band would only make a pass or two before it was dull.

[KWood255]

Thanks for all the replies fellas. Great feedback. So far, I have only ran the Double Hard 10* blades from WM. With clean logs, I'm getting 4-5 hours of sawing. I'm probably pushing them longer than I should. I'd like to try carbide for the softwood I m normally cutting here. 

[Magicman]

I'd like to try carbide for the softwood I m normally cutting here

Where is "here"?  It's easier to answer questions when your profile shares such information as your location and sawmill manufacturer/model.

[moodnacreek]

It boils down to spending the money and controlling what you cut if you can. As time goes by I spend more and more time with the metal detector on the butt logs. Also have a wire brush and bark spud within reach.                                              

[moodnacreek]

So how do you change [carbide[  bits that have been welded in?  Sounds like L.L. needs diamond tip bits.  The heel on carbide and stand-all bits pound the saw more than regular bits. I learned this with my 14" edger saws as the carbide bits kept backing out.

[KWood255]

I'd like to try carbide for the softwood I m normally cutting here

Where is "here"?  It's easier to answer questions when your profile shares such information as your location and sawmill manufacturer/model.

Magicman, I am in NW Ontario. I have a WM LT35HD 

[Walnut Beast]

I tried some, had good cutting results but between metal strikes or band breaks the #'s didn't make it worthwhile.

How long did you run before the blade broke. No metal strike

[Crossroads]

I've not tried the carbide blades, but have been running 10° bi-metal for about 8 months with good results. New, I get 8-10 hours averaging 300-350 ft/hr. After first sharpening it drops to 6-8 hours, second sharpening 4-6 hours. With double hard T7, I typically get about 2 hours. At $10.25 for sharpening and going through 4-5 blades in a day, I spent about $50 a day in sharpening fees compared to $10.25 with the bi-metal, they basically pay for themselves in 1 day. 

[Peter Drouin]

With carbide blades, you have to run the log through a debarker first.
If not, the teeth will twist on the blade.
No set on them. They're all in line.

[Walnut Beast]

Thanks for the heads up Peter! Do you think that would contribute to blade breakage without the debarker. Timberking has some carbides out and a guy that's ran some has broken a few. 

[Walnut Beast]

The carbides are probably what I should have run when I cut all of the old walnut logs and dead ones without bark they were like sawing concrete compared to cutting some green walnut that was like cutting butter