Laguna blades, pretty dissapointed
 

I ordered a Laguna 105" carbide resaw blade for my band saw.

Well today I finally got a chance to install it. After spending about an hour setting up my saw, I got it cutting perfectly on pine. When I was satisfied, I went ahead and did the resaw on a beautiful piece of ziricote. Well the blade gave me a terrible belly cut, completely ruining an $80 piece of wood.

After calling Laguna, they told me they had a bad batch of blades go out, and they would replace mine, but would do nothing about compensating me for my wood, and also would only give me a replacement blade and not a refund. I don't trust their product anymore, and would rather go back to using a $30 cheapo, that leaves a ton of saw marks and doesn't last long, rather than a $150 blade that ruins expensive wood.

Has anyone else had anything like this happen with Laguna blades, I don't know if I should try the replacement blade, or wait for the new one and return it to woodcraft.

I'm unfamiliar with Laguna, that sucks.

Can you use the wood for headstock caps or something? Could you post a pic? I love ziricote and it's a shame to see good wood go to waste :bawl:

i can probably make a headstock cap or two, but its unuseable as a bookmatched top. It belly cut so bad that its paper thin in the center of one half.

Holly $#!t, .:eek:. for real? You have to check these out (wood slicer). I was skeptical at first... till I got a chance to use one on someone else saw. After that I had to have my own, good gravy! I cut everything on my Craftsman 14" band-saw with a 1/2" x 99 3/4" blade. We"re talking what ever I could get my hands on, starting with the soft stuff and moved up from there to: Purpleheart, gaboon, wenge, and some small chunks of lignum, no problem. (I also thought it to be a pretty smooth cut for my saw) I've had 2 (blades) in 6 years. I admit, I found a flow in the first one, (the weld was off) but even after a year of good use, they exchanged it for a brand new one (I'm still using it: no flows on the 2nd,). IMHO, It is so worth the shipping!

Point is, sorry to hear; nothing worse than to get a new tool that dose not perform as it should. I'd like to her the final out come of this, I've heard nothing but good about there saws, and had been considering either a new bench top (Rikon) for scroll work(cutting bodies) or a Laguna for resaw. Leats face it, the bench top is cheaper; but, who wouldn't want a saw for nothing more than resawing? .:D.

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Well, I wound up returning it to woodcraft, and bought a Timberwolf saw blade instead.

Do the carbide blades require a very high tension? I find belly cuts when the band is not tensioned properly. I've looked at getting one of these laguna carbides but my saw is also 105'' and can only get so much tension. A std. 3/4 is pushing its abilities. I thought it was great when I got it, (powermatic) it does everything fantastically except resawing is a crap shoot.
Let us know how the new one works out.

+1 to this. If you have an import with riser block then 3/4" is pushing it. Louis Iturra talked me out of a carbide band for my Jet. I've been using Starrett Bi-Metal 1/2" for resaw. Resaw is always a bit of an adventure with one of these saws but belly cuts haven't been an issue (for me).

I bought a high quality carbide tipped blade, 5/8" timberwolf I believe, and the instructions called for lower than normal tension. I ran a couple of top sized test cuts and had the same bellying in the cut that Hopkins mentioned. I tightened the blade back to the tension of a normal blade and the bellying went away. I prefer to use a featherboard to keep the wood tight against the fence. I've found that the featherboard and a slow feed rate eliminate the majority of the issues I was having.

I cant recommend the Laguna blade, even though their customer service assured me that it was just a bad batch. The Timber Wolf blade I replaced it with, and have used before are great. I went with the Laguna because the carbide blades last longer and leave much less saw marks, but at the price of ruining high priced wood, Ill replace blades more often and deal with a rougher cut.

Mine is an older USA made Delta 14" with a riser block. I haven't ever had any problems with belly cuts before that blade, in fact that saw works very well, even on woods as hard as wenge or ebony. It resaws very well. What is the tooth pattern on that Starrett Bi-Metal blade? You don't have any problems with a fine tooth blade clogging? I have always gone for the fewest tooth per inch I can find.

Laguna didn't recommend any lower than normal tension, so I set up my saw as I usually would. I also use a feather board and a rather slow feed rate. With the blade I had, the further I would get into the cut, the worse the belly got, it was almost to the point of coming cutting through the outside of the board at one point.

I always use the Wood Slicer blade for resawing.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/w...s138to166.aspx

+10 on Woodslicers, great blades

Timberwolf blades are also rocking, and f you are feeling like spending a lot more, the Iturra Carbide tipped is really cool in 3TPI

In Bang for the buck catagory...Olson All Pro. This is the blade I us regularly, as I do regular cutting with it also, and for less than $30, I get a lot of life out of them