Bandsaw blade recommendation for ripping Micarta.

[Fixall]

What a total and utter failure of a day, lol. Some vintage Westinghouse rag Micarta definitely saw the graveyard today.

First I tried a metal cutting blade from Blade Serpent at the suggestion of a person who processes a LOT of Micarta. I was expecting it to work because of the speed of my saw, but we thought it might be worth a shot. For the first couple of inches it cut REALLY well! Then the teeth all clogged and it just burned the micarta.

Then I tried the Starrett skip tooth blade. It left a very poor finish in the Micarta, but worst of all, there was a pretty big thickness variance when going from the top to the bottom of the material. I was worried about this considering the blade is only 3/8" thick. I'm going to keep it around for rough cutting handle profiles though. It'll beat making relieve cuts on the Portaband constantly.

Then I went back to the Timberwolf blade. It made a great cut that had an even thickness all the way through, but could only make it through about one or two cuts before it was so dull it would drift a bit.

I have a 3/4" carbide blade from Sawblade.com coming in tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. If that doesn't work, I'm out of ideas for slabbing up the gears.

Maybe I should give the wet tile saw a go? They don't look to spendy, though I don't know what I'd ever use it for again. Would something like that be able to make a straight, even cut through five inches of Micarta...?

Other than that, I think I'm stuck using abrasive belts to sand the gears to thickness after cutting them in half.


Up top is the cut from the Timberwolf blade. The middle is the skip tooth. The bottom is the metal cutting blade (look how burned it is!).

The only saving grace was that I got another ~60 maple burl blocks in my ghetto kiln (I start at 80 degrees and slowly go up from there)...

And processed another ~150 redwood burl blocks. They'll go into the kiln when the moisture reading drops to around 10%.

K&G just received the four large, flat-rate boxes I shipped them the other day too.



Oh... And I picked up this WW2 era Seabee propeller made from Westinghouse Micarta. No idea what I'm going to do with it, lol.

So.... Any other ideas on how to slab up this 48" x 5-3/8" rod of Micarta into 3/8" slabs, lol? If not a tile saw, I was thinking about looking into a water jet service?

Look at this beast compared to the 2-3/4" rod, lol.

I don't know. Agghhh.

 

[Joshua Fisher]

What a total and utter failure of a day, lol. Some vintage Westinghouse rag Micarta definitely saw the graveyard today.

First I tried a metal cutting blade from Blade Serpent at the suggestion of a person who processes a LOT of Micarta. I was expecting it to work because of the speed of my saw, but we thought it might be worth a shot. For the first couple of inches it cut REALLY well! Then the teeth all clogged and it just burned the micarta.

Then I tried the Starrett skip tooth blade. It left a very poor finish in the Micarta, but worst of all, there was a pretty big thickness variance when going from the top to the bottom of the material. I was worried about this considering the blade is only 3/8" thick. I'm going to keep it around for rough cutting handle profiles though. It'll beat making relieve cuts on the Portaband constantly.

Then I went back to the Timberwolf blade. It made a great cut that had an even thickness all the way through, but could only make it through about one or two cuts before it was so dull it would drift a bit.

I have a 3/4" carbide blade from Sawblade.com coming in tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. If that doesn't work, I'm out of ideas for slabbing up the gears.

Maybe I should give the wet tile saw a go? They don't look to spendy, though I don't know what I'd ever use it for again. Would something like that be able to make a straight, even cut through five inches of Micarta...?

Other than that, I think I'm stuck using abrasive belts to sand the gears to thickness after cutting them in half.


Up top is the cut from the Timberwolf blade. The middle is the skip tooth. The bottom is the metal cutting blade (look how burned it is!).

The only saving grace was that I got another ~60 maple burl blocks in my ghetto kiln (I start at 80 degrees and slowly go up from there)...

And processed another ~150 redwood burl blocks. They'll go into the kiln when the moisture reading drops to around 10%.

K&G just received the four large, flat-rate boxes I shipped them the other day too.



Oh... And I picked up this WW2 era Seabee propeller made from Westinghouse Micarta. No idea what I'm going to do with it, lol.

So.... Any other ideas on how to slab up this 48" x 5-3/8" rod of Micarta into 3/8" slabs, lol? If not a tile saw, I was thinking about looking into a water jet service?

Look at this beast compared to the 2-3/4" rod, lol.

I don't know. Agghhh.

Just looking at the cut from the skip tooth blade I know your are feeding too fast which is probably most of the issue, that will make the blade drift more in the cut and will ruin blades faster. If your guide is set correctly and fence was tuned to the drift of the saw 3/8” vs 3/4” won’t make a big difference. I’d say take a video running a cut how you normally run the saw so we can see pace and how the saw is behaving.

 

[Fixall]

Just looking at the cut from the skip tooth blade I know your are feeding too fast which is probably most of the issue, that will make the blade drift more in the cut and will ruin blades faster. If your guide is set correctly and fence was tuned to the drift of the saw 3/8” vs 3/4” won’t make a big difference. I’d say take a video running a cut how you normally run the saw so we can see pace and how the saw is behaving.

Yea, my feed was definitely faster than it should have been with the skip tooth. I used that after the metal cutting blade and was more concerned about burning than I should have been. I’m done for the day, but I’ll get a video up soon.

 

[Joshua Fisher]

Yea, my feed was definitely faster than it should have been with the skip tooth. I used that after the metal cutting blade and was more concerned about burning than I should have been. I’m done for the day, but I’ll get a video up soon.

When I used to teach people how to resaw and make cuts like this on the bandsaw I would demo that you only need one finger to push and apply forward pressure, any faster than what you can push with one finger on the work is too fast and you are forcing the blade to drift and cut faster than it should. I can get a cleaner cut than that example with the same blade that’s probably several months old.

 

[Fixall]

When I used to teach people how to resaw and make cuts like this on the bandsaw I would demo that you only need one finger to push and apply forward pressure, any faster than what you can push with one finger on the work is too fast and you are forcing the blade to drift and cut faster than it should. I can get a cleaner cut than that example with the same blade that’s probably several months old.

That’s the more or less the pressure I use when cutting wood and have been getting fantastic results/tolerances.

I did test cuts with wood with each blade to make sure I was getting good tolerances before I started a piece of Micarta. I guess I just figured considerably more pressure would be needed for Micarta because of the speed of my saw, to prevent burning.

 

[Joshua Fisher]

That’s the more or less the pressure I use when cutting wood and have been getting fantastic results/tolerances.

I did test cuts with wood with each blade to make sure I was getting good tolerances before I started a piece of Micarta. I guess I just figured considerably more pressure would be needed for Micarta because of the speed of my saw, to prevent burning.

Nope a good wood blade fed slow will cut micarta perfectly. I think bi-metal blades cut micarta very inefficiently, mix the bi-metal blade that should run far slower than a wood saw will run with the fast saw and you’ll get burning but it’s more because of the tooth count and type of set, bi-metal blades won’t have a deep gullet like a wood blade and that is what carrys dust away and prevents burning and clogging/drift, if those gullets fill with dust before they can clear the cut that is the biggest cause of drift.

 

[Fixall]

Nope a good wood blade fed slow will cut micarta perfectly. I think bi-metal blades cut micarta very inefficiently, mix the bi-metal blade that should run far slower than a wood saw will run with the fast saw and you’ll get burning but it’s more because of the tooth count and type of set, bi-metal blades won’t have a deep gullet like a wood blade and that is what carrys dust away and prevents burning and clogging/drift, if those gullets fill with dust before they can clear the cut that is the biggest cause of drift.

The skip tooth is still on my bandsaw. I'll give it another go tomorrow.

 

[Joshua Fisher]

The skip tooth is still on my bandsaw. I'll give it another go tomorrow.

I know it’s counter intuitive but the bigger the piece run slower to prevent burning and drift, the slower you feed the better the teeth will clear the material that’s been cut.

 

[Fixall]

I know it’s counter intuitive but the bigger the piece run slower to prevent burning and drift, the slower you feed the better the teeth will clear the material that’s been cut.

I appreciate the tips.

 

[FredyCro]

A cheap table saw with 2 kw will do the job if you have the place. You would need a jig for the round stock or grind a small flat before cutting.

 

[Alpha Knife Supply]

Did you break in the blades before cutting the micarta?

Chuck

 

[Fixall]

Did you break in the blades before cutting the micarta?

Chuck

Well, here's my newness to Micarta showing... No. I was under the impression that only metal bandsaw blades really needed to be broken in. It didn't even cross my mind to break them in before starting with Micarta (although the Timber Wolf blade was broken in pretty well from the redwood and maple burl).

 

[Fixall]

A cheap table saw with 2 kw will do the job if you have the place. You would need a jig for the round stock or grind a small flat before cutting.

I was giving some thought to that with a sled and zero clearance insert to try to handle the rods that I have. That or maybe on one of my miter saws (the cheap Dewalt, lol) with a zero clearance table and several different blades I have on hand, from carbide, to diamond, dry tile blades.

 

[Fixall]

I wasn't able to get into the shop today, and probably won't be able to again until Wednesday.

I was dealing with this beast today. It's a Versatron at-130-r dial hardness tester that I picked up for free from a buddy who works for Boeing. No idea if it'll be useful or not, but it can take a 150kg load, so I'm hoping that means it can measure in Rockwell C. I dropped it off with another buddy who is familiar hardness testers to take a look at it.

I also got the kiln filled with that redwood.

I just have another giant slab of redwood to process and a couple of slabs of crotch claro walnut and then I'll have another huge box to send K&G.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

Well, here's my newness to Micarta showing... No. I was under the impression that only metal bandsaw blades really needed to be broken in.

Yeah, I honestly didn't know that either.

I break in a blade with some light cuts before putting it to work in steel but I have always just gone straight to work in micarta.

It never crossed my mind.

 

[Fixall]

Yeah, I honestly didn't know that either.

I break in a blade with some light cuts before putting it to work in steel but I have always just gone straight to work in micarta.

It never crossed my mind.

I learn something new on this forum every day, lol. Easily worth the cost of a membership. I should probably upgrade soon, just to show more support.

Something else I just learned today... The heat of the wood affects wood moisture meter readings. I knew the current temperature and relative humidity had an effect, but it didn't occur to me to let the wood cool to room temperature before taking a reading until I was doing some research today.

 

[Joshua Fisher]

You don’t need to break in blades for wood or micarta that’s pretty much only standard practice for metal, despite micarta being harder than some woods it behaves and works more like wood than metal. Only thing I do to brand new wood bandsaw blades is take a diamond stone lightly to the back corners of the blade and deburr them, but that really only helps with curved cuts where the back edge can grab.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

I have a bunch of micarta that I need to rip up. Quite a bit of it coming in today. I'm wondering if you can run micarta through a sawmill? You know those portable sawmills that are band saws that you can use to slab up a tree? I'm wondering if one of those will work in micarta? Would something like a wood miser cut reasonably flat sheets of micarta? Slicing big thick 12" wide strips that are 8 ft long into usable sheet. I've got a bunch of old international paper micarta that I want to be able to run on my vacuum fixture for scales production. Some of it is over 3 inchs thick and I'm not sure the best way to use this material.

 

[Joshua Fisher]

I have a bunch of micarta that I need to rip up. Quite a bit of it coming in today. I'm wondering if you can run micarta through a sawmill? You know those portable sawmills that are band saws that you can use to slab up a tree? I'm wondering if one of those will work in micarta? Would something like a wood miser cut reasonably flat sheets of micarta? Slicing big thick 12" wide strips that are 8 ft long into usable sheet. I've got a bunch of old international paper micarta that I want to be able to run on my vacuum fixture for scales production. Some of it is over 3 inchs thick and I'm not sure the best way to use this material.

I would imagine you could do that, they use those types of saws to slab some of the hardest woods to cut, I wouldn’t expect flat or clean cuts though, those blades have a lot of set to the teeth leaving a pretty rough surface, great for rough slabbing wood. You might be able to slab the pieces into more manageable sections. If the dimensions are 3”x12”x8’ I might also be inclined to just use a beam saw or circular saw and chop off short lengths so if you need say a clean 12” long piece for your scale production cut it maybe an inch oversized, then your only re-sawing a 3” thick piece. Do you have a drum sander?

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

I would imagine you could do that, they use those types of saws to slab some of the hardest woods to cut, I wouldn’t expect flat or clean cuts though, those blades have a lot of set to the teeth leaving a pretty rough surface, great for rough slabbing wood. You might be able to slab the pieces into more manageable sections. If the dimensions are 3”x12”x8’ I might also be inclined to just use a beam saw or circular saw and chop off short lengths so if you need say a clean 12” long piece for your scale production cut it maybe an inch oversized, then your only re-sawing a 3” thick piece. Do you have a drum sander?

My goal is to turn that 12-in wide, 3 in thick, 8 ft long piece into 8"x12"x.375" sheet that I can run on my vacuum fixture.

No, this is a machine shop, I have metal working tools but I don't have things like drum sanders. I have some enormous surface grinders?