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Can This 10” Saw Blade Be Saved?
Posted on Friday, April 13th, 2012 at 8:44 am.
Online question:
Two teeth came off my “Big Box Store” saw blade. Should I keep using it?
Cheap saw blade with missing teeth
Answer
It depends on how and why the teeth came off.
Typically those teeth are about a C-4 grade which gives you a long life, smooth cuts, a good number of re-sharpenings but sacrifices a little bit of toughness to do this. In a situation such as you describe it is not unusual to see teeth in this grade break when dropped on a concrete floor.
If the teeth popped off because the bond between the carbide and the braze alloy gave way then it is a different matter. You can tell this happened because all you will see in the notch is a layer of braze alloy that is probably gold, yellow, maybe a little orange-ish or similar. It definitely does not look like steel and it definitely does not look like gray carbide.
If the teeth popped out because the braze joint failed then you have to consider the force on the first remaining tooth after the two missing ones. It will be taking about three times the bite it was designed to take and thus will have much greater force on it. In a situation such as yours is not unusual to see teeth “shell” out as much as five or six teeth back.
When these teeth shell out they typically get buried in the wood. Then the following teeth hit the teeth buried in the wood in these teeth break. Typically the tooth still on the saw hits the tooth buried in the wood and they both break. The teeth break in such a manner as to leave small, jagged parts with sharp edges and sharp points.
If it was truly impact damage to the carbide and not a failure of the braze joint then it should be okay to use as long as you take proper could caution against flying debris.
Part of this opinion is based on prejudice on my part. I have been doing tool failure and braze failure analysis for about 30 years. The chances of you actually being hurt by this blade are pretty small but they do exist. Having a piece of shrapnel lodged in your is a painful and very expensive. Most often there is actually nothing that can be done to restore your vision in that eye.
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Carbide Processors 100% Satisfaction Guarantee
Posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2012 at 4:14 pm.
100% satisfaction guarantee
Another reason you really should buy from us
If you are unhappy with any of our products or any reason we will cheerfully and immediately refund your money (including shipping) or replace the product.
We are absolutely serious about this. We have three, very nice ladies in customer service. They all have complete authority to immediately take care of the customer’s problem.
Many of the products we sell come with guarantees. Many of those guarantees only apply in the case of defective products. And then you have to send the defective product in, the company will decide if it really was defective and, if the decision goes in your favor, then they will give you a replacement product.
We do not think this is the best way to do business so we have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you buy the wrong product we will replace or refund immediately and cheerfully. If you buy a product and your wife bought you another one by surprise, we will immediately replace or refund. You should not use a screwdriver as a chisel but if you do and you are not happy with the results, we will immediately replace or refund.
We do this because we think it is the right way to treat people. We do this because we sometimes make mistakes ourselves. And we do this because we think it is simply and definitely the most efficient, profitable way to run a business.
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Tenryu Saw Blades for Cutting Stainless Steel
Posted on Friday, March 30th, 2012 at 4:32 pm.
Tenryu Saw Blades for Cutting Stainless Steel
Tenryu Saw Blade for Stainless Steel
It is a good day for the sale of Tenryu saw blades for cutting stainless steel. Maybe there was an article or blog post about them someplace.
Tenryu makes excellent saw blades. The saw steel in the body is more than just plain steel. It is a very carefully blended and prepared alloy with different metals added to help the toughness and the strength. The composition of the alloy is a Tenryu secret but my guess would be nickel, chrome and vanadium. The carbide teeth on the steel cutting blade are also very special. Again it is a secret but they probably add titanium and perhaps niobium.
Making great steel and great carbide is a lot like making great chili. Sometimes you just don’t need very much of the right ingredients. I put about a tablespoon of salt and about 3 tablespoons of chili powder in a gallon of chili. That’s a really small percentage but the effect is really important.
Superior steel and superior carbide are much more than just the ingredients. It is also a matter of how good the equipment is and how good the people are. Tenryu is very careful to make sure that everything they do is superior because that is the only way to produce truly superior saw blades.
Tenryu also makes a very quiet saw blade. All that fancy scroll work acts as a vibration dampener so the blade cuts both better and quieter. Noise and vibration are both wasted energy. Tenryu’s saw blades put the energy where it belongs. The energy goes into making the cut, not into making noise.
Those pretty scroll cuts are not cheap. You are talking about production time on multi-million dollar lasers. Many companies don’t use this technology because they want blades they can sell cheaply. Tenryu won’t make or sell anything but absolutely top quality blades.
We sell Great Saw blades from Tenryu, Popular Tools, and our ownt cusom built World’s Best Saw Blades
Wiha and Felo Screwdrivers
Posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 10:35 am.
Wiha and Felo Screwdrivers
Felo and Wiha Essential Screwdriver Sets
It is spring cleanup time here at Carbide Processors and I’m going through the hand tools back in my personal shop. I have a little area set aside from the production areas or the lab. This is my one area where I can go test tools, make stuff, fix stuff and similar. Sometimes I get tired being in the office and just want to go back and get my hands dirty
Anyway, I took a good look at my screwdriver selection and it is pretty bad; old screwdrivers, cheap screwdrivers, screwdrivers that have been used as chisels.
Here is what I ordered as a replacement. You can see that I ordered both Wiha and Felo screwdrivers. Both companies make truly excellent products. I went with the Wiha sets because the quality and the prices are just excellent.
I went with the Felo because one set has really good wooden handles and I just love wooden handles.
I went with the Felo Ergonic set because sometimes I just really need to reef on a screwdriver. I also really like the Felo nonslip screwdriver tips.
So I sell screwdrivers and I can afford to buy good screwdrivers. This is what I picked as a basic set of screwdrivers. There are many duplicates here because sometimes I need two the same screwdriver and sometimes I have someone working with me.
1 x 8pc 3K Cushion Grip Slotted/Phillips Screwdriver Set, Wiha 46097
1 x 12pc SoftFinish Screwdriver Set, Slotted/Phillips, Wiha 30297
1 x 5pc Slotted & Phillips Screwdriver Set, Felo 22155
1 x 3pc Ergonic Slotted & Phillips Screwdriver Set, Felo 53173
We sell great tools
800 346-8274
sales@carbideprocessors.com
Carbide Saw Blade Specification Manual: P.19 Carbide Tips: Grinding
Posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 10:13 am.
Carbide Saw Blade Specification Manual: P.19 Carbide Tips: Grinding
Specification
Grinding angles and tolerances shall be as listed below:
Recommended Angle Tolerance
• Kerf (tip width) +0.000″ / – 0.002″
• Hook Angle 30° +/- 1 Degree
• Top Clearance 8° +/- 1 Degree
• Radial Clearance 3° +/- 1 Degree
• Tangential Clearance 3° +/- 1 Degree
• Side Clearance (left or right) Equal +/- 0.0011,
Verification
- Kerf: Use standard 0-1″ “C” micrometer on several random tips.
- Hook and top clearance angles: Use a precision protractor on several random tips.
- Radial Clearance: Use a 0-1″ micrometer with pointed anvils. Measure several random tips – see angle equivalent table in appendix.
- Tangential Clearance: Use a 0-1″ micrometer with pointed anvils. Measure several random tips.
- Side Clearance: Use a side clearance gauge to check centering. Measure several random tips on each side.
Buy great custom saw blades
Buy Tenryu and Popular Tools saw blades
800 346-8274
Carbide Saw Blade Specification Manual: P. 21 Strob Saws: Cutters
Posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 10:13 am.
Carbide Saw Blade Specification Manual: P. 21 Strob Saws: Cutters
Specification
All design elements of the Strob slot shall be as specified, within the following tolerances:
Recommended Tolerance
• Material - Stellite/Carbide
• Insert Hardness - ± 1 Rockwell
• Width - Kerf-0.010″ +0.000″ / -0.003″
• Thickness - 1/8″ nominal before brazing
• Side Clearance - Equal ± 0.002″
• Tangential Clearance – 2 Degrees ± 1 Degree
Verification
- Hardness. Hardness testing requires a bench type instrument with a Rockwell “A” indenter and performed by qualified personnel. If equipment is not available, sample tips may be sent to a qualified testing facility, for evaluation.
- Width. Measure with a dial caliper.
- Thickness. Use a dial caliper
- Side Clearance. Use a side clearance gauge to check each insert, on each side, along its entire length.
- Tangential Clearance Angle. Use a 0-1″ micrometer with pointed anvils. – see angle equivalent table in appendix.
Buy great custom saw blades
Buy Tenryu and Popular Tools saw blades
800 346-8274
Carbide Saw Blade Specification Manual: P. 20 Carbide Tips: Brazing
Posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 10:11 am.
Carbide Saw Blade Specification Manual: P. 20 Carbide Tips: Brazing
Hardness, Measurement Points (1/8″ apart)
Specification
• Hardness adjacent to braze shall be ± 2 points of Rockwell “C” of the specified plate hardness.
• Braze shall cover the full area of contact between tip and notch.
• Solder shall be clean, smooth and bright, without cracks or porosity.
• Tips shall be centered on each notch, and square with the plate.
Verification
Use a X10 hand lens to inspect several joints.
Hardness must be tested with a reliable bench type Rockwell hardness tester.
Buy great custom saw blades
Buy Tenryu and Popular Tools saw blades
800 346-8274
Breaker Bars
Posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 10:10 am.
Also called Cheater bars, Helper bars etc.
Breaker bars, cheater bars, Helper bars
If you look in the picture, between the sleeping dog and the shelf with all sorts of stuff on it, you will see two pieces of metal tubing.
I mentioned before that I ripped my right bicep loose trying to pull on a wrench. In an excellent example of guts over brains I was determined to make that fitting move another quarter turn. I finally got it to turn but I did rip my right bicep loose in the process. This is a really stupid and an incredibly painful thing to do.
What I should have done was use a helper bar. The helper bar is the tool that fits over the handle of your wrench and gives you a great deal more leverage. Just as they taught you in grade school, leverage means you can do more work with less force.
I was looking for a source for helper bars. I asked the guys at Home Depot and they suggested an 8 foot fence post made for cyclone fencing. They used a big tubing cutter to cut it into two links of approximately 3 feet and 5 feet. You can also do the same thing with hacksaw.
It wasn’t very expensive and it is pretty strong tubing.
Some companies won’t guarantee their tools if you use a helper bar. We do guarantee our tools. We have a 100% satisfaction guarantee on our tools and that is exactly what we mean.
About the shelves. In the 30 years I have been in the business I have done an awful lot of projects. I tend to keep a few samples of each project just in case a similar issue comes up later. I also have a lot of things people have given me over the years, instruments I use occasionally as well as toys and treats for the dog.
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Our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee Means Exactly That.
Circle Saw Blade
Posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 10:09 am.
Circle Saw Blade
Circle sawblades also called circular saw blades are really a pretty amazing invention.
circle saw blade
The current story is that the circular saw blade was invented by a Quaker woman or maybe a Shaker woman. There are several other versions of who invented the circular saw blade.
In any case, before the invention of circle or circular saw blades all saws were straight and cut with a back-and-forth motion. Larger saws were much like the saws we call crosscut saws today. These saws are often run by two people who take turns pulling. There are also one man crosscut saws.
It used to be that boards were made by sawing in a saw pit. The log would be put over the pit. There would be one man on a platform above the log and another man down in the pit below the log. They would take turns pulling on the straight saw and work their way down the log until they had a board. Then they would do it all over again and make another board.
saw pit
It was difficult to automate the process for a couple reasons. One is the fact that you had to have a reciprocal motion which is a more complex gearing problem for a water mill than a rotary motion. Another problem is that the straight saws work best when pulled. They were designed to be as thin as practical which meant there were likely to bend when you pushed on them.
The development of Circle sawblades or circular saw blades meant that you could design the saw blade to cut in only one direction. It also meant that you could take the rotary motion from a waterwheel and tear it up or down to run the rotary saw. This was not only a simpler, cheaper gearing solution then the receptacle motion for the straight saw. It was also a much stronger, more robust mechanism.
It was obviously a huge boon to manufacturing boards out of trees. By reducing the labor they greatly reduced the cost of boards and thus housing, wagons and everything else made of wood.
My favorite version of the inventor of the circular saw blade comes from Wikipedia and is as follows: “The use of a large circular saw in a saw mill is said to have been invented in 1813 by Tabitha Babbit, a Shaker spinster, who sought to ease the labour of the male sawyers in her community.” This is just kind of a charming story and it sort of reminds me of my mother.
Pit Saw
My mother was on the board of our small, local hospital and they were going to hire some efficiency experts to come in and help them save money. My mother suggested that they see what they could do themselves before they spent the money on outside experts. Mom was voted down. Then the story gets interesting. Because mom was the only girl, she was also the secretary of the hospital board. As the secretary she gave a report on the boards activities to the local medical society. So mom got up at the medical society meeting and gave them the minutes of the hospital board meeting. When she was through with that mom made some editorial comments explaining what a dumb idea was to hire an outside expert instead of seeing what they could do themselves first.
At the next hospital board meeting it was explained that mom that she would not be invited back when her current term of service was up. Mom did a lot of volunteer work and had a huge number of friends. Mom was very polite, funny, gracious and charming ordinarily but she did speak her mind when she thought it was necessary.
So I have a soft spot in my heart for gutsy ladies like my mom and Tabitha Babbit.
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Amazon Internet Deals
Posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 at 10:17 am.
A Carpet Cleaning Special
I received an e-mail from Amazon with an offer on carpet cleaning. Green Power Carpet Cleaning would clean 300
Green Power Carpet Cleaning Results
square feet for $50.
We have industrial carpet in our office and guys roadies walk and all over it who work in machine shops, cabinet shops, warehouses, etc. Plus we have an old dog that rolls around on it. I figured, how can I lose for 50 bucks.
I found out.
First the guy tells me that my carpet is really dirty. I told him that I knew that and that is why I wanted it cleaned. He said there would be an extra charge of $175. You have been in a situation like this and you know exactly how I felt. He was there and the carpet was dirty so I told him to go ahead.
I went in my office and went to work. I came out a half hour later and he was about three quarters finished. The carpet was streaked because he got some strips clean and left other strips dirty. Plus there were big dirty spots and water stains still left.
We had a little discussion about it still being dirty. He told me that he got a lot of dirt up. I told him that I believed him but that the carpet was still dirty. He said the job he did was a good, professional quality job. I told him that I didn’t care because he told me he would get it clean and that it was still dirty. It ended up with him refunding my $175.00, keeping the $50 and leaving the carpet a mess.
I then called the carpet cleaner I have been using at home for decades. They can fix the carpet for about $330 in about four hours. I should have gone with them first but I didn’t want to spend the money.
Moral of the story:
A really high percentage of our customers are looking for a better tool than they have now. Many of the rest know good tools and are looking for good tools.
We really work hard to be open and honest in our advertising. We want to make sure that people know exactly what they’re going to get. When we advertise discounted prices and sales we still deliver full value, excellent quality and a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Maybe there is more money in the razzle-dazzle, bait and switch, carpet cleaning style of business but that just is not us.
Moral 2
I have to learn to quit trusting everybody.
Carbide Processors sells tools in an honest manner and delivers great value
800 346-8274
