Welcome to the Carbide Processors Blog
A Great Volunteer Activity
Posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 at 9:33 am.
Triangle lake School Thank You 1
We have been working with the Triangle Lake Charter School in Blachly, Oregon and we are having a lot of fun. http://www.blachly.k12.or.us/
The school is 45 miles northwest ofEugene,Oregon. If you’ve ever seen the TV show ‘Axmen’ then you know what the country looks like. This is logging country and it is been hit really hard the last few years.
It started when I saw a post in the Sawmill Creek woodworking forum. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/
One of the parents was doing volunteer work and asked for suggestions for projects. Over the years I have learned to be a tad suspicious about anybody who says they represent a charity I don’t know. So I checked out Triangle Lake and it is a pretty incredible story. They have 111 students from kindergarten through high school. They are rated excellent at all levels by the state of Oregon. They have, far and away, the worst equipped wood shop I have ever seen. They have a total annual budget of $200. The power tools were all worn out. There was one drill. If they needed a Phillips screwdriver the instructor or one of the volunteers had to bring one from home.
We sell tools so I had some tools around here. I stopped at Home Depot on the way home and picked some up some inexpensive basics. The nice people at Eastside Saw in Bellevue, Washington made me a really good deal on a sliding
Triangle lake School Thank You 2
compound miter saw for the school. I contacted Snook’s Saw in Eugene, Oregon about some blades for the school and they contributed as well. In addition other people on Sawmill Creek have sent checks, contributed lumber and found other ways to help this really fine, little school.
Today in the mail I got some ‘thank you’ cards. We love helping kids getting thank you cards is really a lot of fun.
If you’re looking for a fun activity you might consider working with kids. In a world full of flaky charities and outright scams it is wonderfully refreshing to get involved with wood shops, scouts and other organizations that really do help kids.
I used to make these kinds of donations anonymously. I was taught not to brag and this sort of sounds like that. Maybe ten years ago or so, it was explained to me that I can really increase the effectiveness of my donations by making them public. By providing an endorsement for a fine organization I increase the chance of others also donating.
Triangle lake School Thank You 3
I am still a little uncomfortable about talking about this donation but it really is an exceptional school. The thank you notes are better written than many of the resumes I get including those from college graduates.
Triangle lake School Thank You 4
Saw Blade Ripped Shoulders
Posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 at 9:14 am.
Preventing Ripped Shoulders (Short Version)
Saw Blade Ripped Shoulders
This is a condensation of a seven-page document based on an e-mail discussion among filers and others. I will be happy to supply the full document upon request. I did quite a bit of editing and any mistakes are mine. Tom Walz, Carbide Processors 800 346 – 8274 president@carbideprocessors.com
There are two major parts to the ripped shoulder problem. First is the condition of the steel and second is the way the saw blade is used.
Condition Of The Steel
If the steel is not brazed or brazed and tempered properly then it becomes brittle and the shoulder will snap off.
As saw steel is used repeatedly it becomes subject to metal fatigue. Metal fatigue increases with additional wear. As the metal becomes more fatigued the saw blade begins to lose its ability to cut straight. As the steel becomes more fatigued, the chances of having ripped shoulders increases.
The Way The Saw Blade Is Run
1. Vibration and timing are major factors. Vibration could be a sprung arbor. Not that the arbor may be bent but sprung from too tight a belt or possibly new bearings were installed.
2. A cog belt would be preferred to a v –belt.
3. Proper horse power can be a factor.
4. Tooth design is a factor and many people favor an odd number of teeth to dampen harmonic vibration.
5. All the bearings, rolls, clevises, shackles, etc must be in good condition.
6. But more then likely it is timing or clipping. Clipping is when a board is not clear through the edger and the next one is skewed into it. This is a common problem with high speed board edgers and no saw will hold teeth in.
7. It could be the timing is right and possibly, at the out-feed or picker fingers, a flitch or board hits the framework (or a worn spot) from too steep of an exit ramp and is rocketed back into the edger where it hits the piece being sawn and the one in front of that is clipped at the next skew.
8. Also, if the edger has a sharp chain, it may need to be replaced frequently and the hold down rolls may need to be adjusted down so the chain doesn’t slip.
9. If you are cutting hemlock and kiln drying it you may be cutting it heavier to compensate for shrinkage which may help it from slipping on the sharp chain. (Hemlock is softer than Fir.)
10. If press rolls are not timed correctly you will shoot boards. The best thing you can do is devote time to watch boards go through. Watch them skew. Watch them at the out-feed and picker fingers. Bring your programmer and millwright.
11. Feed speed too high.
12. Annealing cycle on our Stellite© tipper
13. Board edger? They are tough on shoulders either way.
14. Feed problem like shooting cants / boards
15. Press roll sequencing / timing may not be bad enough to rip teeth out on hemlock but will do so on Fir.
16. Tooth bite. If he is on the edge he may be getting away with it on Hemlock but not on Fir. He may be over feeding for fir………
17. What has changed recently? If nothing in the mill has changed I would look at something in the filing room.
18. Surge problems on the gang feed. We have seen them double stack 2 inch boards into the board edger.
19. It is usually an abuse problem or a mechanical issue.
20. Uncontrolled piece slippage will increase tooth bite dramatically for a split second and rip ears out.
(Based on contributions from: Dick Bernier, Jeff Connie St Pierre, James Davis, Neal Davis, Bruce Maples, Burl Swigart, Mike West)
Variables that have an impact on the life of the steel are:
1. Sharpness of the tool – All the blades pulled out of service before or after they get dull?
2. Impact or force being applied to the body in its application.
3. Machine alignment.
4. Species of wood (or type of metal, plastic, etc) being cut.
5. How well was the carbide brazed? There are many subsets to this topic which include critical temperature of the steel & how well the steel was annealed.
6. Gullet capacity issues.
7. Proper hardening and tempering of the saw plate. In short, is the plate the proper hardness and does it have the proper martensitic structure? (Based on contributions form Steve Hartshorn – Peerless Saw Co.)
We sell Carbide, Braze Alloy, Saw Blades, Router Bits and Hand Tools
800 346-8274
Brace Drill, Brace and Bit
Posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 at 10:45 am.
Braces Review (as in brace and bit)
Brace and bit, Brace Drill comparisons
We get requests for these and I was thinking about selling them. The Boy Scouts still require them for the woodworking merit badge and missionaries like them. So I went online to see what was out there.
I ended up buying 16 of them. It was more than I planned but some of the descriptions online were not very clear and I won a lot more eBay auctions that I thought I was going to.
The attached picture shows the 16 I have so far. There is a French $100 unit still due to arrive.
You can get all the braces you want for about 20 bucks apiece
I do not like the Great Neck units. These are the two units with red handles. I was pretty disappointed when I found out that Ace Hardware was selling this kind of quality. Screws are loose, the chuck jaws don’t line up, the mechanism is rough and there is a pin that sticks up so that it grabs your hand when you try and adjust it. There are no bearings in the top round handle. This is just a cheap tool, poorly made, poorly engineered and poorly designed
The Fuller units are black and yellow. They are better than the Great Neck. The jaw design is more traditional and the jaws meet up pretty well but not perfectly. The action is smoother and feels a little more solid. This is an okay tool. This would probably get you through a fair number of small Boy Scout projects. I would not recommend it for use anyplace you really need a tool.
Then I bought some braces through a seller on Sawmill Creek and through eBay. These were Stanley and Keen Kutter. The first thing I noticed was the weight. These used tools are considerably heavier than the new tools. The mechanisms are more solid, the actions are smoother and they just seem to be superior tools all the way through. I bought these for an average of about 20 bucks apiece and could have had them for less apparently. I wanted a couple to get this project finished so I bid on a variety of them not realizing I would win the great majority.
The very pleasant surprise was the fact that all the units were exactly as described. If anything, they were better than described. The used units described as worn and loose are still much more solid than the four new units.
In all my searching it appears that there are either poor quality braces or the $100 French unit.
Recommendation: buy from a Sawmill Creek seller or on eBay and get a good quality, used Stanley or Keen Kutter.
We don’t sell these but we do sell great tools
www.carbideprocessors.com
sales@carbideprocessors.com
800 346-8274
How Much Should Braze Alloy Flow
Posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 at 1:43 pm.
Braze alloy flow onto saw plate
When brazing a half inch long carbide saw tip to a steel saw plate.
The braze alloy flat should be 0.005” to 0.010” maximum with a half inch long tip White bars
The Horny Teenagers Theory of Brazing
Posted on Friday, February 24th, 2012 at 3:01 pm.
The Horny Teenagers Theory of Brazing
There is way too much braze alloy outside the joint or join.
Too much braze alloy outside
I looked at eight other sawblades from different manufacturers and this is a common problem. As with any quality issue, if you do not fight it all the time it will grow until things fail.
Brazing is not a mechanical process like hammering a nail or tightening a screw.
Brazing is a chemical process.
If the steel and the carbide are both clean then they want to join. It is like two horny teenagers. Put them together and they have a really strong tendency to join. The carbide tip should just be put within kissing distance of the steel. Then capillary attraction will cause the braze alloy to flow onto the steel.
Again, as with horny teenagers, you want to stop the process when it is just a light kiss.
Back to braze alloy. Ideally you would have a little braze alloy ridge next to the tip with a slight bit of feathering onto the steel plate.
The smaller the ridge is and the less feathering you have, the better as long as you can still see a little of each.
Too much braze alloy outside with numbers
As near as I can tell.
Area 1 is about 3 to 4 times as wide as it should be.
Area 2 is about 3 times as wide.
Area 3 should be about half as wide and immediately behind the tooth.
Don Wallinger did a great video for us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmlj37zOvQw
Do not push the tip in. Just guide it to where it belongs.
You really, really need the braze alloy between the steel and the carbide. It relieves the stress caused because the steel grows and shrinks much more than the carbide.
Braze alloy between carbide and the steel is like suspension on an off-road vehicle. If you push it all out it is like going cross–country with no springs, no shocks, no struts, no nothing. This is a sure way to cause a lot of damage.
Braze Alloy between the carbide and steel protects the tip and the shoulder.
You should have a line alongside the tip between 0.025” and 0.075” inches wide. Ideally it should be an even line all the way around the tip. (It may be wider on the hot side and thinner on the cold side but it should always be there.)
Braze alloy outside the joint is just wasting money. It is a waste of expensive braze alloy. It is a waste of diamond wheels. The flat area just behind the tip was ground with a wheel. Braze alloy is much softer than carbide. It really gums up wheels meant for carbide.
Automatic Brazing
Posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 at 10:34 am.
Automatic machinery isn’t
Saw blade ripped shoulders
They are using a Kaehny automatic razor with an automatic annealer. These are good machines and they work well.
The problem that comes in is the meaning of the term automatic. They may run automatically but they still need some maintenance.
Over the years I have seen three problems with these machines.
The lens or cover over the heat sensor becomes clouded over due to the flux fumes. As it gets cloudy it lets less light through so the sensor reads lower. This means that the saw steel gets overheated and thus becomes brittle.
There is an induction coil and the induction coil is supposed to put the heat into the carbide saw tip. Often this coil will be moved or changed so that the bottom lines up with the saw tip that the top lines up with the saw plate. This can put too much heat into the saw plate. A simple solution to this is to spread the top part of the coil out so it is further away from the plate. It is generally pretty easy to gently bend the top of that coil out. If you bend it so that the top of the coil is about three times as far from the saw plate as it used to be then you have cut the amount of heat going into the plate 1/9 th.
The third problem I have seen is that the automatic annealor is set to restore the steel to the proper temper but it depends on the steel having been heated to the proper temperature during brazing or welding. If the steel is overheated during brazing or welding then the dealer will still run the same cycle it always has. Because of steel is overheated the standard annealing cycle will anneal enough and the saw steel will still be brittle.
Popular Tools Combination and General Purpose Saw Blades
Posted on Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 at 10:26 am.
The Difference Between Combination and General Purpose Saw Blades
Roughly, roughly
- Combination saw blades are contractor level blades.
- General purpose blades are handyman, homeowner blades.
- Serious hobbyists and production facilities use special blades for the tools and materials (e.g. rip, crosscut, melamine, plywood. etc.)
- Top End Professionals use custom blades generally with 20 extra teeth (as in 60 instead of 40 for ripping and 100 instead of 80 for cross cutting.) These are specifically designed for the machines, the materials and the overall use. They are generally about the same price as top end retail blades form big box stores.
The following descriptions are from Popular Tools Saw blades. These are sold only by professional level shops and are intended for extended use where cut quality is extremely important. Other companies may describe things differently
Popular Tools Saw Blades – Combination
Combo saw blades are designed for all around use, when acceptable rips and crosscuts must be made with one saw blade. The larger gullets allow deeper cuts and efficient saw dust escape on rip cuts.
Two blades offered
40 and 50 tooth
ATB+R Grind
Both 15 degree hook angle
Popular Tools Saw Blades – General Purpose – Alternate Top Bevel Grind
These general saws are designed for every day sizing and cutting of natural woods. A higher number of teeth provides a finer edge to the cut, but should be used only on thinner material. The saw blades designated by the prefix GAM contain Micro-Sheen C-4 sub-micron carbide, which provides longer tool life. The blades designated by the prefix GAL have laser cuts in the body to help reduce noise.
Nine blades offered
All alternate Top Bevel Grind
40, 60, 80 and 100 tooth counts
All 10 degree hook angle
Popular Tools Saw Blades – General Purpose – Triple chip grind
These saws are designed for high production cutting of natural woods, plywood, chipboard, and MDF. The TCG teeth offer less wear than the ATB with nearly the same quality of cut. Blades designated by the prefixGTMcontain Micro-Sheen C-4 sub-micron carbide, which provides for a longer tool life. The blades designated by the prefix GTL have laser cuts in the body to help reduce noise.
Ten Blades offered
All triple chip grind
40, 60, 80 and 100 tooth counts
All 10 degree hook angle except a melamine blade which is -5 degrees
We sell Tenryu, Popular Tools and World’s Best(R) Saw Blades
800 346-8274
Why We Take Phone Orders
Posted on Monday, February 20th, 2012 at 4:09 pm.
Emily just talked to a gentleman and took his order for router bits.
He told Emily that he was 74 years old and didn’t know how to work his computer. He did know how to work his router table.
I’m not sure why but that just seems to explain the whole thing.
Phone orders are more expensive for us than online orders but we are very happy to take them.
When I started this business I was dead broke with two small children to feed. I was incredibly grateful for anyone that would let me do something for them and I still feel that way today.
An incredible video on saw and router safety.
Posted on Friday, February 17th, 2012 at 11:46 am.
An incredible video on saw and router safety.
http://www.newwoodworker.com/basic/kickback2012.html
Go to the bottom and scroll over the big “Work Safely” square.
Wiha Tools and German Quality
Posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 10:24 am.
Wiha Tools Quality and Lucky, The Old Dog
Wiha Tools – Excellent Quality at Great Discounts
The Germans are famous for the engineering and the quality they put into their manufactured products. Wiha tools are certainly an excellent example of wonderful engineering and beautiful quality.
The problem with explaining the quality of Wiha tools is that there are a great number of competitors out there who are copying them down to the colors used and even the shape of the handles.
In order to give you an idea of just how good Wiha tools are I’m going to talk about a brand-new, German designed and manufactured tool I just found.
The new tool is a carpet and fabric brush which I bought at Griot’s Garage. They are an online store of automotive accessories and they just built a store that is right between my business and the bank so I pass it twice a day.
The new brush actually takes the dog hair out of the carpet in the Jeep.
I have an old Golden Retriever named Lucky. He is a pretty good old dog but he has a lot of long, fine hair and he sheds like crazy. I put some imitation Astroturf in the back of the Jeep for him. His hair works its way down into the Astroturf as well as getting all over the fabric and the carpet of the Jeep.
I tried a lot of different brushes and even some sort of goofy, sticky paper stuff to get the dog hair up. Nothing worked until I got this brush from Griot’s garage.
The bristles on this brush look like rubber but they’re not. They’re a special material made out of the sap from different kinds of trees. The bristles have a special ‘V’ shape. And it works. And it works beautifully.
The first reason this is an example of German engineering and manufacturing is that the tool works extremely well. Then you get into something like the added squeegee blade on the side of the brush, which is nice but not essential. This added bonus feature is typical of German engineering. And the handle swivels. You can swivel the handle either 90° left or right and it locks in place. I have squeegees. I do believe this is the first brush I have ever owned with a swiveling handle. This is sort of over-the-top but I love the idea.
The concept behind this brush and German engineering overall is that “If we are going to make something, let’s make it the best in the world and better than anything that came before.”
This is why we love the German dedication to superior engineering and magnificent manufacturing.
You can see this same thing in the Wiha pliers and everything else Wiha manufacturers.
Wiha Products at Great Discounts
800 346-8274
