FD Superior blades

[jttheclockman]

Anyone use FD Superior puzzle blades for their puzzles. I am trying to make Steve Good's money puzzles. The puzzle is 1/4" BB and I use a 1/16" piece under it for fuzzies. I am using the FD blades and having breakage problems. This puzzle has small pieces so I should be able to make many cuts but all I can cut is about 5 pieces nd the blade breaks. Yes they dull fast but the breakage has me concerned. They break around the project so it is not a clamp thing. The saw is a RBI 220vs saw. I slowed the speed down and cut slowly. I have used finer jewelers blades and got more life from them.The FD blades also do not spin well within the thin kerf so it basically has a hop when trying to spin in tight corners.

My question is there some tricks to using these?? Has anyone who uses them experience what I am talking about. I have never used these before and these are the first puzzles I am making.

[Woodtography (tm)]

I use the FD SPB and they have been a champ and joy to use on my Hawk G4 and EX-16.

Aside from all the good suggestions above, you may want to consider the following:

Now and then I do have a breakage problem and It seems to happen in batches. These are ones that were not properly back tempered.

In the blade making process, the metal is heated and quenched and at this point they are brittle.
They are then "tempered" at a lower and drawn out heat than with the forging process, which brings back the "springy-ness" that allows the metal to perform its intended duty and to also allow it to flex and not break.

Look at your blades to see if they have a "rainbow" or multi- color to them (that's what mine had in both instances).
If they do, they probably missed the tempering step or it was not done properly. It happens more often than you think.

You can also try bending the blade in you gloved hands and if it snaps, then that is the culprit.

I sent some back to Mike when he had the FD business and he sent me out new ones pronto. Good Man.

[Linda In Phoenix]

I've used probably 100 or more of those blades in the past 2 years. They work great for many applications. I'm usually at a medium to medium high speed, woods 1/16 up to 1/2" thick, mostly on baltic birch ply (but ocassionally on birch, oak, and poplar). I have gotten a few bad ones, but not many. If I tension to tight it does kill them quick though.