HARD wood! Need blade suggestion

[bob]

I bought some Brazilian redwood, also known as massaranduba, the other day. This stuff is hard - three times as hard as red oak. When I drill a pilot hole, the wood and the bit (new bit) burn. When I cut this stuff (1x6) with my miter saw, I can smell burning. The saw has a new Diablo 40 tooth carbide tipped blade.

Any suggestions on drill bits and saw blades designed for super hard wood such as this? I've got 250 BF of this stuff for a project. Bits and blades will cost more than the wood!

Thanks.

Bob

[Leon]

I cut, and resaw 2" thick Ipe very often with a Forrest WW II 40 tooth reg kerf and a cabinet saw. No burning. I understand that Ipe is known by many names and is from Mexico and South America. The picture of your massaranduba looks a lot like Ipe. Does you wood have a lot of yellow dust? Any way Ipe has a hardness scale of 3670 compared to Red Oak at 1290, so Ipe is about 3 times as hard as Oak also. I rebuilt 3 park benches using Ipe and drilled about 76, 1/4" holes using a brad point bit with no problem with burning. I also route hundreds of 3/8" wide through slots 1.75" long in

3/8" think Ipe. The slots are stopped on both ends and I do quite often witness some burning during this operation. I suspect you feed rate may be too slow if you are getting burning.

[Nova]

Form the chart I could find:

has a Janka hardness of 3190. The chart says, "Easy to work & saw. Rated good to excellent for all operations."

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

[bob]

It's not ipe. I researched this stuff before I bought it, and I believe it's massaranduba. The wood is red in color as is the sawdust.

I'll have to try a brad point bit. And swap out my WWII from the table saw to the miter - boards are 14 feet long and HEAVY. My DeWalt circ saw with DeWalt thin kerf slices right through it.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Jim Wilson]

Say, Leon, where do you get 2" thick Ipe? Seems everywhere around here only has 5/4. :-(

Jim

[Nova]

The supplier here carries it in up to 4" x 10" planks and 7" x 7" posts.

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

[Leon]

Jim, I actually take 5.5-6" wide 5/4 Ipe and plane the sides smooth. I buy an 8' board and cut it in half. Then I rip those 2 pieces in to 2" wide pieces. I turn those pieces on edge and resaw them on the TS and then plane them down in to 3/8" thick pieces. I buy my Ipe at Hardwood Lumber. I don't recall if they have any thicker stuff in the back ware house or not.

[Leon]

Yeah, Bob I see from Jack's post your wood is not Ipe and is in the 3190 range, about 15% softer than Ipe. I find that with these hard woods that clean blades are a must as the buildup can cause excess friction at the teeth. I have to keep my router bits spic and span to prevent burning when cutting slots in Ipe. Consider also that if your saw motor is not up to the task and cuts slower you may be building up too much heat from the slow feed rate. I do not often recommend a thin kerf blade but this may help if your feed rate is slow enough to cause burning

I don't suggest using the WWII on you miter saw either. Wrong blade for that saw.

Since your thin kerf blade on your circle saw does ok, I again suspect that your feed rate is too slow with your miter saw.