Welding Tips and Tricks

So I had this blade and finally got around to sending it to WD Quinn for sharpening. I wish I had take a "before" shot, but none the less...It is a 14" Rage 2 36-tooth multi-purpose blade.




Nicely laser-engraved with the customer name, with freshly "ground" surfaces on both sounds




Only one damaged tooth, which was repaired with a new tooth, the one that has extra brazing around it





You can see the grinding marks on the follower-tooth that they ground for proper clearance




Only complaint? They use UPS for shipping, and the shipping cost more than the sharpening+tooth repair! :p





I shipped via USPS so it only cost me $10 to ship to them, so overall $44 vs buying a new blade for $72+tax on Amazon, yea I'll keep sending it to them. I just have to convince them to send it back with my own pre-paid USPS shipping label!

Just realized how lucky I am. Just had a 66T 14in Evolution (1 replaced tooth) and 72T Diablo Steel Demon sharpened for just under C$50,00 inc 13%tx. About a 45min drive. These are commercial sharpeners with all the computerized automated toys for blades, milling tools etc. The Steel Demons, have 3 now, are much smoother cutting with a narrower kerf and last really well if used properly. The Evolution is a good blade also but noisier and rougher and is used for a backup only.

homeboy wrote:Just realized how lucky I am. Just had a 66T 14in Evolution (1 replaced tooth) and 72T Diablo Steel Demon sharpened for just under C$50,00 inc 13%tx. About a 45min drive. These are commercial sharpeners with all the computerized automated toys for blades, milling tools etc. The Steel Demons, have 3 now, are much smoother cutting with a narrower kerf and last really well if used properly. The Evolution is a good blade also but noisier and rougher and is used for a backup only.

Yup, lucky. Nothing like that 'round here. I plan to try out the Diable Cermet 90-tooth blade as it is rated for both mild and stainless steel, so it sounds pretty good and only costs less than $100USD.

Don't know about the 90 but the 72 is a great blade. Mainly cutting 1/8 to 1/2" all profiles, occasionally thicker. A while back I was searching for a durable stainless blade without much luck but maybe they've improved. Initially I checked at a local cabinet shop to see where they got their sharpening done and lucked out. I do think that these resharpened blades cut and last better than original factory.

homeboy wrote:Don't know about the 90 but the 72 is a great blade. Mainly cutting 1/8 to 1/2" all profiles, occasionally thicker. A while back I was searching for a durable stainless blade without much luck but maybe they've improved. Initially I checked at a local cabinet shop to see where they got their sharpening done and lucked out. I do think that these resharpened blades cut and last better than original factory.

I suppose it depends how well they are re-sharpened, but I do agree that there is great potential. In this close-up you can see a special grinding on the backside of the tip/tooth so that there is "all meat" behind the carbide tip, compared to stock where the tip overhangs a good bit. I would bet that allows it to absorb greater shock/stress than a stock configuration.

When you consider that a 36 tooth blade has tooth spacing of 1.22", a 72 tooth .61", a 90 tooth .49" you can see how much more work each tooth must do as the tooth count drops to maintain roughly equivalent cut speeds thus the extra reinforcement. The Diablo blade by comparison looks relatively delicate with it's narrower kerf yet I have never lost a tooth yet thru several sharpening cycles. Generally the information I found was the higher tooth counts are for thinner materials. I have a CMT probably about 100 count (numbers gone) that I tried for general cutting which dulled very quickly.

homeboy wrote:When you consider that a 36 tooth blade has tooth spacing of 1.22", a 72 tooth .61", a 90 tooth .49" you can see how much more work each tooth must do as the tooth count drops to maintain roughly equivalent cut speeds thus the extra reinforcement. The Diablo blade by comparison looks relatively delicate with it's narrower kerf yet I have never lost a tooth yet thru several sharpening cycles. Generally the information I found was the higher tooth counts are for thinner materials. I have a CMT probably about 100 count (numbers gone) that I tried for general cutting which dulled very quickly.

Thanks for the info. I don't cut thicker than ¼", with the majority of stuff being 3/16" and under. According to the blade it has a good range of thicknesses that it is rated for, even with 90 teeth.



If I need to cut thicker stuff, then I just fire up the bandsaw, or the plasma cutter.

That blade will make a cut that looks like a mirror! Cutting on the flat is tough. When I cut miters in larger tubing, 2X4X1/8-3/16 usually, on the bottom cut where the blade is fairly flat I cut for 3-4 secs and raise and run the blade for the same to let it cool and repeat. Not sure if it's the answer but doesn't hurt. If / when you get a Diablo blade hopefully we will get a review.

homeboy wrote:Cutting on the flat is tough. When I cut miters in larger tubing, 2X4X1/8-3/16 usually, on the bottom cut where the blade is fairly flat I cut for 3-4 secs and raise and run the blade for the same to let it cool and repeat.

I had pondered this before. In my mind I am seeing a pivot-able mount so that one can cut miters while still cutting corner-to-corner, so as to not cut on the flats. The cut-shape on the plane of the blade is a rectangle. The greater the miter the more the pivot would have to rotate in order to cut the rectangle from corner to corner, so there would be practical limits, but I think it can be done. Kinda like the saws that slide front-and-back. I just need to work out a couple of equations/numbers to see how it would play out.....

Oscar wrote:

homeboy wrote:Cutting on the flat is tough. When I cut miters in larger tubing, 2X4X1/8-3/16 usually, on the bottom cut where the blade is fairly flat I cut for 3-4 secs and raise and run the blade for the same to let it cool and repeat.

I had pondered this before. In my mind I am seeing a pivot-able mount so that one can cut miters while still cutting corner-to-corner, so as to not cut on the flats. The cut-shape on the plane of the blade is a rectangle. The greater the miter the more the pivot would have to rotate in order to cut the rectangle from corner to corner, so there would be practical limits, but I think it can be done. Kinda like the saws that slide front-and-back. I just need to work out a couple of equations/numbers to see how it would play out.....

I have been a fervent, lifetime practitioner of the K.I.S.S. principal! Now my head hurts!

homeboy wrote:

Oscar wrote:

homeboy wrote:Cutting on the flat is tough. When I cut miters in larger tubing, 2X4X1/8-3/16 usually, on the bottom cut where the blade is fairly flat I cut for 3-4 secs and raise and run the blade for the same to let it cool and repeat.

I had pondered this before. In my mind I am seeing a pivot-able mount so that one can cut miters while still cutting corner-to-corner, so as to not cut on the flats. The cut-shape on the plane of the blade is a rectangle. The greater the miter the more the pivot would have to rotate in order to cut the rectangle from corner to corner, so there would be practical limits, but I think it can be done. Kinda like the saws that slide front-and-back. I just need to work out a couple of equations/numbers to see how it would play out.....

I have been a fervent, lifetime practitioner of the K.I.S.S. principal! Now my head hurts!

Not me. I like to create problems just to solve them! lol

Oscar wrote:
Not me. I like to create problems just to solve them! lol

You should get married, you'd thrive.

LtBadd wrote:

Oscar wrote:
Not me. I like to create problems just to solve them! lol

You should get married, you'd thrive.

No way! I'd be out on the streets !

LtBadd wrote:

Oscar wrote:

You should get married, you'd thrive.

THAT'S funny,,,Richard. I almost hate bringing this up on occasion, But WE could be making money on stock investment in face cream and BEER.

Sending in more blades to get fixed sharpened.





Accidentally dropped and chipped a couple teeth on the Tomax and the Evo multi-material blade that I already had sharpened (it is relegated only for chopping up oak firewood). The other Evo blade was just a spare so it's just getting sharpened.

Got the blades back from W.D. Quinn. As before, excellent work.




Two teeth that were replaced on the 72-tooth Tomax blade




Nice job on the Evo multi-material blade




Three sharpenings, three teeth replacement, one was 'hammered and tensioned'. $65 + ~$25 shipping.

For people looking for someone to repair there blades, I would ask local machine shops. They often know who does good carbide repair work.

Around here, nobody does this kind of work at this level of quality. So I guess it all depends on your location. I'm not so lucky.