Forrest Woodworker II - buy now or wait?

It’s one of the best blades you can buy. It sure won’t hurt!

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Does anyone know what the arbor diameter is of the cheapie Craftsman saw?

-- Custom Daguerreotypes from your images and more: www.shinyphotos.com

A quality blade will help any saw. I’d recomend the thin kerf on any underpowered saw. Invest now, as long as the arbor size is 5/8”, the blade (with sharpening) will outlast the saw & be ready for your next saw.

-- http://www.grandprairiewoodworks.com

Freud blades are now getting some good reviews and are cheaper than the Forrest blades.

-- Bruce from Central New York

Tim, do you mean the 3/32-inch kerf 30-T model?

-- Custom Daguerreotypes from your images and more: www.shinyphotos.com

I agree, for 50 bucks, the Freud I put on my Crapsman has made a world of difference.

-- Tom, Central New York

You get what you pay for. I’ve been using Forrest blades for about 10 years and I’m sold. Keep them sharp and they’ll give you good cuts every time. Yes that’s the blade that Tim Pursell is recommending.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

Ditto Gary’s comments about Forrest. A dull blade will cause burn marks.

I use Forrest blades on my Craftsman saw but run the normal blade. If you go with the thin kerf you should also put a stabilizer on the blade. It will reduce the height you can raise your blade to about 2 1/2” but should reduce the blade chatter.

But with regards to the burn marks make sure that your fence and blade are either parallel or the fence is angled away from the blade in the 0.002 or 0.003” range. Another cause of burning is too slow feed rate. But if the saw is underpowered then it should be bogging down.

Hope this helps.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I don’t have any experience with the Forrest blades but I am using the new Freud 30T and a Diablo thin-kerf. They were on a Craftsman Portable Saw and I just upgraded my saw to a Craftman 1.75HP cabinet saw. Both the Freud and Diablo blades are working fine on both saws. They did bog down on the older Craftsman.

Just a word from a new guy!

Than’s a nice nice blade, if you take care of it, it will stay working until you get your big saw.

I have fORREST In my RAS and it has worked perfect for 10 years.

-- WOOD/DON (...one has the right to ones opinion but not the right to ones own facts...)

MY VOTE WWII Thin Kerf! Wouldn’t start my saw without it!!!!!!!!
Look for 25% sales at WW stores or Amazon.

-- MARK IN BOB, So. CAL

wow this discussion got me to thinking ive had my 3 forest blades for like 10 years so you ask me if they were worth the money hmmmmmm

-- I buy tools so i can make more money,so ican buy more tools so I can work more, to make more money, so I can buy more tool, so I can work more

If I could afford it, I would go with the Forrest WW2. However, after reading the review here on LJ of the Porter Cable Razor 100VT50 (http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/108), I found one at Home Depot for $27. I’ve had it now for a couple of weeks and have been very pleased with its performance. I’ve cut maple, oak, poplar, pine and plywood with no burning or saw marks – maybe not a glueline edge, but the edges won’t need much sanding to smooth them to glueline quality. Just my 2 cents worth!

Jim

I got my WW II (1/8”) on sale for $80-$90 some time ago… put it on a cheap bench-top saw… It improved it GREATLY!

If you can do it, you will be happy with it…

Yep, the Freud blades are looking pretty good now… I think they have exceeded WW II’s in some recent reviews.

Either one would probably make you happier than you can imagine… really…

-- Have Fun! Joe Lyddon - Home: http://www.WoodworkStuff.net ... My Small Gallery: http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=1389"

I think if you change the blade out to ANY blade other than what came on the saw you’re going to think you just bought a new saw. The Craftsman may not be as accurate as a Powermatic 66, for example, but it is still an extremely serviceable saw, given a reasonable tuning and a decent blade. Go for it!

-- There's no tool like an old tool...