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Why does nobody warn you about how Western Red Cedar dulls blades so fast?
I built a cedar deck last month in Portland and went through three sets of planer blades in one afternoon. I always heard cedar was soft and easy to work with, but that stuff is loaded with silica. My carbide blades were useless after just 200 board feet. Has anyone else run into this or did I just get a bad batch of lumber?
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elizabethtaylor2d ago
Oh man, did you check if your blades were actually made for high-silica wood? I had the exact same problem with my first cedar project and wanted to throw my planer in the river. What finally worked for me was switching to these blades specifically labeled for exotic or abrasive woods. They're a little more expensive upfront, but they lasted through a whole 500 square foot ceiling project without dulling. Also, I started feeding the wood slower and taking shallower passes, which helped too. The silica in cedar is no joke, but the right tool setup makes all the difference.
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