Another WoodWorker II bites the Dust

[skysharks]

Folks this is the second time in 3 months that this has happened to me.
Blond Hardwood Plywood, purchased at the Lowes in Fayetteville, has hidden landmines.:BangHead:
The first time this happened was several months ago. While cutting some of this plywood down to size on my table saw, I saw sparks fly out to the side. Just a brief shower. :icon_scra.
Of course I stopped to investigate. Lo and behold there was a piece of metal in between the plys. Not a large piece. about the size of a finishing nail. But it was flat. Of coarse I nailed it right down the length:kamahlitu .
You know that the blade then did not cut like she used to.
I was ticked off, but what are you going to do.

I take the blade off swap it out for another blade and continue on.
I send that blade off to be sharpen.
Then a few weeks ago when Amazon had the sale on Woodworker II's. I bought another full kerf blade.
Put it on my saw and was tickled at the performance. So on my merry way I go.
Till yesterday.
Once again cutting plywood done to size, and bam another sound that is not wood cutting and another shower of sparks.
Here are the pic's on the piece of metal I found. This was laying horizontal in the plywood in between one of the plys.








These pics just show some of the damage it did to the teeth.

I hope you can see this, look at the tooth on the left. See the chuck of carbide missing??

I wonder if this blade is still fixable or if the replacement of the teeth could add up to more than the cost of the blade?
I haven't counted all of the teeth that are messed up, but it is more than five.
You know it just ticks you off when this happens and it's one of your good blades.

 

[WoodWrangler]

This is disturbing and THANK YOU for this warning. I think I'll order a metal detector now and stop putting it off ... geez.

I think I'd be complaining to the BORG!

 

[steviegwood]

I think that I would return the wood with the metal in it and take the blades along with me and see if they would reimburse the price of the blades. I would say that there is a quality control problem from their suppliers that needs to be let known. That would do more than tick me off to happen twice. Let us know if you bring it to their attention what the results are. Steve

 

[JimmyC]

After what happened to FredP a while ago I purchased a metal detector, but should I have to use it on plywood ? I also use that borg ply and I hate seeing something like this happen. The shame of it is if you brought it back to the borg the best you would probably get is another piece of bad plywood not another $100 blade.

 

[bwat]

A conversation with your retailer is definitely in order. Make sure you speak with the Store Manager and be prepared with your receipts (ply, blade & sharpening) and damaged goods. I'd like to hear how this is resolved.

 

[Bigdog72]

Hey Bud, not to preach but I hope you had safety glasses on when this happened. I think I will start religiously using my goggles.

 

[McRabbet]

Mac,

I know that Forrest will replace teeth on their blades and I think Dynamic Saw in Buffalo will, too. It is a sad state of affairs when yhey start using Yard Trees to make plywood! I've hit nails in lumber before (happened last month ripping some 8/4 cypress) and my planer blades have suffered, too, but I never had any teeth chipped.

I agree with the other posters that you should go see the store manager because that is inexcusable.

 

[mlzettl]

This is unacceptable. I would definitely take the blade and the offending piece of plywood to Lowes and demand, not request, payment for the blade repair or replacement. This is becoming more and more of a problem with sheet goods that are produced mostly in China. The quality of the plywood in general is deteriorating. I have heard similar stories about contained metal fragments in MDF ruining router bits, etc. At the very least, if they're going to sell this stuff, they should have a metal detector in the store for customers to use so that you can check the goods before you even bring them up to the register.

I toasted a WWII through my own negligence a couple of years ago. So many teeth were chipped that it was more cost effective for Forrest to retooth the entire blade. The cost to do this was about 75% of the cost of a new blade, so it was worth it. It was like a new blade.

Let us know if you talk with the folks at Lowes, and what their response is.

Matt

 

[Glennbear]

After what happened to FredP a while ago I purchased a metal detector, but should I have to use it on plywood ? I also use that borg ply and I hate seeing something like this happen. The shame of it is if you brought it back to the borg the best you would probably get is another piece of bad plywood not another $100 blade.

Unfortunately sheet goods are not exempt from "surprises" :no:

 

[Charles Lent]

So far, this hasn't happened to me. I have never hit metal in the wood that I've used, but I gave up buying plywood from the Borgs (both of them) about 8 years ago because of their extremely bad plywood quality (de-lamination, voids, and thin surface veneer). Now I only buy from two family owned local lumber yards (Gullege Supply and Kluttz Lumber) and from the Wurth Group (Charlotte Hardwood Center). The Wurth Group sells a China plywood (3/4 11 ply birch @ $33/sheet) that I sometimes use where it won't show, but even at this price it is a better quality than the $45-48 / sheet equivalents at the Borgs. It has some small internal voids and Bondo filled knot holes in the surfaces on occasion, but it is structurally sound with a surface veneer that is about 4X thicker than the Borg equivalent. I think that Lowes and Home Depot must be competing for the lowest quality plywood that they can find so that they can make a bigger profit from it, but still sell it for market prices. I'll buy pine boards and structural lumber from them, but that's it.

You should take the wood and your damaged blades to the store manager and demand that he make it right. With the metal detector equipment that's available today there's no excuse for marketing plywood with metal in it, not even the cheap stuff from China. It can be a safety hazard as well as a tool hazard. A lawsuit for an injury would quickly make it unprofitable to sell this stuff. I'm glad that only your sawblades were injured and not you.

Charley

 

[Dragon]

My advice would be to contact the legal dept. at Lowe's Corp. and let them know that continued sales of this junk WILL eventually lead to a CNN story about how ownership has recently changed due to a settlement for damages and personal injury from marketing inferior and dangerous products. Having worked for Lowe's in Dalton, Ga. years ago, I know that store mgrs. are limited in what they are permitted to do to resolve complaints. Your best bet is to drop a line WITH pics and proofs of purchases and equipment repairs to Lowe's Corp. offices. You may also wish to consider notifying the Comsumer Product Safety Commission and your local news folks if they have a "buyer beware" segment on their evening news.

NOTE: Nothing in the above post should be construed to reflect a "political" comment or design. Until and unless we as woodworkers make appropriate and effective noise in the right venues, we will only suffer the worse for our lack of persistence.

 

[pcooper]

I'm with you guys, I'd be demanding a refund for the plywood, and the blade. I'd not ask for repairs to the blade, a replacement would be in order, and not one of the cheap ones off the wall at Lowes either. They will continue buying the ply from China as long as we let them, and we all know how much quality control there is in Chinese stuff most of the time. The last time I looked I didn't see any plywood I'd bring home at Lowes, all of it had too much curve to it. I knew a guy that specialized in curved plywood, and his stuff was supposed to be curved, this stuff is as curved as his was, and isn't supposed to be. :eusa_doh:Then there's the metal problem:BangHead:

 

[Mark Stewart]

On the back of the lowes reciept is the corp 1800# of get on the web and use customer service link The message will go to the store manager with a recomended course of action. Its the best way to go. I have had to use this process quite a few times when I had an unhappy expierence with the local store


Thanks Mark

 

[Matt Schnurbusch]

I will be most interested to hear how this is resolved. I have less and less of a tendency to want to buy ply from either borg. Scary stuff.